SEEKS BETTER FUTURE
Mackissock, teammates give pitch for turf field while working to help Dutchmen repeat
Mitch Mackissock and his Guilderland High School varsity football teammates give their pitch for a turf field for future players.
Attending Guilderland High and playing on the Dutchmen athletic teams is a source of pride for Mitch Mackissock, a three-sport athlete getting ready to compete on the varsity football, basketball, and lacrosse teams for the third time in the upcoming school year.
Mackissock’s involvement with his teams doesn’t stop at the athletic field as he spent time this summer working on behalf of the entire Dutchmen athletic program, addressing the Guilderland School Board in late July along with teammates Devon Mcclaine and Marcus Mcclaine in an effort to approve a new turf field for future Dutchmen.
“I went and talked there with Devon and Marcus Mcclaine,” Mackissock said. “We talked about the possibility of the turf field for the senior class of 2023. It was originally in the budget, then it got taken out, but we pushed for it, had a lot of people talking about it, and from what I heard, it may get put back in for a vote in the fall.”
The fact that Mackissock’s playing days will be behind him did not matter in the effort, one with a push to leave the school and future students in better shape than they were before this senior class arrived.
“I’ve gotten to play on plenty of turf fields, it is a much better experience,” Mackissock said. “All my teammates that I’m playing with now deserve a chance to play on it, my little sister who is going to come through and be a lacrosse player, she deserves that. It will be good
to come back and say, ‘Hey, I was a part of this.’ It is important, my mom’s side of the family all went through Guilderland. I had two older cousins that were multi-sport athletes play here, they made their mark, I want to follow in that and leave a mark.”
The school board voted unanimously to add the turf field to a capital projects proposal on Aug. 10 and it goes to a public vote on Oct. 7.
Following his junior year, featuring Section II titles in football and lacrosse, Mackissock had some family time with trips to New Hampshire and Lake George and has been putting in 20-plus hour weeks as a cashier at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
With football practice double sessions opening on Monday, Mackissock can be found at the high school, working in the weight room with teammates and also participating in summer football camps with hopes of playing at the collegiate level in the future.
“We just finished up team black and blue camp last week,” he said. “We had a few days by ourselves, Mohonasen came and we had some seven-on-sevens.”
The 6-foot-2 tight end/ linebacker has his eyes on the offensive side of the football and says playing in Guilderland’s wide-open style of offense could benefit him down the road.
“Schools that I’ve talked to, with our spread (offense), I could push out and play wide receiver,” Mackissock said.
Given the Dutchmen are the defending champs in two of the three sports that Mackissock competes in is
not lost on him and his teammates and they are putting in the time to make sure they are ready to go.
“We are using it as motivation. We know what we are capable of, we know the talent we have,” Mackissock said. “We know the success we had all the way back to Pop Warner days, to
modified, freshman, and JV so we know what we are capable of. We are defending (champions), we have a target on our back and we’ll be ready for it.”