SARATOGA SPRINGS — New uniforms. A new coach. New players. A new team culture. It seems like the Saratoga Central Catholic varsity softball team has hit the refresh button and is prepared to enter its next era.

“We want to try to change the culture until we expect to win,” said Coach Abby Arceneaux. “We’re trying to set expectations that we can compete with anybody.”

This season will be Arceneaux’s first as coach of the Saints, but she’s been developing the team since last summer. During more than a dozen open gyms, Arceneaux worked on the fundamentals with her more inexperienced players. Thanks to these sessions, Arceneaux said her girls already knew what to expect coming into the season. “We were kind of all on the same page right away,” she said.

Saratoga Catholic has six returning players this year. “They’re all very good softball players even though some of them are young,” Arceneaux said. But it was a struggle to fill in the team’s holes. This year’s roster includes four freshmen with no recent competitive softball experience, as well as an 8th grader and two 7th graders. 

In a meeting at the start of the season, Arceneaux went over all of the team’s games from last year. Arceneaux said she wanted to change the team’s mindset to believe they can compete with anybody. “These girls, we’ve heard them say, ‘Oh God, that team is so good.’ And we’re like, so should we not show up? You want me to take that day off?” 

Arceneaux has been drilling the message into her team that they have what it takes to win. It seems that strategy is paying off. Arceneaux said morale is high, and she hasn’t “noticed any kind of negativity.”

Unfortunately, the team did suffer one setback. During a batting practice, Arceneaux tore her Achilles. Thankfully, she had an experienced veteran on her coaching bench ready to help out: her dad, John. Arceneaux said she was lucky to have her father’s support. “There’s no better coach in this area that can develop kids and knows the game, in my opinion,” she said. 

The Saints will also undoubtedly have help from Ryan McDonald, their standout senior catcher who hit over .450 last year. “She’s 100% the leader of our team,” Arceneaux said. “She’s a player to watch. I don’t know how she’s flown under the radar so much because she’s impressive.”

Fans can get their first look at the revamped, McDonald-led team when the Saints kick off the season on Monday, April at 1 p.m. against Tamarac High School.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has announced the stakes schedule for the 2024 summer meet at Saratoga Racecourse, which runs from Thursday, July 11 through Monday, September 2. 

The 40-day meet will feature nineteen Grade 1 races as part of 71 stakes worth $20.75 million in total purses. Highlights include the 155th renewal of the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on August 24, as well as the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on August 3.

Saratoga Live, the television broadcast produced by NYRA in partnership with FOX Sports, will return for its 9th season to provide on-site daily coverage of the summer meet.

To view this summer’s complete schedule, visit nyra.com/saratoga/racing/stakes-schedule.

GLENS FALLS — The Adirondack Thunder, ECHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, have signed former Skidmore College hockey player Everett Wardle to an amateur tryout contract.

Wardle, 25, just finished his fourth season at Skidmore, where he scored 25 points (8 goals, 17 assists) in 28 games for the Thoroughbreds.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dolly Cairns, a Saratoga Springs native and the all-time scoring leader at Saratoga Springs High School, competed in the first round of the NCAA women’s “March Madness” basketball tournament last weekend. 

Cairns and the No. 12 seed Florida Gulf Coast Eagles faced off against a tough competitor: the No. 5 seed Oklahoma Sooners. The game was a nailbiter that came down to the final shot.

“It was a very fun and exciting experience,” Cairns told Saratoga TODAY. “I am extremely thankful to have gotten the opportunity to play in Assembly Hall against a very well-coached and competitive team like Oklahoma.”

The Eagles dominated the game in the early minutes, leading by 10 at the end of the first quarter. But Oklahoma quickly redeemed itself with a 10-0 run to open the 2nd quarter. At halftime, the Eagles had the lead. Florida was a perfect 28-0 in games they led at halftime. Momentum was on their side, but the Sooners didn’t give up without a fight.  

Cairns made the first shot of the second half, a smooth layup to maintain an Eagles lead. But Oklahoma chipped away at Florida’s defense and finished the third quarter with a 53-50 lead. In the fourth, the Eagles hit three straight shots from beyond the arc, showing why they’re regarded as three-point specialists. (Some fans wearing ponchos opened up umbrellas every time the Eagles “rained” three-pointers, but the umbrellas were apparently confiscated). 

The Sooners went on another run in the fourth, however, to put them up by 5 points with less than 4 minutes left to play. Cairns hit a huge three-pointer to put Florida within 3 points late in the quarter, causing an ESPN broadcaster to refer to Cairns as “deadly” beyond the arc. Later, Cairns fought for a rebound, and ran it all the way back for a layup, which put the Eagles up by 1 point, 68-67. With less than a minute left in regulation, the game was tied.

With only 5 seconds on the clock, Cairns attempted a three, but seemed to have either been blocked or fouled (though no foul was called by the officials). In the final play of the game, Florida was down by 3 points. With one second left, the Eagles quickly tossed up a three-pointer, but the ball bounced off the front of the rim. Oklahoma won with a final score of 73-70. Cairns finished the game with 10 points and 2 rebounds. She had the third highest point total among all Florida players.

In a postgame interview with ESPN, Sooners Coach Jennie Baranczyk praised the Eagles’ performance. “You don’t want to play them in this tournament,” Baranczyk said. 

Cairns looked back on her season at Florida Gulf Coast with no regrets. “I am so proud of our team for the way we carried ourselves all season,” she said. “The relationships I have made this year with my teammates have been like no other, and I am so happy that I made the decision to come play here.”

As for the future, Cairns, a senior, said she’s keeping her options open. “I am planning to take my extra year of eligibility and stay at [Florida Gulf Coast University] for another year,” she said. “After next year, I will be pursuing a career in healthcare.”

Cairns played for the Saratoga Springs Blue Streaks girls basketball team, scoring more than 2,000 points to set the school’s all-time scoring record. In 2019, she committed to the University of Rhode Island, where she played for two seasons before transferring to Florida Gulf Coast. With the Eagles this season, she averaged 9 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal per game.

BALLSTON SPA — Ballston Spa was one of six schools that launched unified bowling 14 years ago. Back then, the school struggled to find enough participants. Nowadays, not only is the team the largest in school history, but it also captured the Division 6 Championship earlier this month.

“We did have a successful year,” said Coach Rob Immel when his team was being celebrated by the district at the March 30 Board of Education meeting. “With unified bowling, one of my favorite aspects of it is the small celebrations, whether you get a strike, whether you win, get a spare, maybe even hit a pin, eat as many fries as you can; we celebrate all the successes.”

Unified bowling teams include a mix of people with and without disabilities. Students with limitations in adaptive areas (players) are paired with other students (partners). According to Special Olympics New York, bowling is a particularly beneficial sport to people with intellectual disabilities because it includes physical exercise, participation, and social integration.

HALFMOON — Cartwheels Gymnastics has announced that it will move from its current location in Clifton Park to 4 Enterprise Ave in Halfmoon, near the Twin Bridges Recycling Center. The move will happen this summer after renovations are completed.

“This is a stand-alone building that will be able to offer our families so many new things,” the company said in a statement posted to Facebook. 

The new facility is 24,000 square feet, which is 11,000 square feet larger than the current location. 

“We will have state of the art equipment for your children to continue to learn, grow, and have fun with,” the company said. “We also have plans for a bright, spacious lobby for our parents to watch their children in.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Baseball might be a spring sport, but it sure didn’t feel like spring during the Skidmore College baseball team’s home opener last Friday afternoon against Bard College. A gray sky and near-freezing temperatures not-so-subtly hinted at the winter storm that would begin pummeling the region later that night. Flurries fell intermittently throughout the game, causing occasional white dustings across the infield. But despite the cold, Skidmore starting pitcher Ameer Hasan was on fire.

Hasan announced his presence by striking out all three batters in the first inning. In six total innings, he threw 87 pitches, allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk. The single run scored against him in the fifth was the result of throwing error.

While Hasan commanded the mound, the Thoroughbreds went to work driving in runs. In the third inning, the team tallied nine of them. Nate Vandersea and Sam Kornet both drove in 2 RBI each. Ewen Donald worked a walk with the bases loaded. Zachary Leiderman got hit by a pitch, also with the bases loaded. Eddie Galvao hit a single to left-center that drove in yet another run. By the time the third inning was over, Skidmore was in the lead, 11-0.

Bard starting pitcher Kane Morgan was a bit unruly, walking several batters and hitting another within the first couple innings. He left the game in the bottom of the third after allowing 4 earned runs.

After Hasan departed the game, Skidmore’s relievers struggled, allowing 7 runs in the 7th inning. But Skidmore’s third-inning performance was too much for Bard to overcome. The Thoroughbreds won with a final score of 16-9.

After the home opener on Friday, Skidmore played two more games against Bard on Sunday, winning both in shutout victories. After taking all three games of their series against Bard, the Thoroughbreds improved to 8-6 on the season. 

It’s that exciting time of the year again. When we walk outside and hear the distinct chirping of Spring Peepers near any swamp or pond and see the first few daffodils poke their heads out from under the ground. This can only mean that it’s just about time to blow the dust off our fishing poles and get ready for the opening day of trout fishing. Every year on April 1, our local rivers and streams are stocked with trout, and anglers throughout the Capital Region can try their luck at catching some of these beautiful fish. 

Fishing for trout on April 1 has been a tradition like no other for many anglers throughout the Capital Region for generations. The sheer chance of catching a true trophy or even just a meal has had fishermen lining the banks every year on this date. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation does an incredible job maintaining and stocking our local streams and rivers, so that we always have the chance to catch something when we go out fishing. 

Whether this is your first time ever trout fishing or you’re a seasoned veteran, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has now made it easier than ever to plan your fishing trip. You can visit their website at https://dec.ny.gov/ for all the regulations, parking spots, and you can even see what size fish you can expect to catch. Additionally, if you click under the section titled “DEC Fish Stocking,”  you can see exactly when they plan on stocking the rivers, streams, and lakes in your county. 

Before setting out, I always recommend that everyone visits their local bait and tackle shops to pick up bait and to hear the latest fishing reports. Wiggly Worm Bait Supply, a family-owned Bait Shop in Ballston Lake, NY has been supplying worms and lures for the opening day of trout fishing for over 90 years. They usually have fishermen lining up at the door on the morning of April 1st to get what they need to be successful on the water. Some must-have bait for trout fishing include spinners, worms, phoebe spoons, and salted minnows. Wiggly Worm Bait Supply says that the best colors to use on our local trout streams always seem to be gold, silver and blue, and yellow with red dots. 

Every fisherman has their favorite spot, but there are a few local hotspots that always seem to produce year after year. The Kayaderosseras Creek or locally known as the “Kaydeross’,” has some great spots along it that always get stocked early. I recommend fishing the stretch in Rock City Falls, NY near the old paper mill for a shot at some freshly stocked fish and even the chance at a giant holdover brown trout. Another great spot anglers can try is along the Snook Kill in Gansevoort, NY off North Rd. where there is a designated fishing pull off near a bridge. This spot is extremely easy to access and is deep enough to hold a bunch of fish. 

This is a great year to take advantage of the warmer than average spring temperatures and enjoy the tradition of fishing for trout on our local bodies of water. There is no better way to spend a beautiful spring day, than to be outside with your friends and family. April 1st has marked the beginning of trout fishing for decades and continues to be an exciting date to look forward to every year. 

See you on the water on April 1!

For more from Drew Ziehnert, Ziehnert Guide Service visit Ziehnertguideservice.com or call 518-390-0282