Section IV Football Season Preview - Tioga County Teams with Tim Birney

This episode provides in-depth insight and analysis of the Section IV Tioga County Teams, by Tim Birney.

Teams: Owego,  Waverly, Newark Valley, Tioga, Spencer-Van Etten/Candor

To follow the Tioga County teams in Section IV, use these links:
www.valleysportsreport.com – Waverly and Tioga
www.tiogacountysportsreport.com – S-VE/Candor, NV, Owego

This podcast will run weekly during the season and continue as long as a Section IV Football team is playing.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Cover 4. This is your five days. I'll be your host. Our guest today is analyst Tim Burney. Tim is the founder of Tower County Sports Report, Valley Sports Report, and newly um minted Southern Tiers Sports Report. Welcome, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Coach, nice to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Great. We're glad to have you back. You did a great job last time, and we're looking forward to it this time. Tim's going to cover the Section Four football season preview specifically with the Tower County teams. Go ahead, Tim. Kick it off.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, let's start with uh Spencer Burnett and Cander, or as we lovely referred to them as Spec. Um, you know, they're the only eight-man football team in section in uh Tower County. Uh, and they should be pretty good. They had a nice season last year. I think they'll compete again this year for Section Four title. Uh, they lost seven players to graduation. One of them had missed the whole season with injury. So, you know, they're down six guys this year from last year's team. But they bring back uh senior quarterback, uh dual threat quarterback, big play guy, Nick Thomas. Uh, he's got a senior running back along with him and Hunter Haynes. Fast, athletic. Uh, for the eight-man game where there's a lot less uh traffic to deal with. He's physical enough. Uh then their senior tight end, uh Devin Beach. Talk about a big physical kid, a real stud on line on the linebacker side of the ball. Um when he catches the ball at tight end, a lot of yards after contact. Uh interesting note about him. He practiced all summer long with Waverly, both football and wrestling. Um, and at the last minute ended up back at Spencer Vanetton Candor. Uh, so he'll be a he'll be a big weapon for them. Uh up front, they have uh Elliott Walter back, also a senior, both two-way lineman, big kid athletic, about 250 pounds, uh, real hoss on the offensive line. They have sophomore Jack Terriberry back too. He started every game as a freshman, very athletic, uh, big playmaker for him. Uh, I think, I think they'll be very, very competitive in the in the eight-man football league. Uh, I think they're they open up their first game. Well, I should have looked it up before right before we came on, but their first game, I think, is gonna be their toughest one. I think there's a and they open up, they open up the season with Unitego Franklin, probably be one of their toughest games on their schedule. Uh, but I expect them to do some big things this year. They're gonna be fun to watch. Let's get into the uh 11-man football. We'll start on the eastern part of the county where the Wigo. Uh, the Indians graduated 21, 22 seniors from a 35-man roster. And boy, that's tough. Uh, they've got a handful of kids back this year. Um, not obviously not much experience back. Their numbers are a little lower than they have been the last few years. Uh, you know, they lost their quarterback and Nick Wazlin, running back, and Cam Bundy. Uh, they lost seven two-way linemen. You know, obviously not all starters, but they all played a lot. So you're talking about rebuilding your entire offensive defensive line. Uh in class B, that's a tall, tall task. Now, uh, Coach Burkler's done a nice job up there. You know, Weagel's been very, very competitive the last few years uh during his tenure. Uh, but boy, 22 seniors to replace is a is a mountain to climb. So that's going to be interesting to see how the Indians fare this year. Uh, we'll move on over to uh Newark Valley. Now, this is a class D school, and they graduated 20 seniors. So they're in a similar boat, except that they've got a few more of their key players back. Uh senior quarterback Mike Wandel is back. He threw for more than a thousand yards last year. He's a dangerous running threat. Uh, they've got uh running back uh Landon Spoonhours back. Uh let's see, they've got uh Andrew Waterman back, Max Flesher back. All these guys uh carried the ball. They spread it around a lot last year. So a lot of these guys got some experience. Uh, they did graduate uh quite a bit up front, but they've got a couple of their starting linemen back uh and guys that played a lot. Uh they've done a real nice job up there. The coaching staff up there has been tremendous. This program won a state title, I believe, in 2016. Uh, they knocked on the door in 2017. They've been very competitive. Uh last year, I still say last year, um, if it had been a full fall season, a real fall season, uh, Tyoga Newark Valley would have played for a Section 4 Class D championship. And I think the winner wins a state title. Now, Newark Valley beat them uh in the regular season last year in the spring. Uh things might have been a little different the second time or not. And they might have been different if they played in the fall, not the spring. I know Tyoga had a couple seniors that didn't come out that would have helped them. Newark Valley probably had the same thing. But anyway, getting back to this year, uh I don't think Class D teams should sleep on Newark Valley. Um, I think with 20 players lost, uh they may struggle to hang with Tyoga. But Tyoga and Newark Valley, anytime they suit them up, you never know what's going to happen. So it'll be later in the year. So Newark Valley's got a chance to to uh build some of these coach ups, some of these young kids who haven't had the experience. And I expect by the time they head into uh Haggerty field later this year that it'll be a battle. Let's come uh into the valley. We'll we'll talk with about Waverly first. They actually opened the season with a week zero game Friday night. They beat East Syracuse Manoa 31 to seven. The only score they gave up was on an 85-yard or 80-yard kickoff return. So defensively, they pitched a shutout. Uh coming into the season, Coach Miller thought that was a strength. They've got a lot of experience on the defensive side of the ball, uh, starting on the inside linebackers with Caden Tursik and uh DJ Shaw. Uh they've got good experience in the secondary. Uh, their quarterback, Joe Tomaso, and their one of the receivers, Jay Piper, are back deep uh defensively for them. Uh what uh Jason Miller calls a safety net. Uh but they boy, they they got to the ball, they put hats on the ball all night long. Uh they they actually played, he said for the first time in the 20 years that he and the defensive coordinator Dave Shaw have coached together, that they actually played man-to-man. Uh, so basically allowed them to put uh five men in the box, challenge East Syracuse Mano, who runs this air raid offense to run the ball and throw in the seven-man coverage, basically. And it worked. You know, he he noted afterwards, he goes, I don't think we can do that against section four ground games, but it worked in this instance. Uh, and they look good. They're like I said, fly into the ball, uh, sure tacklers, and they hit hard. You know, offensively, they threw the ball a lot, but Waverly offenses tend to do that. Tomaso looked really good, strong arm. He's grown, he's about 6'1 now. You know, as an eighth grader when he started, he was about 5'8, 5'9. Uh, so he and he's got a he's got a strong arm and it keeps getting stronger. He's got a lot of weapons on the outside. Sophomore Jay Piper uh looks to be the most dangerous of the bunch. I had six catches for 161 yards and a touchdown. Uh East Syracuse Manoa was flagged six times for defensive pass interference. And at least four times it was Pfeiffer getting behind the defender and basically having to be dragged down to avoid a long play. Uh, they've got a big tailback and sophomore gauge Tedesco, big physical back, and a couple other kids that can run the ball. Their offensive line, they return uh five guys, four four starters, three or four starters, and all five guys had experience. But their biggest, the biggest weakness they may have is up front because they have nothing behind them experience-wise. So if their offensive line stays healthy, they they could be a very dangerous team. Uh they have depth everywhere else on the field, I think, to to cover up any injuries, but the offensive line needs to stay healthy for them, at least, especially in the early going while they until they can coach up some of these younger kids uh in case there's an injury later in the season. I I uh in my preseason uh crystal ball, as I call it, I forecast Waverly as a 500 team. And after watching them Friday night, I'm pretty sure I was off on that one. They they look pretty good. Um, you know, I think they'll have a tough game. Odessa Montour, Watkins Glenn, uh, the merge program up there, I think is going to surprise some people this year. I think that's gonna be a tough ballgame for them in their division. With Whitney Point dropping to eight-man football, that brings Shenango Valley from the uh class C division with Shenango Forks and Susquehanna Valley. They shifted them into the Waverly uh division with Dryden and Odessa Montour Watkins Glenn. So obviously Waverly, Shenango Valley now is a divisional game when they play in week two, and that'll be a key game for Waverly. Uh, I don't know what Shenango Valley has back this year. I know uh they had a stretch there where they were really tough last couple years. It's been a little thin numbers-wise, I think. Um, but Shenango Valley always plays Waverly tough. They seem to have had their number at times in the past. But I think Waverly what's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

The coach there at Shenango Valley, uh Nick Sereni, he's got that program on the right track. He's a good young coach, and you can see it in the student athletes. Not only that, you know, they they really turned the program around his first year. I forget how many wins they had, but I think they had one or zero wins that first the year prior to that. They may have had a couple, but he's definitely got them on the on the right track, and he's developing a true program there through the lower levels.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Good. And that'll be you know, so that'll be a good test for Waverly with uh Shenango Valley and the Odessa Montour, Watkins Glenn uh merge team. So but I I think they win their division, uh, which is key for them if they want to get back to the finals, because you know, if you finish second in that division, you play Shenango Forks in the semifinals. Nobody really wants that. Uh so I think Waverly is uh gonna be a little better than I and I thought they were gonna be this year. Um perhaps a lot better. Like I said, they they look crisp on offense and very good on defense. And East Syracuse Manoa, according to uh the people I know in Section 3, is one of the top class A schools up there. And Waverly dominated them for lack of a better word. So now this brings us to our fifth and final team in Taylor County, uh Tyoga. They were five and one in the spring, only loss at Newark Valley. Uh they've won in the fall, they've won eight of the last nine Section Four titles. They were eight, they're nine and oh in uh state quarterfinal games. Unfortunately, one and eight in the semis, but they did win a state title in 2015. Uh, this team, you know, I'm not one for anybody that reads our site and reads my work, I'm not one for hyperbole. But I honestly believe this Tyoga team may be the best one that Nikayello's had. And at least the most dangerous offensive team he's had. Uh and their athletic defense, I mean, they're gonna fly to the ball. You know, I wrote it here a couple months ago, and I I firmly believe that they are the team to beat in New York State. I think they'll win a state title. Uh, it all starts with senior tailback Emmett Wood. You know, in 2015, Jesse Manuel graduated with 8,550 yards and 123 touchdowns, which left him second all time in the state in rushing yards and third all-time in the state in touchdowns. And I thought that he was the best running back I'd ever seen around here, you know, in my coverage areas anyway. And I didn't think that those numbers would ever be touched. Well, then along comes Emmett Wood. And Emmett Wood, if they had had a full season last year, if he had played his say 12 games like they normally do, but let's go back, even 10 games, he'd be sitting on 6,000 plus yards heading into this season, needing 2,500 yards to top Jesse Manuel after having 2,500 yards plus in both the sophomore and junior year. So, I mean, the numbers he's put up there uh are astounding, uh historical. I mean, you look at it, he he'll he'll never catch Manual now after losing those four to six games last year. But he's gonna push 7,500 yards in three and a half seasons. So, and and the scary part about this Tyoga team is that they've got maybe three other backs that would start on three quarters or more of the teams in section four. I mean, Gavin Godfrey, Isaac Peterson, they brought in a youngster. Uh he transferred into the school district this year. Um outstanding wrestler. Turns out he's a pretty good football player, too. Asimon Duncanson from uh Spencer Benetton. So he's another weapon, you know. And you know, the critics in the past have said to Tyle Go well, you know, you get into the big game, you can't just run people the ball down people's throat. Well, this year they've got a sophomore quarterback, uh Caden Bellis, who really can throw the football. Nice touch, uh, sees the field. Nikio loves how smart he is at quarterback. Uh and to go along with that, he's got two senior wide receivers coming back and two sophomore wide receivers coming in who are just as good as the seniors and will push them for playing time. So he's got, you know, they've got four running backs and four wide receivers that are just top-notch with a quarterback that can throw the football, can run the option, there's offensively, they're scary. And then you put the deep on the defensive side of the ball, you put all those athletes onto the defensive side of the ball uh with some with the ability to get after the football and get hats to the football. I think they're gonna be very good defensively, too. One question mark about this team is the offensive line. They bring back two or three starters, you know, the third one played quite a bit. So say they've got three kids on their line with experience, two with very little experience. Um, this is something Class D schools face all the time. Tyoga regularly faces this. Uh, the one thing I will say is they've got three freshmen who are as big as anybody on other upperclassmen. And I don't know if they're ready to be varsity players yet, but they there's a fallback for them in case they are. That said, um, like I said, Tyoga's done this time and time and time again. You know, just like Waverly, good coaches, good programs. These kids know what is expected of them. And by the time they take the field, they've been coached up and they're ready to play. And I don't have any doubt that in Waverly and Tyoga um this year, because they've got so much back that both these teams are gonna are gonna contend. You know, Waverley's got a big roadblock in his way, it's Nangle Forks. Tyoga is the big roadblock in Class D, uh, especially with Newark Valley's graduation losses this year. So I I just uh I love the looks of this Tyoga team. Um, you know, I know it's talk about putting a target on their back by saying they're gonna win a state title, but you know, I I I'll be shocked if they don't get to the post or you know into the state playoffs. And I and I'll be surprised if anybody beats them once they're there. I mean, you think about it, you know, these class D schools, uh, Climber Sherman Panama is now up in Class C, but they had graduated everybody anyway after 2019. Um, and how many schools uh in 2019 were it would have this kind of postseason experience and have that many of them back? Because we uh Tyoga's got uh eight or ten seniors that played a lot on that 2019 team that got to the that lost 28-27 to CSP in the state semis, you know. So I I just don't see how many teams in the state can match up with them, not only athletically, but with the big game experience they have. So I think that's a big advantage.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah, with uh you take we'll take just Tyoga, for example. They have so many uh uh student athletes in the ball handling positions, and and maybe they are a little bit um inexperienced on the line, if you will. But what good coaches I've I've seen from a defensive perspective will do in those situations, they'll load up the line. Maybe you'll put your your big uh two studs on the left-hand side at guard and tackle, and maybe throw in, take the tight end out, put another tackle type of a body in there, or they can run on balance lines, and sometimes defenses don't catch up with that stuff until it's too late. So you can do those kind of things too. It's almost like like running a half half uh line offense, but uh, I think that's you're right.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

That's the thing in the past, ILO's done exactly what you said, and then he'll take those two guys, run them twice at left guard and left tackle, and then third down, he'll shift them over to the right side, and the guys will you know they'll flip-flop the line, and the defenses may not, you know. So they yeah, that's the type of stuff they'll do, and they've done in the past, so it'll be interesting to see. Yeah, once you've go ahead. I was gonna say, I don't know if you've touched on this with anybody else you've talked to yet, but one common thread in every sport, not just football, but especially um talking with Nick Aiello and Jason Miller, um, as much as I do, they said that you know they would have loved to have played football in the fall last year, but the fact they played in the spring was beneficial to them because it allowed them to play six games in the spring and then roll right into seven on seven with just a small break for the kids to play baseball. They rolled into seven on seven, and then boom, it's August and they've got camp. So these kids have been playing football since March 1st. And I think that's why Waverly came out as sharp as they were on uh Friday night, uh, because you know, I don't know that every program does it the way Waverly and Tyoga does, you know. And I I can tell you that the both those coaches had their kids playing seven on seven and working out, and and I know a lot of programs do that, the successful ones do. Um, but I saw firsthand uh how beneficial it really was to them Friday night because they look good. And I have no doubt that Tyoga's gonna come out looking sharp on Friday night, too.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

The other thing, too, these these young student athletes, probably 14 or 15, 16, 17, 18 years old, their battery recharges really quick. And if they're uh football field rats, you know, similar to an analogy with baseball or football or basketball, gym rat, they just want to play, you know, and the more you play, the the better you're gonna get. Couple that with excellent coaching, making sure you're doing the right things and you start repping the right things, that that's why they're successful. It's it's not uh and I think that the a lot of your coaches took advantage of this. It's just like uh uh spring football at the collegiate level, you know, they they run the spring game, but these guys had I think it like you touched on an advantage because it it carried right on through. They didn't really have a lot of downtime, and playing another sport is not a bad thing. That that helps with you know your hand-eye coordination, the dexterity, uh, your your mind, you're working things differently, approaching things differently. So I think all that coupled together is what makes this particular fall really exciting for those teams that took advantage of those situations you talk about.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Absolutely. And you know, you touched a little bit on on uh coaching staffs, and I and I've been blessed uh in the valley here with Waverly and Tyoga Ayalo and Miller do such a great job. And you look into Tyoga County, the rest of Tyoga County, Verklar's done a great job at Oego. And the Newark Valley coaching staff, regardless of who's been the head coach, has done a great job up there. And you know, Speck, Mike Chafee, has done a nice job the last few years trying to hold that program together. You know, they shifted to eight-man football and they had a great season last year. And um, I think they'll have another good one this year. Rumor has it, they want to get back to 11-man next year. We'll see where the numbers are at. I don't I don't know that the numbers were big enough to do that. They they already made a plan they were going to be eight-man this year. But uh, you know, I'm not sure the numbers are there for this year if they had wanted to go to 11. But hopefully by next year they can get back to 11 if that's what they want to do. I think eight-man's here to stay, obviously. And um I'm excited. I haven't seen an eight-man football game yet, but I'm excited to get in my first game this year at some point, whether it's uh up at Spencer or maybe up to Notre Dame or Edison.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

So yeah, I haven't seen it in person. I've watched on YouTube, and um, there's another station, some of the schools had their own uh media feeds that you could watch those games on. It's pretty interesting, and it's uh it it heightens the need for skills like blocking and tackling, the basic skills, you have to be really good at those because a lot of tackling and blocking out in space. And if you can't do that, you know, especially on a regulation field, which is you know 120 yards, including the end zone and 53 and a third wide. But if you were on a regular eight player field, which is like 40 by 80, it would have been a little bit different, but you still you got to be in shape. It's a it's a high uh, especially you think about some of these officials. A lot of our officials are are getting up in age and it's they don't have a lot of young officials coming in. So the cardio demand is different in an eight player game, especially on a Regular uh regulation size field. So I can I can feel for those guys. You mentioned numbers a little bit. I just want to uh share again with our listeners the numbers throughout section four. You've got four in the double A classification, three in A, four in B, and now eight in C and eight in nine and eight and D with Whitney Point uh going down to the 12 player. And the 12 player right now is at 13 teams.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Yeah, and you know, and you know, to me, the only thing that bothers me about that is I know last year a couple of those teams had 25 and 30 kids on their eight man on their eight-man rosters. You know, uh seems to me that's enough to play 11-man.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I think 19, if I recall correctly, is the cutoff. I mean, you have to have I think it's a minimum of 19 for the 11 player. Uh Whitney Whitney Point had 15 uh throughout the first couple weeks of their camp this year, and then they just decided to go down. Uh I shouldn't say down, but decided to play the in the eight-player classification.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking eight-man football, and there is a need for it, obviously, if you want to keep the game going. Um, but I know last year, you know, that people had told me they went to a couple games and there was, you know, one of the schools up that you know north of us had 34 players in the uniform, and another one had 27 or 28. So that doesn't seem quite right to me. But again, I don't make the rules. Sure. You know, just uh to me, there's a line somewhere that has to be, you know, if you have a certain amount of kids and you want to play football, you know, having those kind of numbers, how are they playing? You know, how do you get 34 kids into an eight-man game?

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Right. Yeah, that's the first time I've heard that uh that type of scenario. I've I've heard the unfortunate situation where you have uh just enough student athletes to field an eight-player team, and now you're looking at practice. You can't even run a half-line offense and defense hardly in practice. So that makes it tough. But you're right, it is it's an opportunity to play. Uh uh, and it and it is very exciting. One thing I will uh let our listeners know, we talked a little bit about this one on our podcast dedicated to the eight-player classification, is sometimes you get watching those games as a fan or either a parent or a fan, and you're watching the game, an eight-player, I'm sorry, yeah, an eight-player classification game through the eyes of 11-player football, and it's different. Uh, it's as if it's a different game, and it's also the basics are the same blocking and tackling, those kind of things. But when you get down towards uh, say the end of the game and starting to get some of the other student athletes in the game, it's different because if you're up 14 or 21 points, that could be literally two snaps right in in an eight-player game. And it's not uncommon that you can have two snaps and have two scores, and and it's right right back to you know, tie ball game or uh you made lead. So there's a lot of other dynamics that come into play with the eight-player classification. But bottom line, that student athletes get to play and think about if you were at a school and they were talking about getting rid of football, and then they start saying, Well, maybe we can play in the eight-player classification. That is like Christmas morning when you hear that. You know, it's the same, same kind of thing. So listen, Tim, you again did a great job in the in the preseason uh preview. Uh, we really appreciate that, and also what you do uh with your stuff there on all the uh sports reports that you have out. What I'll do is I'll make sure that those links are in the show notes so our listeners can get to and hear uh and read up on your stuff. I read your articles quite frequently, and uh those are no joke articles, those are deep, in-depth, lengthy, good quality articles that kind of reminded me back when I went to school in Columbus, Ohio. I wasn't an Ohio State fan when I went out there, but I got I read the newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, and probably the the size of our newspaper here locally was the whole section dedicated to the the Buckeyes. So I came back a Buckeyes fan. You couldn't help it, but what I'm my I'm drawing the analogy that you go uh just as in depth as they did in, and it's not only football, you cover all the sports and you do a great job with that. And it's it's really exciting for these student athletes, coaches, and parents to look at that, say, oh, that's my son, my daughter, my aunt, my uncles, you know, watching the game. It's all great stuff. So, Tim, thanks for not only what you do for for football in section four, but everything you do of sports in general. Appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Thanks, Coach. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

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