The HFCS football season begins this Saturday when the 2018 edition of the Panthers travel to Whitehall to take on the Railroaders.
The Eastwick Press recently visited practice on “Buddy Night.” Buddy Night is a tradition started by Head Coach Ron Jones over twenty years ago where the Panther Juniors and Seniors of the Hoosick Falls Youth Football practice with the high school players. Youth players were divided into groups and ran drills at stations with the varsity players and coaches providing the instruction and tips.
Coach Jones’ roster has twenty-eight players, including returning players Sam Richard back at quarterback, wide receiver Jeff Vincent and Max Kipp at running back. Freshman Josh Colegrove is showing promise of becoming a force at middle linebacker for the next few years.
Jones’ biggest concern is depth. If everyone stays healthy the team will do just fine. But if injuries start to take a toll, filling gaps in some places could become a problem.
Jones said he is “doing everything I can” to field a junior varsity team but isn’t sure how that is going to play out at this point in time.
The Panthers will compete in Class C this year, along with 18 other teams. Hoosick Falls will be in the Class C North division with Cambridge-Salem (Cambridge was last year’s Class D state champion), Lake George/Hadley-Luzerne, Corinth. Also in the division will be Granville and Greenwich, both moving up from Class D).
The Class C Central has Canajoharie, Fonda, Holy Trinity, Mechanicville, Stillwater and Tamarac.
The Class C South will consist of Cairo-Durham, Helderberg Valley, Taconic Hills, Chatham, Coxsackie-Athens, Voorheesville and Watervliet.
The Class C schedules will include those teams along with some Class D and Section IV (Southern Tier) teams.
The Panthers schedule consists of seven games. Saturday, Sept. 1 at Whitehall (Class D), 1 pm; Friday, Sept. 7 vs Canajoharie, 7 pm; Friday, Sept. 14 vs Cambridge, 7 pm; Friday, Sept. 21, Greenwich, 7 pm; Friday, Sept. 28 vs Lake George / Hadley-Luzerne, 7pm; Saturday, Oct. 6 at Granville, 1 pm; Friday, Oct. 12 vs Corinth, 7 pm.