Well, they finally had round 1 of the annual Battle of the Cadets between LaSalle & Albany Academy Tuesday afternoon at Geer Field. Unlike last year, this was a one-sided affair, with the defending Section 2 Class B champs blowing out LaSalle, 19-0, to take their Colonial Council record to 8-0.
For LaSalle coach Jesse Braverman, the roller coaster of a 4 game homestand at 2 venues (Bruno Stadium and Geer Field) ended with a 2-2 ledger, the last three games, all at Geer, ending up one sided, one way or the other. LaSalle had similarly blown out Cobleskill-Richmondville, 15-1, on Monday, but all the momentum from that game was wiped away, thanks to the runaway train of Dave Rider's Albany Academy Cadets. The two teams will meet again next week, this time in Colonie on Academy's home field.
However, there is no rest for the weary. LaSalle has today off, and will start another string of three games in as many days Thursday (weather permitting) at Schalmont before returning home to play Voorheesville on Friday, and at South Glens Falls on Saturday. Academy returns home today to entertain Cohoes, then returns to Lansingburgh to play Catholic Central on Friday. In LaSalle's case, once business is concluded (we think) on Saturday, assuming all the games are played, they will have had 8 games in the space of 11 days.
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As of press time, Tuesday's Troy-Colonie lacrosse game had not been reported, but I wouldn't put it past El Cheapo Press to have something within the next couple of days. Their roundups appear 3-4 times a week, and there are never any guarantees due to their lack of resources.
Similarly, Troy softball's trip to Whitesboro on Saturday has gone unreported, but the girls came home on Monday and dropped a decision to Colonie, dropping them to 1-5 in the Suburban Council. The baseball game between Troy & Colonie was not reported as yet, as there was no box score on the game in Tuesday's Albany Times-Union. El Cheapo Press confirmed our suspicions about Friday's baseball tilt at Columbia, won by the Blue Devils, 6-5. That leaves the boys also at 1-5 in league play, pending Monday's result. The teams are scheduled to be at Shenendehowa later today (weather permitting), with a lacrosse match scheduled for tomorrow night.
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This latest round of "unsettled" weather reminds us again that starting the season in the first week of April is not a good idea. As teams have to scramble to reschedule games before sectional play begins in late May, Section 2 needs to realize that a 6-week, 3-games-a-week schedule will always have hazards of this nature.
Here's my idea.
I'd push back the start of the season about 2 weeks to the 3rd week in April, when temperatures won't revert to winter numbers, and schedule 4 games a week, with one game on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon as an early afternoon matinee for families.
Weekday games would still start at 4:15, except during Easter week, when they're moved to lunch time (noon) due to students being on vacation. Weekend games would start at 11 or noon. If games have to be made up, and we saw this happen during Easter week two years ago, some teams could find themselves traveling on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon instead of having to scramble to get to the next game on a weekday.
Part of the problem rests with Section 2's baseball committee. For them, and for school officials who for now can't afford the amenities that some teams (i.e. Troy) need, like lights and scoreboards, we offer a little ditty from John Mayer, circa 2006. Here's "Waiting on The World to Change":
Roughly translated for Section 2, it's past time to wake up to reality.
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