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“May your football games and life, go into overtime.”
SPEAKER_00
Welcome to Cover Four. If you're a Section Four football fan, this is your podcast. I'm Coach Smith, and I'll be your host. Our guest today is Andrew Laguerre. He is the sports writer for the Elmira Star Gazette and the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin. Welcome, Andrew.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, uh, thanks for having me again, Tim. It's been a long time, no speak, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00
Glad to have you back and appreciate what you do. Section four football season preview. And Andrew's going to talk specifically about the teams in the western portion of section four that he covers. I just handed the ball off to you, Andrew. Run with it.
SPEAKER_01
All right. Let's start with Corning because that the last couple of years, that's been the top program down here. 14 wins their last 16 games, sectional championship two seasons ago, five and the last season. And you know, would have been great to see them play uh the likes of Shenango Forks in that little, you know, a little bit of an odd spring season, but certainly corning was one of those programs that would have loved to have a chance at a sectional run and a state run, but obviously we didn't have that because of COVID. Uh, you know, big news at Corning is they have a new head coach. Mike Johnson Jr. is taken over for George McAllis. Uh George led them to two sectional titles, but he's got a new position as an administrator in Horsehoods district. So good luck to him there. Uh Mike is coached, I think he told me 32 years total uh in the Almira Corning area, 30 seasons coaching football. Uh he had been an assistant at corning the last two seasons, and he had been a longtime assistant for the Express in Almira before that. Uh basically offensive coordinator, but he has his hands involved in a lot of stuff and you know, very good coach. Uh he coached at Corning West until that program merged with Corning East back in 2010, and he led that, you know, the Vikings to two sectional titles. Um, you know, a lot of graduation loss at the skill position, but the good news for uh a team that runs the double wing and is very reliant on the guys up front is they have four starters back uh on the offensive line, center Dan Casper, starts Chris Mahawke, Grayson Salter, tackle Zach Nelson, Dylan Kennedy is a stud at fullback, Landon Burch, uh quarterback, and a lot of you know may know Landon's dad. Matt Burch was a first-round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals back in the day. And you know, some other good talent like Lucas Zocco, Mason Smith, Dylan Fairchild, Jack Hirsch. So uh, you know, like I said, uh a lot lost to graduation, but with the coaching staff, you know, not just Johnston, but Tim Hughes and some other experienced coaches in just the program they have built. I I'm looking for Corning to again do some good things. Starting Friday against the Nidiga team is never beat Corning. And you know, I guess when when we talk corning, the the next logical step is to talk Almira football. And uh, you know four and two in the spring. But uh Jimmy McColly does a great job of that program. And obviously Mike was there with him for a long time, but uh the express to me is is sort of the the barometer in this area for football. Um this is Jimmy's 10th season as head coach. Uh I call him Jimmy. He used to play football for Southside and basketball, and so I covered him back in the day. But uh I think you know, even with Almira's success, maybe even still a little underrated as a coach, 66 and 24 career record, and I think four sectional titles in you know, Elmira like Corning. Mike Johnson Jr. brought the double wing to Almira, and they still run it and they run it with great success. So uh and they get started Saturday afternoon against Binghamton, which has a new coach, and Doug Stento is a new old coach. For those of you who are aware, he used to coach before Mike Ramille, who's now down in Alabama. So I guess we're starting with a bang, even though Binghamton struggled last year. Uh, we're gonna get a good gauge of where Elmira stands after, you know, they were four and two in the spring, but they weren't quite as dominant as they have been. So we'll we'll see if Almira can, you know, return to that uh level of prominence that they've enjoyed for so long in this area. Um big news in horse heads we got a new stadium. Uh so I went, I dug through the archives trying to find the last time they had a new stadium, or you know, when that old grass field with the with that super high crown that people notice and sort of the long grass that will people had noticed. But it's been since 1964, since we had a new stadium opening at Horseheads High School. And, you know, I was there last week talking to the superintendent and the athletic director, and you know, it's a beautiful stadium and facility, you know, lights for the first time in horse heads, artificial turf for the first time in horseheads. And what that means is they open up on a Friday night. So we're gonna be playing Friday night football. And, you know, they got the team to go to the stadium five and one last spring, lost the corning and opener, and then came back and won their final five games. Uh, really, the the the player I think to watch is really Riley Loomis, senior year, outstanding baseball player as well, but uh he's running back safety, uh one of the hardest hitters you'll find in the secondary, but a really high-powered runner who runs with aggressiveness. And you know, his baseball teammate, Alex Chrisman, one of the best pitchers in section four, he's he's gonna be playing quarterback. They lost Ryan Scott to graduation. Ryan won the Ernie Davis Award down here as a top player in our area. But Alex got some time last spring and and looked good. So I think they have uh, you know, the quarterback position in steady hands. It's you know, again, like Corning a lot, a lot lost to graduation at Horseheads, but uh I you know they seem to be building a program to follow the likes of Corning and Elmira, you know, the type of program that can sort of maintain success uh year after year. And I I guess, you know, uh talk a little bit about eight-man football because I mentioned Mike Johnston Jr. and Mike's father, Mike Johnston Sr., no surprise there. Uh 50 years ago, he made his debut as Notre Dame High School football coach in 1971. He was an all-American at uh Alfred in college and uh great player in high school. So his debut, they played Truman's Burg at home Saturday night. Uh, I talked to Mike a week or two ago, and he said that game, you know, the because of the available availability of officials, they're gonna start that game on a Saturday night instead of a typical Friday. So you want to make sure things weren't overstressed in the officiating world. But uh Mike led the basketball team at Notre Dame to a state championship in 1978, the boys, fantastic coach. Uh he's 73, I think he's 73 years old, off the top of my head, but uh still brings great energy. And you know, he was an assistant running the defense when they won sectional and intersectional championships a few years ago. And uh he, you know, he told me he also went out and did some recruiting of kids, you know, wanting to get them out playing football. And you know, one of them is Owen Stewart, uh his quarterback, who is you know, in a very short list of the best pitchers I saw during the spring. So and I I did get to see him throw the football a little bit uh at practice. He looked very good and uh, you know, yeah, you know, the uh another team with a great tradition down here is Thomas A. Edison and now Meyer Heights. And, you know, I got to one of their games last spring, and they were as young as young can be. So uh the good news for Kyle Erickson and company is young in the spring, you know, four or five months later, we're looking at a team that is sort of just continuing from that spring season right into the quicker fall return. And I think that's gonna benefit them. And Kyle is excited about the attitude and and what they have coming back. They have a lot of kids back from that program, and certainly they're gonna be improved. And you know, you tend to look at success at the high school level and wins and losses, but it it there's so much more to it than that. And you know, Kyle talked about the improvement late in the season with with this group, and that's gonna carry over, and you know, hopefully we'll we'll see them be more competitive this fall. And then, you know, another school down here, a scholars county school, so to speak, is Watkins Glen Odessa Montor. And they were Trevor Holland's group, that was an interesting team last season because if you'll remember back in the fall, they said we don't have the budget for high school football this school year, but you know, it was a sort of roller coaster year in a lot of ways, a little bit of wacky year. They found the money in the budget, they were able to play in the spring. Uh they won their opener, and then you know, because of COVID issues related to their opponent, they got they couldn't play the next week. But the bottom line is they finished with a three and one record, and uh, you know, they played great football. And again, that's another running attack, but you know, they're they're a little bit more of a mix with uh Trevor Holland's son, Cameron playing quarterback, uh Trayvon Jones, explosive running back. So they got some talent. Uh we'll see what they do, but uh I'm looking forward to watching them play in the near future. And as you mentioned, I think uh I went to Odessa Montour home with Charles Martin Field, which may be one of the few last grass fields in the area, but they'll play most of their home games, I think, at Watkins Glen. I think they had just had one game at up at OM.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I had the opportunity a few years ago, uh, and I think Trevor Hollinson was still the quarterback. He was very young. I think he was a sophomore that year. I I had the uh Susquehanna Valley game that they played, and the whole backfield was all sophomores. And I remember that they were very explosive as sophomores. So I can imagine where they most of those student athletes are now with staying in the same program and progressing and maturing physically and and mentally as well.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it's interesting they made an impression because it's it was hard to make an impression when you're playing Sus Valley because that team was phenomenal. So uh, and those kids uh in that state championship season uh just really flew to the football. So uh, you know, kudos to uh walk in the Glen Odessa for even moving the ball with that group.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, they they actually did a good job in Susquehanna Valley that that particular year. They I watched them, I actually called a few of their games, and they were just, like you said, very aggressive to the ball, but they were were smart, uh, you know, lining up in the right positions, had the right techniques at the right time. And I a lot of that goes to Coach Ford, who was uh was an excellent coach in the section. But Andrew, thank you very much for taking the time to uh enlighten our listeners and share some insight and preview with uh you know the team that you cover, and just to let your your uh listening and reading community know that hopefully Andrew will be back with us at least once, maybe twice, possibly even three more times during the season with a little more in-depth in terms of what's transpiring at that particular point on the calendar and what what teams are going through. So thanks again, Andrew. Appreciate it. Take care.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00
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