|
Friday, March 21, 2008March 21 2008#1 Lady Redskins First In Hearts Of CCS’ Fans  By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN At the end of every game, Coach Mike Niles planned to hand out one of those Atomic Fireballs to the CCS Lady Redskin who had made the best play on the hardwood that evening. Problem was, he couldn’t find any store that carried the red-hot candies. That’s why the girls – some tearful, some bravely holding back – spent so long in the locker room at the Hudson Valley Community College gym in Troy after the March 15 Class C state semifinals, while fans waited outside to comfort them. Six-foot-3 center Sam Fox had found a cache of Atomic Fireballs, and the coach was making good on his promise. Fox and Jen Wehner, the 6-foot forward, each got a Fireball for their OT performances in the Class C regional against Tioga the Saturday before. Sam blocked a key Tioga shot with a resounding thwack. Jen scored the point that put the Lady Redskins over the top. Guard Katie Cring got one for the 17 points she scored in the second half against Milford after “The Bigs” got into foul trouble. Guard Jen Potrikus got one for the last-second, three-point “dagger” she put into Beaver River to win the Class C sectional crown that snowy March 1 at Onondaga County Community College. Guard Ashley Rowley got one for the key 3-for-5 foul shots she made in the final minutes the week before over Little Falls, at that time considered the key obstacle to the girls going any further. It went on and on. Yes, it was quite a run for the Lady Redskins: 25 wins before that one loss to Haldane at HVCC; Haldane went on to beat Madrid-Waddington for the state Class C crown the following day. And it was quite a first season for Mike Niles, who was drafted at the last minute to coach the team when long-time coach Frank Miosek decided not to continue. “We found out pretty early,” the coach said, “a lot of teams were going to try to take Sam and Jen away.” Cring was the Number 3 scorer, but “I really thought that the thing that would make us go was all the soccer players” – the Rowley sisters, Abbie Hull, Lindsay Valentine and Jenny Potrikus. So that was the goal, to get speedy guards shooting and supplementing the Big Two. (It turned out later in the season they only had to hit the rim; Jen and Sam controlled the boards and would score off rebounds.) It was the first quarter of the Davenport Tournament when “we got our legs under us,” Niles recounted the other day during an interview in his office at CCS. The Redskins were 19-2 at the end of the first quarter, and Jen and Sam had only scored a bucket apiece; 15 points came from the guards. The girls overcame Waterville’s full-court press. Sherburne, another league power house, went down. They were on their way. Through all this, Niles wasn’t alone. Wife Monica was at all the final games, along with son Ethan, 9, a third-grader at Oneonta’s Center Street School, and daughter Megan, who became something of a team mascot. Mom Fran came along too. Niles is a Queens native who was raised on Long Island until fourth grade, when his family moved to Otego. He went to Unadilla Elementary School, then Unatego High School – “where I was a very average high school player” – and SUNY Cortland – “where I was a very average intramural player.” After a couple of years at the Clark Sports Center and a long-term substitute gig in the CCS district, he started teaching at Unadilla Elementary and found himself coaching the boys varsity basketball team at Unatego. (One of his sisters, Kelli Hafele – they have two older half-sisters and a half-brother – coached varsity girls volleyball there.) “It was a very steep learning curve,” Niles recalled, but he did take his team deep into the regionals in his third year. Fourteenth-seeded Unatego made it to the semis against higher-ranked teams. Back at CCS, he coached modified and JV boys basketball before the girls JV opportunity arose. Sure, it would have been nice to win that final game – more than 600 CCS fans, many in orange and black, rocked the rafters with their cheers – but it was clearly Haldane’s year. Even Wehner’s 18 points couldn’t blunt Haldane’s offensive from the outside that led to a 63-39 final. Already, though, Coach Niles is looking to next year. Tuesday, March 18, after meeting with the whole team, he spent some time with just the juniors. Sure, with Brittany Shields’ 21 points, many 3-pointers from the outside – no one had seen anything quite like Haldane’s Brittany this season – the outcome was inevitable. But Madrid-Waddington and Avon, who rounded out the final four – they were beatable, Niles told the girls. “They looked like Sherburne,” he said. “They looked like Waterville.” With the talent coming up – the two Rowleys, 6-foot Emily Davidson, Molly Pearlman, Lauren Harris, Natalie Wrubleski – there’s no reason “we can’t get deep into the sectionals.” The key, said Niles, is to take it one game at a time. Meanwhile, there’s basketball to be played and enjoyed, and good basketball, the coach said. Richfield Springs boys got into the sectionals, and Davenport, and CV-S girls. Coming up, “a really good season for basketball in this section.” You heard it first from a guy who ought to know. Weiller, Katz Elected Trustee By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN The old guard didn’t sweep. Nor did the young Turks. Downtown merchant and paid-parking questioner Neil Weiller, representing the former, was the top vote-getter in the race for two open trustee seats in Cooperstown village elections Tuesday, March 18, with 311 votes, (249 on the Republican line and 62 as an independent.) Incumbent Jeff Katz, representing the latter, came in 28 votes behind with 283 on the Democrat line. He is a former floor trader on the Chicago exchange, now a published baseball writer. Third was Republican Doug Walker with 259. And newcomer Jim Vrooman, the second Democrat, had 202. Both men operate B&Bs, Walker after a long career as proprietor of downtown businesses. Vrooman moved here from New Hampshire two years ago. "Lines of communications have opened," Weiller said the next morning. "And we need to keep them open and encourage it." "The was an equal feeling in the village for change," said Katz, "as well as having an older established group as well." Both men expressed the need to reach out to everyone. Republican Mayor Carol B. Waller, who was running unopposed for a fourth term and garnered 375 votes, was already looking ahead the next afternoon, interviewed shortly after emerging from the final buget session of the trustees’ Finance Committee. The 2008-09 budget became available for viewing Thursday, March 20, at the village clerk’s office. For the first time in six years as mayor, Waller said, cuts were imposed on the fire department, the ambulance squad – six stretchers were ordered instead of eight – and the library, where the book budget was reduced. An immediate challenge facing the new board, the mayor said, will be bonding for $2 million to upgrade infrastructure – water lines, sewerage, roads and sidewalks – in the Irish Hill section at the west end of Main Street. Also in the past few days, Otsego County government informed the village its workers’ compensation costs will go up $82,000 – from $50,000 – next year, virtually erasing the $100,000 special allocation the county board has promised Cooperstown. The 505 votes in Tuesday’s election – there are 1,200 voters in the village – was considered high, but was not a record. Two of the six village trustees are elected to three-year terms every year. Next year, Democratic incumbents Grace Kull and Milo V. Stewart, Jr., are up for reelection. Chamber Refocuses On The Bottom Line Snowfest, ‘Men In Black’ Unprofitable, Go COOPERSTOWN The annual Snow Fest? Out. The “Men in Black” holiday fashion show? Out. Holly Dollars? Out. The Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce board of directors has sent a letter to members saying that, from now on, Chamber-sponsored events don’t have to make money, but they have to run pretty close to break-even. “Simply put,” stated the letter over President Marc Kingsley’s signature, “the Chamber will no longer sponsor events that: “1. Cannot be supported by raising sponsorship and/or participation revenues equal to or greater than expenses – OR – 2. Do not have sufficient volunteer support to provide clear and significant benefits to the Chamber, its members, or the community at large.” The letter spells out an approach that has become evident in the year since a significant changing of the Chamber guard. On March 1, 2007, John Bullis, retired Herkimer County Community College dean, replaced nine-year Chamber executive Polly Renckens. At about the same time, Rick Gibbons, owner of Riverwood, the Main Street gift store, completed his two-year term as president and, as called for in the bylaws, was succeeded by his vice president, Kingsley, proprietor of The Inn at Cooperstown. Kingsley’s letter confirmed that, except for those two events and Holly Dollars, the commitment to 11 other programs continues, including the PumpkinFest, the Christmas Stroll and the Cooperstown Memorial Day Community Yard Sale. Also preserved is the annual Chamber Golf Tournament, which Bullis has said is the Chamber’s only significant money-maker. The letter was sent out Wednesday, March 12. In an interview the next day, Kingsley said he had only heard from one or two members and, “It’s been positive.” The Chamber’s finances are not in dire straits, he said, but the organization has to show the same prudence as any business. “We could be financially strapped,” he said. “And that’s not where we want to go with this.” Parking Devices Ordered For Doubleday Field Lot Pilot Project Experiments With New Revenue Source  The meters are coming, the meters are coming! Two $9,759 solar-powered Guardian Multi machines, $19,518 in all, are to be ordered after the village trustees Monday, March 15, approved the bid submitted by MacKay Meters of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. The vote was 5-1, with Trustee Milo V. Stewart Jr. voting nay. The trustees also passed a law that allows people who work downtown to buy a $10 permit to park in the lot now used by tour buses next to the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce. Tour buses will have to park in one of the three lots on the village periphery. The hope was to have the so-called Pay & Display machines in place in the Doubleday Field parking lot by June 1, but Trustee Paul Kuhn, chairman of the Police Committee, said it may be too late for that. If the P&Ds don’t arrive in time, the plan is to put out a cash box and operate on the honor system, Kuhn said, the way parking entrepreneur Vinnie Russo does in his lot fronting on Chestnut Street. The P&D machines will require people who park in the Doubleday lot to buy time at a rate of $2 an hour, using either coins or cash, then put the receipt on the dash board to avoid getting a ticket. The machines can be upgraded to accept credit cards too, but it was unclear – lacking village-wide WiFi service – if that could be done in Cooperstown. The trustees expressed the view that, if it can be done dependably, that service should be available from the outset. The machines are 6-foot tall, 17-inches wide and 11.6 inches deep. The cash box can handle up to $700 in quarters. There is a service contract that allows company technicians to advise people on the scene on repairs, if necessary. Village Clerk Teri Barown said she’d talked to folks in Colorado Springs earlier in the day, where the machines have been in use for 18 months, and they’ve received “excellent service over the phone.” Labels: Archives
Subscribe to Posts [Atom] |
|
 |
