BALDWINSVILLE SCHOOLS – As the 2023-24 school year began to wind down, the Baldwinsville athletic department’s past, present and future all intersected.
Within the span of a month, a new flag football program made history by winning the inaugural Section III Division I championship just as its head coach, Kathy Morse, was named to the B’ville Community Athletic Hall of Fame..
And it happened just as several projects, ranging from aninstallation of an all-weather artificial baseball field and the total revamping of the main gym at Baker High School, are either underway or will start in the next 12 months.
True, this school year did not involve the state championships won in boys lacrosse in 2022 and 2023. But B’ville’s boys soccer team got close.
In the newly-created Class AAA division, the Bees won tight games over Utica Proctor (2-1) and Liverpool (1-0) to lay claim to the sectional title, then edged Shaker 2-1 in the regional final on an overtime goal by Andrew Jung after reserve goalkeeper Enzo Falso stopped a potential go-ahead penalty kick by the Blue Bison late in regulation.
Going to the state final four in Middletown, B’ville won again, 2-0, over Lancaster in the state semifinals on goals by Greg Ramin and Ian Price, only to drop a tight 2-1 state final to Brentwood.
Also in the fall, B’ville long-dominant girls volleyball team returned to the top of the sectional ranks, rallying from 2-1 down to beat Cicero-North Syracuse in five sets in the Class AAA semifinal before topping Liverpool in four sets.
In two other sports, B’ville had dominant individual and team performances.
For the first time in program history, the boys swimming Bees won the sectional Class A championship after an undefeated regular season that featured the work of Mikey White, Lucas Clay, Matt Lange and Alex Nicita, with White (200 freestyle) and Clay (100 breaststroke) each getting seventh-place state finishes in their strongest events.
This followed an autumn where B’ville girls swimmer Eva Smith dominated races all season, ultimately getting to the state championships where she finished eighth in the 100 backstroke.
Then there was track and field, where indoors and outdoors the Bees swamped the competition on the boys side to win sectional Class AA championships after undefeated regular seasons.
With a deep roster and a strong core of distance runners and throwers, B’ville would send several athletes to the indoor and outdoor state meets, including a top-10 finish in the outdoor 4×800 relay by Paul Clark, Noah Covert, Zach Arria and Ryan Wilson.
Many B’ville teams in the spring reached sectional finals, including boys lacrosse to boys tennis, but one of them took it further and made even more history than originally planned.
Flag football only became a varsity sport in 2024. B’ville gathered a team that, despite some ups and downs in the regular season, also recorded five shutouts.
Then, in the sectional playoffs, it was the Bees’ defense dominant again, first in a 12-0 semifinal win over a Syracuse West side that beat them earlier in the week, then in a 19-2 romp over Syracuse East in the sectional Division I final.
Morse coached that team to glory and, shortly after, found out she was joining the likes of former Major League Baseball pitcher Jason Grilli in the Community Athletic Hall of Fame.
When that group was honored at the annual athletic awards ceremony, another announcement was made – that the Baker High School Gym, whose renovation begins next spring, will be named in honor of long-time coach and mentor Leo Johnson.