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Western Team's Preview with Andrew Legare · Cover IV Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Cover Four.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a Section Four football fan, you're in the right place.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is your podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Coach Smith, and I'll be your host.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Buckle up.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Cover Four Podcast preseason team preview of the Western teams.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm joined by Elmira Sports Hall of Famer, Andrew Laguerre.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Andrew.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Take it away.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tim, thanks again for having me uh ready to talk some Elmira corning area football this season.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I guess it makes sense to start with uh defending Section Four Class AA champ Almira uh coming off their fifth Section Four-class AA title since the program got going in 2011.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And for those who I mean, it's been a while, but if you don't remember, that's when EFA and Southside had all the sports teams combined.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Almira has been has been mostly a double-wing offense during that time, but had some injuries last season.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, coaching staff liked the personnel to open things up a little bit more.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I think maybe you can expect that a little bit as well this season.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they got a couple of all-state caliber running backs and Kaon Flint and Amir Williams.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Amir came back late last season.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: He got hurt in the the one-quarter season opening loss, which uh is a story in itself.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But uh some really talented duo right there.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of losses up front.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's sort of a broken record with coaches, but the ability to fill in those roles on the offensive line is sort of probably going to dictate how good Elmira is, at least offensively.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jimmy McCaulay still coaching this team.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's been there since 20 or 2012.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was season number two for the Express.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sort of a little bit lost his record during that time, 83 and 36.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he maybe a couple years away from hitting that 100 win mark.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, when it comes to El Myra City School District football, you have Dick Sanko at Elmire Free Academy, Tom Hurley at Elmira Southside.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think Jimmy's sort of securing his spot uh, you know, just below those two.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if he wants to coach 20 more years, he'll sort of be in the same breath with those two based on the success he's had.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, makes sense to follow Elmira with Corning, uh, Corning four and five last year.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: They had won three straight sectional titles.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: They lost Almyra in the sectional final last year.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we had the COVID season without a tournament.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Alma, or Corning went unbeaten that year.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: You'd sort of look at it as a de facto fourth sectional championship during that run.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, they've been uh right there with Almira as the top programs around here.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, one thing I is going back to last year, they started 0-3 last year and finished four and five.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Those three schools they lost to ended up with a combined record of 35 and three.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that included Class AA state champ CBA in Syracuse, state class B runner up Maine Endwell.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you look at four and five, not great, but uh sort of a little bit misleading in how Corning was able to compete last year and uh play those teams tough, not just losing to them.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Mike Johnston Jr., you know, I think he's at his place among the Alzheimer Dreats in Section 4 coaching.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Second state championship for him in his softball program, uh, I guess two, three months ago now, and numerous sectional titles in football as head coach at Corning and Corning West, and when he was an assistant coach running the offense for Elmira.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, looking at their roster, uh, you sort of start with uh James Freeman, all-state running back, strong, athletic.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: His brother Max has run for more than 2,000 yards at Alfred University.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you see the genes in that family, and they both contributed a lot to corning football success over the years.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um Ian Harpster, Ian Harpster, quarterback, strong arm.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Carter Sparks is a two-way standout.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Clayton Smith is uh junior now.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's been up since his freshman year, uh, looking for him to step into fullback, where uh, which is a key spot for that offense, especially.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and again, like Elmira Corning looking for an inexperienced offensive line to step up this season.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Johnston is he's the one who brought the double wing to the Elmira Corning region back at Corning West.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: But like Elmira Corning's gonna be capable of doing some different things on offense as well.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be interesting to watch play out this season.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess we'll we step down to Horseheads coming off a seven and four season, made it to the sectional final.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: They've drawn into a really solid program under head coach Kevin Hillman and uh a lot of winning seasons in recent years, but they're you know, the players talked about it and they're aware of it, they haven't won a sectional title since the late 1990s.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a team with Julian Gary, who's an all-ACC receiver at Maryland and a lot of other talented kids.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's you know, given where the program is in terms of uh its potential, uh, that's something they're gonna be looking at to try and end that streak.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um Hillman is high on a lot of aspects of his team, but you know, broken record offensive line is a question.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But they do have Robert Peckham, though, big physical two-way players going to anchor both lines, and that's a great place to start for them.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Lucas Mosier is back.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: He ran for nearly 800 yards last year.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Miles Woodhouse, 579 receiving yards last year.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Cardinal is back through for nearly 1,200 yards.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so really strong nucleus of skill players.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Defensively, they got linebacker Griffin Stevens, honorable mention all state, led the team in tackles last year.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um one intriguing player to watch, uh kid named Elijah Miller, who was transferred from Twin Shears at Christian Academy.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have a football program, but he is participating in the football prospect camp at Syracuse University.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he's got some other accolades from uh camp play, so it's gonna be really interesting to see how Elijah fits in the mix.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they're glad to have him.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um half my alma mater, Watkins Line Odessa Montor.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I went to Odessa.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: We used to be rivals with them playing the bucket game, but now they're you know friendly uh doing the good things together as a combined team, also known as Skylar Storm, whatever you prefer.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: There were six and four last year, but I think it's a little bit interesting.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're sort of uh it's a bit tricky when you have likes of defending state champ Waverly, multiple-time state champ Shenango Forks, programs like Newark Valley and Sus Valley that have won state titles in the last decade.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, SV's won two.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's hard to get out of Class C in section four, which is clearly the number one section when it comes to New York State football in that class.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to give a lot of credit to Trevor Holland, the staff, players at Watkins Glen OM.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: 24-9 record over the last four seasons.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I talked about it before with people.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been interesting to see how they fared against some of those other Class C champions from across New York State.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, you run into forks in Waverley, sometimes it's tough.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, they lost quite a bit to graduation.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Bradley Gillis and Ryan Willett, uh, a great tandem at running back.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: But Trevor Allen likes what he has in the backfield again.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Gavin Lomeyer, Nick DiOliva, Quasey Wilt, Daniel Colston.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is a team that generally scores a lot of points and comes up with a lot of big plays with the passing game.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, like I said, we'll see if the line can gel and see if they can put up some points again this year.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh down in the eight-man ranks, we have Thomas Edison, three and six last season.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that program still searching for their first winning season since 2007, and that team finished five and four, won its last game in overtime to get that winning season.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Kyle Erickson has been head coach since 2018.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's pretty excited about this year's group.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of speed and athleticism for Edison this year.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Greg Golden at running back, Reyes McAtee at back and receiver, both big play guys.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew Slavin, the quarterback, one of the top athletes in the school.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Line Town LaPlant, Colin Maurer should be strong up front.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Mason Maurer, another uh top athlete for him.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um he got hurt, just played one game last year, and they're happy to have him back this season.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, getting the rest of that line to you know reach its potential could dictate whether they have a shot at a winning record.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, one thing those in the know are aware of, you got a lot of good eight-man teams in section four.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: You got Groton, Moravia, Trumansburg coming up, really strong seasons, all three are on Edison's schedule.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it, you know, schedule-wise, it's tough.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh, you know, I I'm really interested to see what Edison does and always uh appreciate the orange and blue colors.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and I think it's worth a mention.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: We uh My Notre Dame does not have varsity football.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people wear long time one of the best programs in section four.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mike Deluiso, all-time winning winning as football coach down here.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so they've had a strong tradition, but they have modified football back this fall, coached by Mike Johnston Sr., another name that everybody down here knows.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously his son is coaching at Corning.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I think they have 19 kids, he told me.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, the goal is to have varsity football football back in, you know, near future, I whether two or three years, whatever it may end up being.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, that's exciting news at Notre Dame.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, good, good stuff.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I appreciate that, Andrew.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: The in-depth uh analysis you do do, but also the fact that you gave a little bit of love there to Elmire Notre Dame that's trying to get back on track with their, as you mentioned, their rich tradition.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's ironic because Coach Johnston Sr., my if my recollection is correct, was on the first Notre Dame team that uh first time Notre Dame fielded a football team, and that goes back to when Coach Haggerty, who was uh a longtime coach at Tyoga, got the program started.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of under weird how that comes full circle that he's coming back to kind of help rejuvenate the the program again.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's uh I I don't know how old he is now, but he's getting up there.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's in great shape, and uh you know, I I kid with Mike Jr.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: about that sometimes, but he's given so much to that school, and you know, you can see how much the school means to him that he keeps coming back and and doing what he can to help the program along.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I'm not sure if it was the first team, but you might you might be right.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: He was in the early 60s, I think.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And 64, someplace right around there, 63, 64.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was all American at Alfred State in football.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So yep, yeah, yeah, good uh good lines there.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't think I have any other questions you because you covered everything so good, Andrew.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's why you're a Hall of Famer.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: You you do a great job, and again, I appreciate that.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I know all our listeners appreciate that as well, and uh keep doing good stuff down there in the Almire area.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's my old stomping ground, specifically Pine City on the south side.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I grew up.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you take care, Andrew.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Tim, it's good talking to you.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 12:15
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• 12:19
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• 12:24
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• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Cover 4 Podcast.