Sports & Entertainment BARKER QB PROGRESSES Lockport Star / Saturday, October 18, 2014
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Starpoint golf sustains another dominant season
By Nick Sabato SPORTS REPORTER
Imagine never losing a game or a match…ever. That is what the Starpoint golf team is looking at as this year’s group of seniors has never lost a match. To be accurate, the Spartans have won 39 consecutive team matches over the last four years and have dominated the ECIC in that time span. “It’s pretty cool,” said Starpoint co-captain Nick Larson. “It’s nice but this year we have had to work pretty hard for it.” Larson is one of three seniors on the squad this year and has averaged a 43 for the year, which places him second on the team. While he has been a four-year stalwart for the Spartans, his love for the links goes back even further to when he served as the team manager in seventh and eighth grade. “I like that it is almost all on you,” said Larson. “I just like playing. It’s fun.” Golf is the ultimate individual sport, as many professionals will say that they are playing against themselves, rather than an opponent. When you factor in that sentiment along with the pressure that comes with winning nearly 40 matches in a row, it can weigh heavily on anybody. “We all have our bad matches now and then,” said senior Evan Lemma. “While at times you know you are going to do well and beat the other team, other times it’s mentally stressful.” Larson and Lemma are joined by co-captain and lead golfer Sean Brown as the senior leaders on the team. Brown, a fifth-year player, leads Starpoint with an average of 42 and was just one match away as an eighth grader from being unblemished for his entire career.
DAN HICKLING
Sean Brown, a senior, was Starpoint’s top golfer this year with an average of 42. He was never part of a Starpoint loss in his career. When a team exhibits such dominance over a long period of time, it is only natural for it to house friendly competitions between players on the team rather than with opponents. “Absolutely,” Lemma said of competing with his teammates. “To be honest, I think we compete with our teammates more than against other teams. It’s a lot of fun to play with these guys.” While Starpoint head coach Dave Schopf boasts three ex-
perienced seniors, he also has a number of younger players on the team. The Spartans have three juniors in Noah Day, Jake Brown and Brandon Joslin, but they also have three players that are still in middle school. They have two eighth graders in second-year player Connor MacDonald and Braden Zdrojewski, along with seventh grader Joe Dell’oso. In a tradition that was started when a senior took Sean
Brown under his wing, the seniors have done the same with the underclassmen this year. They often pair up with one of the younger players in matches to help them navigate the stress and mental pressure on the course. “Sean [Brown] knew the process,” said Schopf. “This year, Sean has assumed that leadership role and worked with the younger kids and so has [Larson]. They have both done a great job of being willing to work with the
Clare leads N-O in goal scoring
By Nick Sabato SPORTS REPORTER
Dominant would be the word to describe the Barker field hockey program over the past 20 years. The Raiders have countless sectional and Niagara Orleans League championships in that span and have churned out star player after star player. This year has been no exception as the Lady Raiders are still unbeaten as the regular season
wears down and once again a Barker player leads the league in goals. At the start of the season, many people may not have expected that Gabby Clare would be having the year that she is, but she has been as dominant as any player in all of Western New York. “Last year I missed a lot of the season because I broke my ankle,” said Clare. “So I was just getting to it last year, so this year I have been just working hard every day.” Clare missed the majority of the 2013 season with that broken ankle, but when she returned, she certainly brought an added punch to the offense with six goals in limited action.
See “Clare” on page B2
younger kids and help them as much as they can. It’s almost like it just keeps going from one season to the next where the seniors assume that role. They have done a great job with that and hopefully it continues next year.” In an individual sport, sometimes it helps to add the team element and to add a calming influence to an inexperienced player, which is exactly why Schopf pairs his older players with younger players. This is especially helpful
COLUMNIST
One year after missing much of the season with an injury, Gabby Clare leads the league in scoring.
See “Golf ” on page B3
Local progress won’t draw NBA yet By Mike Haim
JEFFREY T. BARNES
on the road, when one of the younger players may not have played at a particular course. “I think it’s a great idea to help them play like that,” said Schopf. “When we are going to a golf course where the younger kids have not played, Sean and Nick have played there three or four times so they have that experience and they share that experience with the younger kids.”
It’s been about 25 years since Buffalo Bisons owner Robert Rich reached a moment of sobering reality while he endeavored to bring a Major League Baseball team to our fair city. Rich realized that the economics of the game at its highest level, which did not (and still does not) feature a salary cap, would prevent smaller markets from sustaining long-term competitiveness. And while there have been small-market teams in various sports who have succeeded from time to time, especially so in baseball, those franchises often have to work much harder to be regarded as a dynasty. Perhaps no sport has as many small-market franchises – and
as many dynasties – as the National Basketball Association. A variety of circumstances in the last year have increased the amount of pondering whether Buffalo should get back into the NBA fold. The groundswell began in last spring, when the Los Angeles Clippers (which many may recall were once known as the Buffalo Braves) began their surreal ownership saga in light of racist comments made by then-owner Donald Sterling. The pondering has continued as the Pegula family went through the process of buying the Buffalo Bills, with some pockets of the population musing about the possibilities of bringing back the NBA as another element of their sports portfolio.
See “NBA” on page B3