Good Morning! With the Border Country Sports Blog, I'm Keith Harrington.
Today is the day that high school athletes on the New York side of the border have been waiting for nearly two years. Fall sports practices around the area begin today. Vermont teams began their fall sports practices last week.
Last year Vermont ended up starting their fall season late. Even though football was 8 v 8 touch, other fall sports in the Green Mountain state went off as usual. State championships were even held. Despite the fact they we were in the middle of a pandemic things went fairly smooth.
Although a few leagues in New York played medium and low risk sports last fall, most schools, including members of the Adirondack League participated in the Fall II sports season and managed to squeeze three shortened sports seasons into the final months of the school year.
Currently the plan for both New York and Vermont is that high school sports will take place as usual. Tackle football is back and the season is scheduled to begin on time. Of course with the rise in cases of the Delta variant of the virus the situation is still a fluid one. Some precautions will still be in place including masks for indoor sports and reduced crowd sizes with social distancing, but that is still a much better spot than we were in a year ago.
In my opinion the difference is experience with handlng the virus. Last fall their was no knowledge on how to deal with holding high school sports during a pandemic. Now that the Vermont season went well last fall despite the virus raging at the time and the success of New York sports at the end of the school year the precedent has been set. There should be confidence that we can do this successfully instead of the skeptisism about the unknown that officials were feeling last fall.
I can wait to get out to the practices and games to cover this year's action of our local teams on both sides of the border. I will be seeing everyone soon.
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Devil's Bowl Results from Saturday Night
Devil's Bowl Speedway was back in action with a rehgular show on Saturday night. The sportsmen modified, super stocks, mini stocks and 500 cc mini sprints all ran double feature events. Here are the results:
Sportsman Modified - Feature #1 (25 laps) 1. 85P Mike Palmer - Salisbury, VT 2. 60W Anthony Warren - Shoreham, VT 3. 13 Frank Hoard III - Manchester Center, VT 4. 60 Jimmy Ryan - Shoreham, VT 5. 111 Demetrios Drellos - Queensbury, NY
Sportsman Modified - Feature #2 (25 laps) 1. 13 Frank Hoard III - Manchester Center, VT 2. 78 Vince Quenneville - Brandon, VT 3. 10 Don Mattison - Wells, VT 4. 111 Demetrios Drellos - Queensbury, NY 5. 54 Tim LaDuc - Orwell, VT
O'Reilly Auto Parts Limited Sportsman - Feature (25 laps) 1. 44 Justin Lilly - Castleton, VT - FIRST CAREER WIN 2. 5MJ Matt Jordan - Cambridge, NY 3. 51 Austin Comes - Middlebury, VT 4. 13 Troy Audet - Bridport, VT 5. 33 Melvin Pierson - East Corinth, VT
Super Stock - Feature #1 (15 laps) 1. 22 Mark Norris - Benson, VT 2. 2X Josh Bussino - Fair Haven, VT 3. 3B Paul Braymer - Granville, NY 4. 52 Jim McKiernan - Moriah Center, NY 5. 5 Chuck Bradford - Addison, VT
Super Stock - Feature #2 (15 laps) 1. 2X Josh Bussino - Fair Haven, VT 2. 52 Jim McKiernan - Moriah Center, NY 3. 3B Paul Braymer - Granville, NY 4. 22 Mark Norris - Benson, VT 5. 2 Michael Clark Jr. - Salisbury, VT
Mini Stock - Feature #1 (15 laps) 1. 19 Chris Sumner - Ripton, VT 2. 3 Jarrod Colburn - Rutland, VT 3. 44 Craig Kirby - St. Albans, VT 4. 25 Damian Olden - Poultney, VT 5. 75 Derrick Counter - Leicester, VT
Mini Stock - Feature #2 (15 laps) 1. 83 Mark Mahoney - Brandon, VT - FIRST CAREER WIN 2. 44 Craig Kirby - St. Albans, VT 3. 19 Chris Sumner - Ripton, VT 4. 18 Daryl Gebo - Orwell, VT 5. 11 T.J. Knight - Wells, VT
Friend Construction 500cc Mini Sprint - Feature #1 (12 laps) 1. 42JR Kamden Duffy - Richmond, NH 2. 17 Kaidin White - Monkton, VT 3. 10 John Smith - Poultney, VT 4. 67 Kevin Smith - Brandon, VT 5. 723 Ray Hanson - Orwell, VT
Friend Construction 500cc Mini Sprint - Feature #2 (12 laps) 1. 723 Ray Hanson - Orwell, VT 2. 42JR Kamden Duffy - Richmond, NH 3. 17 Kaidin White - Monkton, VT 4. 67 Kevin Smith - Brandon, VT 5. 11A Gage Provencher - Bridport, VT
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With the Border Country Sports Blog, I'm Keith Harrington.
Photo Credit-Stacie Arnhold
