Leading off today: On paper, Thursday night was probably the best chance that Columbia High in Huntsville, Ala., was going to have to end what is believed to be the longest losing streak in U.S. high school football history.
Alas, the Eagles fell four scores down by halftime and lost to Decatur, 42-16. The result extended Columbia's losing streak to 87 games since mid-2015. According to MaxPreps, it is believed to be the longest futility streak ever by a margin of five losses. Gibson (Ga.) Glascock County dropped 82 in a row from 1990-99.
Decatur carried a 1-5 record into the game before dropping Columbia to 0-6 in 2024.
Columbia, which is in its 17th season in the sport, is 31-153-0 all-time.
Complete New York Week 4 schedule
Week 4 schedule for ranked teams
That's what you call a team that's in sync
Even after adding in postseason tournaments for team or individual championships, there aren't a ton of opportunities for a high school tennis player to rack up big victory totals in his or her career. On Wednesday in Wellsville, however, three players hit a round and respectable number on the same night: Samantha Bidzerkowny, Hanna Miles, and Caitlin Bittel each earned their 50th career victory as the Lions swept Alfred-Almond, 5-0.
"I didn't realize it until I was getting stats together for senior night to recognize them," coach Billy Stives told the Wellsville Sun. "They all did this in a four-year span. It was really special that it happened in the same exact match, which just happened to be our last home match of the regular season."
The trio has done more than merely achieve individually. They were important pieces of the team that helped Wellsville capture Section 5 Class B2 championships in 2022 and '23.
Wellsville closes its regular season today vs. Wayland-Cohocton, then turns its attention to sectional action on Saturday at Canandaigua.
Speaking of milestones ...
Needing four goals to reach 100 for her career, Edmeston/Morris senior
Hannah Wist hit that milestone in the first half of Tuesday's 10-0 victory over Franklin. The two-time all-state selection finished with five goals and an assist in a rematch of the 2023 Section 4 Class D title game.
Football updates
•
Bolivar-Richburg has called off the remainder of its season in eight-man football, citing injuries and illness. District Superintendent Jeff Margeson said the decision was made Monday in a meeting between players and coaches.
• Oswego is forfeiting its game at Sandy Creek due to a lack of healthy players, the same issue that led to an early end to last weekend's 33-0 loss to Beaver River.
Sandy Creek will fill the vacancy by hosting Canajoharie/Fort Plain/Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville in an intersectional game.
There are two-sport athletes, and then there are very different two-sporters
Time constraints last week kept me from getting around to reading features on two Section 2 athletes who are doing double duty this fall.
The Times Union in Albany wrote about Cameron Dambrosio, a junior who is splitting time at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk between placekicking for the football team and playing soccer. That happens to be on top of a thriving career on the professional cornhole circuit, where Dambrosio and partner Brayden Wilson recently successfully defended their USAC junior national title in Rock Hill, S.C.
Over at Mechanicville, senior Logan Starks is in his fourth year over playing two sports in the fall. Originally a combination football and player, he's now a member of the soccer and golf squads, with an eye toward continuing in the latter when he goes off to college next year.
Schoolmate Jack Salvadore is pulling off the same double, and they are able to make it work because schedule conflicts are minimal.
While stories about students competing in two scholastic sports at once are fun, Olivia Vitale's story is fascinating. The junior, an outside hitter for the unbeaten Bishop Grimes volleyball team, moonlights on the dirt-track racing circuit -- where hitting obviously takes on an entirely different meaning.
The sport runs in the family. Vitale's father, Donnie Wetmore, earned 68 feature wins in modifieds at Fulton Speedway, according to Syracuse.com.
Vitale got her first dirt race car, which can hit 80 mph, last Christmas, and she competed over the summer at Utica-Rome and Canandaigua. She'll return to competition in the spring, by which time she'll likely have her regular driver's license, a formality not required for her level of racing.
"You don't have much time to think on the track," she said. "You just got to go on the fly. So that will help me get better with both volleyball and racing. So that way, I can quickly think and make sure it's a smart decision."
