For the second year in a row, several members of the Skaneateles football team earned All-State recognition from the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Three Lakers were chosen to the first team – senior quarterback Pat Hackler, senior linebacker/running back Areh Boni and junior wide receiver/kicker Nick Wamp. Hackler was the 2017 state Class C Player of the Year.
Two more Skaneateles players were chosen for the All-State third team – senior wide receiver Nate Wellington and senior lineman Jimmy Liberatore, with senior defensive lineman Jack Carlile and sophomore linebacker Jack Comer both fourth-team selections.
Senior Nate Squires, another member of the Lakers’ front line, joined senior defensive back Luke Viggiano as honorable-mention choices.
In 2018, the Lakers moved up from Class C, where it won its first-ever state championship a season earlier, to Class B, where it went 11-1.
During the course of that season, Skaneateles went undefeated through the Class B West division, beat Cazenovia at the Carrier Dome for the sectional title and secured a dramatic last-second victory over Chenango Forks in the regional final before falling to Batavia in the state semifinals.
Ray Leach, the record-setting running back whose 3,010 yards included nearly 500 in Batavia’s win over Skaneateles, shared NYSSWA Class B Player of the Year honors with Joe Girard III, the quarterback who paced Glens Falls to the state title. Girard is also the state’s all-time leading scorer in basketball and is headed to Syracuse University.
