Leading off today: With just 40 teams taking the field this season, eight-man football remains a bit of a niche sport in New York.
And with more than half those teams concentrated in just two of the 11 NYSPHSAA sections, scheduling can be difficult enough even without last-minute complications. For instance, Groton (Section 4), Wellsville/Genesee Valley/Belfast (5) and Cairo-Durham (2) already had the upcoming weekend penciled in as byes on their respective schedules.
More recently, Ellenville in Section 9 was left scrambling for Week 5 as Livingston Manor/Roscoe went dark after a Week 1 loss, and now Red Jacket in Section 5 was left without an opponent when Bolivar-Richburg was forced to end its season last week.
While five doesn't divide evenly by two, here's hoping that the coaches and ADs at four of the schools without games can make something happen in the next 48 hours so that their players aren't left sitting at home this weekend.
Niskayuna coach hits milestone
Bryce Colby would be the first to admit he walked into a great situation at Niskayuna when Brian Speck resigned to become Union College's women's soccer coach after the 1994 season. With three years of JV coaching under his belt, Colby inherited a loaded varsity roster and steered his girls to a state title his first time out.
"Brian handed me a phenomenal team," he told The Daily Gazette. "We tied for the state championship in 1994, his last year. Most of that team slipped right over to me. There were high expectations, and that's what I was dealing with in '95."
The winning hasn't stopped. Last Tuesday, Colby recorded career victory No. 400 with an 8-0 win over Schenectady. He started on his next 100 over the weekend with a 1-0 win vs. Bethlehem as the current edition of the team improved to 6-4-1.
Colby, who retired from teaching last spring, ranks second all-time in Section 2 to Craig Gilbert, who retired at Tamarac with 478 wins.
Following up
The blog item earlier this week about the Alabama team that
lost its 87th consecutive game got me thinking about which New York football team is riding the longest active losing streak.
A bit of digging concluded that Copiague's string of 40 straight setbacks in Long Island action is the active leader, but Newsday points out the 2024 Eagles are anything but hapless. They've only been outscored 124-74 during an 0-4 start that continued Saturday with a 31-21 setback against Bellport.
"It was no easy win," Bellport coach Jamie Fabian told the paper. "They'll get there."
Copaigue's last victory came against Deer Park in the final game of its 2018 season.
More weekend football
Miller Place quarterback Shane Kiernan set school records with 523 yards and six touchdowns through the air in a 57-48 loss to undefeated Babylon. His 38-for-54 day while nearly rallying the team out of a 43-13 hole in the third quarter also set a school mark for completions.
The yardage total ranks Kiernan ninth all-time in state history.
N.Y. record book: Passing yards in a game
Passings
Doug Axman, a 2017 inductee into the Downstate New York chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, died on Sept. 14. He was 73.
Axman began coaching as an assistant in the Plainview district in 1973 and started a 33-year tenure, including 19 seasons as the head coach, at Locust Valley in 1974. Following his retirement, Axman joined Oyster Bay's staff as an assistant.
He coached eight individual state champions and 34 Section 8 titlists.
"His hands touched so many aspects of wrestling in Nassau County and much of it was behind the scenes," said Matt Sanzone, whom Axman followed as the head coach at Locust Valley. "Every coach respected him. Every coach I knew spoke highly of Doug and valued his opinion."
