Leading off today: I'm just spitballing here, but maybe it's time for the folks in Richfield Springs to start looking at the bigger picture. I'm pretty sure playing musical chairs with football coaches isn't going to solve much, especially when there are whispers that the lastest shakeup is rooted in that time-honoroed coach-killer: grumbling about playing time.
I say that in light of today's Observer-Dispatch report that the school has changed head football coaches for the fifth time in five years. Roger Hudson, who took over the program last season, has been let go and replaced by Len Calkins, who begins his third stint as the Indians’ head coach tomorrow against New York Mills.
AD Theri Jo Climenhaga said Hudson was asked to resign after the winless squad's 58-0 loss at Mohawk last weekend. Climenhaga would not say why that was request was made, but when Hudson declined to quit, "he was terminated as head coach."
"A decision was made by the administration, a recommendation was made, and the Board of Education approved it," Climenaga told the paper.
Hudson, a 1993 Richfield Springs graduate who played for Calkins and coached the Indians to a 3-6 finish last year, could not be reached for comment.
"I don’t have an issue with Roger. I’ve talked to him, and he understood,” said Calkins, 66. "There’s no animosity between me and Roger. . . . I’ve told the kids that I’m not there to replace him, I’m there to keep the program intact. That’s my only reason. Our numbers are down. Our school’s getting smaller. I just want to keep the program going."
Richfield Springs, one of the five smallest football-playing schools in the NYSPHSAA, is coming off four straight 3-6 seasons and forfeited a game last season because it did not have enough players to field a team. Nine Section 3 Class D teams have triple Richfield Springs' enrollment; four others have quadruple the Indians' enrollment.
I'm not sure Tom Coughlin or Nick Saban could dream up ways of winning more than three games a year under those circumstances. It's possible there's a legitimate reason other than wins-and-losses or playing time behind this week's developments and we just don't know about it.
But I do know that going through five coaching changes in five years ain't the best of track records when it comes time to recruit a permanent replacement.
A closer look at DePoalo: Times Union columnist Mark McGuire wrote today about coach Carmen DePoalo, who has Schenectady off to a 3-0 start in football.
DePoalo's police-blotter past is well known. He got into a scuffle earlier this year that got him dragged into court.
But McGuire writes about a different kind of conviction; the coach is demanding discipline and dedication from his players, and they're buying into it. The 5-4 record a year ago was the team's first winning record since Linton
