In three short years, Tim Hawkins helped transform the Jordan-Elbridge football program from a cellar-dweller to a league champion.
Now, though, someone else will have to pick up the mantle. Hawkins announced last week that he is stepping down as the Eagles’ head coach, saying that time commitments to work and family kept him from fully engaging in the J-E program.
When Hawkins arrived from Bishop Ludden, where he was an assistant under Matt Rogers, the Eagles had just gone 1-7 in 2012. Success wasn’t immediate, but in 2014 J-E rose all the way to the Section III Class C semifinals before falling to Herkimer.
Last fall, J-E maintained that success in the regular season, going 5-2 to finish second in Class C West behind Canastota and earn a first-round sectional home playoff game, though the Eagles lost to General Brown 28-25.
Athletic director Mark Schermerhorn said a search for Hawkins’ successor is underway, and hopes to have the new head coach in place by the end of next month.
Meanwhile, a name from the Solvay football program’s not-too-distant past is now charged with making its future a bit brighter.
Todd Lisi was appointed earlier this month as the Bearcats’ new head coach, promoted from his role as assistant and taking over after Matt Shutts stepped down following five seasons at the helm.
When Lisi was attending Solvay High School in the late 1990s, the program was flourishing under the late Al Merola, a perennial Section III contender. After graduating from Solvay in 2000, Lisi stayed at home and went to Syracuse University, where he saw time at wide receiver.
By the time Lisi returned to Solvay in 2011 to serve as an assistant coach under Stotts and work as a physical education teacher in the district, he had already spent time as an assistant at Westhill and Fowler, plus a stint at Morrisville State College.
But the Bearcats were in the midst of a streak of 26 consecutive defeats.Finally, that skid ended in 2013, and Shutts was credited with vast improvement in the team’s academic standing along with increased participation at all levels of the program.
Yet the varsity team continued to struggle, having won just nine games overall since going 7-2 and last reaching the sectional semifinals in 2007. Lisi is now charged with taking all the good things done off the field and translating them into success on the field.
