By Derek Liebig
When the Granville Board of Education decided last week to abandon the school district’s 30-year affiliation with the Wasaren League and seek admission to the Adirondack League, among the reasons given for the change was the desire to make Granville’s athletic programs more competitive.
Matt Hicks, who presented the case for moving to the smaller-school league, said Granville has been unable to compete in the Wasaren League, generally regarded as one of the best in the state. He noted that until this month, Granville teams were 0-50 versus Wasaren League opponents during the 2014-15 school year.
“The Wasaren League has left us (behind),” Hicks said.
So what are other districts doing that has allowed their programs to succeed?
Athletic directors at two of the Wasaren League’s most successful districts—Greenwich and Hoosick Falls—offered a roadmap to what they have done and possibly to what Granville isn’t doing.
Both cited coaching, and strength and training programs as the biggest keys to their success.
George Beck has been coaching baseball and boys basketball at Greenwich for two decades and he said the district has coaches who have been on the job for close to 30 years.
“The biggest thing is continuity with coaches,” Beck said. “Our head coaches have been in charge of the programs for a number of years. Honestly, it’s that simple. You have to have continuity to run the programs.”
Thomas Husser, athletic director at Hoosick Falls, arguably the most successful Wasaren League school over the past two decades, agreed. He said the coaching staff, at all levels, have been around for many years.
“I’d say the varsity coaches have been here, on average, eight to 10 years,” he said.
In Granville, football coach Mario Torres and wrestling coach Stephen Palmer are the only coaches who have been with their respective teams for longer than three years. And while Granville has some promising coaches, many are new to their respective programs.
The coaches of the boys and girls basketball teams are in their first year. The girls soccer coach, the golf coach and the cross country coaches have been on staff for two years and the field hockey coach three years. The varsity softball team has had a handful of coaches since it last won a league title in 2011.
Eileen Troy says continuity pays off.
“It’s really important. It’s just like teachers. You have to find good coaches and keep good coaches,” said Troy, a former athletic director and Section II official and a Granville resident.
“Coaches need to have that passion and love for the kids and the sport and the system has to help and support them,” she said. “It’s important that everyone is rowing in the same direction.”
Greenwich and Hoosick Falls have also embraced strength and conditioning programs.
“If I had to pick one thing it’s our strength and conditioning class,” Husser said.
He said in lieu of physical education, students can opt to take a strength and conditioning class.
“It’s really paid off,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, I think our kids are stronger and more fit than kids in other programs.”
Greenwich has a similar program where students can take a personal fitness class.
“We have about 100 students who are weight training on a daily basis,” Beck said.
Whitehall Central School forged an agreement last spring with the Whitehall Athletic Club that allows student-athletes to train at the facility and the district hired a strength and conditioning coach last fall.
Railroaders Athletic Director Keith Redmond credited the district’s strength training program with contributing to the baseball team’s Adirondack League title last spring, and the football team’s Class D North regular season championship last fall.
Greenwich and Hoosick Falls also boast of strong participation rates in varsity athletics.
Beck said between 67 and 75 percent of students at Greenwich participate in athletics. And while he didn’t know the percentage of students at Hoosick Falls participating in a varsity sport, he said it was well above 50 percent.
Earlier this year, Granville officials said only 29 percent of senior boys participated in varsity athletics.
The rate was similar for girls, and at nearly every grade level participation rates were below 50 percent.
Troy said officials need to monitor those numbers and keep an eye on them to see if it changes over time.
“Don’t wait until they become seniors,” she said.
She said coaches and teachers need to promote their programs.
“It doesn’t always need to be your coaches,” Troy said. “It can be faculty who take an interest in the sport. Your faculty can be a big recruiter.”
Winning doesn’t hurt either.
“Winning breeds more winning and greater participation,” Husser said. “The kids have really bought into what we’re doing here.”
Other keys to success include strong youth programs and a supportive administration.
“If the administration and the board aren’t supporting the coaches and the parents are running the show from the outside, you are not going to have success,” Beck said. “Rather than get out of a league where the competition is too tough (Granville) should work on strengthening their programs.”