A regular season game between schools from Section VI and Section V? A Monsignor Martin

small school taking on a Section V champion and a Section VI champion? A Section VI runner-up

taking on a four-time Monsignor Martin defending champion? A shuffle in Class A leading to a

regular-season matchup of teams we're used to seeing in the playoffs? Not one, not two, but

three matchups between Monsignor Martin large schools and Section VI teams?

All that and more is included in a 2009 schedule that is more intriguing than any in recent

years.

The complete week-by-week schedule is on the back cover of this preview, but here's an

outline of the headliners as the season kicks off.

There might not be a blockbuster in Week One, but there appears to be plenty of balance.

Three state champions kick off Friday night, with Orchard Park's defense looking forward to

the challenge of Lockport standout running back David Fluellen, Southwestern hosting

Allegany-Limestone while Maple Grove has former 20-year Randolph assistant Dave Emley on its

sideline as the Dragons host the rival Cardinals.

More nonleague action on opening night has North Tonawanda making a tough trip to

Jamestown. East Aurora hosts Iroquois again in their recently revived rivalry. St. Mary's

travels to defending Section V champion Bath, which beat Lackawanna in last year's Far West

Regionals. Canisius opens on the road with a major test as it becomes the first of four

Monsignor Martin teams to take on Rochester power Aquinas. Medina at former Class A playoff

team Cheektowaga could be an entertaining season starter in Class B North.

Saturday includes two tone-setting league games as Williamsville South heads to Grand

Island in Class A and Lackawanna travels to Olean for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff in Class B South. In

the afternoon, Sweet Home becomes the last state champ to open up when it hosts AA school

Clarence; St. Joe's is at Niagara Falls, and two AA semifinalists battle when Lancaster plays

at Kenmore West.

Weekly highlights

Week Two: The Harvard Cup kicks off a week after the rest of Western New York with a nice 5

p.m. Friday matchup of Grover Cleveland facing Hutch-Tech, while defending champion Riverside

takes on Burgard on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Week Three: In a matchup that is always circled on a Saturday afternoon, Grand Island is at

Sweet Home. Two very interesting nonleaguers are at the same time as Southern Tier teams head

to Buffalo-area Catholic schools: Jamestown at Canisius and Southwestern at St. Mary's.

Depew at Maryvale in B North should be entertaining on Friday, while fans also have three

Thursday games to pick from in the Northtowns.

Week Four: Southwestern plays its second straight tough nonleaguer as it hosts Lackawanna

— that's last year's Class C winner hosting last year's Class B winner. On Saturday

evening, one of the nation's perennial powers visits Western New York when St. Ignatius of

Cleveland plays at St. Francis.

Week Five: Possibly the most anticipated regular season game in Section VI, because it

seems to be a perennial playoff matchup, has Sweet Home playing at Iroquois on Friday night.

It's a rematch of last year's final (and also the 2006 final).

Two more meetings don't need much explanation because they are great ones every year:

Orchard Park at Lancaster on Friday night; St. Joe's at Canisius on Saturday afternoon.

Another top matchup is a rare one: Fredonia, which lost last year's Class B final, makes a

trip north to take on four-time defending Monsignor Martin League A champion Cardinal O'Hara.

Week Six: Two game-of-the-year matchups occur — in the Harvard Cup, Riverside and

Grover Cleveland play a rematch of last year's final, while in Class C South, Southwestern

welcomes new league mate Fredonia. Orchard Park takes an early trip to Section V to take on

Victor — plenty of people will be watching that one to gauge possible regional matchups.

" alt="The 100th Tonawanda-North Tonawanda rivalry game is amont the highlights of Week Seven"

align="left" hspace="12" >

Week Seven: It's rivalry weekend, headlined by the 100th T-NT game. In the non-rivalry

department, St. Mary's is at Cardinal O'Hara in the top Monsignor Martin League A regular

season matchup.

Week Eight: Section VI gets its playoffs started; Riverside meets McKinley on Friday at 5

p.m.

Week Nine: While Section VI hits the semifinals, the Game of the Year in the Monsignor

Martin Association has Canisius at St. Francis at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30.

Weeks 10 through 13: Time to crown champions — this year's regionals and state

semifinals will both be held at Rochester's Marina Auto Park. The Monsignor Martin's

championship doubleheader has Thursday, Nov. 12 all to itself (last year it shared a Friday

with regional action).

Fields of dreams

It's been a while since anyone has raved about the look of Depew's athletic complex behind

the school. Forty years to be exact.

"When I first came here 40 years ago, that field was brand new," said Dan McGrath, the

school's athletic director and football coach. "We were just moving over here from the

Northside Field. It was a state-of-the-art complex. There was [a] new grandstand, new lights,

a new field, and of course, a great cinder track."

Times have changed, and that's good news for student-athletes, who don't have to travel to

Iowa to see a Field of Dreams, rather just look out of a classroom window. Hamburg also

installed synthetic turf transforming the look of Howe Field. Depew's field is part of a $33

million capital improvement project approved by voters in 2007.

The makeover began last year when new grandstands, press box and concession stands were

added.

The field was installed by A-Turf, a company based in Cheektowaga. The district's physical

education classes and other sports teams will use the multipurpose complex, named for late

coach and AD Frank Constantino.

"This project completely demolished the old complex and rebuilt it," McGrath added. "It's

kind of like back to when I first walked in here. It's back to being one of the best athletic

complexes in the area."

Wide receiver/defensive back Aaron Rybak will not miss the Wildcats' old practice site,

down a hill behind the district's bus garage. He said when it rained he'd be so caked with mud

he'd shower in his clothes to wash away the layers of mud. "You'd be dripping from mud. I

don't think the janitor appreciated it too much when the locker room was full of it," he said.

Depew will play its first game on its new field on Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Newfane.

Flood sacks Gowanda

While Depew celebrates its new surroundings, the opposite is true in Gowanda, where flood

waters deluged Howard Hillis Field field beyond use this season. The Panthers will play all

their home games at neutral sites.

It's been quite an introduction to the Athletic Director job for Tony Puntillo, who was

hired in July. Gowanda will play its "home" games at Silver Creek, Pioneer and Eden. Puntillo

said he appreciates the outpouring of support he received from other schools who offered use

of their facilities.

Hillis Field was renovated two years ago as a track, bleachers, lockerroom, concessions,

new lights and a computerized scoreboard were upgraded or added. Workers were in over the

weekend cleaning the track and efforts are ongoing to remove sediment from the field. Everyone

is pitching in around school and in town, especially the players.

"These boys really pulled it together," said Puntillo. "They were out in the community one

Saturday and put in about six hours, they had a bucket brigade going. Everyone's been working

hard."

Other football fields in motion include Lake Shore, which is playing its games at Hamburg

while its field is being renovated, and Forestville, which will play at Silver Creek since its

field is being relocated.

Dividing up the divisions

Some of the most significant changes in 2009 are in Section VI's divisions.

Class A is now one 11-team grouping after the combining of A North and A South. The top

eight teams will make the playoffs.

Class D has gone the other way — diversifying from two divisions to three. Instead of

the two-tiered system of DD and D divisions based on size, the smallest classification is

split into D East, D Central and D West. The top two teams in each division, plus two wild

cards, will make the playoffs.

Who's up? Who's down?

The divisional realignment was due to some schools' shifting in classification.

Cheektowaga dropped down from Class A to Class B and landed in Class B North.

Alden was bumped from B North to B South, which lost two teams as Fredonia and Eden both

dropped down from B to C. Eden is in C North and Fredonia is in C South.

Silver Creek, a finalist in Class C last year, has dropped down to Class D and its new home

is the D Central. Westfield also moved down, going from C South to D West.

Who's gone?

Brocton, Hinsdale and Walsh all decided in the last month to not field varsity teams this

season, reducing Western New York's total number of football programs to 84 and causing

several scheduling headaches.

"That was a first for me, and I've been doing this for a while," 26th-year Section VI

football chairman Chuck Funke said regarding the recent decisions by Brocton and Hinsdale. "I

think we've had teams bow out because of budget difficulties, but not this. It concerns me."

Hinsdale dropped its program when it had 14 players come out for the second day of

practice. Brocton's numbers were better, but the majority of players were underclassmen with

no varsity experience; Brocton has a JV schedule this year and is expected to move back to a

varsity schedule in future seasons.

Section VI was able to get quick approval from the state to have Hinsdale players join

Ellicottville's program, which Funke said was not problematic since Ellicottville's

classification (D) wouldn't have been altered.

Sherman/Ripley is the section's other combined team, and Funke said more mergers could be

on the way.

"I think the little schools are going to have trouble. A lot of smaller schools are talking

about mergers, not necessarily the districts, but the athletic programs. West Valley is

getting really low on numbers, Clymer, Sherman obviously. You may see some more schools

merging; that might lower our D numbers and increase our C classification.

Funke said he talked to state chairman Dick Cerone about the Class D guidelines being re-

examined. Currently the enrollment number for Class D schools is 275.

"Maybe its something unique to us with so many D schools, but we've always had — call

it what you will — but haves and have-nots," said Funke, referring to an unofficial

competitive level that divides the largest and smallest D schools. "We've been trying for

years — every year at the state meeting we ask to drop the numbers in the D class.

Programs are really different when you have 250 kids or you have 100 kids. If we could have

dropped those numbers [the cutoff for Class D], we could have created a bigger C class and

have fewer D schools, which would be good for schools like Sherman, Panama and Clymer."

Who's the coach?

Dick Diminuco announced his retirement from Albion after 30 years as coach and 34 years as

Director of Athletics. The Nov. 1, 2008 News reported that Albion's consolation bowl loss to

East Aurora "was the final game in the coaching career of Albion's Dick Diminuco, whose 204-60

record in 30 seasons had him as the winningest active coach in Western New York."

Turns out he's still active — Diminuco will add to that total (also third on WNY's

all-time list) this season after taking over at Alden.

Other coaching changes:

David Hack, Niagara-Wheatfield (replaces Alan Pogel); Diminuco, Alden (replaces Lance

Cayea); Tim Majka, Dunkirk (replaces Dave Damico); Tony Osburn, Albion (replaces Diminuco);

Alex Haney, Newfane (replaces Vic Thibault); Mike Ginestre, Falconer (replaces Dan Krenzer);

Chuck Tilley, Eden (replaces Larry Millson); Sean Gabel, Gowanda (replaces Mark Leous); Chris

Smith, Roy-Hart (replaces Joe Capcio); Dan Greco, Chautauqua Lake (replaces Trevor Nickerson);

Rob North, Westfield (replaces Jake Hitchcock); Edward Wilson, McKinley (replaces Joe Dugan).

Preseason polls

The News' polls will begin next week. Here's a preseason list from The News, which has one

vote on each poll:

Large schools: 1. Orchard Park; 2. Sweet Home; 3. North Tonawanda; 4. Iroquois; 5.

Lancaster; 6. St. Francis; 7. Canisius; 8. Riverside; 9. Kenmore West; 10. Williamsville

South.

Small schools: 1. Southwestern; 2. Maple Grove; 3. Lackawanna; 4. Fredonia; 5. Cleveland

Hill; 6. Depew; 7. Alden; 8. Cardinal O'Hara; 9. Randolph; 10. Cheektowaga.

How did The News come up with the top 10s? Check out "How The News voted" at the Prep Talk

blog.

We're back

Returning All-Western New York selections: First team — OL Jasen Carlson,

Southwestern; K Chris Secky, Maple Grove; U Aaron Davis, North Tonawanda; second team —

DB Adam Redden, St. Francis; DB D.J. Nettles, Sweet Home; OL Sean Mulhern, St. Joe's (now at

Riverside); third team — QB Zack Sopak, Southwestern; RB David Fluellen, Lockport; RB

Levi Bursch, Southwestern; OL Matt Fox, Maple Grove; LB Mikal Coleman, Sweet Home.

Returning All-State selections: Fourth team — RB Fluellen, Lockport; second team

— DB Levi Pace, Medina; first team — OL Carlson, Southwestern; QB Zack Sopak,

Southwestern; second team — Zach Roberts, Silver Creek; second team — RB Levi

Bursch, Southwestern; LB Ryan Buzzetto, Southwestern; first team — QB Secky, Maple

Grove; LB Matt Fox, Maple Grove; second team — DE Nick Heil, Clymer.

Where are they going?

Some of the defending champs' top prospects: Sweet Home's D.J. Nettles said he has been

offered scholarships by the University at Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and

South Carolina. ... Orchard Park lineman Rob Kugler is being recruited by Syracuse and

Colorado State. ... Jasen Carlson of Southwestern is being recruited by UB.

Audibles

Orchard Park, Sweet Home, Southwestern and Maple Grove, by virtue of their 13-0 state

championship seasons, enter the year tied for the second-longest winning streak in the state.

Rye — which won its second straight championship in Class B — tops the list at 25;

Port Richmond of New York City is also at 13.

The state's mandated reduction of one game on the schedule only affects the

consolation bowls. After teams' seven-week regular season, they will be allowed two more games

(rather than three). Consolation bowls will involve the four best teams which did not make the

playoffs.

Falconer coach Mike Ginestre and Akron coach Chris Ginestre are brothers. "We talk

every night. The two of us are pretty tight," said Mike. "This being my first year, he's been

a real big help. We bounce stories off each other." Falconer plays in Class C South while

Akron is in Class C North. The only way the teams could meet this season is in the playoffs.

Mark, 37, and Chris, 36, are both Cardinal O'Hara graduates.

Frank Payne (Iroquois) and Chris Payne (Panama) are also brothers while Rich Gray

(Frontier) and Terry Gray (Frewsburg) are not related.

Spotlight next week

The first Scholastic Spotlight will be published next Tuesday, Sept. 8. League chairmen of

all sports are to provide standings and statistics each Sunday before 6 p.m. via phone

(849-4461), fax (849-4587) or e-mail (mmonnin@buffnews.com).