SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Springs High School varsity football schedule was released this week.
All games will be played on Fridays at 7 p.m., except for the Thursday, October 10 game at Albany, which will be played at 6 p.m.
September 6 – Christian Brothers Academy (away) September 13 – Schenectady (home) September 20 – Queensbury (home) September 27 – Niskayuna (home) October 4 – Colonie (home) October 10 – Albany (away) October 18 – Guilderland (away) October 25 – Shaker (home) November 1 – Shen (away)
Photo of white home jersey via the Saratoga Racers.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Racers, an American Basketball Association (ABA) team, had its first public exhibition game last Saturday in the Gavin Park gym, falling short of the Bennington Martens, 63 to 78.
The Racers only trailed by three at the end of the first quarter, then were down eight at halftime. The Martens pulled further ahead in the third quarter, forcing Saratoga to play catch-up.
As of press time, the team was scheduled to play its next scrimmage game on Thursday, August 15 at Hackett Park in Albany.
The team also unveiled its jersey designs earlier this month. Both the white home jersey and black away jersey feature the racehorse logo above a mountain design.
The Racers will kick off their inaugural season in late October, playing home games in the Saratoga Central Catholic gym.
Free ice cream and fireworks kicked off the Philadelphia Orchestra’s annual residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on July 31. Photos by Jonathon Norcross and Stefanie Waldek.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nothing says “Saratoga” like a man dressed in revolutionary war garb waiting in line for a free cone of Stewart’s ice cream.
Such was the scene at the July 31 “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), which featured fireworks, a Battles of Saratoga display, and live cannon fire accompanying the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance of the 1812 Overture.
The event marked the opening night of the orchestra’s annual SPAC residency.
Kristi Wagner competed in the women’s double sculls B final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Lauren O’Connor competed in the women’s quadruple sculls B final. Photos via US Rowing.
PARIS, FRANCE — Saratoga rowers Kristi Wagner and Lauren O’Connor both finished ninth overall in their respective events at the 2024 Paris Olympics last week.
Wagner and partner Sophia Vitas took third place in the women’s double sculls B final, with a time of 6:50.74. This placed them ninth overall in double sculls.
O’Connor competed in the quadruple sculls B final, finishing third with a time of 6:31.71. Her quad team placed ninth overall as well.
Wagner and Vitas were fifth in double sculls at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. O’Connor made her Olympics debut in Paris.
Both Wagner and O’Connor are Saratoga Springs residents and members of the Saratoga Rowing Association.
CLEVELAND, OHIO — Joe Tessitore, a sportscaster from Schenectady, will join World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) “Monday Night Raw” broadcast team as a play-by-play commentator beginning Monday, September 2. The news was announced by fellow commentator Michael Cole during WWE’s SummerSlam event on Saturday.
“This is absolutely not the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, New York when I was a little kid seeing Chief Jay Strongbow and skipping school to go to PYX 106 parties with Big John Studd,” Tessitore reminisced during SummerSlam.
Tessitore attended the Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, and later worked at WRGB, the CBS affiliate TV station in Albany, early in his career. Since then, he’s called both boxing matches and NFL games for ESPN. He was also an announcer on “Holey Moley,” a miniature golf competition show on ABC.
Construction underway at the St. Mary’s School in Ballston Spa. Photo via the school’s Facebook page
BALLSTON SPA — St. Mary’s, a pre-K through 5th grade Catholic school in Ballston Spa, is upgrading its playground and revamping some of its offices during the summer break.
According to the school, one new office will house the attendance team and allow staff to inspect visitors’ identification before they are allowed into the building. Another project includes upgrades to the school’s playground, which will have sod, rubber mulch, and a new six-foot tall privacy fence.
“Lots of teamwork is going into the exciting projects taking place at St. Mary’s,” the school said in a social media post. “We can’t wait to open our doors to our students for all to see these transformations with their own eyes.”
BALLSTON SPA — Just weeks after the first cannabis dispensary opened in Saratoga Springs, an application to open a dispensary in Ballston Spa was withdrawn from the village’s planning board review process.
Mayor Frank Rossi said that concerns over parking, increased traffic, and possible on-site consumption led to the application being pulled.
“While I am disappointed that this application has been withdrawn, the Village remains committed to ensuring a balance exists between business growth and the safety and concerns of our community,” Rossi wrote in a Facebook post. “I’m sure another cannabis dispensary will be proposed inside the Village limits at some point, and we all remain prepared to manage that process swiftly on our end.”
The application was made by Sachmarie Crowley of Saratoga Springs for Island Vibes Cannabis Dispensary, LLC. Crowley is the owner of Sasha’s of Saratoga, which offers adult and pediatric medical cannabis certifications, IV hydration therapy, vitamin injections, and chronic disease consultation.
The proposed dispensary would have been located at 303 Milton Avenue, the current home of Russell’s Deli. Deli owner Russell Shapiro called the withdrawn application “good news for our customers, bad news for us” in a Facebook post. Shapiro put his deli up for sale last year.
U.K. Members of Parliament Gill Furniss, Dan Carden, and Navendu Mishra visit the GlobalFoundries headquarters in Malta with U.S. Congressman Paul Tonko. Photo via the GlobalFoundries X account.
MALTA — U.S. Congressman Paul Tonko visited the GlobalFoundries headquarters in Malta last week, along with U.K. members of parliament Gill Furniss, Dan Carden, and Navendu Mishra. The group met with GlobalFoundries employees and toured the facility’s cleanroom.
Tonko hosted the MPs during their trip to the Capital Region as part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. The MPs discussed potential areas of cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom with Tonko, according to a press release.
GlobalFoundries is a semiconductor manufacturer that received $1.5 billion in federal funds earlier this year. The company plans to build a new microchip fabrication plant in Malta.
Coffee Planet in Ballston Spa was purchased by current owner Kim Tribley in 2018. Photo via the company’s Facebook page.
BALLSTON SPA — Coffee Planet, located at 100 Milton Avenue in downtown Ballston Spa, celebrated six years under its current ownership on Saturday.
A statement posted to the company’s Facebook page said that owner and CEO Kim Tribley “has poured her heart and soul into creating a space that goes beyond serving coffee; she’s built a community where warmth, connection, and exceptional service are at the core of everything we do.”
Tribley purchased Coffee Planet from previous owner Cliff Baum in 2018. The shop celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. Tribley was previously a sales rep at Chris’ Coffee in Latham.
A screenshot from the Saratoga 250 augmented reality preview app shows Benedict Arnold standing inside the Saratoga TODAY newsroom.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Benedict Arnold stood tall next to the water cooler in the Saratoga TODAY newsroom as he expressed his eagerness to repel British advances at the upcoming Battles of Saratoga. Or at least that’s how it looked on one reporter’s cell phone.
The Saratoga 250 Commission is using augmented reality and 3D animations of historic figures to help bring the “turning point” of the American Revolution to life. Upon downloading an app, cell phone users can “see” these animated characters standing in front of them via their phone’s camera. The characters then deliver first-person testimonies of their roles in the Battles of Saratoga, presenting history in an entertaining and technologically advanced fashion.
“You can stand next to an animation of Benedict Arnold and take your picture,” said Lauren Roberts, Saratoga County Historian and chairperson of the Saratoga 250 Commission.
360XR, a digital storytelling company, is responsible for creating these augmented reality experiences. The company previously created similar animations for various historic sites on Long Island. One in particular, a driving tour of the Culper Spy Ring, caught Roberts’ attention.
“We liked all the different ways that they were telling the story and we decided that this is something that we would really like to have in Saratoga County,” Roberts said. “Not every place is a historic site where you can have staffing and signage and installations, so the idea of using technology was really great for us.”
After the second battle of Saratoga, when British General John Burgoyne was outnumbered and on the run, he headed about ten miles north to what is now Schuylerville. With the use of augmented reality, this trail of the British retreat would come alive at various sites where visitors could hear stories told by animated, historic characters.
Some of the characters being brought to life by 360XR and Saratoga 250 are Benedict Arnold, John Burgoyne, and Lady Frederika Riedesel, who wrote memoirs of her experiences in the war.
“We know a lot about what was going on during the siege because of her writings,” Roberts said. “She gives some wonderful perspectives; ones that we wouldn’t necessarily hear from a military perspective.”
Riedesel, the wife of the commander of German forces at Saratoga, took shelter in the Marshall House in present-day Schuylerville. In the house’s cellar, she helped care for women and wounded soldiers.
“Here, I stand, thousands of miles from home with my three young daughters,” says an animated version of Riedesel in a donor preview video created by 360XR. “We live amidst a paradox. Nature’s beauty surrounds us, yet the harsh realities of wilderness travel and the brutal truths of war shape our days.”
These words, spoken by an actress portraying Riedesel, come directly from the actual writings of Lady Frederika. But when it comes to other historic characters who didn’t always leave behind written records of their thoughts, a certain amount of creativity is required to, quite literally, put words in their mouths.
“We’re interpreting their position or perspective, but we’re trying to be as accurate as you can be in a process like this,” Roberts said.
As of now, a few demos of these historic characters have been created. But Saratoga 250 hopes to make more of them.
“Technology is not cheap, so [Campaign for Saratoga 250] is working on funding so that we can include more stories and implement what we have,” Roberts said.
The hope is to have all of these augmented reality experiences ready in time for the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga, which will be celebrated in 2027.
“I hope that using a new way to tell stories will interest a larger audience,” Roberts said. “We’re really just trying to reach more people and tell the story in an informative and entertaining way.”
