If and when Cicero-North Syracuse’s pair of varsity basketball teams return to action this winter, they will do so with new head coaches.
The defending Section III Class AA girls basketball champion Northstars have tapped Rob Siechen as the successor to Eric Smith, whose 15 seasons at the helm included a pair of state Class AA titles.
Meanwhile, Kyle Martin has taken over the C-NS boys basketball program after long-time coach John Haas stepped down at the end of April.
Both Martin’s appointment, and that of Siechen, was approved at the North Syracuse School District’s Board of Education meeting on June 15.
In the case of the girls program, the school is replacing one state championship-winning coach with another.
Siechen comes from Jamesville-DeWItt, where he took over as head coach in 2005. What followed was an astonishing run of success that culminated in three consecutive state Class A championships in 2016, ’17 and ’18.
During that time, the Red Rams also reached the state final four six times and won eight straight sectional titles, a run only ended last March when J-D lost in the sectional title game to Christian Brothers Academy.
However, it is a homecoming for Siechen, who teaches in the C-NS district and whose daughter, Morgan, graduated in 2019.
Smith took over at C-NS at the same time Siechen did at J-D. But led by the likes of Breanna Stewart, McKayla Roberts and Jessica Cook, Smith’s teams won those state championships in 2011 and ’12 and nine sectional titles, eight of them in a row starting in 2009.
Success for the C-NS boys program has proven elusive in the decade since it defeated Utica Proctor on a last-second basket to claim the 2010 sectional Class AA final.
So the Northstars now turn to Martin, who last coached in the college ranks at SUNY Purchase but was a standout locally at Tully High School, where he set scoring and 3-point shooting marks.
