Notre Dame's the Story

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and welcome to another fun-filled blog and thank you for joining us.  In today's blog we will be going over who won the state championships here in New York, and we will also take a look at College Football.  The season has just ended and we will go through my predictions for the future conference championship games as well as bowl games.  Also, a look at the amazing story of Notre Dame, and how they were able to get their ranking to #1 and solidify their appearance in the BCS Championship.  So the football season has ended, for one Section VI team it was pure joy in their faces and happiness all around.  For the other two teams it was sheer shock, and utter disappointment for them.    Randolph was the lone team to win the state title this year from Western New York.  For Randolph it was their 3rd title since 2005.  And it also marked the end of an era.  Pat Slater, the head coach for the Cardinals announced his retirement right after the big win on Friday.  “That’s the best way to go,” Slater said of his final game. “ I’ve been thinking about it, and every time we won every week, these last four weeks, I said ‘You know, it’s getting closer, it’s getting closer. … This is the best. I have great kids. The kids played hard. … ”  That's pretty cool to see for him and his team, congratulations to the Cardinals.  Sweet Home, had the tough task of taking on Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, who was ranked 4th in the state.  Now yes, Sweet Home was ranked 2nd, but these two teams were no strangers to each other people.  In 2008 and 2009, the Panthers defeated Burnt Hills in both games for the State Title.  This time, they would have none of it.  Burnt Hills trounced the Panthers 40 to 20, where it was 26 zip at the half.  Sweet Home's coach John Faller had this to say about the loss, “Whenever you get this far, a loss hurts more than any other loss, because it’s the last one and your season’s over.  I give a lot of credit to Matt [Shell, Burnt Hills coach] and his team. They took it to us today. We tried to come back a little bit in the second half and didn’t quite have enough. It’s a tribute to them. When you’re beat, you’re beat, and today we got beat by a better team.”  Hopefully next year Sweet Home is able to bounce back, and maybe make another run to the Championship game.  The last team in the Championship game was AA powerhouse Orchard Park.  The Quakers, #8 in the state, had to take on New Rochelle, ranked 7th in the state.  This was Orchard Park's third showing the in State Championship in that last five years, and they were coming into this game as the defending state championships.  But New Rochelle was just too powerful, too fast, and too overwhelming for the Quakers.  It was over at halftime and the final score was 34 to 6.  “They were fast, they were strong, they were great on defense – that’s the best team in the state in AA,” said Orchard Park coach Gene Tundo. “They defended everything we did really well. … They outplayed us the whole game.”  And so high school football has ended, as sad as that is, the adolescents have to look forward to a winter sport.  So the College Football season has ended, and the postseason is upon us, and the biggest surprise of the year has to be the amazing story of the undefeated Notre Dame Irish.  Notre Dame came into the year with not much expected from them.  But, they came together and proved a ton of critics wrong.  Led by defensive linebacker, stud, and Heisman hopeful, Manti Te'o.  He has been a beast and is among the leaders in interceptions with seven.  He never had one before this year ans he has seven, as a linebacker.  Truly amazing.  Brian Kelly has his team firing on all cylinders and in the championship for the first time since 1993.  A team that was once the team everyone was asking what happened to, are they done?  And now look at them.  Amazing.  They will most likely take on the winner of the SEC Championship game, between #2 Alabama and #3 Georgia.  This is a very compelling matchup and a lot of people are hoping to see Notre Dame go up against a powerhouse like Alabama.  At the beginning of the year it was looking like it was going to be Alabama and Oregon, as they were the favorites.  But both teams did lose, Alabama was lucky enough for it to come earlier in the year.  But Oregon, not so lucky.  USC was also stocked up pretty big, and they lost almost 6 games!  Just goes to show how wacky and unreal College Football is.  Another college sport that is unreal is College Basketball.  Now you talk about upsets.  College Basketball is probably my most favorite sport to watch.  It is so exciting, the intensity, and the atmospheres during a basketball game.  Syracuse is my team and I’m hoping they can get a title that I can actually remember.  Last year was supposed to be their year but this year, I got another good feeling.