Eastern Team's Preview with Nate Lull

In this episode, our Football Analyst, Nate Lull will give you an in-depth preview of the Eastern Teams in Section IV.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:21

Let's go. Welcome to the Cover Four podcast preseason team preview of the Eastern teams. Now you say you don't want any lull in your coverage. Well, yeah, I beg to differ. We want Nate Lull in our coverage. Welcome, Nate. And what do you got for us?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

All right. Thank you, Tim. And I would just like to start off by saying thanks for having me as always. This is something I look forward to as we get into the start of another high school football season. I can't believe it's here. Um, and as we're preparing for our first radio games of uh of the year, we're gonna start off uh at WCDO with a double header on the radio this year. Uh we're gonna be doing the Shenango County kickoff, which they're having up at Colgate University. So we will have Sydney and Sherburne Earleville on Sunday, the 8th, and we'll have Norwich and Cortland in the second game. So those games are at three and six o'clock. So uh depending on when this comes out, uh, you know, tune into WCDL. That's where I'm the sports director, and uh definitely a busy time of year. So I thought I would go through the teams that I cover here at CDL. These are all teams that we do games on the radio for. Um and I guess before I jump into that, one thing I was thinking about during all this is you know, I've been doing this job for 10 years now, and all roads seem to end at a certain place for the teams that I cover. Class D, it's been Tyoga every year except for one that I've been doing this job. In 2016, we got through with Sydney. Uh, I don't know what the difference was that year, but it was a great and magical run uh for Sydney. And for the other teams that I cover, the Oneanas, the Norwiches, it always ends at Maine Endwell. And for the C teams that I cover, it's always Forks or Waverly. So I always go into each football season optimistic, but I also know that for the teams that I cover, it's a huge mountain to climb. I've often said that I've covered probably the second best class D teams in the state for many years, and we can't get out of our own section because of the juggernaut that is Tyoga. Uh so I just always reflect on that as we start the season and wonder could this be the year? And uh that's something that I always think about and consider.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So well, it's good to be optimistic, but what I've always said is our section is very strong. And what you alluded to, you know, if those teams that you're talking about that you covered were second best teams, if they got through on any given year, probably would have done very well at the state level. So it's it's difficult at at the Section 4 level. And I and I feel for you. That's that's tough. But you know, we obviously love what we're doing, and we we keep bringing the the good product to the uh the fans.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, I think about uh COVID year with uh an undefeated Delhi team. I mean, they didn't play Tyoga that year, but it was probably one of the best teams that I've covered, and they just kind of played that independent schedule. So a lot of what-ifs there. A bunch of Walton and Unitego teams that were excellent and kind of took Tyoga to the wire, but just for whatever reason couldn't get over that hump. But I guess long story short, I've had a lot of fun over these years, these past 10 years, covering and watching a lot of great football. So the two teams that I cover in class B are Norwich and Onianta. So I thought I would start with Coach Christie in Norwich. I think the biggest thing, the biggest buzz that I'm getting out of the Norwich community is they're getting new turf. And they are super excited about that. That field uh always has great attendance down there. They get a lot of great fans, and they're so excited to be able to get down there and watch. And I think they're excited to play this game up at Colgate as well. We got a chance to watch Norwich and Batavia a year ago up at Colgate. Of course, Coach Christie played there and speaks fondly of his time at Colgate. So I think that's a special opportunity for Norwich. But one thing that they really have going for them is a three-year starter in Steven Dowdle. And he's an excellent, you know, three-sport guy, tremendous basketball player for Norwich, but just has an excellent touch on the ball and is the type of guy that you want in your corner as a leader. And I think Coach Christie on and off the field can trust Stephen Dowdle to do whatever he needs to get done. So I think that's one of the biggest keys for this Norwich team this year. They also had a ton of injuries last year. And when you play in a division that has, of course, Maine Endwell, you have a Wee go Free Academy, you have JC, there's just they their schedule is always a juggernaut. Um, but if they can stay healthy and they have a lot of great fast wide receivers, if they can get that ball out quick to a guy like Braden Hagen Boo uh in the games that we did last year. I mean, you could get that guy in a slant and he'd be gone. Um, and I think the biggest thing that they'll have to replace from a year ago is the loss of Holden Ryan to graduation, a tremendous running back. Uh he was injured a lot last year, and that was tough. But when you have a guy that you can give it to on almost any play like that, and having to replace him will be tough. But they just kind of have a stable of wide receivers and running backs that I think they can rely on. So uh Norwich has one of the toughest schedules out there, I think, but we'll see what Coach Christie can do. So the other team in that division that I cover is Onianta. And, you know, talking with head coach Will Neal, he's excited for this group. Um, losing a couple of key pieces from last year in the Nelson brothers, who were tremendous. You just had to get the ball in one of their hands, and it was almost uh a guaranteed six every time. But what I really like about Onianta is I think the front half of their schedule is pretty favorable to them. The back half obviously will be tough with Oego and Norwich and Maine Endwell, but starting with an oppos an opponent that they have a great relationship with in Walton, uh, games with Whitney Point, Harpersville Afton. I know we're planning to do the Sydney game on the radio. I think it's a team that despite being, I don't I don't know, they're a younger team, but they they do have some good experience. They're a team that you could see maybe get off to a pretty good start. Uh and then we'll see what happens in the in the back half there once they get into division play. But I think that first four games, Oniana could be a team to look out for to see what type of season they're gonna have. Uh a guy that I really like is Nolan Stark. He's a tremendous young baseball player, but if they have him at the quarterback position, he's got a great arm and a good head on his shoulders and can step up as a young leader of this team. So those are kind of my thoughts on Norwich and Oneata in class B. So I'll move on to Class C, where the teams that I cover are Sydney and Windsor. And looking at Sydney, this is going to be strange for me because this will be the first time in my career and the first time in over 20 years that Jeff Matthews isn't at the helm uh for the Sydney football team. Of course, Coach Matthews leaving a heck of a legacy a state championship in 2005, seven-time coach of the year in our area. Of course, that last run in 2016 that I referenced uh before when they they got out of the section and made it to the Final Four. Um so I think it's gonna be a new look team, and we're all waiting to see uh what Coach Craig puts on this. Uh, you know, he's a guy that has college coaching experience. He's a Sydney guy. He wrestled for Coach Matthews back in the day. Uh, he was on BG's staff a few years ago as a coordinator. Uh so he's familiar with the local game, and he's spent a lot of time in the offseason with these guys, and he's walking into a program that has maybe one of the best hidden gem quarterbacks, in my opinion, in the area, and Dylan Easton. Uh, he can run, he can throw, he has a great command of the offense. Uh, and I call him Stretch Armstrong when we're on the radio because he got hit so much last year and just had great durability. And if he can continue to stay healthy, they have some young guys and some guys back from injury that could really help. They have a young man, Nick Hartwell, who I think they could slot into a lot of different spots on offense and defense. But particularly, I see him as kind of a blocking tight end. Uh, he's a big kid. And if they can find an area to throw the ball up to him and let him rumble and stumble, uh, good things could happen. But again, Sydney is in that in that tough situation where they're gonna have a really tough schedule down the stretch with Sus Valley and with Windsor and with Forks. Uh, I'm just thankful that this year, for radio purposes, they're playing some of those Class D teams and some of those crossovers, uh, like Bainbridge Guildford, like Deposit Hancock, like Harpersville Aft. And that allows us as a hometown radio station to get those games in. One of the biggest things that we miss is that Sydney Unitigo rivalry. I mean, that's what we used to circle the calendar on. Uh, so that was one thing that we really miss is those type of games. So I I think in early October, that Sydney BG game is something we'll have circled on the calendar for sure that weekend of uh October 4th. So um, that's one that we're really looking forward to. Speaking of BG, uh, I will move on to them in Class D because for our radio station at WCDO, it's become D and it's become Eight Man as kind of our bread and butter over the last few years. BG, I think, surprised a lot of people last year uh with new head coach Art Regis, of course, coach has a lot of experience over the years at Oneanta and Unadilla Valley. But he took this core of a team that had kind of been searching for an identity, and they had a really nice year last year. And Connor Davy is again, I'm talking a lot about quarterbacks here, but he's an all-around guy that has an arm that I think is comparable with anybody in the area. And so he's gonna be the leader of that team. They will come and go as Connor Davy goes. So they have a great offseason program at BG, too. A lot of guys on the O line and D-line have bought in, they've been in the weight room seven on seven. Uh, and keeping it simple, I think is kind of their motto when talking to Coach Regis. Um, you know, they lost some pieces from last year, but in this division, I don't think they were thrilled to get thrown into a division with Newark Valley and with Tyoga and DH. I mean, DH is going to be tough as well. So they they certainly have their work cut out for them. Uh, but some games that we have circled on their calendar, uh the Walton game uh in early September, I think that Spencer Vanett and Kander game will be an excellent one. Uh, of course, the game with Sydney, but then a heck of a home stretch in the division down below with Deposit Hancock with Newark Valley and then Tyoba to uh to end the regular season. But BG for me is a team, if you're a Class D fan, you really got to keep an eye on them as kind of a sneaky sleeper type of team. Uh Deposit Hancock is also another team that has a tremendous quarterback. Uh Blake Fortunato, talking to their staff, I mean, they think he's one of the best guys in the section, regardless of class. And Blake is a guy that can do it in basketball. He's a guy that can do it in baseball. That's probably his main sport. Uh they've won a couple of state championships with Blake on the team. Um, so I like DH because of the off-season work that they do and the coaching staff that they have and the work that they do in the trenches. They have some guys uh very Walton-esque uh that just want to go to battle for you in the trenches. So, again, if they can stay healthy, I like the front half of their schedule. I like their schedule as a whole. Um, but they have some early games with Whitney Point and with Oxford that I think could help them to get rolling, and we'll see what DH can do. We saw a few years ago they got off to a hot start, and then Blake Fortunato got hurt against BG, and their season was not the same after that. So they need him to stay healthy. Uh, they need that line to hold up. Uh, but again, DH is a team that uh I like down the stretch in this division. Again, you got to go through Tyoga, you got to go through NV. Uh but I don't think these teams are teams you can just sleep on and walk over anymore. So, and then that gets me into the eight-man uh for that. Actually, no, I got to go back and I have to look at uh the other part of the Class D division, which will include for me, Delhi, it will include Walton, Harpersville, Afton, and Oxford. So I'll start with Del High, probably been the second, one of the best, if not the second best team in the state, in my opinion, in Class D over the last few years. A fact that I think a lot of people don't realize about Del High is that they should be returning Chuck Haight at quarterback, uh, but he has done what his older brothers have done and left Delaware Academy a year early to go to Deerfield, uh, which is a prep school in Massachusetts. So they will not have Chuck Hayde at quarterback. It's gonna hurt them uh in football, it's gonna hurt him in basketball, but it's something that the family has done. His oldest brother, Alex, uh, was on that 2020 undefeated team, and he's playing at U Penn. So this is a family that takes football very seriously. But I think they lost a lot of key pieces. Uh Del High has two guys playing at Hobart this year, uh, a guy playing at Morrisville, a guy playing at Hartwick. So these are kids that are all obviously college-ready athletes. But they just have these, I don't want to call them no-name guys, but they had these guys that have been on the bottom of the roster that have now worked their way up, and it's their time to shine. So I think there's gonna be a lot of those type of guys, I think, of the Thompson brothers who have just been, you know, throwing around the dirt the last few years, and now this is gonna be their time uh in a Delaware Academy uniform. I still think they're probably the best team that I cover in Class D. Uh, I think you have to go through Delhi if you're a local team this year uh to maybe get out of the section. So some some games that I see for them, they've challenged themselves in the non-league, too. I mean, they have Sus Valley on the schedule, and then the nitty-gritty in the middle, Tyoga, Spencer, Vanett, and Cander, Walton is a heck of a three-week stretch for them. And I know we're looking at doing uh the Spencer game and the Walton game on the radio. So that Walton Delhi rivalry goes back to the 1890s. It's it's one of our favorite rivalries that we do here on the radio. So we'll switch it over to Walton and head coach Hoover. Uh, again, just a team that has a very experienced line. They're returning a lot of guys there. The offense has a lot of experience. What Coach Hoover was telling me is it's the defense. They lost a lot of guys on D that uh brought that to the table. And when you're playing teams like Del High and Tyoga, you you're gonna need those guys to learn and step up quick. But they have a great O-line. They return their quarterback, they return two running backs who saw significant time last year. So the offense is probably gonna be fine. That ground and pound Walton style is something that I always look forward to. And I think the Oneanta and the BG games right off the bat, and then that deposit Hancock game will really show us uh what the Walton 2024 team looks like. I expect it to look like almost every other year, where we always say that their quarterback looks like a blackjack dealer. When he turns around, you don't know where that ball is going. He's just dishing it out left or right. It's honestly hard as a radio play-by-play guy. You think maybe the ball is going left and it's going right. So that's Walton in a nutshell to me, and I think we'll see a lot more of that this year. Uh, and then the last two teams in Class D that I cover, we're gonna see Oxford return from eight-man and go to eleven-man. I thought this was an interesting decision for the Blackhawks because they've invested over the last four or five years very heavily in teaching their kids about the eight-man game. And I thought maybe this was a year that they would take another step in eight-man, but the program has decided to go back to eleven. And I think they're gonna be fine, but that's gonna be a big transition, a new coach. But Oxford has such a rich tradition that they want to get back to 11 man. And so will this be a transition type of year? I'm not 100% sure what we're gonna see from them, but they have a tough schedule, but there's nothing better than a Friday night game in Oxford, in my opinion. A beautiful setting on the field. We'll be doing probably at least one or two radio games there. Uh, it's a great place with great tradition to go watch a game. I just don't know quite what to expect from Oxford. Uh, they have some great returning pieces, but I think they're even searching for that identity of we've invested so heavily in eight-man and formations, and what do we do and how do we tailor our game to that to jump back to 11? We'll see how it goes. And then Harpersville Afton, I was excited to talk to head coach uh Jason Lyons because he said, Nate, I'm excited about this team because I have no eyes on this team. Uh, this is a team of Wheeze. And this is the team that a few years ago, with a guy like Luke Merrill, um, was tremendous and was making a playoff run, and they've been searching for their identity the last few years. But uh, you know, Jaden DeLeon is a quarterback that is taking leadership for this team, and they have a good opener with C V that they feel like can be a competitive game for them. And this is a program that has just been kind of searching for a way to get a couple of wins each year and see if they could get the momentum rolling. They've had such a tough schedule. D has been so hard on them, and they've kind of been down in the valley, uh, but they're trying to work their way back up that mountain. So Jack Bryce, a D tackle, they're excited about, and Cooper Warren, a middle linebacker. So they have some new faces there uh that they're excited to work with. And then lastly, I'll finish up here, coach, with um the two teams that I cover in Eight-Man. And eight-man has just been such a bear, and just another feather in the cap of section four, with how good Moravia's been and Trumansburg and Groton. And I think those teams are going to be very good again from talking to the eight-man coaches that I connect with. I'll start with Green. And I'm pretty friendly with Dave Gorton. And for him to be this candid with me, I like on the record, was surprised. He said, This is the youngest team I've ever had since I was coaching JV. He said they have only one starter back on offense and two starters back on D. They only have two seniors. He said, We have great energy, but we're still learning the game. And so I don't I don't know how it's gonna look for Green here with such youth. Um, but Coach Gordon always seems to find a way. There's been other years where he said, Oh, I'm not sure, Nate, how we're gonna be. And they always find a way to be competitive and to give everybody a good game and to pull out some wins. Uh, Green just always seems to be a tough team. So uh we will definitely be seeing them when they take on uh Unityo, Franklin, GMU, Unidilla Valley, which is the next team and my final team. And this is kind of threw everybody for a loop that Unadilla Valley didn't have enough guys for a team, which is unfortunate, but there was a real rallying cry in the community to find those kids a home. And Unity Go is a place that they already wrestle with, that relationship is already there from winter. Uh, so they were able to move those kids over there, and they also had some kids that joined their very good boys soccer program. So I think that's something that uh was good for those kids. I I don't think it's a situation where people are just sitting at home with nothing to do, they found uh a new home. And I also know that Unitego bringing in these GMU kids, GMU merging with Unidilla Valley for Fall Sports now puts them with Unitego. I'm a GMU alum, and there's probably been about three to four generations of student athletes at GMU that wanted the opportunity to play football, and now they're gonna have it in a pretty strong setting. There's been some times where we'd send one athlete over to Oxford or something along those lines, but I know there's a lot of families in the community that I live in that are excited to have a chance to play with Coach McCrony and uh to join a program that has you know such strong roots as Unity go. He said their scrimmage with um Morrisville Eaton went very well. He said there's a lot of little things to work out, especially when you have a lot of new faces that have been coming together over the last two weeks. Uh so he goes, we're gonna try to continue to improve on that and see what happens. And I think you throw another curveball at this team, is they're not gonna have a game at Unitego until early to mid-October. They are getting, they're transitioning from grass to turf and it's not completed yet. Uh the company has said that they will uh have the field ready in early October. That game on uh October 4th, when they have their first home game against Groton, they're actually going to play that at Unadilla Valley. So it won't be until probably that game, one of those games, and and I I think they're still trying to finagle the schedule a little bit uh on the back half to maybe add another game uh so that they can play at home under the lights on the turf at Unitego. So I know that community, much like Norwich, uh, is very excited about their new turf. So, but that's you know, that's gonna be a lot of curveballs for that Unitego team, Franklin, GMU, U. I'm not exactly sure what we're going to call them yet. I I asked Coach McCroni and he said, I'm going to leave that to you, Nate. You're the media guy. So that's going to be a mouthful. But just excited to see all those kids get a chance to play over there at Unitego. So those are the teams that I cover, and we're excited to get the season going here, Coach.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Nice. A couple of things that I have on the Unitego Franklin. I thought they were going to stay with Spartans. And the other two school districts were going to just mesh into that. That's what I had heard. But also heard, too, that late in the season there, what will amount to probably be their first home game, which would have been the Unadilla Valley game. It's a team called Cat's uh Catskill Cairo Durham. It's going to be somebody that's going to plug in there. And I guess Green is also picking that same team, Catskill Cairo Durman, up for their October 4th home game at Green. So that's what I've heard. I heard that through section four. So it's probably legit. So we'll add that to everything else that you've shared with us. Again, they did a great job with everything, knocking it out of the park. The in-depth information puts us right up there with some of the well-known organizations doing what we do. So I I really appreciate that. Keep doing what you're doing up there. You're doing great things, not only just from my uh football perspective, but with your ongoing podcast and everything else you do, and you're raising a family, you're running marathons. Man, I'm not sure. I get tired thinking about all the stuff you do.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Well, it it's uh it's a passion of mine to to stay busy and uh and just I love what I do. So it feels like one of those jobs where, yeah, the day goes fast and it can be stressful, but I I also love every second of it. So that makes it fun. I'll be diving into Fall Sports head first, and I'm very lucky that I have a supportive wife and family that allow me to do all this and more, plus some running. Uh so I'm a very lucky man for sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah, definitely. I had heard Ernie Johnson, the uh the lead on the uh TNT, you know, the MBA with TNT, he had spoken to uh Nick Saban's group when Nick Saban was still coaching in Alabama, and he talked about a get-to job or a got-to job. And it sounds to me like you're on the get-to side, and that's one of the things I try to stress with the the student athletes. Don't don't waste any moments and be you know, be appreciative that you have an opportunity and you get to do this as opposed to you've got to do this. Big difference. So thanks again, Nate, and uh you take care. We'll be talking, we'll have other conversations.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yes, thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

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