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2021 Section IV Spring Football Season - Kickoff & Week 1 Analysis · Cover IV Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Section 4.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the 2021 Section 4 football season kickoff.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Our co-host today on Cover Four is Roger Neal, longtime local radio personality and longtime voice of Section 4 football.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Roger.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Tim, thank you very much.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, and thank you for taking the time out of your retirement to come and share some of your knowledge with us.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: My pleasure.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we have to say we appreciate it and all our listeners.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: March madness, Roger.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: This is kind of a different meaning to March Madness.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I look at it as March Madness football style.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: And when we talk about spring football, usually you're talking at the collegiate level, but here we are talking at the high school level and all the crazy stuff with the coronavirus that's gone on and caused a lot of these things that we're going to talk about today.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: But it seems more like a playoff football part of the season with the elements and things like that.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And again, the season is shortened to six games, and that's it, no playoffs.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's really only too short of a regular season.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: But one thing, Roger, I've heard some people say is uh it's only six games.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: What are they gonna play for?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um I and I said, I beg to differ with you.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Turn the turn the biological clock back to when you were a student athlete in high school.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: Why did you play?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: They play because they want to.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: They may not be playing for a championship this season, but they are playing for each other, they're playing for their communities, and the memories that that that will create.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And the memories to the young student athletes right now, they probably aren't even thinking about that.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: But when they get to be, you know, a little bit advanced in age, maybe going to class reunions or they're really advanced and they're sitting in that rocking chair and talking about the good old days, these are the kind of things that'll come up.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're exactly right.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, memories are made of it, and certainly for those who are looking at their senior seasons, I mean if they didn't put this all together, they would miss out on an awful lot.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and those memories, often for the senior class, are the greatest ones.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: And there's there's been a lot of hard work and dedication has gone into getting this season off the ground with all the COVID impacts.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to give give you know some props out to the Section 4 football committee, the athletic directors, coaches, student athletes, the field staff and parents.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you just did a really great job of getting to this point, keeping people safe and keeping people healthy.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I will put a little caveat in there.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: The things that you and I are gonna, or the knowledge that we're gonna share today, Roger, can change at any moment given uh the virus and how it could potentially uh affect people, uh, programs and teams.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: But we're gonna do the best we can to lay the groundwork out for you, put everything in perspective, and hopefully set you up to have a uh successful football season.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: And Roger, talk a little bit about how everything's lined up this year by counties as opposed to the regular conferences that we would normally have.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, obviously, as we all know, this is uh kind of a test of uncharted waters uh with the spring season, a shortened schedule of six games, no playoffs, not only no playoffs in the sectional level, but no state playoffs or championship.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So dramatically different.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of it has again gone down through the delays and the postponements that were established back in the summer and the fall.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And again, the tentative hopes of getting some type of season set.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you have coaches and players training, perhaps not training for a while, depending on COVID protocols and situations that they may either individually or as a school have experienced the preparations once the green light came that they could get a schedule.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then as you talked about a tip of the hat to the administrators and the coaches, look at the administrators.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are talking to folks about these things that we're saying on this broadcast can change at a heartbeat.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, minutes, hours, days, kickoff times that were scheduled for Friday at a certain time change.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: A Friday game moves to a Saturday or perhaps no game at all.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So all these situations that are literally up in the air until the kickoff actually happens have been extremely stressful.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you've got to give a major, as you already did, tip of the hat to those athletic directors and people who schedule these things because they're faced continually with you know who can get in, uh, who can play, uh, how close to an overlap of what would normally be a spring sport like baseball, is it with football?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: All these things have been situated and worked out, but again, they can change on an hourly basis.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been quite a task for everybody involved.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly the coaches have to be um talked about in high esteem for what they have done to keep the hopes and dreams of these players alive to get a season in.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they have worked very, very hard to do whatever they could to get their teams ready.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And not only that, Roger, one uh example I'll allude to here is you take a schedule change.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, for example, Spencer Vinette and Cander, they've gone from 11-man, 11-player football to the eight-player division.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: So some people think, okay, they just switched that over.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that has a lot of ripple effects through the 11-player scheduling process, but not to mention throughout the eight-player process as well.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: So just a simple, uh, what appears to be a simple change there really has huge ramifications all throughout the schedule.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: So those are the things that they're dealing with on an ongoing basis.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: What would you recommend, Roger, that um anybody that's out there uh listening in terms of wanting to know the most up-to-date information on whether a game is going to happen or uh what time is gonna happen?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: What's the when's the kickoff?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: What's the protocol for attending, those kind of things?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I I think it and I I know I'll be doing the same, but you know, if there's supposed to be a home game that you know of with your school or a school that you want to follow, the best thing that I can suggest is to daily, if not even more often, go to the websites of the schools themselves and specifically the athletic department andor the football program.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Many have Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts, uh, or a website that zeros in on the games.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Max Prep obviously has information as well, but I think you do better to get the very latest from the school district and the school and the team itself.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But again, knowing that these situations can change on a dime, uh, you know, to try to say that a particular game has a seven o'clock kickoff Friday, and then you want to go there, A, can you get in?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: B, is it still seven o'clock?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even Friday morning, is it still seven o'clock?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna change, uh, hopefully not dramatically, but let's face it, we know from experience already that things are gonna change.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh flexibility is an absolute key for everybody involved.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It has been to get the schedule this far.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: But again, if you are intent on following a game in whatever manner, the best thing I could suggest is to make sure that what you think is a game at a certain time and a certain location is still on a schedule because these things can change pretty quickly.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and if we fast forward and get past this, you know, this pandemic and we get into some normalcy, and maybe this fall we'll have a normal football season.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's you're gonna look at it and you're gonna say, Wow, that's pretty easy to set up and do that.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have all these other obstacles and hoops and uh and potential things to be ready for.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it, you know, it it is tough.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're uh microcosm of America.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: We're Americans, we're tough.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: We get through this kind of stuff, and we always have, and we always will.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one of the things that uh you can be proud of, not only in section four, but from a country as a as a whole.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Roger, what I'd like to do is uh take us through some of the the games that are scheduled right now that that as far as we know, and go through and talk a little bit about what we think we might know about some of these games.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, I'll preface this with we don't know who you know all the players are, who all the returning players are, because there could be some senior student athletes that maybe chose not to participate.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they uh wanted to go baseball or something like that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we don't know, but we can go you know on our gut feel uh in terms of maybe some of the rivalries and things like that.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll start off in the Broome County.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: The uh very first game for Binghamton is against Susquehanna Valley.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if either of these teams are representative of uh this year of what they've been in the past, that's got the potential for a really good game.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, and um uh a big game right out of the shoot.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Susquehanna Valley, of course, two time defending Class C state champs.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Binghamton for seemingly ever has been the bigger school.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: This year they're reclassified from double A to A.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they're only three A teams Binghamton, UB, and Vastel.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the changing landscape is quite interesting.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I would say going back a number of years, you'd have to look at Binghamton as the dominant team because of the size and the student body they had to choose from, but not anymore.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Susquehanna Valley has surged ahead and done an excellent job.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that'll be one of the interesting things this year in in many of these matchups is the the size of the school and classification.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And let's let's face it, you know, in some cases, you look at Maine Enwell could play anybody over the years.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Susquehanna Valley, Shidango Fork, certainly.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So some of these teams will be able to do that, but there are more teams now who perhaps are uh a smaller enrollment and playing, well, class C is loaded, for example, up against bigger school enrollments, but certainly can compete if not dominate.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's going to be very interesting to see how these teams respond in the first game.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think along with all these first games, Tim, another interesting thing is going to be, and that is how much work that they've been able to get in outdoors.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Many have obviously, but all the delays and the uh the the change in practices.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you coached many years, you know the philosophy of coaches, you've got to have a ton of practice time and do things regimented so that by the time you get to a first game or the opening of the season, everything is the way you want it.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Will that be the case this year?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If it is, if they're able to get shorter practice times um under totally different conditions, perhaps even shut down by a COVID situation somewhere along the way, if they can play to their potential very early, what does that do down the road to the idea that you've got to have X numbers of practices, um, summertime conditioning, all these things?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I think that's gonna be a very interesting situation.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh the other part that it to me is quite interesting with these matchups this year is you mentioned scheduling by county, but also by the classification.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so a class A school like Binghamton takes on Susquehanna Valley, for example, and with three class A schools, three B classified schools.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we go Johnson City, Maine, and well, and then you've got Class C with 11 different schools, powerhouses like um uh Shenango Forks, and also uh outstanding play from teams like Norwich and um Waverly, Shidango Valley.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: The list goes on and on, Susquehanna Valley certainly.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So uh again, size at this stage is is kind of thrown out the window to accommodate the conditions relevant to uh concern over COVID-19.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's one of the big games that people will be very interested in to start things off.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think another, obviously, on opening weekend is gonna be the forks at Shenango Valley.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: A Nick Sereni's back for his second year as a coach last year.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: They were five and three.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sorrendi, of course, was a great running back with Maine Enwell.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the tradition that he developed playing with the Spartans over the years and all the wins that they got, he's now able, uh, hopefully, continuing for the Warriors' sake, to uh to get that type of inspiration and uh toughness into Shidango Valley, the Warriors.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So five and three last year, but they take on the perennial powerhouse Shittango Forks right out of the gate in a scheduled Friday kickoff.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's another huge one.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter at this stage whether it's the first game or the last game of the year, those are intense rivals, and the forks has had the upper hand now for over a couple of decades.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: But with Nick Sorrenti, how much again will his influence and his staff's influence be able to carry into this season?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It should be a very interesting campaign.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Newark Valley at Sydney, always one of the top smaller school matchups, so they'll be going at it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, you take a look also a scheduled Saturday kickoff, Corning at Horseheads, and then also another Friday matchup, Tyoga at Waverly.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So those are some big games out of the shoot on the first weekend, either a Friday night game or Saturday afternoon as the schedule folds out.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: But uh these teams are going to be you know put to the test right from the first snap of the opening part of the season.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: A couple of things to play off what you said, Roger.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: You said the class C uh classification is increasing.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, with the uh move that I just talked about, Spencer Benett and Candor moving down to the eight-player uh classification, that takes C down to 10.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: And now the eight-player classification is the largest at 11, followed by the C and D.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: So you're right, the uh the number of schools uh is definitely shifting in that criteria.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now I know from a coaching standpoint, I love playing the bigger schools, the schools that, hey, you're not supposed to beat them, you're not supposed to be playing them.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I love going against those particular schools.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like when I was coaching, we went up and we played um up in Syracuse, Christian Brothers Academy.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's uh legitimate powerhouse up there in uh that particular area division or section three.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: So you're right, those are the kind of things.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you take, for example, Johnson City, that's a program that's on the uh turning the program around.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: They're at starting off at UnionCott.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And again, that's a program that Coach Bellino has also got coming around.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that could be a very competitive ball game as well.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then you've got Maine Anwell uh playing at Vestal to start their season off.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and those are the kind of games you kind of just throw the records out because of most of those student athletes know each other.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they play AAU sports together or are compete together against each other in basketball, something like that.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: They just kind of know each other, you know.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: So those make uh very interesting games.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I know one that's in the Broome County, it's Windsor and Norwich.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Those two teams you alluded to also.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: You've got Tim Hogan with Windsor, he's got that program in the right direction.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: You got Coach Christie up there in Norwich, you got uh Norwich on the right path.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we're gonna uh potentially not see but hear about, because you can't not everybody can go to these games, but we're gonna read uh in the paper write-ups from uh Kevin Stevens and some of those folks that uh do these games.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully they'll get a chance to cover them.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: But then you jump into the Broom Delaware County, and you've got you know the Del Highs, Deposit Hancock, Harpersville, Affin Sydney, Walton, Whitney Point, all good programs that have had you know some ups and downs over the years.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: Walton went through a period of time there with Jim Hoover that was was very good.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now uh his son Adam has the reins there.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: They start off with Oniana.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of a lot of interesting games there, and not to mention with uh uh Bainbridge.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they play Harpersville Afton.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: And anytime you have you know a school slash another school, when you combine the student athletes from those schools, whether they're small schools or larger, you tend to, if if the student athletes and the coaching staff can get them to mesh, you know, you get over that uh division of, no, I'm Afton, you're Harpersville, for example.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: If you can get them over that and get them to mesh, that's the potential for a really good program there as well.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and one of the big things, obviously, too, is starting the season.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be quite interesting to see if all or most of the standouts that are played as juniors or are playing as seniors in competing, because as we know, uh at any level a superstar player can be the major contributor that turns a team from a third or fourth place finish into a championship team.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly with smaller schools, often with uh even sometimes fewer players on the roster.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a standout, I mean, look at the impact of Logan Haskell, for example.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, players like that at a Class C school, those types of players don't come along very often.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: But those are ones at certainly the D level.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: One player like that can be huge for a coach to develop or work with and lead a team.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So a team that may be mediocre normally all of a sudden is competing for a championship because you've got a a young man who's a tremendous quarterback, tremendous runner, um, you know, potential uh all-star defender, whatever the case, probably more impactful on the offensive side.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a big part of it too.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: So who will step to the forefront in this shortened season?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Will it be somebody who is indeed a senior or an underclassman who we maybe didn't see a lot of in previous times, but now is ready to take over that leadership role and could be the impetus to take one of these teams that you look at, oh, middle of the pack.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, will it be?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: By the third game of the season, that middle of the pack team may be on top of the whole part.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you take uh Shenango Forks, for example, they have the benefits of a student athlete named Lucas Scott, who we've had the opportunity to call games with him for the last couple of years.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: He's going to be a senior this year, and he's already accepted um to uh West Point.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: So he is one of those student athletes that you're talking about.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it seems like Shenango Forks and some of the other more um developed programs, you hear about those particular student athletes with them, but you're starting to see a lot of the other programs.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't necessarily say catch up, but just kind of start to play at the level that they're capable of playing, you know, with all the access to information and the coaches now are very exceptional.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of them are going through the USA football, getting certified, uh, to couple that with the knowledge that they've had as student athletes themselves, maybe at the collegiate level and you know, years of coaching.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what makes section four so uh so strong.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: And when they the teams tend to get out of section four and they advance on into the state level playoff, that's why they tend to do so well, is because of the internal competition in Section Four.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: We talked about hardships, and I can't help but share this.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I did part of my research, I was researching Newark Valley.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: They don't have they have a regular dirt mud grass field.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now, they were able to uh uncover some of their field, like 12 yards of it, for example.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: And they were they were had the quarterback standing in the snow portion of the field, throwing to receivers who went out of the snow and ran their routes into the grass section.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that that to me is dedication.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's good old school football.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: But they had to go, they had to travel up to, I believe it was Dryden, uh, you know, bus them up there to just to get uh practice time in on turf so that they could go through some of their uh schemes, offense, defense, and special teams.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I just want to give a little bit of a shout out to Newark Valley because I think they have probably faced one of the more difficult hardships uh this year because of, you know, obviously the COVID, but also you couple that with uh the snow we've had here recently, really has impacted them.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they've been a team on the rise and uh a really good program recently.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I expect good things out of out of them up there as well.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the other part, uh again, you bring up the uh artificial turf.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: There is a benefit at that situational point um for the turf because you can plow it off and get out there, even if the temperature is like you know 15 degrees or whatever they're allowed to do uh by their training staff.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But my point is that um a lot of the fields now have gone to turf.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would think that is an advantage in the very bad weather uh because a lot of the games, even if your home field is natural, um, you're gonna be playing on the uh on the artificial turf for uh certainly any games that are away from your stadium.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh I can remember when I first started calling the games of the week with you, we had just uh maybe a this is probably what seven, eight years ago, we had a handful of fields that were still grass.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're looking at it.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: There's really, I think, only one that I know of, and I um in this general area, and that's at Newark Valley.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure up into the the Mac area, the the mid-state athletic conference, what they have for fields, but I think a lot of those are as well.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you're right, that in itself can be an advantage just to get out there because when you and I played, we didn't have the gear that they have now, the underarmor gear, the you know, the the leggings, the tops, the gloves, those kind of things.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: We had remember the old fashioned long underwear, right?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: And that was great until you got wet or sweaty, and then you were freezing out there, exactly.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but uh I'm not making excuses for them, just saying that it it's uh more conducive to be.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: To play with those those kind of uh advantages now with the gloves and and everything in it.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: So the the elements don't necessarily have as much of an effect on the game anymore like it used to.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: Still cold is cold, you know, and rain is rain and snow is snow.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: But as far as you know, the traction and uh muddy fields and not being able to make out players' numbers and those kind of things, that that in itself has uh I think improved greatly over the years.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what's going to be quite interesting also to me is playing in March and the first part of April, we've already seen what March can bring us this year.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Very cold uh wind gusts in some places up to 50 miles an hour.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the difference in weather, I mean, when you get into November uh in the regular season, any late games or playoffs, you're gonna probably get some inclement weather, um, sometimes really bad weather, but March is so changeable, and the gusty winds certainly with a passing game make it extremely difficult or can at times.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the other part is you know, if you start to get temperatures that are below freezing on a wet turf, you're liable to get slippery spots, and then certainly on um regular turf, uh the artificial turf can get slick, but regular turf, uh, if you have ever played on a frozen field, um it it is not much fun hitting the deck because you're bouncing off divots that don't move.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's just a whole different atmosphere, and um again, the equipment is improved, they've got better cleats for different traction that is needed, but it is again, I think a lot of it will be adjusting certainly in the months, month of uh March in the first week or so uh in April to the changeable conditions that are really extreme at times here in the Northeast.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I will I want to give one shout out to what I'm gonna I call our uh Section Four team that's gonna get the most frequent flyer mileages this year, and that is Ithaca.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Ithaca is having their field redone, it's unplayable right now.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: But if you look at their schedule, all six games are at, at, at, at.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: So they're gonna be on the road a lot.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna be the road warriors, and a lot of times people, you know, teams are looking for something to um, you know, to strive for, or a calling, or you know, an emphasis is something to get them motivated.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that could be a factor to get the Ithaca program motivated.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: And they're another program that fell on some hard times recently, and they're starting to make a comeback to where they would like to be back in the early 70s and the 80s.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Roger, at this point, I think we've pretty much wrapped up and given our listeners what we know at this particular point in terms of what to expect for the season, how to uh follow up and and check, you know, anything with the school website to find out number one, A, is there a game and is it still at the same time?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: And if I can I possibly attend that game.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: So uh if you don't have anything else, Roger, I just want to uh give all the Section Four football team support staff and everybody out there uh a round of applause for what you've done to get us to this point.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to give you all uh a great insight into the the coming season and and have a successful season and get through it safe and healthy.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh good luck to everybody.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And as as you said, Tim, the key is to stay healthy through all this.
• 25:25
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• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's time to ask Coach Smith.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: Our next question is titled, Who kicks off?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Question.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was watching a high school football game and our team was making a comeback.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: We were down by 10 with less than a minute remaining after scoring a touchdown.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: We were expecting an onside kick.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: We were stunned when the other team kicked off rather than received the kickoff.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Our team was not able to score, and therefore we lost the game.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: We were upset and felt the officials made a mistake that contributed to our team losing.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can understand your frustration.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: New York State follows the rules set forth by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: The team who was scored on always has the choice to receive or kick off.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: This was not a mistake by the officials.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: This was actually a smart tactic by the team to kick off rather than risk the other team executing a successful onside kick and having a shorter field to move the ball into scoring position.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your question.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: If you or someone you know would like to learn more about football, don't worry.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: We've got you covered.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: Visit cover4.com.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: And remember that's a Roman numeral four.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Cover4.com.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: That'll get you there.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: Under the football courses section, select one of your courses.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: We have two courses.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: One is called Football Fundamentals.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that's if you know a little bit or nothing about football, but want a much more thorough understanding of all aspects of football, football fundamentals is your course.
• 27:48
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• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Take care.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the fourth quarter of the Cover Four podcast.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Our guest today is Roger Neal, longtime host of WMBF High School Game of the Week.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Roger.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Tim, thank you.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: What games are we going to talk about today, coach?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the opening weekend of the season, albeit a spring season, something we haven't seen before in high school football in the area.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I think uh a couple of games that are going to be very interesting right out of the gate, the opening kickoff will be Susquehanna Valley at Binghamton and Shadango Forks at Shedango Valley.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, SV has won 26 consecutive games, two consecutive Class C championships.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're taking on Binghamton, a bigger school and enrollment, a Class A school, SB, a Class C school, but it should be an outstanding football game.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Bingleton over the years has been highlighted by some outstanding speed.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: They always seem to have runners who were explosive.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly with what has gone on at Susquehanna Valley in the past couple of years, we know what they can do.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's going to be an outstanding football game.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Look at Haskell can play with anybody, and it's going to be an interesting showdown.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly it's the first game of the season.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just how will these teams adapt to the different time and playing as far as spring versus fall?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: What about the practice sessions before?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Does that adequately prepare them?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or do they feel like maybe they're still in a big learning curve to try to get ready for the season with all the different things that have gone on with COVID and restrictions?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's going to be a great game set for Friday at Alumni Stadium.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: The other one we're looking at, Shenango Forks and Shenango Valley.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Forks has had the upper hand for over two decades.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: CV's made it close several times, but the Forks has been the dominator.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: They will match up, set for a Friday evening start.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: And C V is coming off a five and three season.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: They've got second-year coach Nick Serenti, who was a star for Maine and Well during some of the great seasons, which they've had many, with the Spartans.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's going to be very interesting to see Lucas Scott, for example, a tremendous player, a bruising runner, perhaps even bigger in stature than Nick Serenti.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm sure Sereni looks out at him and says there's a lot of remembering of what Sereni did as a Spartan.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now Sereni is on the sideline for Shenango Valley.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the question mark is going to be you know, with this first game of the season, will forks be at full speed?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: What about CV?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is it easier to play the opening game against a powerhouse like the Forks?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because they really haven't hit a high throttle yet.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or quite frankly, is Forks ever with a low throttle?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: They play so well whenever and wherever they play.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think it'll be a great game.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think that it should be a close one.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: A big question mark, obviously, will be to stop the rushing game of the forks, predominantly a running team.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: We saw them in past seasons go a little bit more to the air, but with the bruising back, uh, Scott, he can dominate play at any time.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it should be a good one.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Two long time, oh, we'd say rivals, but again, Forks has owned a series in recent years for well over a couple of decades.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: But how close will CV be this time?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where can they knock off the Chinago Forks Blue Devils, who are a tremendous football team?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: So those two are ones that I'm looking at as outstanding games on the opening weekend of high school football.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and if you this really goes for any of the opening games, offense, as you know, you played offense and specifically on the offensive line, you have to be really coordinated and have your timing down.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think that will come into play because you tend to get your defense online, ready to go, and you don't have to handle the ball and do things with it.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: So if a defense tends to come online quicker than the offense does.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Now, with that, okay, you potentially have got uh low-scoring games where the defense may dominate for a period of time.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: But then if you take the like the Shenango Fork's running game, for example, they always have a very solid, uh, well-coached uh offensive line, good size, and then you put complement that with Lucas Scott in the backfield, who is probably as big or bigger than most of the linemen that he will end up being uh have blocked for him, or the opponents that are going to be tackling him.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's what makes that tough.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the key to that game will probably be the running uh of uh Shenango Forks and what they can do.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: But then with Nick Sereni and what he's done with that program, uh turning it around, and you say five and three, maybe that's not turning around.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think it really is turning around because they they had some seasons where they didn't win hardly any games, and they were lopsided, and Nick's done a great job there.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: The the the school has always had very good student athletes, and I think they've just been on the cusp of doing really good.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: The the predecessors that were there coaching did an outstanding job, but I think Nick might be the guy that is able to get them over that hump and and get them back to where they play Shenango Valley football.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: On the other side, Binghamton and uh Susquehanna Valley.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: That I don't I really don't know.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: The only thing I know in that game, Coach Mike is gonna win the game.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's all I can tell you.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Either Mike Ramil or Mike Ford.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: I know Mike's gonna win the game.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Either way, I just hope that they're they're good games.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I know the coaches don't want to hear this.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I hope they're close, and you know my uh play or my position on the game.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: What do I like the games to go into?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: OT.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: OT.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: OT.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: I like to see that extra, extra football.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, we won't be seeing it this year, but maybe we'll get a chance to watch on what they call Huddle or on some of them have it on um YouTube, their YouTube channel.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I think a lot of the uh fans are going to be watching that way.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: But either way, I think that both of these games have the potential to be really good games, and I hope that uh they are and that they're both teams are very successful and everybody stays healthy.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's the key.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: This well, it always is a key, but certainly with COVID-19 knocking around, you know, everybody's health is so is so important.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, hopefully the the whole schedule can go unscathed by any postponements or COVID-type situations.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Roger, for your time and sharing your expertise with us, and uh, we'll have you on again.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_02: Take care.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to click the subscribe button.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says visit cover4.com and get involved.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening.