By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — The “Friday Night Lights” era has arrived at Newark Valley. With the exception of their homecoming game, the Cardinals will play their home games under the lights.
NV played two home night games last year and the permanent switch from Saturday afternoon contests appears to be a popular decision.
“I think everybody's pretty excited about it,” head coach Ted Hardenstine said. “It's interesting. I reached out to a few other coaches in the area too because it is a different, weekly routine and weekly schedule.
“We have eight Friday night games and one Saturday game so I think the kids are excited about it. I think the community is excited about it and it should be a great opportunity for some in a really beautiful setting here for some for some good football games.”
NV started the 2024 season with a handful of injuries before the preseason even began, then lost a couple more players during the regular season. The Cardinals appear healthier this year as they look to better last year's 2-8 mark.
“I don't want to jinx anything, but right now we’ve got 25 kids here and everyone's healthy. It's a good start to the year as far as that goes, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to continue that way. Hopefully, last year was a perfect storm that never repeats itself again for the amount of years I have left in coaching.”
Last year’s injuries created a situation where some of the younger players were able to gain valuable experience.
“With all those injuries we had last year, the bad thing was we were still trying to field the JV team at the beginning of the year. We had to call a bunch of those guys up and then we had to pull the plug on that early,” Hardenstine said. “A lot of these guys that are here have experience. There's not too many people that haven't had some varsity game experience.
“That’s one real positive from it. The negative is that we don't have a JV team this year. We have a real big group on modified. In the 25 we have here on varsity we only have six seniors this year. A lot of these guys will be back again next year too and we're going to hopefully be building to get JV back in the future. I think we have a core here right now to build something with, especially if we can stay a lot healthier this year.”
Section IV Class D is up to 12 teams, which has created a little different type of schedule.
“It's exciting as far as we have a lot of other small schools that we're playing this year,” Hardenstine said. “Class D is where we've been playing a lot of ‘up’ games for the last five or six years, which has always been a good thing. Especially if you're competing for a championship, to be able to play some of those ‘up’ games. It can be a struggle when you're in a little bit of a down year and you're playing those big teams because you don't get a break. It puts you a little bit behind the eight ball when you're hurting for depth when you're playing those bigger schools that have depth.
“As far as this year goes, it should be interesting. I'm really excited about the opportunity. It'll be interesting too because there's some schools that we don't know the coaches, so it'll be different challenges, some new fresh game plans and film study for us as a coaching staff, but should be a great opportunity for some excellent competitive football games.”
Missing on the sidelines this year is Brian Sherwood, who has retired. Sherwood brought NV its only state championship in 2016, winning a Class C title.
NV scrimmages Union-Endicott and Whitney Point at U-E on Aug. 29, then hosts Schuyler on Sept. 5.
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IN PHOTO 1: NV’s preseason conditioning program includes activities like tractor tire flipping. IN TOP PHOTO:Ted Hardenstine will lead the Cardinals into the “Friday Night Lights” era. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
