Boys soccer: Spackenkill broke to a four-goal lead and handed Rhinebeck its first loss, 4-2, at Vassar College. The Spartans' Mario Marotta supplied a goal and two assists.
Spackenkill is 8-3 and Rhinebeck 8-1.
Support for their coach: The Buffalo News reported over the weekend that Amherst girls swimming coach Debbie Sullivan was diagnosed recently with breast cancer.
The team, including Sullivan's daughter Kaelyn, showed its support Friday with a "Pink the Pool" fundraiser as part of the final home meet of the season. Pink T-shirts were designed with a breast-cancer ribbon twisted into a fish to create awareness of the disease and support for the coach and the mothers of at least three other Amherst students recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
At first, Debbie Sullivan was embarrassed by the attention, but the swimmers insisted, “We already outvoted you.”
“I wanted to start crying,” Sullivan said. “They were so behind the idea.”
Money raised at the meet was designated for the Estee Lauder’s Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
Sullivan said she underwent a double mastectomy but was able to go home the same day. She was back to coaching four days later and does not require chemotherapy, she said.
The game is changing: Newsday did a solid piece recently about the growing populatity of the spread offense, which really took root early in the decade when Russ Cellan installed it at Freeport.
Now we've all seen the spread in action and the way it opens things up for both the passing and running games, all starting with the quarterback taking snaps from the shotgun formation. But the shotgun creates unique challenges for offensive coordinators as well. Some teams now rely upon it almost exclusively and do little or no work in practice with the QB under center.
"It was the first game of last season and we were winning big," Cellan recalled. "The second-string quarterback was in and I told him, 'Victory formation and we're going to take a knee.' He's looking at me funny. I said, 'Take a knee.' He said, 'Coach, I don't know how to take a snap from center.' I had to send in our first-string guy to take a knee."
