19 days til opening kick off

Hi there.  Well August 15th has arrived and that means in 19 days John Pratt and I will be in the press box at Putt LaMay Field at Glens Falls High for the first football broadcast of the 2011 season on WWSC.  My off season has ended and its back to doing play by play of high school football, basketball and ice hockey games on the radio.  It's amazing how fast the 5 months have flown by since we wrapped up the  2010 -2011 school sports year in Utica.
I'll try to get to a practice or two this week, but its doubtful.  I'm going to the track Thursday after I get done with the Morning Show.  Next week the heavy work gets done.  Getting out to morning practices at different schools everyday except for Tuesday when I'm at the Washington County Fair.  Catching up with and talking to coaches  I prefer watching practice with pads on as teams prepare for scrimmages next Saturday. I'll be heading to three of them that day.  Fort Edward, Hudson Falls and a night scrimmage in Lake George.  Then a week from Sunday its media day down at UAlbany where I can talk to the coaches of teams south of Saratoga and get rosters from them.  They're are a couple of coaches I really have good relationships with and make a point to talk to.  Classification football forces you to do so.  Think about it.  Hudson Falls plays teams like Cobleskill, Cohoes, and Schalmont.  The small schools play Rensselaer, Catholic Central, and Bishop Gibbons.   Its nothing like the good old days of the Foothills Council and Northern Adirondack League.
When it comes to the big schools like Queensbury, Glens Falls, S.Glens Falls and Hudson Falls, I wonder how competitive the teams will be in tough divisions and Class A is going to be real tough.  Troy and Niskayuna have dropped from Class AA to Class A which already has Burnt Hills/Ballston Lake, Lansingburgh and never count out Amsterdam or Bishop Maginn.
As for the small schools.  The big' "N" word always comes into play.  That word is numbers.  How many kids will actually turn out? I'm seriously worried about schools like Salem, Fort Edward, Lake George, Greenwich and Warrensburg. I'll throw Corinth in that group too. Two or three injuries can put schools like that on the cusp of the required minimum amount of players needed to field a team.  Will Saratoga Catholic have enough kids to come back and play a varsity schedule after not having enough last year? Soccer has nothing to do with the lack of kids playing football.  You have to be really committed to playing football and hitting the weight room during the off season.  Between summer jobs and other distractions, the kids aren't as motivated as they used to be.  Times have changed from the days when you played because all your friends played and it was another way to hang out with them.  Also football is an expensive sport to play, like ice hockey.
One more note.  We'll be putting a WWSC sports page on Facebook that will highlight the games we are doing on the radio, the student athletes Joe Pezzulo will be featuring on the Sports Academy and other points of interest.  I hope the rain stops...Leccese out.