Archive: Sports

Coming on the heels of a successful fall varsity season, Athletic Director Adam Heck says Lansing can look forward to a great winter season for basketball, bowling, indoor track, wrestling, and boys swim teams.  In addition, Lansing received the New York State Good Sport Award for Section 4.  The award is for the winter and spring seasons of last year, plus this fall's season.  Only 11 schools receive the award, granted by the New York State Sportsmanship Committee, among all the schools in the state.

"We were really proud to receive that," Heck says.  "I think that exemplifies our coaches and our student athletes.  It was a great year and a great fall season."

Heck says the fall season was great.  While there were fewer state qualifiers than in past years, he says every team competed well and grew with every game and practice.

"Just about every team had a winning season," he says.  "Every team got better throughout the year.  Our football team dealt with quite a bit of adversity, but they competed in every game.  They had another new coach and lost a lot of players.  But they just kept competing, which I thought was great."

Boy's Soccer finished 14 and 3.  Girl's Soccer finished 16 and 1, and won the league championship.  The volleyball team finished 11 and 4.  The cross country team one state qualifyer, junior Cameron Bruce, who finished number 6 in New York State, and qualified for the Federation meet.  There, he finished 43rd among every cross country athlete in the entire state.  The Girls Swimming team won IACs. 

"It was another league championship for coach Hicks-Hughes," Heck says.  "They finished second in the sectional championship.  They just missed qualifying for State.  They had a relay team that missed it by, I want to say, a hundredth of a second.  That was disappointing, but she was really happy with the year that they had."

The fall season had a mix of new and returning coaches, and Heck himself was new in the role of Athletic Director.  The winter season has all returning coaches.  He says that makes a huge difference. 

Heck is coaching boys basketball for his 9th year.  He says this year's team is young with three sophomores and a freshman playing significant time on the field, along with some returning athletes.  The new players all came up from the junior varsity team.  With the graduation of 7 seniors from the team, this will be a building year for Lansing.

"We're a work in progress," he says.  "We're young.  We're 0 and 2.  We lost our first game by 4 and our second game by 2.  None of our players have played significant varsity minutes yet, so they're all in brand new roles.  This is a unique situation.  I've never had a team this young in age and experience, but they know it's their time.  The kids have really been working hard, so I'm happy with that."


Varsity girls basketball beat Marathon and Dryden to start the season 2 and 0. 
Heck says this year's team will build around senior Jocelyn Ford.

"She makes her teammates better," Heck says.  "Knowing how Coach Dean coaches his girls, it all comes down to whether they play defense.  They are well coached and they have the tools to have another great year."

Heck says bowling coach Doug Volbrecht is an athletic director's dream, because he has the experience and willingness to take care of everything the team needs.  He is looking forward to another great bowling season.

Matt Scheffler and Peter McKay are back to coach indoor track.  Heck says there are some strong athletes on the team, and the fact that they can compete in all three seasons -- cross country in the fall, indoor track in winter,  and outdoor track in the spring -- means that they are well prepared for the spring season, which Heck says is the most significant because college recruiters look at athletes in the spring.

Doug Dake has been Lansing's successful wrestling coach for years, and will be continuing a family tradition that included his father coaching the wrestling team, his son Kyle, now a Cornell student, becoming the Division 1 college national champion, and son Corey also an outstanding wrestler.

"I think this year is going to be one of their better years," Heck says.  "Doug won't say it, but I look at the kids he has.  The key for our wrestling team is to fill every weight class.  Typically it comes down to strength and technique.  I think they have a chance to have a great year."

Dave Huffman is coaching the boys swim team for his second year.  They started the season 2 and 0.  Over the past few years a number of very strong swimmers have graduated, but Heck says there are some young swimmers including middle school athletes Joe Koch and Neil Ruppereilla, who are competing on the varsity team this year.

"The kid to watch out for is Clement Towner," Heck says.  "Great kid, great leader.  He has already qualified for states in two events.  This early that's unheard of.  He does such a great job as a leader.  He's on the PA every morning promoting the team and getting some excitement in the pool."

"What I love about this job the most is that I get to see kids in a different environment than just the classroom or my team," Heck concludes.  "I get to visit them in swim practice, or basketball or volleyball.  Whatever the sport is, that's fun.  That's what makes this the best job."

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