Section IV Football Season Preview - Eastern Teams with Nate Lull

This episode provides in-depth insight and analysis of the Section IV Eastern Teams, by Nate Lull, the Sports Director of WCDO, in Sidney, NY.

Teams: Windsor, Norwich, Oneonta, Bainbridge/Guilford, Delaware Academy, Deposit/Hancock, Harpursville/Afton, Sidney, Walton, Greene, Oxford,
Unadilla Valley, Unatego/Franklin, Whitney Point

To follow teams in the eastern portion of Section IV, use these resources:
Within the Sidney area, you can listen on radio stations 100.9 FM or 1490 AM
If you are outside the Sidney area, you can listen using the audio steam on www.wcdosports.com

The Nate Lull Podcast is also a good source of information

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

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Visit the Cover IV Podcast Website to stay informed and get involved.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Cover 4. If you're a Section 4 football fan, this is your podcast. I'm Coach Smith, and I'll be your host. Our guest analyst today is Nate Loll. He's from WCDO, the sports director, located in Sydney, New York. Welcome, Nate.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hey, thanks for having me on again. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

We also appreciate it. What Nate's going to cover with us today is going to share insight in the Section Four football season preview, specifically the Eastern teams in section four that he covers. Take it away, Nate.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Well, thanks, coach. Yeah, it's uh it's an exciting time. And as I've been reaching out and talking with all the various, I think the biggest takeaway uh that I've gotten is that they're just so happy to be out on the field again. Many coaches said how happy they were to be playing in the actual fall season and not the spring. Uh so I think everybody is just, you know, they're excited to go out and to try to win, but also just very thankful for the opportunity to be back out on the field. So I'll start with Whitney. And when I talked to them, I talked to one of their assistant coach, Brian James, and he said, this has been really tough for them right now because they just made the decision last week to go from 11-man to eight-man. So he said it's been not only a transition on our players, but our coaching staff as well. Uh, they're all kind of learning the eight-man game together, and they open up with Spencer, who additionally the last few years has been a very good playoff caliber eight-man team. Uh so that's going to be tough for them, but they're enjoying it and trying to figure out what the best thing to do is for eight-man in a short amount of time. School I'll I'll talk about is Green. Uh, Dave Gorton, longtime coach there for the Trojans. This is kind of the theme of all the teams that I cover, whether it's man or eleven-man, they graduated some really good talent and they're going to be really young. Uh so again, they're in the eight-man game, but they lost Josh Titus. He was their quarterback. He's now playing at Hartwick. Tristan Austin was probably one of the best running backs in the section, regardless of eight-man or eleven-man. And he graduated as well. Uh, so again, they're a young team, they're trying to figure it out. But if there's one thing I know about Green, is that uh they always find a way to get those young players involved. And when I talked to Coach, he said that's what they're gonna do. They have some nice uh depth on the line, and they're just hoping to get those skill players up and going. The next team I want to talk about is Unidella Valley, and they lost two uh absolute studs as well, Kyler Butts. Uh of course, they didn't have him in the spring because he broke his ankle. Uh, he did rehab, but he's not playing at St. John Fisher. And they also lost their quarterback, Heifenberg. So another team that's very young and they have some inexperience, but they're just going to try to go out there and do the best that they can. When I talked to uh head coach Art Regas, he said he's excited because a lot of these guys have been waiting uh to get off the sidelines and get on the field. So they are uh really looking forward to the season. Next is Unitigo Franklin. Uh, they don't have a game in week one. They were originally supposed to play Spencer Vanett and Cander, and then the schedule got moved around. So they actually have a bye. They were searching for a game and couldn't find anybody else to play. They lost some big pieces, especially Leo Temple, their running back, actually gifted. I saw him score five touchdowns in a game here against Green. He was one of the best. Uh, but they have a really nice quarterback, a young quarterback. He's gonna be a junior coming back, and Logan Utter. And they have a player coming back, Shea Barber, who was their quarterback two years ago when they were playing Eleven Man. And he's a big basketball guy, and he was afraid. Uh, he kind of got crunched around a little bit and he was getting hurt, but he's decided to come back to play. And I think some other weapons. So I know the Spartans are excited to get back on the field as well. Uh, Oxford is next. I'm really glad to see Oxford back in the mix because uh they didn't have a team last year. They were struggling for numbers. And when I talked to their coaching staff a week ago, they put it as quote unquote uh the seasons on life support because they weren't sure if they were gonna have enough. But uh as of today, when I checked in with them, they have 16 players. Again, young guys that didn't get to play the last couple of years, uh, but they're ready to go out and give it their all. So I think those are some of the eight-man teams uh that are I'm covering in the area. Uh they're young, they're inexperienced, but again, as I said before, they're just excited to go out and get a chance. Do I think they're gonna have trouble competing with some of the teams? And the uh but I do know that I think we're gonna see some young stars uh emerge here this year, and I'm excited for that. So, did I miss anybody there, Coach?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

No, you didn't. You got them all, coach. You got them, you got all of those. And one thing I will say is there is now 13 uh teams in the uh eight-player classification, and you have um five of them. I'm sorry, yeah, five of them in your uh area of of expertise. So that's that's pretty quite dynamic, and I know that that's an exciting version of football to watch as well, especially on a regulation-sized field.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

It really is, and uh, you know, a couple of years ago when we started doing those games, people always ask me what the biggest difference is, and I said, Well, there's just so much room, it's some really good athletes, some really good running backs, and you could be there for a four-hour game because there's so much scoring. Those guys get to the outside and they can just use that speed and take off. But I've really come to love the game. I think a lot of the small area really appreciate it because they have roots in eight-man football back in the the 50s and 60s and into the 70s. So I think a lot of fans have enjoyed seeing it come back, and I think we're gonna see some more teams possibly go to eight-man in the near future because I know some of the local 11-man teams that I cover are right on the edge. Uh, so I think it's something that is here to stay in our part of this action for sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

I guess I'll move on to the 11-man teams that I cover, and I'll start with uh I'll start with Bainbridge Guildford. We're gonna be uh broadcasting their opening game on Friday night, uh, and they're taking on Beaver River from action three. So that's kind of a unique matchup. Uh I went down to one of their practices last week and and talked to Israel Lormer. He's their their head coach and he's been a good friend of years. He's been on the radio with me a bunch, uh, football and basketball. He's really excited about this BG team. They've struggled the last couple of years, but uh they have really good numbers, they have really good excitement. And, you know, you see this sometimes in these small schools, these athletes who either switch sports or haven't gone out for something. And he's got a couple of guys who bought into that and they've joined the football team and they spent all spring and all summer working on their game. And what I really liked about it was I was at practice, and these guys came up to coach after a three-hour practice and said, Hey, can we just stick around for a little while after and just run some routes or run some routes and and throw it around? And they stayed for probably an extra half an hour to 45 minutes, just working on those little things. So that was that was really exciting for me to see. And BGs do. So I I really hope that they have a good year uh with some of these new guys coming in. Next town team that we cover, Sydney. Sydney graduated seniors and a lot of talent. When you have a quarterback like Peyton Mosier, who was one of the fastest guys in the section, uh, and a running back like Zach Harrington, uh, they were really dynamic and they had some players on the line too. You look at a guy like uh uh Ian Fogarty, he's going on to play D2 football at the line at New Haven. Uh, you got a lot of pieces to replace. When I talked to Coach Jeff Matthews, he said we got a really good modified program coming. They got 43 players on the modified, which I think is great. He said, We're gonna struggle this year. We're young. We see something in, guys are just gonna have to figure it out, and it doesn't help the team like Tyoga. Uh, so I think Sydney is just gonna do the best that they can. Coach Matthews has got a couple more years left in the tank here, and I know that he's gonna find a way to make these guys uh competitive. So that's that's kind of a quick look there at Sydney. Uh next up is Norwich, and our good friend Mike Christie uh just had him on my podcast a couple weeks ago. I know you had a really good episode with him as well. I think Mike is really building something nice at Norwich, and it might not be this year necessarily, but I think down the road, the culture at Norwich is really changing and really, I don't know, maybe changing is the wrong word, but he's putting in a culture there that I just really like. The athletes look up to him, they're doing the off-season work and they're just doing things the right way. And I think that's really gonna pay off for them. And you know, they had a nice opening week, uh week zero win against Sherburn Eerrowville. And when I talked to him, he said, you know, that's our neighboring community. We were just glad to get out and play in front of our fans uh of those two communities. And now he didn't, you know, they put up 27 points and they only gave up six, and then they were off to a nice start. So I would look out for Norwich for uh next, let's go over to to the Walton and Dell star. I will start with the Walton Warriors, a young team, inexperienced on the line. Uh their coaching staff didn't hold any punches when I talked to them. They said, we're gonna, you know, we could struggle. And that's different. If you're a Walton football fan, you are used to that crisp, great play, and it all starts on the line for Walton. I do think they'll get together because they practice that so religiously. Uh, but when I saw them in the spring, they were a young team and they did struggle. I think those guys getting those reps in the spring and now through the summer, they'll surprise some people and they have that heart that Walton teams always have. Uh so you have to look out for Walton, but again, another young team in our area. Next, I'll go to Delhi. And if there's a team that was more ravaged by graduation, I don't know who it would be. Uh, when you lose a player like Alex Haight, I firmly believe he was probably the best player that I cover uh football. He can do it all as a wide receiver. He's at the Deerfield Academy now in New England. Uh, you lose your quarterback, your leader, Luke Branigan. You lose your running back, Bryce Brocky. Uh, you lose another fantastic receiver in Logan Akins, who had really great track type speed. They were the greatest show on turf in my neck of the woods. And uh all those guys are gone. They do have some great pieces coming back. They have great depth on the line. And what's funny about it is that quarterback, Luke Branagan, he's now going to Cortland, but he's gonna be coming home on Friday nights, and he's gonna be up in the booth down to their new quarterback, Logan Nealis. So I think Luke around will be really good. The Delhi culture has really changed the last couple of years. Phil Newman has done a great, great change there. Those kids would run through a brick wall for him. So I think Delhi will still be strong, but maybe not as strong as we saw last year. Uh, next up is Oneanta. They were a team that was really long young last year, but they scored a lot of points and they had athletes all over the field. Uh, they had a sophomore quarterback, and they're returning a lot of those guys. They were able to stay in games with Sydney, and they hung around with Delhi for a little while, and they were able to put up points. They didn't get wins, but they were able to put up points, and I'm interested to see how they go for them. I think um expectations are I don't want to say high, but I think that they're excited at everything that they have coming back. Uh, you know, some of the big bulls play a tougher schedule, uh, but I think with the way the divisions line up now, Oneana could could definitely be a bit of a sleeper in my neck of the woods. Uh I'll go to Windsor next. Always tough when you have to replace a quarterback like Ethan Reed. He's also going to Division II Haven. He did a lot for that offense. They're very young. Uh, they open up with uh Mexico uh this week, a section three team. Don't know a lot about Mexico. I you know, I think both our these Beaver River teams and Mexico teams, these coaching staff said, hey, we don't know a lot about them, but they don't know a lot about us. So Windsor was another team that is trying to fill in the gaps and do the best they can. Uh so we'll hope the best for Coach Hogan over there in the Black Knights. So I'm trying to think, did I forget anybody else there, Coach?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Uh deposit Hancock and Harpersville Afton.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yes. So uh I was just talking to DH and their coaching staff today, and they are returning more than I thought they were. They have good line depth and they have all skill position guys back. Uh so they have two or three guys that have been on this team for two or three years now, and I think they could surprise some people. They've struggled the last few years, um, but even in the spring, and and it's been the same this year, they started a ball practice. They had some COVID issues, they had some guys in quarantine. It's hard to get those reps in uh when you're not allowed to come to practice and come to the field. But they are on schedule to play their opening game. Their game with Delhi was supposed to be Saturday. It did get moved to Monday, the 13th. Um, but they have all those skilled guys back. And with my area being so young and inexperienced for a lot of those teams, uh DH could make some noise. So that's somebody to keep an eye on. The other team to really keep an eye on is Afton Harpersville. They are returning really good guys in Brady Bautiste, um as well as Luke Merrill, two running backs that just run old school smash-mouth football, but they're fast. They will hit you in the mouth, running up the gut, or they can run into the outside and they have that track type speed. Um, they did lose their quarterback to graduation, Brody Alexak. Uh, he's going on to a college wrestling career. But they, again, changed the culture in Afton Harperville. Jason Lyon, their coach, has done a really nice job there. If if I was going to say who might be the best team preseason-wise in Canaria, I would say Afton Harpersville um might be towards the top of my list. They have a tough schedule, a tough division, uh, but they have some nice pieces coming back. And if they can play like they did in the spring, I think they'll surprise some people as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

That covers it. And thank you, Nate, for uh all your uh great insight and expertise, specifically as it relates to the team there in the east that you cover. And I'll be sure to put in the show notes uh your uh call letters and how they can uh listen to you and your games on WCDO there in Sydney, New York. I know I listened to a few games that you do, and you do a great job with that. So it's uh gonna be exciting uh from my perspective as well. I you know, I'm an old traditional, I'm actually a mud, dirt, and grass guy, but everything's going to turf fields now. But just to get back playing football in the season when it's meant to be played, you know, it's starting to get a little cooler now, a little bit less humid, and you know, it's it's it's time. It's and everybody's been waiting a long time. So again, Nate, thank you for everything and sharing your knowledge. And uh our guests, I'm sure, will be happy to know that you're gonna be on at least once or twice more during the season. So I know that they look forward to that. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Thank you. I'm looking forward to coming back again and uh keep up the good work. Thank you, Coach.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yep, you're welcome. Take care. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says visit cover4.com and be the next fan up. In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up. Thank you for listening to the Cover Four podcast.