So this will be the first of four new camp previews. Obviously, I had an opportunity to check in with Sleepy Hollow, John Jay, Mount Vernon and Roosevelt, so I’ll share more on each over the weekend.
First up is Sleepy Hollow. The Horsemen are moving back up to a very deep and difficult Class A this season and will have to overcome the loss of three very key offensive players: RB Bobby Small, QB John Bucci and WR Chris Fahey.
In what is probably the worst sentence I’ll write all day, Small’s loss is definitely the biggest. He rushed for 1,214 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior. That included 300 yards and three scores in the Class B semis against Pleasantville to put Sleepy into another Section 1 final. It eventually lost to state finalist Nanuet.
The men who replace Small will not be new names. You’ve already talked about them here: junior L.J. Garrant and senior Kayzon Stovall. Both pass-catching and running threats last season. Garrant even excelled with the ball on special teams where he was one of the most dangerous return men in the section.
Senior Dondrey Sharrock earned all the reps at Pride Camp on Thursday. He not only threw the ball often, he threw it well, and appears to have the edge to earn the QB job. The Horsemen will probably need to develop all the threats they can. The Class A schedule is daunting, beginning with the opening game against Rye. In fact, in an ironic twist (ironic if you’re not from Sleepy, I guess), Sleepy won’t play Saunders because Sleepy has the smallest enrollment in Class A and Saunders has the smallest. Instead, when taken into perspective (i.e. pound-for-pound, class-for-class, whatever you want to call it), the Horsemen’s schedule may be the single toughest in the section:
Sept. 11, vs. Rye
Sept. 16, at Harrison
Sept. 25, vs. Roosevelt
Oct. 2, vs. Eastchester
Oct. 8, at Nyack
Oct. 16, at Spring Valley
That’s bru-tile. Still, head coach Steve Borys shared a strong sense of optimism. He likes this team. He stressed that to me, but he also stressed it to his players after they’d finished up a strong two or three hours at White Plains on Thursday. They had stood toe-to-toe with White Plains and Mount Vernon, he said, and Borys wasn’t kidding.
Sleepy should be about more than just its pair of backs. MLB John Randazzo is the brother of Joe Randazzo, an all-section player on the 2004 Class B finalist. Only two starting linemen were lost to graduation. Those who return have some talent, led by senior Jerae Williams. To my novice eye, they provided Sharrock ample time to throw on Thursday.
Sleepy’s schedule is so difficult it’s almost impossible to predict how it’ll handle to move back to A. I mean, Rye and Harrison in five days? That’s no joke. But the Horsemen certainly have the talent to challenge bigger, deeper opponents. Like Borys told his team, they already accomplished that on Thursday.
22 Comments
Sleepy Hollow is and always will be Ryes whipping team. They even moved up to Class A to continue being beaten by the Garnets.
we shall see, hek, eck whatever…...
By the way you should have punted…..LMFAO
hahahahahahah
Are you seriously criticizing Rye? We whooped you guys this year and every year before. We are going to do it again this year. If you guys had played POK you would have lost by 4 TDs plus, we were better than them btw.
Hek,
If you were better then Pok you would have beaten them. Deal with it and move on. Oh, and by the way. You should have punted the stupid ball…
You guys are real funny. In class B we would have stomped all over Nanuet and won the state championship and you guys know it.
Look at that Schedule!!
Ouch!!!
10960, good point. 1-5, 2-4 not out of the question here.
all that matters is harrison is taking home the section
Hollow Fan:
How does a historical record of 23-11-1 (.676%) favor Rye sound?
Please explain how it is that 1989 was the last time Sleepy Hollow beat Rye. That’s only 21 years ago.
I’d be interested in your take on this situation.
hek
If your mom had ball, you would be calling her DAD. So whats your point? And if you would have punted, who knows…..
10598
Question, have they played for the entire 21 years? how many games were played during that time? You have had our # for a while, no doubt, but its a new year. we shall see.
10598,
That and 7 bucks will get you into a Rye home Football game.
hOLLOW fAN:
Since 1989 Rye and Sleepy have met 13 times or in 65% of the seasons, not an insignificant number of games.
Only twice has Sleepy come within one score of Rye, 19-14 in 1992 and 12-6 in the 2008 Sectional Final. Remember that one?
On a total points basis its Rye 392-143 producing an average score of Rye 30 – Sleepy Hollow 11. Rye maintains a three TD historical spread over the Horsemen since 1989.
Sleepy calls it a rivalry? Looks like total domination to the folks in Rye. What say you?
10580
Thanks for the history lesson.
Sleepy shut down your run game last year holding the rye running attack to less than 100 yds. and a couple of goaline stops. If it werent for a couple of blown assignments in the secondary, that was a totally different game. We have 9 defensive starters returning, so this year will be a whole different story. Its going to be a great way to start off the season thats for sure.
As for the Rivalry, Borys said that because we were the 2 dominate teams in B. You guys have been beating up on harrison the last 7 years, so does that make it a non-rivalry?
Hollow Fan
I’m in no way trying to disrespect Sleepy Hollow, but just about everyone who plays against Rye on a regular basis considers them to be a main rival.
When you win as much as Rye has through the years you almost always are the team that you circle on the schedule as your main rival. Through the years Pelham, Eastchester, Sleepy Hollow and the like have pointed to both Rye and Harrison as “the team to beat” when Rye and Harrison usually just point at each other. Sleepy did give Rye a decent game last year, but do you think that Rye entered the game with the same intensity as they did against Harrison, Eastchester, Roosevelt and Ossining ? It’s tough to bring your A game every week no matter who you are even when you’re Rye…..and much easier to bring it when you are playing against Rye. There is no extra excitement in Rye the week before the Sleepy game…it’s another game against a longtime rival…nothing more/nothing less.
Well said Jim, I dont think that Rye would consider us a rival, by no means. I was just answering 10580 question. But i’ll tell you this, if rye isnt preparing for each team the same way every week, then there will be a let down for sure. If they are looking past certain teams because they feel that they are superior, i.e. POK….then they will get beat.
So, they better bring their A game this year.
Hollow Fan:
Last year’s score was 28-6 and was hardly a matter of a couple of blown assignments. It sits right smack on the average margin (19 points) of all Sleepy/Rye games played since 1989 (see #s above).
Rye has played Harrison 79 times over 81 years. Oftentimes these games have led to league titles and most recently into or actually in sectional playoff games which lead to state tourney play. There has been greater meaning placed on the outcome of the Rye/Harrison game than any other game with any other opponent for eighty years. Eventhough Rye has won the last seven straight we still trail in the historical rivalry. It would take another five wins for us to pull even with the Huskies at .500%. Of course it still remains a rivalry.
Sleepy ranks fifth on Rye’s historical schedule with 35 games played back to the early 1960s which actually is quite impressive. But when compared to the Grand Daddy of all Westchester Football Rivalries (Garnets/Huskies) Garnets/Horsemen pale by comparison. Even Eastchester in the number two slot with its 56 games doesn’t come close to the intensity and local importance of Rye/Harrison.
Best thing that could happen to SHHS football is the annual renewal of its River Rivalry with the Ossining Indians.
I AGREE….
OSSINING VS. SLEEPY SHOULD COME BACK…. AND STAY!!!!
But wait…. the SH AD won’t allow that 1 to occur.
Nor will the sleepy community….. anyone else remember the big stink that was put up when rye/harrison was gone for a season????
There wasn’t 1 complaint by a sleepy fan when there rivalry was shut down….
Indian,
That’s because they didn’t have blogs like this back then… I’m sure lot’s of Sleepy people complained… But, like anything else in life, you move on… Besides, Sleepy has enough to worry about with the schedule they already have.
Indian,
To be more then honest with you. I think the people living in the Sleepy community have more to be concerened with then a football game. Besides,, over half of the people that have kids in the school were not around when the teams played. The big crowd at the last game was more novelty then history.
10580
By the way 28-6 = 22 not 19!
The game was closer then the score indicated, to hold rye to less then 100 yds. rushing.
The first TD was set up off a long pass(wrong coverage) and the second TD was off a int. The 3rd TD was a great play from eck, to the corner of the endzone. and the 4th TD was garbage fumble that you guys picked up on the 7 yard line and walked it in.
So lets not make it out to be a dismantling.
I’ll leave it with, lets wait and see SEPT. 11
Garnet,
I agree that Sleepy Hollow needs a rivalry. I’m not sure Ossining is the answer. They are just to big at this point. The ossining people would love to see this for obvivious reasons. They would win the games. This is not a knock on Sleepy Hollow. Fact is, Ossining has a much bigger population. In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, this was not the case. The towns and schools were closer in numbers. Think of it like Rye playing New Rochelle. As good as Rye is, they would have problems competeing with them.
I think a natural rivalry for Sleepy Hollow would be Irvington. Lot’s of the kids that go to Irvington live in Tarrytown. Irvington keeps growing in numbers and Sleepy Hollow kind of stays the same give or take a few kids.
If the state didn’t mess with the numbers and move Sleepy to A, I’m sure they would have played. On the heels of last years playoff game, that would have been a fun one.
I played on that Hollow team in 1992 that lost to Rye 19-14 but during my time at the Hollow Rye was never a real big game for us. It was Ossining or bust! If you really want to be analytical about it, consistently our biggest rivalry besides Ossining was actually Woodlands.