7 Port Chester teams start practice Monday
August 16, 2023 at 9:58 p.m.
No runs, no hits, no errors, no Ws or Ls, all adding up to the fact that there are no high school sports going on these days. At least not yet. But almost. It will soon be start up time for local high school sports.
"All fall sports in Section One and New York State officially begin on Aug. 21," according to James Ryan, Director of Physical Education, Health and Athletics for the Port Chester School District.
That means the first official practices start Monday at the high school.
Vie for playing time
In Port Chester that means an estimated 500 student-athletes will be trying out for playing time in seven varsity sports—football, Rams and Lady Rams soccer and cross-country and Lady Rams volleyball, swimming and tennis.
And that, in turn, means the various teams will have about two weeks to get ready for the start of the regular fall sports season.
Each team will have a different starting date when the games officially begin.
Lady Rams soccer, for example, kicks off first with an away game Aug. 29 (a Tuesday) against Harrison at 4:30 p.m.
The soccer Rams are up the next day with a scrimmage away against Nyack Aug. 30 at 4:30 p.m. And the football Rams open against Tuckahoe with the first home game of the season Sept. 2 (a Saturday) at 1:30 p.m. at the high school.
Sked tells the story
All the teams’ schedules are different.
And each team's schedule tells its own story.
Each story gives its own insights into what a season it will be because, whatever team it is, starting with Port Chester's Big 3 (football and Rams and Lady Rams soccer), each varsity team will have to hurry up to get ready with the official regular fall season start up dates coming up almost before they know it.
And the curtain will go up on a new season ready or not.
Showtime in the annual cyclical world of high school sports means there will be a new cast of players in starring and lesser roles on the local stages that are the high school playing fields.
The individual challenges
So now is the time when area coaches are trying to anticipate who their best of the best will be before cutting rosters down to size for the let go time that comes before the get go.
Each team will have its own individual challenges.
Consider, for example, the Port Chester football Rams.
Head coach Chris Halstead's Rams will start practice with plenty of sweat equity during drills run with helmets on but without any physical contact or any protective equipment for the first two days. That allows time for team familiarization with what Halstead expects from his players—all out effort whatever they are doing, from runs to passes to kickoff returns, calisthenics to how to line up on O and D during shifts on offense and defense. On day three, the shoulder pads go on along with the helmets and the team can start hitting blocking dummies and pushing training sleds. After five days of conditioning and drills, the team can begin blocking and tackling with contact allowed.
Returning grid quartet
That's when Halstead can begin to see who his real football players are. He has a pretty good idea of who will be coming back. That includes a potential starting backfield that revolves around John (Johnny D) DelCid, John Pauletti and Marc Dorsainvil. He also knows who he has to replace starting with his graduated All-Star quarterback Colin Taylor. What Halstead doesn't know yet is what kind of starting lineup he will be able to fashion out of the approximately 30 candidates trying out to make the varsity.
But he will have to find out quickly because the games will come fast and furious with three more home games following the Tuckahoe opener: Walter Panas Sept. 8 (a Friday night game) at 6:30 p.m.; Sept. 14 (a Thursday) against Briarcliff-Hamilton at 4 p.m., and Sept. 22 (a Saturday) at 1:30 p.m. Next comes three consecutive away games in Rockland County: Spring Valley (9/29, a Friday, at 6 p.m.); Ramapo (10/7, a Saturday, at 3 p.m.) and Tappan Zee (Friday, 10/13, at 6:30 p.m.). The regular season finale is at home Oct. 21, a Saturday, against Poughkeepsie at 1:30 p.m.
John Delcid will likely join John Pauletti as a member of the starting backfield for the football Rams this season.File Photo
The missing names
The names on the schedule tell you something about the football Rams as do the names that aren't there. Because the schedule shows that the Rams, a Class double A large school that finished with a 4-4 record last year, are once again playing a developmental league schedule. This year 's schedule includes for the first time perennial small school powerhouse Tuckahoe (a Class D team that was 9-1 last year); Poughkeepsie (0-7), Panas (6-2) and Tappan Zee (5-5), all three Class A; Briarcliff-Hamilton (2-7, Class B) with Spring Valley (6-3) and Ramapo (2-7) the only double A large schools. Those different letters (AA, A, B, D) indicate school population size on a decreasing scale. And playing in a developmental league indicates a struggling program that is trying to get better by playing teams with a similar talent base.
That also means Port Chester won't be competing against such once traditional AA rivals as Mamaroneck (9-1 with that rivalry going back to the 1920s, meaning it is one of the oldest rivalries in Westchester, right up there with Rye/Harrison and Iona Prep/Stepinac), White Plains (3-6), Scarsdale (4-5) and Carmel (10-1) or even such lesser AA schools as Mount Vernon (4-6), the Yonkers Brave (0-9) and the Yonkers Force (3-7). Also gone from the Rams’ once-upon-a-time AA schedule: Ossining (4-5), North Rockland (5-5) and such other large AA schools as Arlington (6-4) and John Jay-East Fishkill (6-2).
The different leagues
The important thing to note is that the Rams won't be eligible for the traditional Section 1 playoffs that start Nov. 10 in Arlington. Instead the football Rams will be playing competitive football against teams in a similar rebuilding mode in an independent league that will have their own playoffs starting in November as well.
But the soccer Rams and Lady Rams, coached by John Cafaldo and Danny Alvarado, respectively, will still be going up against the best of the AA best because Port Chester's large Latino population makes soccer (or futbol/football as soccer is called internationally) the school's number one sport.
If form holds true, Cafaldo will probably have close to 100 players trying out while Alvarado usually draws about 40 candidates. Both will have to replace such graduated All-League players as Alec Pineda and Ty Oshiro for the Rams and Lady Rams Ariana Da Silva and Yelanni Diaz, all of whom will be going on to play college ball.
The sked ahead
The soccer Rams will play their first regular season game Sept. 5, a Tuesday, at home against Spring Valley at 4:45 p.m. in a non-league conference game. The Lady Rams have a home game against Brewster Sept. 2, a Saturday, at 9:30 a.m. And so it goes up and down the schedule as all the Port Chester teams and their coaches get ready and set to go. The coaches include longtime Port Chester language teacher Cindy Martinez, still the Lady Rams’ school record holder for the mile (5 minutes flat). The ex-Lady Ram distance running great returns as head coach of the cross country team which opens its season Sept. 5 in a multiple school meet at Croton Point Park at 4:30 p.m.
New volleyball coach Stephanie Costabile, a teacher in the Port Chester School District as well as a former collegiate VB player and travel team coach, debuts with her team opening its season Sept. 6, a Thursday, with a home game against Roy C. Ketcham at 5 p.m. Veteran Lady Ram head coaches Manny Martinez and Colleen Cahill will coach the tennis and swim teams respectively. Their seasons officially begin on different dates: Sept. 8, a Friday, away against Valhalla at 4:30 p.m. for tennis while the swimmers make their first fall season splash Sept. 11, a Monday, at 5 p.m. at home at the Carver Center against Brewster.
All of which is to say a lot is going to be happening leading up to the start of the fall scholastic sports season. It is almost time to say let the games officially begin. But first comes the start of official practice Monday. The Rams and Lady Rams can't wait to see what comes next.
Comments:
You must login to comment.