[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: The following program is brought to you in living color on Dell gazette.com or wherever you get your podcast.
The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots Podcast. Now here's your host, Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Shots. Thank you Scott Kesey, and welcome to the Parting Shots Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York for the final time in 2024. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Santa was good to you.
Santa was good to me and our family, so I'm happy with that. We're wrapping up the year in Capitol region sports in 2024. My Gazette colleagues will join me to talk about what they witnessed during the year.
Will Springstead will talk College of the cross.
Mike McAdam will talk horse racing and Siena Ualbany basketball, both men's and women's. A lot of changes in Siena men and women's basketball. One coach left voluntarily, the other did not. So we'll talk about that. Of course, we'll talk about the Saratoga horse racing season, which included Belmont Stakes running at Saratoga prior to the start of the Saratoga horse racing season. A lot to discuss there.
Adam Schinder will be on to talk college football in the area with Union and New Albany. Not a great year for those teams. And he'll talk about the NCAA Women's tournament that was at MVP arena in Albany back in March and what a great time that was. We'll talk high school sports with Kyle Adams and Christian Heinz and then I'll have my thoughts on college hockey, Union obviously, in particular. And we'll talk about that and get through this and have a good last podcast of 2024. So will Springstead will join me. We're going to talk area college lacrosse. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
Hey pro football fans, it's time again to match wits with other pro football fans and win a prize by playing the Daily Gazettes. You Pick Them football contest to play go to daily gazetteprofootball. You pick them.net and make your picture for the first game kicks off each week. If you have the most weekly points, you win a $100 Hannaford gift card. Play the Deli Gazettes. You pick a Today Hi, this is Daily Gazette reporter Amira Ditchie and I would like to wish you a happy holiday season and a great 2025.
Hi, this is Daily Gazette reporter Shannon Doabrier. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season and a Prosperous and Healthy 2025.
Welcome back to the podcast and let's start our year review with Will Springstead, who covers college lacrosse for us. And Will, how would you Describe the year 2024 in college lacrosse here in the Capital Region?
[00:03:02] Speaker C: I would say it was a very good year. It was certainly led by the UAlbany men who ended up finishing 10, eight, but that's a deceiving record. They won the America east tournament with a 1211 championship game win over Vermont, beat Sacred Heart in a first round game at home. Always nice to get those home games. And then scared the dickens out of now two time and defending champion Notre Dame. Was it where they were leading 54 at halftime before Notre Dame kind of realized who it was. But they earned a lot of fans that day.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: I mean, how big was this for the Great Danes programs? I mean they got to the Final Four a few years ago, really haven't matched that success since then.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: And I think it's true and I think this was big because it was done with a lot of underclassmen. They had freshmen starting attack, defense, goalie, and sophomore Silas Richmond leading the way. So I note that Scott Mars, now in the penultimate year of his contract and it might be his last, who knows. But if it is, he's going to go sailing out with a strong group.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah. How is, how do you think things are going to project? Are they going to be favored to win the America east again?
[00:04:15] Speaker C: They should be. They didn't need because they didn't graduate too many. They didn't need a great recruiting class. They got some very strong pickups in the recruiting class. They should be favored.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Let's go over to Siena and before we head over to Union, what about Sienna season?
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Sienna finished 8 and 8 up and down year, just as that record might indicate, made it to the max semifinals where they lost to eventual league champs Sacred Heart 1513. Played them well.
It was marked with ups and downs. One game an element would be good, the next game it wouldn't. I think the one thing Liam Gleason's going to want for this season is some consistency from game to game.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Let's look over to the Union men's team. What was their season like?
[00:04:58] Speaker C: Their season they finished 12 6, lost big to nemesis Rit in the liberal League semifinals, but again qualified for their third straight NCAA Division 3 tournament.
Just doing a great job there. And they unfortunately had their clearing game which had been kind of a nuisance throughout the season, bite them in the butt and lost a second round home game to Stevenson 12 11, largely because of the Clearing. It's a tough way to go out, but overall a very solid year from the Garnet Chargers.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: What is it going to take for Union to just finally beat RIT? It's been a long time.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: It has been a long time and I am starting to think that it might not happen. But for lightning in a jar, RIT just keeps reloading. And now they have the reputation on their side. Union has good reputation. They brought in a nice class this year, but it's going to take an exceptional class to beat our it.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Well, let's talk about the Union women. What was their season like?
[00:06:06] Speaker C: Their season? They finished 11 and six again. Reached the Liberty League semifinals again played William Smith, the eventual champion. Tough, but they couldn't get by them. It was marked by the outstanding play of freshman attack Jillian Joseph who ended up earning an IWLCA all region second team. Three more years of her is a pleasant prospect.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: What are those letters again? I was like a tongue tied.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: International Women's Lacrosse Coaches a association that's long.
The fact that I know that is just scary.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: What about you Albany women?
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Ualbany women had another good year. They only finished 8 and 10, but that's because they faced arguably the toughest schedule in the country.
Played eventual champion bc, played semifinalist Syracuse.
They reached the America east final to face Binghamton for the second straight year. They this time Binghamton nipped them 12 to 11 and they did so without Ualbany having Katie Pascal, who was their all time leading scorer, could it have made a difference? Certainly could have. However, I would note that both Ualbany and Binghamton are bringing in just great classes this year. And I think what we might have, Ken, is kind of a nice burgeoning rivalry there. You know, we always wondered like when Stony Brook left, is there going to be a rivalry that can match that? Stony Brook Ualbany. I think Binghamton Ualbany might be it.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: And they're not that far from each other. Just to drive down I88. There you go.
So what about Siena?
[00:07:41] Speaker C: Siena women finished 13 6. A decent year. They lost to.
Before I bring this up, you know we've on this podcast talked about how will the Sienna women ever beat Fairfield And I guess the question was how will they beat Niagara? Because they ended up losing to Niagara in the MAX semifinals and Niagara turned around and beat Fairfield. So now the Saints have another object in front of them for this upcoming season.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Well, before we leave, I wanted to get your thoughts on Shyamangrat and Natalia Sawyer winning a national title last year in hurdles in both indoor and outdoor track.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: She has just been amazing. Buffalo State has not had a super history and she's now a three time national champion twice in the 60 meter hurdles in indoor and excuse me, twice in the 400 meter hurdles, outdoor and 60 meter hurdles indoor. She started out Mohanasen graduated from Chelmont and it's such a, you know, as you know, split seconds can mean the difference between first and say fifth and the idea that she's going into the division threes as the person to beat local person, that's kind of nice.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Any Trends Lacrosse for 2025 that you.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: See not that are coming up right away, I think we'll see more parity. You know, with the exception of national champions using the Division 3 National Champion Tufts and RIT and Salisbury. I think they're always going to be good. But Stevenson wasn't that far away from Union on skill as I mentioned. You know, Union kind of hurt themselves in that game, but they might have played 10 times and they could have gone 6, 4. Either way it's, it's, there are going to be a lot of schools that make some noise I think in this sport.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Well, we'll look for your coverage of Union lacrosse in the spring and actually late winter, early spring because it's amazing they play lacrosse outdoors in early February at least Division 1 level. I just, I don't know how they.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: Do it with, with a lot of gloves.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Yes, they're not wearing a long pants, but that's for darn sure. But will, thanks again. Thanks for your work in 2024. Look forward to doing it again in 2025.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: It's William Springstadt. More of the year in review here on the Parting Shots podcast. In just a moment.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: Explore the benefits.
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[00:10:31] Speaker E: Hi, this is Kyle Adams, Daily Gazette sportswriter, wishing you a happy holiday season and a great 2025.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Hi, this is Tyler A. McNeil with the Daily Gazette. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season, Prosperous and Healthy 2025.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast and my Gazette colleague Mike McAdam is here to talk about horse racing and area college basketball. Let's start with the horse racing Mac and what a year. Not only just the Saratoga season, but we had the first running of the Belmont Stakes up at Saratoga in June. Just talk about what that was like to cover. And being on the home turf, I'll.
[00:11:14] Speaker D: Preface it by saying that Gazette graciously let me go to the Kentucky Derby for the second year in a row, sort of in anticipation of the Belmont being up at Saratoga. So I got to see Mystic Dan win the Derby. I did my usual Preakness trip and saw Seize the Gray win the Preakness for D. Wayne Lucas, and then the much anticipated Belmont Stakes Racing Festival up in Saratoga, which was held from June 6th through 9th. So it wasn't just like one big day of racing. It was sort of a four day smorgasbord there. And we got to see Door Knock win the Belmont Stakes for co owner Jason Worth of the Philadelphia Phillies fame and World Series fame, which was a real fun side story to the whole Door Knock thing, you know, pretty much all year and continues to be.
You know, some of the traditionalists were a little miffed that they cut the Belmont distance back to a mile and a quarter. It's traditionally held at a mile and a half. I get that. But the way Saratoga is configured, mile and an eighth oval, you know, it's just awkward to try to run a mile and a half on the main track there.
Of course, the reason it was there was because Belmont Stakes, they basically, or I'm sorry, Belmont park basically got blown up and is being in the process of being renovated as we speak, which will bring the Belmont back to Saratoga in 2025.
And it's on schedule. So anybody anticipating that the Belmont's here for good or anything crazy like that, it's not happening. It's a temporary stopgap measure the Belmont itself, Belmont Day. I think I have to go back and look. It was like 46 or 48,000 people in a place where they cut off paid emission at 50,000. So it was a near capacity crowd. We did get good. We. There was a little dicey there with the rain, but the weather on Belmont Day was beautiful.
Too much. Too much rejoicing by everybody, including nyra, which, you know, pulled off a great show.
You know, had an interesting winter in Dornoch. As I mentioned, the Jason Worth Festival or co owner. Well, it was a Jason Worth Festival, if you were there. I mean, you see this tall guy in this hat with the beard and the long hair. He looks like a country singer or something, but he's a big. You would never guess he was a baseball player. But so to some degree, it was the Jason Worth Festival.
So, yeah, they knocked it out of the park and we'll do it again. In 2025.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Is there an extra day this year for that?
[00:13:48] Speaker D: Yes, as a matter of fact, there's a lot of extra days, if you want to term it that way. They did tack on the Wednesday, so the Belmont Festival in 24 was from Thursday to Sunday. Of course, Belmont was on Saturday, the big day. And this year they added a Wednesday.
I guess, you know, it's a little bit of a, you know, milking the golden calf to some degree. I'm sure they, you know, they know they'll. Whatever they get on that Wednesday will be worth it, bringing, you know, all the horsemen and everybody up here upstate from New York a day early.
So, yeah, it'll be a five day deal instead of a four day deal. If you're looking for the dates, I forgot to bring my calendar in front of me. But it'll be the Belmont itself will be the second Saturday in June, whatever that is.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Let's talk about the Saratoga meeting. I think it went pretty well. I think weather was not really much.
[00:14:44] Speaker D: Of a factor, not compared to last year when it was like a borderline disaster. And they had 65 turf races rained off. They still had 45 rained off this year, and they did have a full card rained off by Debbie, Tropical Storm Debbie.
But they saw it coming ahead of time, so they were at least able to cancel, I think, like two days in advance. So it's not like a last minute thing. So they only ran 39 racing days instead of the usual 40. But overall, between the weather being really good, some of the cool stuff we got to see, I'll mention equine deaths. You know, right now, they had a great meet as far as that was concerned. I went back and looked at the numbers, and compared to last year, for whatever reason, you know, it was very minimal, both on the training track and during races.
So they had, I guess, you know, without drawing too many conclusions, might speak to the fact that New York Racing association renovated both the main track and the and the Oklahoma training track in recent years.
As far as racing highlights, by far, the Travers was amazing fierceness holding off the Philly Torpedo Anna by a head in the Travers, which, as I wrote probably the following day or I colonized that day, I think was the second most exciting and great and amazing traverse that I've covered, that I've witnessed in person, which I've been doing since 1987.
They came close, but that, in my opinion, did not knock off the 1994 Holy Bull Travers, where he got just attacked on the back stretch and had to run A really fast pace and then had to hold off of the deep closer Concern, who had a perfect setup from a speed standpoint. Just all guts and talent by holy bull. But okay, enough about him. Torpedo Anna Fierceness was one of the stars of the Saratoga meet. Thorpedo was one of the stars of the entire racing calendar in North America this year and what a treat for us. She won the Kentucky Oaks for trainer Kenny McPeak, who pulled off a very rare winning the Oaks and the Kentucky Derby in the same year. It just never happens. Along with his jockey Brian Hernandez, who was on Mystic Dan and Torpedo Anna for Derby weekend. And then we come into Saratoga. I was fortunate myself because the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival got moved up to Saratoga. I got to see Torpedo Anna, who won six of seven starts and like I mentioned, her only loss was by a head, a diminishing head to fierceness in the Travers. I got to see her four times.
She ran in the Acorn on the Belmont Stakes card and she won that. I got to see the Oaks and then the Travers and she also won the Coaching Club American Oaks, which is of course restricted to three year old Phillies early in the meeting and is a setup for the Alabama. And on Whitney Day, I think the weekend after that, Kenny McPeak announced on live TV that they weren't going to run in the Alabama against Phillies. They were going to take on males in the Travers, which is a very rare thing. We've only had one Philly try it in the last 45 years and we haven't had a Philly win it since 1915 and that was by a controversial disqualification for Lady Rotha. So it was a very rare thing. A very interesting story. Very reminiscent of Rachel Alexander when she was a three year old filly and won the Woodward against older males on her way to Horse of the Year, which in my estimation, and I just got my Eclipse voting materials a couple days ago last Friday.
I mean, she's a slam dunk, no brainer. Torpedo Anna for Horse of the Year, in my opinion, and I find it hard to believe she's not going to actually win it and the rest of the voters are going to kind of lean that way.
It was an outstanding meet for trainer Chad Brown on closing day. He called it a meet for the ages.
He missed his own personal record for most wins by a trainer at the meet. By one he had 45, including five of the 12 races on closing day.
Talk about finishing with a bank. Including Chancellor McPatrick in the grade one hopeful for two year olds. He just crushed it for the whole meet and then just as a parting shot to your work, I'll put the.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: More money in your check next week.
[00:19:21] Speaker D: He wins five of 12, including the hopeful on closing day. So meet for the ages for Chad Brown, really. His meet success went in lockstep with jockey Flavian Pratt, who relocated from California last year with the clear stated objective that the only way he was ever going to win an Eclipse Award as a jockey was to come to New York full time or, you know, most of the year. He's in Kentucky a lot too, because you're just not going to get. You're not, you know, it's just the stature out in California just isn't there for a rider. And he had a great season last year in New York and this year he won the Saratoga meet and just killed it. And a lot of that was, of course, you know, it was kind of the pairing with Chad Brown with a lot of his good horses.
So great meet for Flavian Pratt.
If you're interested in the overall meet numbers. Despite losing full race card, Saratoga surpassed a million in paid admission for the ninth year in a row, not counting the pandemic year 2020, when of course there were no fans were allowed on the grounds. And after last year just falling short of the $800 million all sources handle number again in large part because all those turf races getting washed off, they were almost at 804 million in all sources handle including, which is an average of 20.6 million per day.
On Traverse Day alone, they had over 63 million in all sources handled. So Niagara had to be very pleased with Saratoga kind of doing what Saratoga does.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: No change whatsoever. And by the way, June 11th through the 15th will be the Belmont Fest with a Friday the 13th sprinkled in there.
[00:21:10] Speaker D: We just survived one of those. So I think we'll make it as far as future stuff besides that. Belmont Stakes coming back to Saratoga because of the quirky way the calendar fell, it made all the sense in the world for them for Naira to hold their very popular fourth of July, I guess they call it a festival. It's four days of racing. So we'll have an additional total of nine extra races outside of the 40 days of Saratoga. So they'll come up here for the 4th of July only because the way the calendar fell, everything is as early as it can possibly be. So there's only a three day gap between the Sunday of 4th of July weekend and the Thursday of, or four days, whatever it is, of the opening, the traditional July 10th opening of the Saratoga annual summer meet. So they decided, let's might as well just pile up. The numbers were not good at Aqueduct last year. It's certainly not nearly as good as they are at Belmont for the fourth of July stuff. So they said, hey, there's such a tiny gap between 4th of July and start of Saratoga. Let's just shift it up to Saratoga a week early. So that's for a total of nine extra days. So there will be four days for the fourth of July after having five days for the Belmont fest.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Could that be something? Naira looks down the road and says.
[00:22:33] Speaker D: Well, maybe permanent at what everybody automatically assumes. And they've said no. And again, if the calendar didn't fall the way it did, coincidentally in 2025, they probably wouldn't be looking at this because there'd be enough of a time gap between the 4th of July and Saratoga. The other side of that is they got a $455 million loan from the state of New York to rebuild Belmont Park. They're going to use it, so they better use it.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah, they got to pay the loan.
[00:23:05] Speaker D: The governor will be a little miffed if they start shifting dates away from their spanking new Belmont park just to milk Saratoga for a couple more days. So again, it's just sort of coincidentally that the calendar fell the way it did, and it made a lot of sense.
But next year, and Belmont park is scheduled to be fully functional and open and complete by, I think, like September or October of 2025. But they will. It will be equipped to hold the Belmont next year as is, you know, with the schedule and all the reconstruction and everything remaining on schedule unless something stupid happens, they're fully planning to bring the Belmont back down there. Even though certain amenities in the grandstand won't be, you know, fully polished and finished, it will be equipped enough to hold the Belmont there next year.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Okay, let's talk Siena area college basketball. I'll start with Siena.
They had two coaches in their programs leave. One on his own, the other not on his own. Let's start with the men's team. In the firing of Carmen Massarella after really an awful year.
[00:24:13] Speaker D: Well, there's only one direction to go but up. If we're going to talk about these four programs as men and women for Siena New Albany in a nutshell, Siena men had the worst season in Program Division 1 History, 4 and 28.
And I mean, it was just a lot of it can be attributed to injuries. He was starting walk ons almost pretty much from the start. Of the season.
But between the disgruntled Siena fans who aren't going to tolerate 4 and 28 and a little bit of not seeing certain, like, groundwork laid for the turnaround the following year, they let Carmen Massarello go.
It was hard to watch at times. I remember going to St. Bonaventure on the road for the Franciscan cup last year and there was nothing against Courtney Mason, who's a good, you know, good player, but he's a walk on. He was starting at point guard.
Mason, Courtney, I guess I should correct myself. Geez.
But it was an indication of like where they were that early in the season they're starting walk ons and so it's the potential for a bad season existed and it was about as bad as it can get. So then Carm was gone and they hired Jerry McNamara and so there's a lot of excitement about that now.
It's his first head coaching job, but of course he brings a lot of name value and credibility coming from Syracuse to the program. They've only had three home games so far. It hasn't translated to like a huge bump in attendance yet. They had like 5,100 for the, for the Bonaventure Franciscan cup game on Tuesday and they had like 44 something for the first two home games. They had a very long stretch of road games for like 35 days. So they haven't played at home a lot. Team looks pretty good. I mean, they have some, some potential there. They play hard for him and they got a couple interesting pieces.
They could use a little more three point shooting besides Niski and his own Brandon Coyle who's a junior.
But they're, you know, they look like an interesting team that can get better by the end of the year and could just be a little bit of a pain in the butt during the Mac tournament, which I think, you know, Siena fans aren't satisfied with losing for sure and they're not satisfied with mediocrity either. But you know, the honeymoon is going to last the full season for McNamara and I believe unless they have like a huge rash of injuries or something, they could be kind of a pain in the butt during the Mac tournament.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: Moving over to the CNN women, Jim Jaber stepped down to take. He was, he was done with coaching and Terry Prim takes over. So obviously a different situation there. And Sienna Winnie had been playing well and of course they've been racked really heavily by injuries this season so far.
[00:27:24] Speaker D: Big time. Yeah, they had high expectations, rightfully so, last year and they fell short of that. And then Jim Jaber, it's a combination of he self admittedly is getting up there in years, plus his wife got a really good job in the athletic department at Stanford University. So it made a lot of sense for him and his family to move out there. And it also made a lot of sense to put Terry Prim in there because it's as smooth of a coaching transition as you could possibly have. He was Jim Jaber's lead assistant. All the players know him and love him and they were going to be halfway decent and I don't know what the rest of the season holds for them, but really they did get wracked with a lot of injuries to key players, most notably Valencia Fontenelle Pason, the former Gilderland star, as well as Allison O'Hanlon, who's the freshman from Duanesburg who set all the records in three point shooting at Duanesburg, like state level records. And funny thing about her is those two are both listed as season ending injuries as well as Alden Jerge, the sophomore.
But apparently Allison O'Hanlon was in a practice jersey just kind of working on an exercise bike at practice the other day she had some sort of foot injury. I did a story on her before, before the season and at the time they weren't sure what was even going on with her foot. And then she had successful surgery.
Terry Prim hasn't altered from his statement that it's still season ending, but you know, we'll see. I mean, and I'm not, I'll take his word for it, but at least she's doing something. She's out there, you know, trying to stay fit to the best of their ability.
So they still have a solid team. It's just that it could have been so much better if they didn't get hit like right off the rip. Usually, you know, like this injury bug, it hits like in the middle of the season or it's sort of like kind of sprinkled out throughout the season. You kind of can adjust to it. And they had to make a pretty dramatic adjustment before the season even, you know, as the season opens. So we'll see what they do. But yeah, you can't underestimate the impact of those injuries on their roster.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: Let's go over to Ualbany. They once again won the Albany cup, but in the men's side, Dwayne Killings, is he really on the hot seat this year?
[00:29:54] Speaker D: On paper, I would say he is because he's been. This is his fourth season and Every season has been a losing season. I mean, they haven't got. They haven't been terrible.
You know, last year they just couldn't guard anybody. I had the pleasure of covering a game over there against UMass Lowell, where Albany men scored 95 points and got beat by nine, which you don't see in college basketball very often.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Wasn't there one game, I think UMBC, where both teams scored over 100?
[00:30:24] Speaker D: I was just looking at the scores. I think one of them might have had 98 or something like that, but so they couldn't guard anybody this year. You know, again, typical fashion college basketball, there's a lot of roster turnover. They did get Amari Marshall, who's sort of like a All America east second teamer. He's back, so that's good for them. Although he's been dealing with a little bit of injuries, he's okay now. So they got some interesting pieces and they play tough, and so they have some potential. They're kind of hovering around 500 right now. They hit a little disappointing stretch there, but they'll get better. And, you know, as far as going back to your question about the hot seat, I think it's sort of like it remains to be seen how this season goes, whether that's the case or not. I mean, if they're like 10 games under.500, which I don't anticipate they will be, you know, he might be okay. If he just wins a game in the America east tournament and they, you know, there are several games over.500, there might not be any reason to get rid of them.
So I think he's okay for now. Unless they have like a huge collapse.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: On the women's side. How they do this.
[00:31:34] Speaker D: Out of those four programs that we pay attention to, they have by far the best chance to make it to the NCAA tournament this year. Ualbany women, they have a really grad student, senior, loaded lineup, including some very key transfers. Casey Donovan has been terrific. Jessica Tomasetti the point guard who shoots it.
So they got a lot of pieces. They have Kayla Cooper back, who's like probably the greatest player in program history, men or women. For Ualbany, she just does everything. She's a grad student, centerpiece of the whole team. Colleen Mullins team is 101 already this year.
One kind of interesting thing about them this year is they're going to be a little more aggressive offensively to have a quicker tempo, and that's a reflection of some of the new players they brought in. So, you know, it's not going to be so much of these grinding 55 to 52 type games. You know, they might actually be, you know, they're actually, I've seen them a couple times a little more interesting to watch just because they're, you know, their offense has kind of opened up a little bit more.
They're coming off a semifinal America east loss to Vermont and then they went to the WNIT and got spanked by Colgate last year. But again, revamped lineup with some very key pieces back, including Lily Phillips from Cambridge High School, Megan Herter, former Shenendaho star and and who's the one I'm forgetting there's another player back who's pretty I'm never going to think of it now, but it's a nice mixture. The point is between, well, Kayla Cooper, of course, is back between good, important pieces that were a part of last year's really good team and some really interesting, good players that she got through the transfer portal. So I have pretty high hopes for a view Albany women We're going to.
[00:33:34] Speaker B: Talk with to Adam Schinder about the women's tour, NCAA women's tour that was at MVP arena back in March. But Schenectady got a shout out from Ryan Ruko on the broadcast of the Iowa LSU Regional final.
[00:33:48] Speaker D: Correct. And it was a fun moment. It was kind of the funny thing is I was actually and Ryan Ruoco and his partner, broadcast partner Rebecca Lobo were sitting like probably I had the two official monitors sitting directly to my left and they were either one or two or three chairs further to my left. So I couldn't really hear the broadcast even though I was very close. So, of course, monitoring Twitter, suddenly I see right after the start of the second half, somebody tweeted out Ryan Ruoco's call on Caitlin Clark's three pointer to start the second half was Clark, oh my. From Schenectady. As soon as I saw that, I was like, I gotta grab Ryan as soon as this game's over and just get a couple quick comments of like, where did that come from? And if you saw the shot, she was looking to pass and nobody was open. So she just jacked it up. In typical Caitlin Clark fashion, she had nine three pointers in that game against lsu. But that one, it was kind of reminiscent for me when I used to listen to Buffalo Sabres broadcasts with Ted Darling and every time a puck went in the crowd, he would just randomly pick some area city or town and say, and a lucky fan from Batavia, New York gets a souvenir it reminded me of that. So I asked Ryan afterwards, like, how in the world did you pick Schenectady? He said, well, you know, I'm from downstate, so I'm a little familiar with upstate. So I kind of know some of the names of the towns and cities up here. I wanted one that was polysyllabic or whatever word he used for it, but also fun. And so I kind of, you know, he put it in his little catalog of something he would use if the opportunity arose, which it did right off the rip in the start, the second half. So he pulled the trigger on. It was hilarious. It was a fun story to write. The next day they were talking about it on the Dan Patrick show and Marvin Prince, one of the Danettes, said, because they actually showed the clip and played the audio and everything, because they were cracking up about it too. And he said, this is like if there was a game in Detroit. And he said, she hit that from Kalamazoo. So overall, it was like a really fun story, kind of going hand in hand with a little bit of the negative stuff that was said, you know, by certain people, including Rebecca Logo, sort of.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:13] Speaker D: Borderline demeaning to Albany. At least people in Albany took it that way.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So. Well, Mac, appreciate all you do and look forward to doing it again in 2025.
[00:36:23] Speaker D: Yeah, we got 4th of July and we got Belmont Stakes coming back here next year. So there's going to be plenty of racing stuff to talk about next year.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the track with Mac. We're back next season. Mike, Appreciate it. Thanks.
[00:36:33] Speaker D: Thanks, Ken.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Well, more with the year in review here on the Parting Shots podcast. In just a moment.
In school sports, it's easy to see the wins, the moments that make headlines, but there's so much work that goes unseen for any of it to happen. My name is Phil Risen and I'm the executive director of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. Throughout the country, athletic administrators dedicate countless hours to making life changing opportunities possible for student athletes through sports.
[00:37:31] Speaker D: Their sacrifice is fueled by the belief.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: That every student can grow and deserves their time to shine.
On behalf of the niaaa, we want to thank every athletic administrator for your.
[00:37:45] Speaker D: Tireless dedication to providing 7.8 million students.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: Across the country a path to a better future.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: This message presented by the niaaa, the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
[00:38:04] Speaker D: Hi, this is Daily Gazette reporter Chad Arnold. I would like to wish you a.
[00:38:07] Speaker F: Happy holiday season and a great 2025.
[00:38:12] Speaker D: Hi, this is Daily Gazette Senior writer, Indiana Nash. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season and a Prosperous and Healthy 2025.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast and Adam Schinder is here to talk the NCAA women's basketball tour and college football football in the area. We'll start with the, probably the fun part of it, the women's basketball tournament that was here at MVP Arena. We saw a lot of great games. We saw the eventual national champions South Carolina come through here. We saw Kate and Clark, some controversy about some people saying about Albany. So what was it like covering those games?
[00:38:49] Speaker A: It was a thrilling and exhausting but really, really fun five days, which actually turned into six, because the day after everything when I thought I'd finally stop driving to MVP arena was the press conference introduced Jerry McNamara in Siena. So I became very familiar with the parking garage at MVP Arena. But an incredible event. I mean, packed houses for four straight days.
As good as you could have asked for an event for Albany. And just, you know, as good as the men's tournament was when it was here the year before. And the very fun story with Andre Jackson and UConn starting their run to a national championship, the quality of basketball, especially when you got to the end of it, and a truly spectacular Iowa, LSU game was really, really great.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I was there for that. And I sat near the Iowa bench and I was actually, I forget which bench it was, but it was one of the benches, I think it was Iowa. And I was sitting next to Holly Rowe, the silent courtside reporter for espn. And I saw Caitlin Clark's first shot right in front of me. And it's like, oh, my God, she is good. So it's just, I mean, the teams that they had, I mean, normally when NCAA women's tournaments here, new cons are guaranteed, they were not here this year. And nobody missed it because we, the Albany region got great teams. And that was just incredible.
Maybe luck or so, but it worked out perfectly.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah, the four kind of headline teams and Notre Dame lost in their Sweet 16 game, but you got an excellent Notre Dame team. You got the undefeated eventual national champions South Carolina, who were just out of this world. You had the defending national champions lsu, and then you had the most popular athlete in women's sport. And probably at that point, Caitlin Clark was on the short list of most popular athletes on the planet, especially, I mean, carried over into the WNBA as well. But the Caitlin Clark fever was striking the whole world at that point. And she had a really good game in the Sweet 16 against Colorado and then just put On a show in an all time great game against lsu that was the most watched women's basketball game in history for about five days until the next LSU game and then that got beat again by lsu, by Iowa, South Carolina in the championship game. Just an incredible run of games, an incredible performance, incredible energy.
I nearly had my head taken off by very errant pass from LSU's Hayley Van Lith who thought she had a teammate there and instead fired it directly towards me, hit me in the hands and was lucky that my work issued laptop was not destroyed.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: Thank goodness. Yeah. What does it mean for MVP arena for the city of Albany, for the Capital Region to have these marquee teams here and just the national attention this area got.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: Yeah, despite the.
The somewhat less than kind words and I don't think they were truly directed towards Albany. It was more the belief from a lot of the coaches, Kim Mulkey at lsu, Lisa Bluder at Iowa, that the women's game has evolved to the point where it really needs to be, really deserved to be playing these games in major NBA markets. That these games should, you know, that Albany and Portland were, you know, they would have hoped, oh, why aren't we in New York City and Los Angeles instead? And there were other complaints about hotel situations, which are things beyond. But you know, the tournament was. The super regional was given to Albany before the women's game really started to explode in the last three or four, in the last three or four years. But it's a huge event and MVP arena showed they're capable of hosting an event like that. They also show that there are, you know, things that that arena is. It's just on the verge of getting too small for an event like that. You know, an arena with one concourse and really one way in is hard to do this on that scale over four days. But they did pull it off. It helped that unlike the. The men's tournament was actually logistically much harder because you had multiple sessions in the same days. And if you've ever been at a full MVP arena, trying to get a sold out crowd in and a sold out crowd out at the same time, especially when you have only one concourse and really only one set of bathrooms and concession stands, is not easy.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah, not at all.
To be able to see Caitlin Clark play. Did you have a better appreciation for seeing her in person than maybe just seeing her on telephone?
[00:43:47] Speaker A: Oh, oh, yeah. Because you just see, you know, the confidence in which a player like that plays. It's one thing to watch it on TV, it's another thing, to be 10ft away from it and realizing she's spotting up from 40 and she knows she's making it. And the thing that impresses you live with a player like her, even more than her shooting was her passing and the way she saw the floor. She was making passes that were.
She makes passes that are so good that at least twice a game they end up in turnovers because they're too good for her teammates who are really, really good players. She's just thinking five steps ahead of everyone. It's spectacular.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Of course, the national champion came out of the Albany region with South Carolina and Kim Mulk. Not Kim Mulkey, but Dawn Staley. What was it like to watch them play and watch her coach?
[00:44:42] Speaker A: That's the kind of thing one. Don Staley is one of the great personalities in sports. Of all the coaches who decided that Albany was a place they needed to take subtle and not so subtle digs at Dawn Staley closed by saying how much she loved Albany. Knows how to play to the crowd.
That's a team that was just built like an absolute machine. It was just. They had so many ways they could beat you and they just wear you down. And that's what they did and that's what they did on their way to a, to a national championship was a team without a. It didn't have a star on the level of Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese. But like, if you were to stack the 10 best players in that regional, five or six of them probably came from South Carolina.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: Of course, Kim Mulkey, the LSU coach, there was some story coming out. I think they came out during, I think morning.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: The morning, I believe it was the morning Saturday. It was the morning of or before their semifinal, their semifinal game. And yeah, it was the morning of their semi final. Then she spoke after that and yeah, the story ended up being much less than. I think a lot of people really thought it. It might be. But Kim Mulkey wasn't going to talk about it because Kim Mulkey is not the friendliest coach in the world when it comes to handling the media. And. And she did come to defense of her players who. There was another controversy in that columnist out of LA after the UCLA LSU game or going into the UCLA LSU game, said some things that essentially had to be retracted. And I could side with Kim Mulkey and LSU on that. There were some very not fair things that were, to the eventual credit of the LA Times, were eventually pulled from the story and apologized for.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Well, let's talk area college Football and it was not a great season for Union and New Albany. Let's start with Union. They had a new coach in John Drock and they got off to a slow start, never recovered.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, they had a really, really tough schedule, playing for their first five games on the road and it was a team that just on the offensive side of the football never found an identity outside of maybe one or two games. The offensive line at a tough time all year, which meant, you know, a team that had 2,000 yard backs returning from the year before, I think didn't finish with a thousand yards between them in Michael Fiore and Jonathan Anderson. And the quarterback Pat Flanagan had had his moments, but they just were never able to really make teams until the very end. Respect the idea that the ball might get pushed down the field, which just collapsed everything. They were playing on a scrunched up field offensively all season long and they were really, until the very, very end, not able to break away from that. And it just, everyone condensed on them and the offense just never really found a rhythm or an identity. Defensively they were a pretty good team. Defensively they struggled to cover sometimes down the field when their pass rush couldn't get home, but they were a tough team to run on. Colda Silva, their middle linebacker, you know, top five single season, all time in tackles at Union. Ethan Vanderbrink was one of the best pass rushers in the Liberty League. But it was a team that just couldn't find consistency or an identity. And there were glimpses though because they played a lot of young guys.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: What do you think John Drock has to do to get better?
[00:48:20] Speaker A: Yeah, this was, we talked about this at the end of the season and the big thing and it's Division 3, so recruiting is always a challenge. Recruiting, especially a school with Union's academic standards where you can't take grad transfers because they don't have a graduate school is not easy. But the biggest thing that they need to recruit is speech. This was a team that needed to find their home run hitters on offense and then just replace a lot of veterans. They're going to lose not just a fourth year senior class, but a fifth year senior class of guys who got there in 2020, stayed out of school for a year to save a year of eligibility. Guys like Fiore, guys like Da Silva. So they're losing 20 plus players, most of whom were really, really big time contributors. So they're going to have to find some guys and they're going to have to plug some guys in and you'll see if maybe this is a team that starts to work Division 3 transfers more than some previous union regimes have. So it'll be interesting to see what they do.
[00:49:21] Speaker B: And over at UAlbany, after making the playoffs last year, things went backwards a little bit. And what do you think happened there?
[00:49:28] Speaker A: Yeah, they just got shredded by losses to graduation and the draft and the portal. And they had too many key guys to replace on offense and everybody to replace on defense. So the defense had some, had some bright spots. Dante Lunan, their middle linebacker, was, you know, I think an honorable mention all American, you know, all CAA type player.
They never were able to replicate the explosiveness they had in the passing game a year ago, which when you lose. Rhys Poffenbarger, who transferred to Miami, barely played. Now he's on his way to North Texas and you lose all, essentially all of his top receivers. And then you also Griffin Waddell came in as the reigning CAA rookie of the year and just think was dealing with some injuries through a lot of the year and never really found himself. It was basically an afterthought and out of the lineup by the end of the season.
And then they tried to bring in transfer quarterback Miles Burkett. Had some moments, but never really was consistent. Had similar moments to Poffenbarger where he'd be, you know, nothing, nothing, nothing. Big play. But the big plays are a little too few and far between, especially when you're completing right around 50% of your passes. But they brought in Van Weber, true freshman at the end of the season, made some impressive plays and might be a guy that they try and give a shot to heading into next season. They could also, you know, look in the portal and see if they can bring in another quarterback because they've had success with me.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: You mentioned Parfum Poffenbar. You think he regrets leaving you Albany now?
[00:51:05] Speaker A: I don't think he regrets leaving UAlbany. I mean, he went to Miami and the idea at Miami when he went there was that he was going to compete for the starting job because Cam Ward was going to the NFL draft. Fortunately, a week later, Cam Ward decides to go to Miami, ends up as a finalist for the ends up as a, you know, one of the top quarterbacks in the country to finalist for the Heisman Trophy. You can't blame a guy for going that and he was effective in his brief stint. And if you have a chance to go to Miami, you go and you know, he's going to get a chance now to, you know, at North Texas to maybe be an fba, you know, an FBS starting quarterback next year. He's an interesting player because he is a very much a slightly undersized gunslinger quarterback who's just going to, just going to chuck it out there. But yeah, it would be, it's interesting. It'll be interesting. I do think he was a player. His stock was never going to be higher than it was after last year. It made sense to get the NIL money and find an opportunity like that.
[00:52:08] Speaker B: Back to you, Albany. Before we wrap this up, what do you think Greg Kattusu has to do on the recruiting trail this year?
[00:52:14] Speaker A: I mean, he's done a good job at it before, which is they are really, really good at identifying unsung talent, guys from lower levels, guys who maybe haven't gotten opportunities elsewhere, guys who were under recruited or undersized going into college and now are have rounded into form guys like Anton Yukaj and the late AJ Simon from the 2023. The 2023 team. So this, they really just have to follow that blueprint and then hope that they're a turnaround. This is a team that has kind of showed a, they're a wave program that they can turn around a little quicker. That it's not a two, three year process that can be. We had one off here and now we're back.
[00:53:00] Speaker B: I appreciate a few minutes and happy New Year. Thanks. That's Adam Schinder. More of the year in review here on the Parting Shots podcast. Coming up.
[00:53:29] Speaker D: If you really want to know what's going on in your community.
[00:53:31] Speaker C: You have to read the Daily Gazette. We don't take a side. We're right down the middle and we're gonna get to the truth. Our reporters and photographers are out in the field bringing you updates every minute with trust, accuracy and integrity.
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[00:54:00] Speaker A: Hi, this is Daily Gazette news editor Andrew Pacliese.
[00:54:03] Speaker D: I would like to wish you a happy holiday season and a great 20.
[00:54:08] Speaker C: Hi, this is Daily Gazette sports reporter Will Springstedt. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season and a Prosperous and Healthy 2025.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. And it was a big high school year both in the Capital Region and in Hudson Valley area. And Kyle Adams and Christian Heintz will be talking about that. Kyle, it was a big year for Burn Hills.
Three state championships I believe. Right? Yep.
[00:54:36] Speaker E: They won the program's first state championship in softball, won the third state championship overall in field hockey. And Liam Carlin won a state championship as a wrestler at 145 pounds.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So how big was that for the school, had those state champs?
[00:54:53] Speaker E: I mean, Burn Hills is a school that has a lot of state champions year in and year out, it seems. But the softball especially having not won a state title and having not won a section title in decades, and to go out and not just win the section, but win a state, you know, was pretty big for a program that had never been there before. And Liam Carlin was a wrestler who had progressively been working his way up, you know, fourth place as a sophomore, second place, fourth place as a freshman, second place as a sophomore. And to win it as a junior was just kind of him finishing it off.
You know, Volleyball is obviously a sport that you hear a lot about at Burn Hills. But this past year it was, you know, some new schools, new, new sports programs got in the mix.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Question for you. Obviously you start, you're here at the Gay Z Family newspapers this year. What has the job been like for you being down there in the Hudson Valley area?
[00:55:56] Speaker F: I've enjoyed it very much. It started very quick too. So I officially began the job at the end of May. And less than two weeks later, I covered one of the. The ending to one of the more historic seasons in the Trim Conference history. Chatham won its third straight baseball title and Taconic Hills made its second baseball championship game in school history, first in over 30 years. So definitely started quick with that. And then in the fall, one of the bigger things that I covered was the struggles with numbers for a lot of football programs. So the only team to have 30 or more players was Hudson, who ironically had canceled their two previous seasons due to the lack of numbers on their roster. And yeah, they were, they had. They were the winningest team in the Columbia Green region with three. With the three and seven record overall.
[00:56:53] Speaker B: Which.
[00:56:55] Speaker F: Obviously not an achievement, but just with the. Just the difficult year in terms of numbers for teams in that region with. Exactly. And Kaksaki, Athens and Taconic Hills canceling their 11 man seasons due to numbers dwindling down due to players leaving or injuries. And both teams finished in eight man. They played two eight man games to close out their seasons in October and November, sharing schedule space with Tactical Care. Durham, which is the only eight man team that officially played the sport in section two this season.
And Chatham also canceled the game at halftime. So they were Part of that sort of greater issue and the region when it came to football.
But there was several soccer teams that found quite a bit of success. Both the Chatham boys and girls teams respectively, coached by Aaron Willis and Sean Willis, who are brothers. Aaron Willis, he was in his fifth season this year. They went 12, 5, 1, which was the highest win total that the team has ever had under his tenure. And finished with a quarterfinal sectional loss to Maple Hill, who historically is very dominant in Class C when it comes to Section 2 postseason play. And yeah, travel and girls soccer. They made their first sectional final game in Class B in over a decade. This year lost just two games, only one within their classification. And the other ended their season against Mechanicville in a game that sort of went down to the last 10, 20 minutes. And their leading player, Addy Perry, reached over 100 goals.
She set the school record for scoring within the program over the past two years. School record for scoring within a season the past two years.
And she graduates next year. So the team will likely look quite a bit different. And yeah, Ichabod Crane nearby had a similar thing with Brenda Costa setting the large school records for large school record for career goals scored with 93. So large schools, classes A through AAA and his team also made a sectional final in Class A.
Fell to Shaman in overtime. And think about Crane's volleyball team was also very successful. They won the Class B sectional title title over Broadway in Perth and went to regionals against Section 1 Blind Brook and finished in or fell in five sets. So that's the arguably the most successful season in coach Adam Boris's 13 year tenure.
And so far this winter season we have a couple of basketball teams who have been particularly dominant so far. Both Hudson and Catskill, they're 5 and 0 and they've won several games by quite significant margins. So looking forward to seeing what both of those teams have in store this season.
[00:59:52] Speaker B: Kyle, what else? Big news happened in Section 2 in 2024.
[01:00:00] Speaker D: So.
[01:00:03] Speaker E: One of the biggest things I think to start the spring season was, you know, you have, you had the first season of girls flag football and you know, you saw the Suburban council kind of have a.
Most of its teams and one other start out with that last year Troy was the only one that had a team and they were traveling an hour or two out of section every day. So you have a 12 team new league for girls sports. And you know, you add on to that, you know, girls wrestling which was also recently added. So you see some progress, you know, on that's on that side of you know, adding opportunities for girls sports.
You know, more recently, I've been dealing with some of the, just the football and athletic director woes with Scotia Glenville. Yeah, that's taken up a chunk of time figuring that stuff out.
[01:00:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been big news. Yeah.
[01:01:02] Speaker E: And then, you know, we've talked a lot about Mark Sosbel coming back to Schenectady. Who, you know, I, I started hearing his name probably in August as a, just a rumor. And, you know, at the time I didn't really know the background of it. And, you know, we were talking in the office about, you know, who he was and his history and, you know, I kind of had to learn on the fly while I was writing those stories and the interesting parts of that story. It was actually kind of a two or three way race as to who was going to be the coach. And Salisville came out on top of it just from, you know, his role with the district and his, his experience.
But it's, there's definitely a lot of big stuff going on.
[01:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, Kyle and Christian appreciate a few minutes to talk about high school football and we'll get back together. We'll have a big 2025 here for you guys.
[01:01:57] Speaker F: Absolutely.
[01:01:59] Speaker B: All right, thanks. Happy holidays to you guys too. I'll wrap up about how my thoughts on Union Hockey in 2024, both men and women, coming up next here on the Parting Shots podcast.
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[01:02:45] Speaker D: Hi, this is Daily Gazette sportswriter Mike McAdam. I would like to wish you a happy holiday season and a great 2025.
[01:02:53] Speaker A: Hi, this is Daily Gazette features editor Adam Schinder. I would like to wish you a happy holiday season and a great 2025.
[01:03:01] Speaker B: Welcome back. It's now my turn to talk my thoughts about college hockey in 2024 and obviously interesting year in college hockey, especially ECAC hockey. I think the big news coming out of ECAC hockey in 2024 was the announcement over the summer that Cornell head coach Mike Schaefer, who's been there since 1995, also at Cornell, grad, he's going to retire at the end of this season. Casey Jones, who had been the head coach at Clarkson and is also a Cornell graduate, joined Schaefer staff to become the associate head coach and the head coach in waiting. So, you know, Mike's been like around a long time in this league and he said something was going to happen with his career when Cornell won the ECAC hockey tournament in Lake Placid in March. And his emotion after the game winning, crying. I don't think anybody had ever seen Mike cry before. I mean, Mike's a very stoic individual, emotional at times and. But he was. This is a different kind of emotion that he showed and I thought maybe that was going to be it. He was going to announce a retirement after winning the ECH hockey tour because they went to the NCAA tournament and almost got there to the Frozen Four.
But one last ride for Mike Schaefer through the conference.
Cornell will be here on February 28th. Schaefer's final visit to Messer Rink, barring any ECAC hockey tournament games or game or games. Obviously a first round game and then the best of three series after that. So we'll see what happens there with the men's team. They had a decent season in 2024 and they got a home ice playoff again for the second straight season. This time they took care of business, beating Brown 6 nothing. Moved on to the quarterfinals where two tough games at Dartmouth. They fell to the Big Green in a sweep.
And I think this year they got off to a good start, but they stumbled a little bit lately, you know, losing twice to Vermont before heading into the holiday break. They'll be back in action first Friday in February. They go to Brown and Yale that weekend. On the women's side, the coaching change took place in the summer. It was sort of a late move. Josh Skiba, who had been coaching Union for several years, announced his resignation to join the New York Sirens of the Professional Women's Hockey League. He's an assistant coach there. And so that left Union without a coach. But then they looked at to Clarkson sort of like what they did with the men's vacant vacancy a couple of years ago when they hired associate head coach Josh Howjee to become the Garner Chargers new head coach. They went back to Clarkson. This time they saw Tony Macy. There was the associate head coach with the Golden Knights and will help them win a pair of NCAA hockey titles. He was named the head coach in July and he's got this program going in the right direction. The team has won five East AC hockey games. That's the most ties for the most that the team has ever won in their Division one existence. And so it's going to be interesting to see how they perform in the second half. Quinnipiac and Princeton come to town next weekend when Union resumes play. And I think Clarkson, St. Lawrence come in after that.
So that's going to be some interesting times for this team. Of course, the last couple years they seem to be in a good playoff position and they collapsed two years ago. They failed to make the tournament. That was the final year of just 10 teams making the tournament. And then last year they finished 11th loss to Yale in that first round game. Union looking to try to get home ice in the ECA's hockey tour in maybe a first round game. They. They pull off some. They've had played some interesting games. They've. Yeah, they won at Cornell for the first time nationally ranked team. The next day they almost won at nationally ranked Colgate and defending EC hockey champions the Raiders. But the Raiders prevailed there. They almost won at Clarkson, another nationally ranked team. They lost that one in overtime. And so this team has some resiliency. This is the team that for years they just didn't know what they were going to do. They never seem to get some talented players in here and losses after losses after losses. But I think Tony Macy's got this program moving in the right direction. And of course the big news.
Ongoing construction of the Mohawk harbor arena down near the Rivers Casino. That continues to go on and it seems to be on schedule. I drive by there every day and it seems like they're. They're really on a good pace right here to be ready to open next season. We know that Union will host Army West Point in the first game. That's the men. We don't know the women's schedule just yet. I'm hoping that if Union does it right that they would probably do a double header, a men's, women's double header for the first ever games at the new arena. Of course, coming up in 2025, there will be a lot of celebrations of the final days of Messerink bringing back some of the former women's players including the first ever team. And then the first Division 1 team. And the men will have the Division 3 team that played for the 1984 national championship. Of course that was for famously remembered by a four overtime victory over RIT in the semifinal. And then the first Division 1 Newton men's team in 1991. 92 will be honored and the first Frozen Four team, the 2011-12 team will be honored as well. Of course the will be interesting. Another coaching move happened over the summer that former Union head coach Rick Bennett, who guided Union to the national championship in 2014 and the first Frozen 4 appearance two years earlier, was hired as an assistant coach at Quinnipiac. And then Quinnipiac coming to town in February. And I think there's got to be a lot of emotions heading into that game for I think the Union fans, for Rick. I know Rick really has reached out to Rick. When he was named the assistant coach, we heard rumors throughout the summer and talking with Joe Dumay at the Union golf outing in July, he basically confirmed it, but there was really no official news yet about it and it was sort of quietly announced in late August. So I think Rick declined, politely declined to speak with me, but I think hopefully he'll want to talk prior to the team Quinnipiac coming to Union in February. And one other mention, as we mentioned, the Frozen four championship team. They were at the in town for the summer. They had a golf outing. They got a chance to tour or at least see the construction going on. They signed a beam that will be displayed in the new building when it opens in September.
They did that right that weekend with the golf with the Union team. They had a celebration at Mohawk harbor with the fans made up for what happened in February. So it was sort of a half scene, like thrown together celebration with the 10 year anniversary team. I know a lot of some of the players like Shane Gossipsbera, Daniel Carr, Matt Bode, Matt Wilkins, they're still playing at this time. I knew they couldn't make but it seemed like it was sort of thrown together haphazardly. And I think they, and I wrote about this, I think they missed a golden opportunity to make some money with merchandise. They had a logo, they had it on a towel they gave out to fans when they were honoring the Frozen four championship team. But there were no hats, no T shirts, no hoodies. And I think they really missed a chance to really profit off of that. So.
So we'll see what happens with the men's and women's teams heading into 2025. Of course, you can follow my coverage of the team and in print and online@daily gazette.com so I'll come back. We'll have the latest winner in the Daily Gazettes. You pick a football contest and we'll wrap up the final podcast of 2024. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[01:12:04] Speaker D: It's the most historic conference in college hockey.
[01:12:08] Speaker B: It's a battle night in and night out.
[01:12:11] Speaker D: ECAC Hockey, an iconic conference, home to.
[01:12:14] Speaker C: 12 of the most prestigious universities and.
[01:12:16] Speaker D: Programs in the world and showcasing the best student athletes in the sport. Top notch facilities and arenas, incomparable traditions, passionate fans, alumni who go on to become elite professionals, leaders and champions.
[01:12:31] Speaker F: ECAC hockey.
[01:12:33] Speaker D: There's no experience like it.
[01:12:39] Speaker B: This is Daily Gazette Betsy Lind and Henry Lind.
[01:12:43] Speaker D: We hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season and a Prosperous and Healthy 2025.
[01:12:52] Speaker B: Hello, this is John D'Agostine, the president of the Daily Gazette Company. I want to wish you and your family the happiest of holidays Back to wrap up the podcast the week 16 winner in the Daily Gazettes you pick a football contest was Matt Kurod of Clifton park with a15.1 record. Matt wins a $100 Hannaford gift card. Congratulations. The VIP winner was Scott Lucher of CapitaLand GMC with a13.3 record. I went 11 5. I improved to 173 and 67. My Gazette colleague Adam Schinder was also 11 5. He is 168 and 72.
I'll announce the U Pickham football contest winner's name and that winner's name will appear in Thursday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailygazette.com and click on the you pick'em football banner.
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That wraps up another edition of the Parting Shots Podcast. I want to thank my Gazette colleagues Will Springstead, Mike McAdam, Adam Schinder, Kyle Adams and Christian Hines for coming on the show. We'll resume the weekly podcast with Union men's head hockey coach Josh Halji next Wednesday. If you have questions for Josh, email to me at shot. That's s c h o t
[email protected] that's also the address to email me if you have any questions about the podcast. You can follow me on X Threads and bluesky at Slapshots.
Views expressed in the Pawning Shots podcast are not necessarily those of the Daily Gazette Company. The Parting Shots podcast is a production of the Daily Gazette Company. I'm Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Shots. Thanks for listening throughout 2024 and I'll catch you in 2025 from the Pony Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day, good sports and happy new year.
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