oakfield-alabama

Fresh off a Section V title, the boys of Oakfield-Alabama's cross-country team competed this weekend for a state title. The team entered as the eighth seed but notched a sixth-place finish.

They competed at Chenango Valley State Park, outside of Binghamton, "against the very best Class D runners in all of New York State," said Paul Beuler, who provided the photos and information.

Junior Cole O'Donnell from OA-E, finishing in fifth place in Class D at the Sectional Meet on Nov. 5th. 

Senior Mike Bowen from OA-E finishing in 32nd place at the Sectional Meet on Nov. 5th at Wayne High School.

Senior Josh Larmon from OA-E, on the right, finishing in ninth place at Sectionals. 

Sophomore Mark Anauo from OA-E finishing in 15th place.

Students from all of the high schools in Genesee County were provided a 20x32-inch canvas by Batavia's Original with an invitation to paint their school's mascot. The winning team -- the art class from Oakfield-Alabama -- received a pizza party.

The artwork will be displayed inside of the restaurant. 

Pictured above are: Haily Davis, Olivia Carroll, Hope Kollarik, Mrs. Leah Peca, Emily Staniszewski, Makayla Hichey and Lakin Woodward.

Photos and information provided by General Manager Kathy Ferrara.

Oakfield-Alabama/Elba ruined an otherwise perfect homecoming night for Notre Dame to end the season by scoring 16 fourth quarter points to seal a 22-6 win.

It was the first win of the season for OA/Elba, so both teams finish the year at 1-6.

QB Reice Woodward was only 1-7 passing for one yard, but he gained 149 yards on the ground on 14 carries and scored twice. Tucker Bezon rushed for 75 yards on 18 carries.

For the Irish, Brendan Klotzbach was 10-16 passing for 107 yards.

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Long a staple of the Genesee Region league, Elba and Byron-Bergen have parted ways, creating an opportunity for Elba and Oakfield-Alabama to create a new alliance.

It makes sense. The two communities share a youth football program, so the players grow up together and now they can continue that learning process together through the games that really count in high school.

Now comes the hard part of bringing two programs together on short notice. Elba's Head Coach Mike Cintorino and O-A Head Coach Brian Palone will share that role this year in the combined program. Home games will be split between the two schools and the team will wear the home uniform of whichever school is hosting that home game. On the road, they'll switch up the uniforms.

Next year, Cintorino said, no pun intended, the uniforms will become more uniform. There will be new colors and a new mascot.

This year, everybody's just got to get through the transition.

And the players are getting through it just fine, both coaches said. They're coming together, working hard and learning, even though it's a young team with lots of decisions to be made about who to play where.

One key decision is already made. Strong-armed freshman Colton Dylan will be behind center, taking snaps and running the offense.

"If we didn’t have the confidence in him we would probably find somebody else," Cintorino said. "He came out this summer and showed us right away — there were a few kids we were thinking about at the quarterback position, but the first time we came out for 7-on-7s and we watched him throw and watched him do what he can do, we just kind of looked at each other and said, ‘yup, that’s our guy.’ "

He's a freshman. He's got a lot to learn. He'll make mistakes and have his ups and downs, but Palone said he's shown he has the maturity to handle the process.

"He has a good cast around him, in coaches and players, to support him and help him become a better player," Palone said.

The offensive line is made up mostly of O-A players returning from last year and the receiving corps is anchored by experienced players from Elba, which will help put a good offense around Dylan, Palone said.

"Being a ninth-grader and being a leader to seniors is not an easy task," Cintorino said. "It’s not an easy task for an 11th-grader, so he’ll have to grow into that, but physically, he can do everything that we ask of him."

Palone and Cintorino are also growing into working with each other, they said. They both came into the GR the same year, so they know each other well, but they are molding together different styles and different strategies, but so far it's working well, they said.

"We're able to work together and help each other out," Palone said. "It's only going to make us better coaches, learning from each other and what we do. We’re both excited and looking forward to the challenge of working with each other and helping the kids out and becoming one program."

In the Class C2 softball final played at GCC, Oakfield-Alabama lost 9-1 yesterday to Caledonia-Mumford.

The No.1 seed Red Raiders were led by tournament MVP Emily MacDonald, who pitched a four-hitter and K'd 10 Hornets.

Oakfield-Alabama will advance to the Section V, Class C2 championship game after beating Geneseo on Monday at GCC, 4-2. 

Hannah LaGrou tripled home her sister Madi for the go-ahead run. Hannah later scored on a wild pitch.

O-A faces Cal-Mum at 5 p.m., Wednesday, at GCC in the final.

Oakfield-Alabama Central School continues to innovate around the tech-education curriculum, and today students participated in a project to build a new 3D printer for the school.

The project was part of a class taught by Patti Buczek and Missy Lee.

Photos provided by the school district. ​

For the first 12 minutes of Wednesday's Class C2 Section V semifinal game between Oakfield-Alabama and Pery, the two teams looked pretty evenly matched, but then Perry began to pull away.

The half ended with the Perry girls up 22-14. In the third quarter, Perry much sealed the fate of the Hornets, outscoring them 14-3. The final eight minutes was just a matter of maintenance for the Yellowjackets.

The final, 43-19.

 Rachel Evans scored 13 for Perry, Chelsea Pascoe, 12, and McKenna Croll, eight.

For 0-A, Lauren Reding scored 5 and Brianna Greene had four.

The Hornets have relied on strong defense all season and Perry's head coach, Courtney Kingston, said her team knew it needed to stay disciplined to get the ball around O-A's Kenydie Mott, who can alter the course of games on defense.

"We made sure we were setting our screens and making our early passes to get around her good defense and get our offense going," Kingston said.

Perry was able to effectively move the ball inside and that has been a big step forward for the team, Kingston said. 

"That's really the whole way to be a threat, to use both our post and use our guards," Kingston said. "We have two strong posts we can put in there and we use them. It's been a struggle until the past couple of games to make good interior passes, and we did it tonight."

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There is hardly a profession in America that isn't being changed profoundly by technology. From taxi drivers and plumbers to big company CEOs, the world is increasingly digital.  

The Oakfield-Alabama Central School District wants to prepare students for this new and fast-changing world by providing them with the latest technology as learning tools.

As a pilot program this year, students in fifth and sixth grade were each provided Chromebooks (based on software from Google). The computers are touchscreen and connected to cloud servers, making file sharing easy for students both at school and at home on their own devices and with teachers, who are equipped in class with giant touchscreens.

"This is a skill set you're not going to escape, no matter what career path you choose to go down, even if you're at home and your spouse works, you're still going to need these skills to be a productive member of society," said Rob Zdrojewski, the district's director of instructional technology. "You're going to need to know how to communicate electronically."

The plan for the district is to roll out the technology to all of the grade levels with the help of a grant from the state, called a Smart Schools grant.

So far, there's positive feedback from students and teachers.

"It's a lot more fun and easier, too, because you don't have to keep track of a lot of papers or anything on your Chromebooks," said fifth-grader Jose Reding.

A hot topic of debate in Silicon Valley circles is over the shortage of women in the technology field, especially as entrepreneurs. Reding, like Mckenna Johnson, are probably unaware of such controversies, but both are ready to do something about it. Both have already built their own Web sites (Reding with Weebly, and Johnson with WordPress) and both say they think they might want to run their own technology businesses someday.

"I've always loved technology," said Mckenna, whose parents own Millennium Computers in Batavia, "It's helping me do more and I can learn more." 

Mckenna's also made a contribution to her class, using her tech savvy, by setting up a group contact in Gmail so one e-mail can be sent to all the students in the class at the same time.

While Josie and Mckenna might represent the top of the learning curve, it's a pretty shallow curve, said their math teacher, Michelle Smith.

"There are definitely kids with more experience," Smith said, but when I look around the classroom, I couldn't pick out a kid who is struggling with something because they don't know how to use the technology."

While there are districts around the country which are adopting more technology in classrooms, not all of them are providing devices for each student, Zdrojewski said. The advantage of O-A's approach, he said, is that it levels the playing field. There are students who can afford the latest iPhone for their children and there are parents who can't even afford a $50 tablet from Amazon, so with the district providing Chromebooks, no student is without a device.

"The Chromebooks are a great leveler," Zdrojewski said. "All of the students can participate in social media, they can all do their assignments online, because they all have the tools to do it."

The other benefit of the new technology, Smith said, is it raises the level of engagement. Kids are excited and they stay on task more readily.

"I think it's made the kids take more ownership of their work, not only in math, but other subject areas as well," Smith said. "And with the Chrombooks, there is a lot more data available to me to help drive my individualized instruction for each student."

Next winter, you might be able to play outdoor hockey, or just ice skate, at the Dewitt Recreation Area on Cedar Street in Batavia.

The plan for the county park has always included the idea of installing an outdoor ice rink at the park, but the construction has never been funded.

At yesterday's Public Service Committee meeting of the County Legislature, Highway Superintended Tim Hens said the Oakfield-Alabama Central School District is ready to donate an outdoor ice rink to the county.

The district purchased the rink some years ago with grant money, and though it proved popular when put into use, hasn't been used in recent years and the district doesn't plan to put it to use in the future.

The rink comes with 50 pairs of ice skates.

The committee agreed by consensus to allow Hens to accept the donation on behalf of the county.

The rink will likely be installed in the depression area in the middle of the walking path at the front of the park, which is the area originally designed to eventually contain a rink.

In the second half of Elba's 56-40 victory over Oakfield-Alabama on Thursday night, #55 John Hochmuth demonstrated what a dominant big man can do to lift a team.

Displaying solid and practiced post-play skills, the 6' 4" senior scored 19 points and blocked five shots in the game, with the third and fourth quarters being his most productive.

I've never seen a high school kid who works harder than John," said Head Coach Ciaci Zambito. "He makes my job easy. It's so much fun to coach him. He is our best practice player every single day, and finally, I think, all of his hard work that he has done throughout his career is really starting to pay off."

Zambito wouldn't go out on a limb and say Hochmuth is the most dominant player in the Genesee Region, but he still gives him very high grades.

"John is the most dominant post player I've seen at Elba, ever," Zambito said. "I played with a couple of good post players. But especially in terms of the defensive end of things, he doesn't just block shots, he changes shots, and obviously you know what he can do underneath the basket on offense."

The test of where Hochmuth stands in GR could come when Elba faces Attica, whenever that might be, since a recent game was canceled and needs to be rescheduled.  Attica has 6' 5" junior Owen Thompson, who scored 20 last night in the Blue Devils' 77-44 victory over Wheatland-Chili.

The Lancers are off to a 12-0 start on the year and Hochmuth said it's fun to be part of a team that has really grown into a bonded unit.

"We're all brothers on the team," Hochmuth said. "We all like each other outside of school, in school. We're family and that's why we play great together."

Basketball is a team game and one reason Hochmuth is able to thrive in the post is his teammates offer their own scoring threats, and when the defense opens a little space to guard them, they know how to feed Hochmuth the ball.

"Opposing teams focus on John," Zambito said. "They game plan for John, as I would. But when you've got down a guy who knocks down 11 threes in a game (as Henry Pflaumer did in a game earlier this season), and you've got a guy who comes in tonight and knocks down back-to-back threes, you've got to start honoring that a little bit more. You've got to pick your poison. Do you want to guard the perimeter and leave John one-on-one? Or do you want to double John? You can't double everybody."

Thursday, Pflaumer scored 13 for the Lancers, with Tucker Bezon adding 11 and Dakota Dillon six.

It was Bezon's best game of the season, Zambito said.

Oakfield-Alabama scored 18 points in the first quarter, but was held to 22 the rest of the way.

Zambito said he told the team after the first quarter that they weren't playing the Lancer brand of basketball.

"Oakfield likes to get up in you," Zambito said. "They like to press you, but we're more of a half-court team. I think we kind of fell into the trap the first eight minutes of the game where we were trying to play up to their tempo. But we can't do that. We get ourselves into some big trouble when we start doing things like that."

Jon Harris scored seven for the Hornets and Jake Mandez had six. Trey Nadolinski scored five to go with seven rebounds and four assists.

It's been a long time since Elba's boys team has experienced this level of success, and the current Lancers' roster hasn't forgotten the bad times, which is what keeps them from getting too comfortable with their 12-0 start, Zambito said.

"All I have to do is show them the records from the past two years," Zambito said. "Less than 12 months ago, these kids weren't experiencing any success. It's a different feel. We really have a good thing going, great chemistry. There's a nice bond going on. They trust each other. They're hungry and they'll stay hungry. I've told them from day one, I don't care how many games we win, we're looking to win a title."

The Lancers are currently #1 in the GR, #1 in Section V Class D2 and ranked #5 in the state.

"We've always had potential," Hochmuth said. "Now we're showing it."

Batavia's Dom Mogavero has been named first team in Class B to New York's All-State football team as a linebacker.

Fellow Blue Devil Greg Mruczek was named to the second team at QB. Ryan Hogan made second team as an offensive end. 

In Class D, honorable mentions went to Allen Chatt, Oakfield-Alabama, at defensive back and C.J. Suozzi, Notre Dame, at punter.

In an effort to preserve its undefeated season, the Oakfield-Alabama Hornets twice battled back from double-digit deficits in the second half, and managed to briefly grab the lead with 1:11 left in the game. But missed free throws and two whiffs on easy layups proved to be O-A's undoing, allowing Pembroke to slip by with a 59-58 win.

"I told them this is one we let get away, but we learn from it," said Hornets Head Coach Ryan Stehlar. "You can't dwell on it. You learn from it and get better."

Both coaches were proud of how their teams stayed focused and played tough in the hard-fought contest.

The Dragons know O-A would play hard and fast, and they came prepared, said Dragon's Head Coach Matt Shay.

"They play a real intense style and I thought our guys faltered a little bit at times, but showed some resliance at the end," Shay said.

Junior guard Ryan Cansdale lead all scorers with 16 points for Pembroke; Zach Staebell had 15 and Dakota Dieter scored 14.

For O-A, Jake Mandel scored 13, Trey Nadolinski had 12 and Allen Chatt had eight.

The Hornets and Pembroke are both at the top of the Genesee Region standings with just one defeat each. They won't meet again until the final regular season game, Feb. 9.

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Before the start of the school year, John Ioge figured he was interested in a career in civil engineering, maybe mechanical engineering or perhaps the medical field or even teaching. Whatever it was, he figured he would eventually wind up in a job far from home.

Now, the sophomore at Oakfield-Alabama is honing in on a career in mechanical engineering and feeling pretty certain he will be able to find work in Genesee County.

The developments recently with WNY STAMP as well as a new course at O-A in STEM is driving much of John's change in thinking.

"I now realize there are going to be jobs in this area," John said. "At one point, I didn't think I was going to stay here because there's not any jobs, but now there will be jobs at home. So why not stay home? Why not stay where my family is?"

O-A Principal Lynn Muscarella sought to start the STEM courses (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for students just like John. She realized that with STAMP coming to Alabama, she wanted to make sure Oakfield-Alabama students had a good grasp of career opportunities in STEM.

"Last year I had seniors who weren't even aware of what is happening in their own backyard," Muscarella said. "I said, I can't allow this to happen. These kids are right here, so why not get them somewhat prepared to think about what's going to be here so they can stay if they want to."

STAMP stands for Science, Technology, Advanced Manufacturing Park, a 1,340-acre parcel in Alabama that the Genesee County Economic Development Center and its economic development partners from throughout the region are marketing as an ideal location for high-tech manufacturing.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in town to announce the first new development in the park, 1366 Technologies, a Massachusetts-based company that will construct a new plant to make silicon wafers for solar energy panels. The plant will employ from 600 to 1,000 people once fully operational, perhaps as soon as early 2017.

The STEM classes at O-A are part of the sophomore-year curriculum for the first time and will run throughout the school year with classroom time every other day for the participating students.

The instructors are Kathy Rushlow and David Porter, with Rushlow developing most of the course.

Seven weeks after the start of the school year, Rushlow is seeing some progress among her students, many of whom came to class without a clear understanding of what sort of degrees colleges offer and what their post-high-school educational options are.

"I think they are much more aware of what STEM is and what the different career choices are in the STEM field," Rushlow said. "I think that's been eye-opening."

The classes aren't intended to give students any kind of training that will lead them to a particular job; rather, it's an overview to expose them to the array of options available to them if they decide STEM might be something of interest.

The class also reinforces the importance of the other coursework in high school.

"It's surprising to them to see there's a second side to that coin, that even in the medical fields, they need that science and math, that background, on top of the medical information," Rushlow said.

The Oakfield-Alabama Volleyball Team hosted its fifth annual Dig Pink fundraiser tonight in a match against Kendall. Over the past four years, the team has raised more than $4,000 to support breast cancer research.

A throng of fans turned out Friday night for Alexander's homecoming game and they went home happy after the Trojans secured a 46-12 victory over the Oakfield-Alabama Hornets.

On a night when the Trojans mostly kept the ball on the ground, they gained 327 yards on 43 carries.

The team was also 5-12 passing for 100 yards.

Jake Wozniak was an offensive powerhouse, tossing an 11-yard TD pass to Derrick Busch to close the second half and rushing 21 times for 219 yards and a TD, tacking on a two-point conversion.

Dane Heberlein scored four touchdowns (one of them pictured above) on 16 carries. He gained 100 yards. He also had a two-point conversion. On defense, he had six tackles and three interceptions. The junior free safety now has seven INTs on the season.

Dustin Schmeider had two catches for 44 yards. Josh Szymanski had a catch for 22 yards and six tackles on defense.

Zack Jasen had six tackles in the middle.

Alexander is now 3-2 on the season.

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There was a point during the off-season where it looked like the tradition of Hornets football might come to an end. The team was struggling to fill its roster and negotiations were under way to merge with Pembroke.

But the coaches and the players rallied, and when Oakfield-Alabama takes its home field tonight against Notre Dame, 26 players will suit up.

"We talked about keeping the football team here and keeping the tradition here and they (players and coaches) really stepped up to the plate and did a nice job of being here and keeping our program going," said Head Coach Brian Palone.

This will be a season where a young team needs to grow, especially on the lines, where this year's starters are last year's second string, or modified player. But it's also a team other GR coaches acknowledge needs to be taken seriously every week with returners Allen Chatt at QB and Sal Schwable and Reice Woodward as wideouts. Those three alone give Palone some weapons he can use to challenge opponents.

"Our goal is to improve every day," Palone said. "I tell the guys how fortunate they are to come out every day and wear the Hornets' uniform and represent their school and their community. We're going to compete and get better every game."

The Oakfield-Alabama Hornets 12U Girls Softball Team took First Place at the Alan Bailey Tournament hosted in Avon at the Driving Park on Saturday. 

The Hornets beat Livonia 19-5 in the first game.

They beat Webster 7-6 for the championship. 

Jenna Gilbert pitched a half inning shy of two complete games for the Hornets. She was named MVP for the Hornets team. Kodi Beehler and Jordyn Tobolski were recognized as Tournament All-stars.

Photo and info submitted by Marc Johnson.

Results from Tuesday's school budget vote for the Oakfield-Alabama Central School District:

It was Robert Neyland, the legendary Tennessee head coach, who first observed that the team which makes the fewest mistakes usually wins.

Neyland also said teams need to make their breaks and pounce on opportunity.

While Elba/Byron-Bergen wasn't without its own miscues in a Saturday afternoon scrap on its home field, the inability of Oakfield-Alabama to strike from the red zone on successive drives in the second quarter turned out to be a deal breaker for the Hornets.

The Lancers won the defensive battle 7-6.

Brian Palone, O-A's head coach, gave credit to the Lancers' defense, but also said mental errors by his players and a lack of execution on the details in the red zone hurt his team's chance of notching a win.

"I also have to do a better job with play calling down here at times to give us a better opportunity," Palone said. "I'll point the finger at myself  for some of the stuff we had down here in the red zone. Some of it is on them. It goes both ways, but we just didn't finish."

On one possession, with the ball inside the five, Elba/BB even gave O-A a whole new set of downs on a pass interference call, either because of a stout defense or an inability to finish, the Hornets couldn't punch it in.

The Hornets would return the favor, stopping a Lancers drive on the goal line, in the 4th quarter.

Elba/BB also had its share of turnovers and penalties to help keep points off the board.

"I'm just glad we both did have mistakes," Lancers Head Coach Mike Cintorino said. "I'm glad we're both kind of even. We've seen games and we've had games ourselves where those mistakes aren't even and it ends up being a game you give away.  It very easily could have gone the other way today.  We had some opportunities that we didn't capitalize on and our defense bailed us out. They came up big."

The way Cintorino sees the game is that two well-prepared defenses shut down a pair of powerful offenses.

"You get two offenses like this, one that really passes the ball well and one that really runs the ball well and you think it's going to be this high scoring game, but both teams did a really nice job preparing for the other offense and it turned out to be a great defensive game," Cintorino said.

Both coaches said they were proud of their defenses.

"It was a real grinder of a game that was just going to come down to who had the ball last," Palone said. "We're all really proud of the way our team held together."

O-A put points on the board first when Trent Stack pulled in an Alan Chatt nine-yard pass just over the goal line (top photo).

Being down 6-0 seemed to give the Lancer's offense a spark it lacked through the entire first half.  The combination of Garrett Chapell  to John Hochmuth seemed unbreakable as QB and tight end connected for reception after reception, including a leaping grab by Hochmuth on the sideline to secure another first down.

"Early on, John had a drop, but the best athletes I have ever coached know how to come back from adversity in a game," Cintorino said.  "He had that same idea in the Holley game where he had a drop and came back with a huge touchdown for us on the next drive."

Hochmuth had 10 receptions for 142 yards on the day, but it was Chapell who finished off the winning drive.

With the ball on the three, Chapell ran a keeper wide right and found little in the way of opposition from the Hornet's defense.

An extra point kick and the Lancers had the seven points that would prove enough to move the team to 3-1 on the season.

Chatt threw a lot of passes -- 40 on the day, and completed half of them for 259 yards, with a TD toss and an interception. Sal Schwable had five catches for 86 yards and Stack had four receptions for 65 yards.

Chapell had 13 completions on 23 attempts for 154 yards. Truax carried the ball 14 times for 61 yards. He also had 16 tackles on defense and a fumble recovery.

Trent Stack holds the ball aloft after putting the Hornets on the board first in the third quarter.

John Hochmuth with a grab on the sideline to help keep the Lancer's eventual winning drive alive.

Reice Woodward found that one pass near the sideline in the second quarter was just a bit beyond his grasp.

Hornets QB Alan Chatt.

Hochmuth grabs for an O-A runner.

Steele Truax on a big gainer in the 4th quarter that would help put the Lancers on the two-yard line with a chance to extend the team's lead, but O-A stopped the drive and took over on downs.

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