It’s a new era of Suburban Council sports.
Beginning with the first varsity golf matches Monday, Aug. 24, the league is up to 16 schools. Four former Big 10 schools — Albany, Christian Brothers Academy, Schenectady and Troy — are now actively playing in the league.
“We’re very excited to be a part of a conference again,” said CBA athletic director Blaine Drescher. “We have a full schedule playing against some of the finest competition.”
Albany athletic director Kathleen Ryan said she’s looking forward to having her teams play in the Suburban Council.
`It’s a great time to be a Falcon,` said Ryan. `We’ve got a new on-campus field nearing completion, and going into the new league, how could you not be excited about playing at the highest level of competition?`
With the expansion comes new divisions and a new scheduling rubric. The league is divided into two divisions, blue and gray, and in some team sports, schools will only play against each other once. That’s different from last year, when there was room in the schedule for divisional rivals to meet twice.
“The process was really more of how can we make a well-balanced schedule and give everybody a chance to play each other,” said Colonie athletic director Joe Guardino.
The solution, said Guardino, was to select geographic rivalries for the schools and, where possible, have them play each other twice. Each school was assigned three rivals.
“(Shenendehowa athletic director) Chris Culnan – the league scheduler – did a lot of work to create a fair schedule for everyone,” said Guardino.
Soccer is one of the sports where teams will only play each other once during the regular season. This means divisional rivals such as Bethlehem and Guilderland or Shen and Saratoga will get one shot against each other.
For Bethlehem girls soccer coach Tom Rogan, losing the opportunity to play another team twice isn’t a big deal.
“For my first 10 years here, we played Shen twice every year, and then it switched to only playing them once,” said Rogan. “It was fine. You just deal with it.”
Rogan added the new alignment also means a new way of determining the league champion and Sectional seedings.
“In years past, we’ve had a very interesting point system in determining our league champions and determining our seedings, but this year we all get to play each other. So, we’re able to look at exactly how we did against each other. There’s no unbalanced schedule that way,” said Rogan. “There’s also one champion. I’ve never really liked the idea that a league of 12 teams would have two champions. I think it’s nice to have one champion out of there.”
Basketball is one of the sports where teams will have a chance to play each other twice. For example, Bethlehem will have two games against Colonie and Columbia this season, and then it will meet Guilderland twice next year along with either Colonie or Columbia.
“The one thing I’m actually happy about is that the teams you’re going to be seeing in Sectionals will all be there (in the league),” said Bethlehem boys basketball coach A.G. Irons. “The element of surprise won’t be there anymore.”
The divisions
The two-division model in place has eight of the oldest Suburban Council schools – Bethlehem, Colonie, Guilderland, Shaker, Shen, Niskayuna, Columbia and Saratoga Springs – in the Blue Division. Albany, CBA, Schenectady and Troy are in the Gray Division, along with Averill Park, Mohonasen, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Ballston Spa. The alignment can be changed following the 2016-17 school year.
“We tried to create divisions based on multiple things – one thing being the size of the schools, and one being geographics,” said Guardino.
Being grouped with programs such as Averill Park and Mohonasen – smaller schools that have had difficulty being consistently competitive in all sports – might seem beneficial to the former Big 10 schools as they begin adjusting to the Suburban Council, but Drescher said the schedule will be grueling.
“The coaches are expressing to our team(s) that there’s never going to be a night off. You’re going to have to bring your best game just to be in the game,” said Drescher.
Girls sports will be impacted differently from boys sports, too. Since CBA is an all-boys school, girls teams from the other 15 schools will have an extra date to fill on their schedules. Those open dates will be filled with non-league contests.
“Once we knew (expansion) was going to happen, those are no longer concerns. They are obstacles to overcome,” said Guilderland athletic director Regan Johnson.
Getting up to speed
Teams at Albany, Schenectady, Troy and CBA will be learning about Suburban Council competition on the fly. After the Big 10 broke up in the spring of 2014, those schools had independent schedules last year, but ultimately played against many of the same schools they did when they were in their own league.
CBA soccer coach Steve Freeman said he’s already told his players to expect a more challenging season in the Suburban Council.
“Most public school settings will have a deeper roster. Many of the public or Suburban Council schools have talent programs and start their players when they’re young. And at many of these town programs, they have some very good coaching going on,” said Freeman. “So, every program is probably going to be deeper, more experienced than us. We’re going to have to try to counteract that with our character.”
CBA senior Matt Crisafulli said he’s looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s going to be very different. Last year was much more relaxed, it wasn’t as intense,” said Crisafulli, who lives in Bethlehem. “This year … everyone needs to be on their game if we’re going to be the best we can be in order to win the games.”
Guardino was diplomatic when asked about how the former Big 10 schools would fit into the Suburban Council at a competitive level.
“I would say like with all of the Suburban Council schools, all the schools are strong in some sports and weaker in others,” said Guardino. “I think with everyone playing everyone, you’ll see the programs that are competitive and the ones that are building.”
Basketball is one of the few sports where the former Big 10 schools should be competitive in. CBA, Troy and Schenectady have had formidable boys teams in the past, and the Albany girls team has been to two Class AA Sectional finals in the last three years, winning one. But in sports such as soccer, boys lacrosse and wrestling, the former Big 10 schools may find it difficult to compete with their new league mates.
“I think it’s going to require those city schools to get better in some ‘suburban sports,’” said Irons.
Ryan said she is aware of the challenges her Albany teams will face, but she’s confident they will compete.
`We’ve got some teams that will do very well, we’ve got some teams who will finish in the middle of the pack and we’ve got some teams who will have to improve,` said Ryan.
Rogan said the best thing for Albany, Schenectady, Troy and CBA to do is to jump into Suburban Council life.
“I think it’s going to be some difficult early years for those programs, but … as they play the Suburban Council teams and as they see the level of play and the technical ability of the kids and how good they are, eventually kids adapt, and they should be able to eventually get to that level,” said Rogan.
