Local sports coverage seems to be lacking

As I’m reading of the Adirondack Thunder’s continuing climb through the East Coast Hockey League playoffs, it struck me that The Record hadn’t covered the team much, if at all, until the Kelly Cup playoffs began. I would imagine the Saratogian had been covering them all season, but one other thing bothered me. And that was the complete, outright ignorance of the Albany Patroons’ run in the North American Premier Basketball League. They fell short of the title, losing the championship series, 2- 0, to Yakima, another Continental Basketball Association alumnus, but where was The Record? No game results of any kind. At all. I get the lack of resources, but this was just ridiculous. A competitor re- ported a couple of weeks back that one of the partners in Patroons management doesn’t believe the team will return in 2019 due to lack of attendance. Well, Albany’s more of a college and high school hoops town now, and was 10-12 years ago when the Patroons made their previous comeback. Moving out of the ancient, acoustically challenged Washington Avenue Armory, which doesn’t have the nostal- gia- driven magic anymore, and into the newer Capital Center should’ve been an option, but team management didn’t see it. Their loss. I also had to find out from a competitor that two of the city’s high schools, Troy and LaSalle, are moving to Class A for football, basketball, etc., this fall. While I realize The Record is prohibited from doing interviews with Troy players and coaches, an issue that should’ve been resolved months ago, this was a big story for alumni and fans of both schools. Troy won’t be able to threepeat as AA football champions, but a Class A state title is still within reach. LaSalle will be better on the gridiron this year with former Union coach John Audino as their new coach, and that alone should and would make another Collar City Cup meeting between the two schools more exciting this time. Jacob Gilbert Troy Editor’s note: The Record has reached out to the Troy City School District in an attempt to address the ban administrators placed on Troy high players and coaches when it comes to giving interviews to the newspaper, but the superintendent refused to budge.