Leading off today: One of the top small-school programs in all of New York has dropped varsity football for the upcoming season due to a lack of players.
Superintendents James Ducharme of Cambridge and Julie Collier of Salem announced the decision regarding the Cambridge/Salem program on Friday.
Cambridge has been Section 2's most successful small-school football program since sectional championships began in 1978, both on its own and recently as a merged team with Salem. It has been a part of 18 sectional championships, including three with Salem, and captured NYSPHSAA Class D state titles in 1999, 2016 and 2017.
Cambridge/Salem finished 9-2 last year, losing the sectional final to Greenwich.
Coach Doug Luke told The Times Union he was concerned a month ago that a team might not be fielded because he had only 12 players committed at the varsity level.
"This is something you never thought you would be in," he said. "We were 9-2 last year and thought we were going to be pretty good this year. People just didn't come out. I don't how to change that."
With 17 players currently committed to the JV program, there may be enough of a foundation to support returning to varsity football in 2027.
This story isn't over
Cambridge/Salem isn't the first program to drop off of the 2026 varsity schedule. Previously, Holy Trinity in the CHSFL and Ticonderoga in Section 7 revealed they would not be fielding teals this fall.
It's a given that other schools will fall by the wayside a week into the start of practice later this month, with some perhaps salvaging the season by dropping down to eight-man football.
As it stands at the moment, there are only 10 Class D programs on the East side of the NYSPHSAA playoff bracket compared to a combined 45 for Sections 3 through 6.
400-game winner tackling a new soccer challenge
Mike McCaffery, who went 428-170-47 from 1990-2024 with six Section 3 boys soccer championships at Cicero-North Syracuse, is returning to coaching after a short-lived retirement.
McCaffery, 64, is coming back to the sidelines as the girls coach at Skaneateles, which went 6-12-1 a year ago, and will have time to fully immerse himself after recently retiring from teaching.
"In the back of my mind, I knew I still had a little bit of gas in the tank and I still wanted to coach. So that's what led me to a girls program," he told Syracuse.com. "I think a change of pace is good."
Coaching girls won't be entirely new to him. McCaffery coached C-NS girls varsity basketball for five seasons.
"I think that quite honestly, girls are super competitive. So that's a good thing," McCaffery said. "I don't feel like I have to be quite so animated with the girls. When people asked me, are you going to coach again? I said, yeah, I'm really going to entertain it. But it would have to be a girls program. And then I'll tell you what, when I watched tape of Skaneateles and saw how athletic they were and how hard they played. ... Skaneateles is a great place to land. I'm still pinching myself that that opportunity came my way."
• The Lakers will also have a new head football coach as Vince Romano, an assistant since 2022, takes over.
His background in the sport includes playing linebacker in the Italian Football League and helping that country's national team to the 2016 European Championship.
Skaneateles went 24-14 in four seasons, including 6-4 a year ago, under Jay Steinhorst.
More coaching changes
Brendan Bradt, an assistant under three previous Troy boys basketball coaches since 2017, has taken over as the new head coach of the Flying Horses.
He is the program's third head coach in three seasons. Troy finished 14-8 last winter under Jamil Hood, ending the season with an appearance in the Section 2 Class AA semifinals.
"We are going to pride ourselves on defense," Bradt said. "We are going to execute on offense, have a high basketball IQ with great attention to detail, and no one is going to outwork us."
• Connor Cough will be moving up to head coach for the Utica Notre Dame baseball team next season, replacing Todd Carville, who resigned after three years in charge.
Notre Dame is coming off a 7-12 regular season that culminated with a Section 3 Class B championship and a trip to the NYSPHSAA semifinals.
Cough, 32, starts his second season as the head football coach later this month.
• West Genesee will have a pair of new head basketball coaches this winter. The Wildcats promoted Eric Cizenski to the top spot on the boys side and hired former Oneida coach Scott DeForest to lead the girls, Syracuse.com reported.
Cizenski replaces Fred Kent, who was 202-91 in 14 seasons, and DeForest steps in for Mariah Lamas.
• Ossining has hired Will Fallo to run the boys basketball program. He was previously an assistant on his father's Lakeland staff from 2018-24.
New athletic director in Section 5
Mike Gorton, a 1998 Marcus Whitman graduate who has spent the past five years as a counselor at the high school, is the district's next director of athletics and student services.
The student services position makes Gorton the lead investigator on all district Dignity for All Students Act claims.
