They are neighboring schools, they play one another in every other sport, and now football will be added to the list. Both sides are excited for a Friday night game under the lights and on TV, but they’ve made it clear there isn’t any disdain between the two sides.

Averill Park will be on the road in this one. The Warriors are 4-0 right now. Over the last three years, they’ve been very good. One of the best games on our air last year involved Averill Park against Burnt Hills. The Warriors lost that one 28-27, but you might remember at the last minute, rather than kick the extra point and go to overtime, AP went for two and didn’t get it.

That decision for me was the "they’ve arrived" moment for Averill Park. Burnt Hills has been a juggernaut for years, and for AP to play with them the whole way and then make that decision showed their confidence and their belief in their abilities.

 

 

Head Coach Zach Gobel says there was a change a few years ago.

"I think the difference was the change in attitude they brought. They’ve definitely bought in and worked hard in the off-season," Gobel said. "Our coaching staff over the last few years has done a great job keeping them motivated, keeping them excited and keeping football fun."

We have had some really good and consistent teams in Class A with Burnt Hills really leading the way. AP might be the next to join them on the list of great teams.

"I wouldn’t say we aren’t great yet, but we’re working to get better and more consistent," Gobel said.

Columbia is down from Class AA to A this season. The Blue Devils started the season 3-0, their best start in years. Bob Treacy is in his second season at Columbia, and the players seem to be responding to his coaching style. Coach Treacy says he told his players in the off-season this was a "no nonsense" year for them. Either the players were doing what the coaches asked and they were in or they weren’t. The seniors stepped up and put the work in.

 

 

They are coming off a loss to Schuylerville last time out and it will be interesting to see how they respond. Coach Treacy was concerned going into that Schuylerville game, because he knew his team wasn’t practice well and hard enough. He said the first couple of days this week were much better. It was very interesting to hear the players speak frankly about that week.

"Last week, we fooled around too much at practice, but this week we’re getting at it," said senior captain Jack Romer.

"I think we had too big of a chip on our shoulder winning those other games, and we needed that Schuylerville loss to knock us back down and get us ready and get us focused for our upcoming games," added fellow senior Jon Blankenship.

EXTRA POINTS

AJ Childrose is an assistant coach on the Averill Park team. He is getting the opportunity to coach his son Anthony, who is the varsity quarterback. Gobel says since AJ doesn’t directly coach the quarterbacks, he still gets to keep his "dad hat" on on the sidelines.

Zach Gobel himself has a son who plays high school football, but for Burnt Hills. Coach Gobel says he’s coached Rece in basketball and baseball growing up, and track and field at the varsity level, and so both are OK with Zach not always getting a chance to be at all of his son’s high school games.

Bob Treacy’s son Aaron is on his staff. Aaron has been coaching since he was 15 years old and has been coaching with his father since that time.