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Eastern Team's Preview with Nate Lull · Cover IV Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Cover Four.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a Section Four football fan, this is your podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Coach Smith, and I'll be your host.
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• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to our 2023 Eastern Teams Preview.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined by one of our football analysts, Nate Lal, the host of the Nate Lal Podcast.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nate will share insight into the Eastern Teams in section four.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: The mic is yours, Nate.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks a lot, and thanks again for having me.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're really looking forward at WCDO to an exciting year of high school football.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought I would run through some of the teams that we'll be covering this year on the radio.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thought I would start with some of the bigger schools that we cover.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sydney Warriors is going to be moving up to class C this year and talking with head coach Jeff Matthews.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, still a lot of youth on this team.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're a little nervous about making that jump from D to C, but they have probably one of the most electric quarterbacks in Section 4 and Dylan Easton.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's a guy that can really sling the ball and he can run.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we saw that a lot last year.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: They are missing some pieces when you lose some of the running backs and receivers that they had a year ago.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: But when you have a guy like Dylan Easton, I'm excited to see what he can do.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think the talk around Sydney is that uh, oh, we're moving up to big, bad class C, but I do think they can be competitive.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is a possibly a sneaky team.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think they also have some fun games with BG and Delhi and uh Oneanta.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll still get to see them play some of our local hometown favorites.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we're excited about that.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Keeping with the big school theme, uh, we have Norwich and we have Oneanta.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'll start with Norwich.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Those are two of the bigger schools that I cover.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually going to be doing the Norwich Week Zero game on the radio when they take on Batavia from Western New York.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Coach Christie's excited about Holden Ryan, his uh electric senior running back.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know Holden put in a lot of time in the offseason to continue to work on his outstanding game from a year ago.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Norwich lost a lot on the line, lost some of that depth.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: But when you have Steven Dowdle at quarterback and Holden Ryan as a running back, I still think they're going to be in contention.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a team that made it all the way to the sectional final last year.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when you have a guy like Coach Christie at the helm, you can never count out uh the purple tornado.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oneata, talking to head coach Will Neal, losing a lot of uh a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh their quarterback from a year ago, uh Caden Halstead was uh phenomenal.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And Mateo Goodhue was the guy that had over a hundred tackles for Oniana a year ago, both lost to graduation.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: So he said we're filling in the pieces, filling in the gaps.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: But he's excited about a lot of the youth that they have coming up from some of the good uh younger teams that they've had.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So Oneanta, I don't want to call it a rebuild, but certainly trying to slot some guys into different positions as we go forward here.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I look forward to that Oneana Sydney matchup, which will be later in the year.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: They've had some really good matchups over the last few years, including a game that uh I was at uh for some Twitter coverage, I believe it was two years ago now, that they were both up in the in the 60s.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, these were two teams that can really fill it up at times.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: So always looking forward to that matchup.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: When I look at some of the smaller schools, the Class D's that um I'll be covering this year, I do think Walton and Delhi, of course, um, are gonna be very good at the top of that division of the teams that I cover.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I still think that Tyoga just returns so much.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be hard for anybody to compete with them.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's my kind of preseason hot take.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Tyoga, the Tigers just have such a great program.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: But for Walton and Delhi, I look at Walton and the orange crush first, having uh head coach Adam Hoover, they're gonna have that same offense that they always have, that same great defense, and it always starts up front with the line with Walton.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we always say their quarterback looks like a blackjack dealer.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's gonna, that line's gonna get set, and then that ball's gonna come out and he could hand it off to two, three, four different guys.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: You never know where it's gonna go.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: It can be tricky on the radio, that's for sure.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: But they also have Cole Trainer back, who's a big, strong tight end.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: He was an all-state pick a year ago.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And if they can get him the ball, he's gonna be a guy that's very tough to bring down.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so not only is Walton gonna have the great running attack, if they can get him the ball on the outside, that could certainly be a big threat.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that's something that Coach Hoover was excited about uh later down the road in October.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Del High lost a ton.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I believe it was 11 seniors from a year ago, including their quarterback, uh, their running back, a lot of pieces on the line.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of those guys are going on to play college football.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And they made it to the sectional final last year.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: I believe they were seven and two with the two losses to Tyoga.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: But they have some great pieces coming back.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sam Davis is going to be a really hard-nosed running back.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: I expect uh him to put up some big numbers this year for the Bulldogs.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: And what was exciting to me is they only had, I think it was 20, around 20 guys come out, 22.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And those guys went around the hallways last spring and this summer, and they recruited a bunch of guys and they're up over 30 now.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that they put the time in uh in the offseason to try to get those guys up to speed.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: They also have another dynamic tight end of their own in Angelo Christin.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's a 6'3, big, tall guy, had some huge catches against Tyoga a year ago.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: If they can find creative ways to get him the ball, uh, he also has a lot of speed, so he can take it to the house.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: We saw that a lot last year.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: They'd throw it out in the flat to him and he'd take off.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um I think that Delhi could surprise some people, even though people might be counting them out a little bit after losing so much from a year ago.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll switch to Bainbridge Guildford next.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: This to me might be the most unknown uh of any of the teams that I cover because uh they have a new head coach.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Art Regis is going to be taking over for BG.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what his plans are because I've seen art with Oneanta, I've seen art with Unadilla Valley.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: He usually tends to bring a creative style and um BG losing some key pieces like Ethan Beams from a year ago, but they still have a solid line and some solid receivers.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: But what will art do?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, BG's kind of been in the same mode for a long time with uh longtime head coach Israel Lormer, before him Tim Mattingley.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So they had the same system for the last, you know, 20 years.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: See, we're also doing their uh week zero game against Sherburn Uroville up at Colgate.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I'll get a real good sneak peek right away on what exactly uh BG is going to do.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Deposit Hancock is another team that I'm interested in.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: They were devastated by injuries last year.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: They lost uh their quarterback, Blake Fortunato, who's an all-state baseball player, um, to some injuries early in the year.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: And after that, they just couldn't quite put the pieces together, as we see with some of our small school teams.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: They lose a couple guys, it changes the whole um trajectory of your season.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: But this is one program, and we we say this about a lot of teams.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: They they take the time in the offseason and they they do it right.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like DH has really put the time in, much like they do with baseball.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they've won several state championships over the last couple of years on the on the baseball diamond.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like this group is starting to buy in football-wise, too.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: So they are another sleeper team because I feel like after Tyoga, D is kind of wide open.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so what can DH do?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't think that they're the pushover sleep-on team that maybe they have been the last couple of years.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to see what DH can bring to the table.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it all starts with Blake Fortunato.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's the QB and uh boy, he can run, he can pass, he's a big, strong, physical kid.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the line coming back, I think, looks solid.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: So if they can keep him healthy, I'm excited to see what the Eagles can do.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, my last uh Class D team is Apton Harpersville, and I think the conversation starts with Braden Sikowski.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: He's a guy, whether I'm covering uh football, basketball, baseball, he kind of does it all uh for Harpersville.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And head coach Jason Lyons said, again, they they've put the time in in the offseason to continue to try to work and grind.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that program has been very good for a long time.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then last year they kind of had some injuries and and went, I would say took a step backwards, but I think they still have the pieces to be very competitive.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: And if honestly, if you can be one of these teams that's four and four around 500, come playoff time.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could sneak in on the back end and and maybe make some noise.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think Afton Harper's will is one of those teams as well, kind of in the same boat as BG and and DH, that we don't quite know what we're gonna get yet, but I think in a couple of weeks, you we're gonna be sitting there saying about one of those teams, like, oh, they're the surprise team in class D.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um I'll switch over because I I do have four eight-man teams that I cover.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited about all four of these teams.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's some uh some great promise.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'll start with Green, as they won the division last year, and Coach Gordon, whether it's 11-man or eight-man, his teams are always so consistent.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Lost some pieces from last year with Grayson Flanagan, but they returned Jaden Yurosevich, uh, and they have a lot of team speed.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And in the eight-man game, boy, that can be so deadly.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I would probably put Green towards the top of this division right off the bat.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I also think that the other three teams in the division are going to be really tough.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I I think Moravia and Trumansburg probably have the biggest horses if I'm looking at the Western eight-man teams.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm looking at just the East, I think Green's got a great chance to make the playoffs, as well as Unitego Franklin, as they did last year.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Coach McCrony losing his quarterback and Logan Utter, who's now playing at Utica University.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but he has a young quarterback coming in who he's excited about, and he goes, we still have the line depth, and that means so much.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Jacob Sargent's gonna be a great running back for Unitego Franklin.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And Coach McCroney, what I've always appreciated about him is no matter who he has, he's willing to adjust and change his whole offense if need be based on the pieces he has.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen him do the wing T.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen him spread it out and throw it all over the place, depending on what kind of quarterback, receiver, running backs, and line he has.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's exciting for Unitigo Franklin.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: But you cannot sleep on Oxford and you can't sleep on Unadilla Valley.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oxford and head coach Mitch Clough, probably the definition of working in the offseason.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: He's taken a program that uh I believe it was three straight years.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't able to finish the season because they didn't have enough guys.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: And now they're up into the mid-20s in terms of numbers.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this is a really strong program that's on the rebound and trying to really buy into the rich tradition of Blackhawk football.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as we all know, that program with Tony Abbott for years and uh, you know, just a ton of great talent coming through there, runs to the state tournament.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: They're trying to get back to that.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh they've spent a lot of time in the weight room.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: They've spent a lot of time trying to get quicker footwork drills.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And Coach Clough is the type of guy that this summer, you know, a Wednesday night in July, I would get a full report from him on here's what we're doing.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought I'd keep you updated, Nate.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when the bright lights were off, these guys were willing to do the work.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I hope it pays off for Oxford.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, for UV, uh another young team, they lose a great guy in uh Caden Butts, who's now playing up at SUNY Morrisville.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: But they have a great young running back in Jacob Prentiss, who I was really interested in last year because you gave this guy the ball and he was a little spitfire, and he'd disappear into the pile almost like a Jesse Manuel style from Tyoga many years ago, and then he'd pop out a hole and be gone.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I think if they can get the running game established, they're just a team you can't count out, even though they have a lot of young pieces.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're just trying to take it day by day right now.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but an eight-man, you just never know.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you have that speed and can get to the edge, uh, you know, these games can turn into a back and forth affair on the scoreboard.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the teams in my CDO coverage area.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna try to sneak at least all of them in once this year, if if not more.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we're certainly excited about bringing the coverage to everybody.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much, Nate.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, thank you for having me.
• 13:16
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• 13:20
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• 13:26
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• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Cover Four podcast.