28 SCOTIA GLENVILLE 09.pdf - Pirate CNY

Page 24 July 16, 2009 Spotlight
Dutchmen Days
at Bleecker Stadium
Baseball, Beer, BBQ and a Whole Lot More.
TWO-DAY BASIC SKILLS CAMP $70.
Thursday 7/16 & Friday 7/17
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Hitting, Fielding, Throwing, Situational Play, etc.
WEDNESDAY 7/15 SUMMER CAMP DAY
vs. Amsterdam • 1:00 pm
Kids wearing camp t-shirts or Little League jerseys
get in FREE. If you have a camp group and
would like to attend, please contact
Denise @ 518.369.5093 or Paul @ pspush7@aol.com
TO RESERVE A SPOT, PLEASE CALL DENISE @ 518.369.5093
518.369.5093 • dutchmenbaseball.com
SATURDAY 7/18 NOISY NIGHT
vs. Saratoga • 7:30 pm
Bring a cowbell, a horn, or any other type of
noisemaker and get $1 off price of admission.
Kids Run Bases Prior To Game.
Youth Baseball Camps With
The Dutchmen
PITCHER'S & CATCHER'S CAMP $35.
Thursday 7/23
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Specialized training for these two positions.
Bleecker Stadium / Clinton Ave. below Manning Blvd. / Albany
Sports Spotlight
in the
Water polo club offers opportunity
Adirondack Water Polo Club coach Chris Walsh, left, throws the ball during a practice last Tuesday at Siena
College’s Marcelle Athletic Center pool. Rob Jonas/Spotlight
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Adirondack WPC
provides rare outlet
for obscure sport
By ROB JONAS
jonasr@spotlightnews.com
Water polo is not a sport that
is usually associated with the
Capital District, but that doesn’t
mean there aren’t any options
to play.
The Adirondack Water Polo
Club consists of a small but
dedicated group of 30 to 40
swimmers ranging from high
school athletes to people in their
40s.
“It’s fun, it’s great exercise and
I always get to meet new faces,”
said John Reagan, a 45-yearold
Slingerlands resident who’s
played water polo since college.
“I swim (in high school) right
now, and I’ve been swimming
competitively for about 11 years,”
said Clifton Park resident Katie
Jesaitis, who is entering her
junior year at Shenendehowa
High School. “I like [water polo]
more because it’s more of a team
atmosphere.”
Membership grows and
shrinks with the time of the year,
said head coach Chris Walsh.
“We have 13 to 14 active players
Future looks bleak
for Pats, Firebirds
For those of you who said in
last year’s Spotlight sports survey
that the Capital District would be
worse off without professional
sports teams (and the majority
of votes suggested that was the
case), I’ve got bad news for you.
Unless a miracle happens in
the next several months, this
region will be down two pro
teams.
The Albany Patroons are
already faced with not having
a pro basketball league to play
in this winter. The Continental
Basketball Association is on hiatus
after losing two of its remaining
four franchises, and there hasn’t
been an announcement yet
suggesting that the Pats are going
to join another league in time for
the 2009-10 season.
Frankly, I don’t like the Pats’
chances of survival. The CBA is
all but dead (the league’s Web
site isn’t functioning anymore),
and even if the Pats fi nd another
pro league to join, fans have long
since moved on from the team
to care.
The same may hold true for
the Albany Firebirds. The Arena
Football 2 team played its fi nal
home game of the regular season
last weekend, and given the
mood surrounding the franchise’s
future, it doesn’t sound like there
will be another Firebirds game at
the Times Union Center.
Two factors are working
against the team formerly known
as the Albany Conquest: Poor
play over the past several years,
during the season, but we often
get more when school is out,”
said Walsh.
The club travels to competitions
around the Northeast and Great
Lakes states during the season,
which stretches from the spring
to the fall.
“The closest [city] we travel
to is Rochester,” said Walsh.
“We go to Philadelphia and out
to Ohio. Some of us have played
in Las Vegas, and I’ve played in
Europe.”
The club has to fi t its practice
schedule around pool availability.
During the summer months, the
club uses Siena College’s Marcelle
Athletic Complex pool on Tuesday
evenings. The rest of the time, it
has to fi t practices around RPI’s
Robison Pool schedule, which
often means practicing late in the
evening.
“When I was in high school at
Troy [in the 1980s], we used to
get in the water by 8 or 8:30 in the
evening at RPI,” said Walsh. “But
now, you can’t do that because you
have U.S. swim club teams and
other events going on.”
What keeps club members
coming back is the fun they have
playing the sport, which is an
aquatic combination of soccer,
■ Water Page 23
From the
S Desk
ports
Rob Jonas
and fan apathy from the poor
play. Even though the Firebirds
overcame an 0-5 start to get into
playoff contention, people still
didn’t fi ll the arena like they did
back when the Firebirds played
against the likes of the Orlando
Predators, Tampa Bay Storm and
Arizona Rattlers.
Team offi cials had hoped the
name change from Conquest to
Firebirds would stoke interest
around the region, but somehow,
I think that if the Firebirds were
to fl y away after this season, very
few would notice.
What does this mean for the
other pro teams in the immediate
Capital District? Probably not a
lot.
The Tri-City ValleyCats have
drawn well over the years because
the emphasis is on entertainment,
not wins and losses. I think they’ll
be immune from the usual pitfalls
of minor league sports in this
region.
As for the Albany River Rats,
now that they have a regional
foil in the Adirondack Phantoms,
they should benefit from that
rivalry. But unless the Rats start
contending for a division title in
■ Future Page 23