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Friday, March 14, 2008March 14 2008Winning Tradition Ends, Winning Tradition Starts Lady Redskins To Play In State Championship By SARAH STEWART & JIM KEVLINCOOPERSTOWN Ladies, go to your corners and come out swinging. It’s a mixed metaphor, certainly, but this is it for the 2007-08 CCS Lady Redskins Basketball team, the Moment of Truth, the Big Tamale or, simply, the Class C State Final Four this weekend at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. It’s the first time in school history the team has made it this far. At 12:30 p.m. Saturday, March 15, the 25-0 undefeated CCS team will meet Haldane, a 20-4 powerhouse from Cold Spring, across the Hudson River from West Point. The winner of that game will play the winner of the other Saturday semi-final – Madrid-Waddington from St. Lawrence County or Avon, south of Rochester – at 1:45 p.m. Sunday. The girls won a berth in the final tournament in a 39-37 overtime heart-stopper Saturday, March 8, at Cicero North Syracuse. Tioga tied with two foul shots with 20 seconds left in regulation time, 35-35. In the four-minute overtime, two baskets by 6-foot Jen Wehner put Cooperstown ahead; she had 17 points, 17 rebounds overall. The final action of the game was a clean block by 6-foot-3 Sam Fox. The resounding thwack echoed around the gym, and moments later the packed Cooperstown stands exploded with clapping, cheering, jumping fans. On Monday afternoon, March 10, Coach Mike Niles and the team watched a game tape of Haldane beating East Rockaway on Friday, March 7, at St. John’s Community College, Long Island. Coach wanted the girls to study the Haldane players. During the hour-long screening the girls chatted, laughed and talked about the upcoming weekend. They also characterized the players of the Haldane team – scary, huge, slow – all the while counting shots and rebounds, blocks and three-point attempts, sizing up the competition and planning their foray to the Cheesecake Factory. It was patently clear that these talented athletes are equally focused team members as they are giddy teenagers, thrilled by the prospective giant sleepover. Serious, some stoic even, then giggling, running on anticipation and adrenaline. The hour went by quickly. Coach summed it up. He talked about confidence and control vs. complacency. They must gain some humility, keep this weekend in perspective and think only of going 2-0, forget 25-0. Just 2-0. He reminded this brilliant team that their season already was one for the record books, but if they buckle down, forget the press, keep their cool heads, they could go down in school history. Coach went over the schedule, what they should expect after check-in, and, no, he didn’t know if the hotel has a pool. The Cheesecake Factory was a possibility, but no promises. The girls wanted to know if the rooms are attached and one girl hopes her roommates won’t mind that she takes really long showers. Yes, they are allowed to bring Guitar Hero. No, no hot tub. Lights out at eleven o’clock. The team knows what it’s up against, Coach knows what he has to do. Team mates, friends, daughters, classmates, sisters, you’ve made it to the dance. Now, focus on your team, get some sleep and enjoy the ride. You will never forget this and neither will we. HoF Game Fans Wait All Night In Downpour By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN It was a rainy Friday night, March 7, but a half-dozen folding chairs were already stacked by the iron fence on the Main Street side of Cooper Park. Standing next to them, crouched under golf umbrellas, were hard-core Hall of Fame Game fans Bryan Coones of Richfield Springs and Dan Maglione of Wall, N.J. Bryan was Number 5. Dan was Number 7. Numbers 1 and 2 – Joe Tartaglia and his wife, Donna, of Milford, Mass. – had set up their folding chairs at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon. As they have been the past three years, they wanted to be the first to buy tickets to what may be the most historic HoF Game of all – after 69 years, the final one. The last in a tradition that dates back to 1940, the year after the Hall of Fame opened, is scheduled between the San Diego Padres and the Chicago Cubs for 1 p.m. Monday, June 16, at Doubleday Field. Bryan and Dan took a photographer over to a nearby idling car, its windows all steamed up. The Tartaglias were inside, listening to the radio, taking a break while Coones and Maglione held their spaces. Numbers 3 and 4 were the Tartaglias’ son, Brandon, and his wife Monica, of Mendon, Mass. Number 6 was Bryan’s son, also Brandon. It rained hard all night long. The next morning, the waiting fans had been allowed all the way up to the front door of the HoF Library, to the west of the James Fenimore Cooper statue. And there were the Tartaglias, Coones and Dan Maglione, cheerful as could be, despite spending all night outdoors. And despite the fact that the Tartaglias and Coones are Red Sox fans; Maglione, a Yankees fan, and thus naturally should have fallen into warring camps. By this time, the 400-fan queue stretched all the way out the front gate and east on Main Street past the Leatherstocking Corp. headquarters. Kristian Connelly, the Cooperstown native who’s spearheaded savethefamegame.org from his home in Washington, D.C., was there with friends, getting signatures on a petition he hopes will break MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s resolve to end the game once and for all. HoF President Dale Petroskey is promising a muscular alternative, still to be announced. For the historical record, let’s round out the Top 10 roster. Number 8 that morning was Brad Annis, who had driven in from South Bend, Ind.; a Cubs fan, he didn’t want to miss the historic event. Number 9 was John Nink, a Mets fan from Schenectady, and Number 10, Tim Eisanman, a Cubs fan from Rochester. After 9, the queue was allowed out of the rain and into the Library, and it snaked through the Hall of Plaques to the ticket booths in the front lobby. Shortly before 10 a.m., HoF personnel put wristbands on the first 400 people in line, estimating only those would make it to the counter before the tickets were sold out. And by 2 p.m., it happened: The HoF declared a sellout. The rest of the 9,571 seats are reserved for HoF members. On game day, the HoF Game parade will begin at noon. Bands will play. The teams will be transported to the field in trolleys. At 1 p.m. is the Home Run Derby, featuring three contestants each from the Cubs and the Padres. After the game, kids under 12 will be invited to run the bases. By the way, the Tartaglias were first in line, but the first two tickets to the last game were actually sold to the Coones’ father and son, who made up their minds more quickly at the second ticket booth. Seven $1/2 Million Homes Proposed Between Chestnut, Pine COOPERSTOWN Now, there’s an abandoned auto agency, an “exceedingly narrow” village right of way and a scrubby copse of trees between Chestnut Street and Pine Boulevard, an otherwise manicured village neighborhood. In the future, all that may be replaced by seven stand-alone homes, examples of the “New Urbanism” movement pioneered by Duany Plater-Zyberk, the innovative urban planning firm. The 2-3 bedroom homes would have 1,800-1,900 square feet of space, on 5,000-square-foot lots. Except for a few setback adjustments, the homes are permitted in the area’s R-2 zoning, Ned Walker, a site planner for JGB Properties, Richfield Springs, told the village Planning Board Tuesday, March 11. Walker was accompanied by JGB director Marty Dowd, director of construction Dan Regan, and Cooperstown architect Susan Snell. Snell showed plans of what the homes would look like, with high gables and fish-scale shingling on the side. Each would have a garage, but it would be set back again st the side of the homes, so as not to a dominant part of the view. The plan depends on the demolition of the former car dealership, Smith Ford Cooperstown’s original building when it opened for business locally in 1957. Since Smith Ford moved to a new location on Route 28 south, the building has been a museum and, most recently, an A.G. Edwards & Son brokerage. It has been vacant for several years. Walker told the board JGB’s plans would require the demolition of a building and a house on the property, and Planning Board acting chairman Charles Hill advised him a six-month moratorium on demolitions is in place until mid-summer while new regulations government razings in the village are developed. “We’re not in the big hurry,” Walker replied. “We see this as an opportunity to do something rather unique.” New Urbanism is defined as “Giving people many choices for living in sustainable, convenient and enjoyable places, while providing the solutions to global warming, climate change, and peak oil.” Also at the meeting, the Planning Board accepted additional data from developer Joe Galati, who has offered a variety of plans – housing, a motel, a nursing home – in the railroad right of way between Grove and Chestnut streets. It also passed a resolution asking the village board to consider rezoning that commercial zone as a CDD – a coordinated development district – regardless of whether or not Galati’s plans are found satisfactory or not. Labels: Archives
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