Bears look to add final piece to historic season
ALBANY — Five years ago, the Albany Academy for Girls’ basketball team did not win a game. The Bears remained at the bottom of the Colonial Council standings the following season. When Bryan Capitula arrived to take over the program as head coach for the Covid-altered 2020-21 season, AAG had no discernible level of success as a varsity team since the program began.
That has all changed. This season, the Bears won the Colonial Council title for the first time. The team earned the No. 1 seed for the Class B sectional tournament and proceeded to capture the program’s first sectional championship with a 64-36 victory over Catskill. Naturally, the Bears’ state quarterfinal win to secure a regional title with a 62-37 decision over Saranac was also a first.
“I think it is a huge honor that the program has come this far. We have grinded out that success,” said senior guard Saige Randolph, who began her varsity career at the bottom of the league standings as a freshman. “Not that we are so much better than other teams. We have busted our butts to be in this position. Winning the regional title was a huge honor.” Capitula’s charges have set records for wins in back-toback seasons and enter Friday’s state semifinal game with a 24-1 record and ranked No. 2 in the state. The Bears will face top-ranked Putnam Valley (25-1), the champion from Section I, at Hudson Valley Community College with an 11:45 a.m. scheduled tip.
“I don’t think they realize where they are at this point,” Capitula said. “They know they are in the state semifinals, but we’ve never been here before. They don’t know how to feel, which I think sometimes is good.”
Everything the Bears do Friday, and potentially Saturday, is history-making for a program that had never won more than 16 games prior to the 2021-22 season. As often is the case when a private school finds success competing as a member of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, some people feel it is unfair private schools — which make up more than 10 percent of the NYSPHSAA membership — compete against public schools.
Section II has put in stringent transfer rules that don’t allow students to simply bounce from school to school and Capitula pointed out tuition at AAG is $23,000 per year.
“We have worked so hard to get to this point. It just feels normal,” said Randolph, who leads the Bears in scoring (15.2 points per game), rebounds (9.0) and field-goal percentage (54.1 percent) playing 22 minutes per game.
Capitula, who began coaching basketball in 2009 and worked his way up as both as an AAU and modified coach before becoming an assistant at Mohonasen prior to taking the position at AAG, inherited a program lacking an identity. He established one, and tweaked it for the better this season.
“We were looking to play fast and shoot a lot of 3s. That’s what we did the first couple of years,” Capitula said. “This year was a little different. We wanted to play an uptempo style. Our deficiency was defense, so that was something we wanted to improve upon. We knew we had offense with the players we have. We needed to be better on defense in order to take the next step. That’s what we’ve been working on.
“The natural progression for us is everyone cared about winning and did not care who was scoring the points as long as the team won. That is hard to find, kids giving up personal goals.”
“I definitely think coach ‘Cap’ has had a huge impact, but also coach (Colleen Organ) Guse and coach (Gerald Vien) too,” Randolph said. “They really push us in practice. Practices are brutal because we go at each other so hard. They have faith in us and their positive words push us.”
The student bodies from both Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls will be attending the game on Friday against Putnam Valley.
Randolph, forward Stylianna Mantzouris (7.3 ppg) and point guard Erin Huban (5.9 ppg) are the team’s seniors and all start. Junior forward Bella Vincent, who ranks second on the team in scoring (11.1 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg), is the only other upperclassmen on the roster.
“We have five kids that can shoot the ball from the 3-point line,” Capitula said. “The senior trust for us is there, trusting ninth and 10th graders will pass the ball.”
“Having that connection off the court helps us on the court,” Randolph said.