High risk delivered high rewards
> James Allen says winter season was rewarding, and well worth wait.
Wondering whether or not there would be a winter season for sports deemed high risk by the New York State Department of Health was a question seemingly without a clear answer for months. The coronavirus pandemic has altered the scholastic sports landscape for more than one year now.
Ultimately, there were abbreviated seasons for basketball and hockey along with a few matches for wrestlers. The competition allowed to take place proved to be high quality considering all the obstacles involved. The not knowing part prior to landing approval to compete resulted in some top basketball players leaving the area. Monday, Riley Mulvey decided to play his college basketball for coach Fran Mccaffery at Iowa.
Mulvey made the difficult choice to leave Albany Academy and play this season at St. Thomas More Prep. The 6-foor-11 standout selected Iowa over Virginia Tech and Syracuse.
“I think the relationship I have developed over the years with (Mccaffery) is strong,” Mulvey said of the former Siena coach.“we talked every week for almost two years. I feel like building that relationship is one of the main reasons why I am going there.”
Mulvey expects to play both at power forward and center for the Hawkeyes. He still has one year to compete at St. Thomas More before beginning college in 2022.
“I think coming here was the best decision for my improvement,” Mulvey said. “The players here are just physically stronger than who I would have played against (at Academy). Playing stronger people is something I needed to do because the Big Ten is very physical. It has helped tremendously with my growth.”
There’s no sectionals or state playoffs for athletes in Section II to look forward to this winter. Many basketball teams managed to play at least 10 games. The Suburban Council was the lone league to conduct seasonending tournaments. In both events, Shenendehowa emerged as champions to culminate 15-0 seasons.
Each squad made the best of a difficult season and excelled under unusual circumstances.
“I would say it was terrifically exhausting,” said Tony Dzikas, who Monday stepped aside from running the Shen boys’ basketball program after 16 years. “Any time you wanted to complain, you reminded yourself how lucky you were. I had the right guys and the right team for this type of situation. On a different night, different guys would step up and they loved playing with each other.”
The Shen girls’ program won backto-back sectional titles in 2019 and 2020, and had legitimate state title aspirations had a full season’s slate been available.
“It was bittersweet for me. The last few weeks, having something that was known (with the Suburban Council Tournament) made things better for us,” Shenendehowa senior standout Rylee Carpenter said. “Obviously, I have been in this program a while. It is sad to see it end, but also exciting to win a championship. I think we ended on a high note and a good way to go out for our season.”
Asked how she felt seconds after the Plainsmen defeated Saratoga 75-37 to clinch the league championship, Shen senior shooting guard Meghan Huerter said, “It was kind of a flashback of getting called up in eighth grade and my years playing for Shen: all the mistakes I made leading up to this game. I looked back to the player I was and the player I became. I was amazed to have the career I did in a Shen uniform and was happy to do it for coach (Joe) Murphy.”
Many of the area’s elite basketball programs stayed strong. Both the Albany Academy and Mekeel Christian Academy boys’ teams went undefeated. Mechanicville was 13-1.
Perhaps the team that had the most taken away since last March was the Cambridge girls’ basketball team. The Indians captured the 2019 Class C state title and were ranked No. 1 when the 2019-20 season concluded at the state quarterfinal stage.
“It is a big deal, but they don’t make a big deal about it,” Cambridge coach Bob Phillips said.