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SyracuseHerald-Journal, Friday, December 1,1989 013

WINTER SCHOLASTIC SPORTS '89 - 90

Fulton'sspeed

demonLaDue keepsbreaking recordsB y Andrew MilnerC o n t r i b u t i n g Writer

I t all began for R i c h L a D u e inth e f i f t h grade, w hen h ebecame f r i e n d s w i t h a class-

rnpte TfW ("Vice

"Tom h ad b e e n on the YMCAswim team (the. Fulton SpeedDemons) for a couple of years,"LaDue recalled, "and he talkedm e into tryingout for the team."

LaDue won a spot on the SpeedDemons , and has been swim mingcom petively ever since. LaDue

jo ined th e Fulton varsity sw imt eam as an 'eighth-grader, and forvh e past f ive years h as s w u m fo rboth th e R^ d Raiders and Spee dDemons .

Ladue finds swimm ing on t w oseparate teams beneficial. -

"I get to swim two to threehours a day," he said. "It'slikes w i m m i n g w i t h one team at alarger school."

He swim s the 50-yard free stylean d the 100 frees tyle, but terf lyan d backs t roke . At last year'sleague meet , he w on the 5 0 f r ee;at last year's sectionals, LaDuefinished second. He was the onlyRed Raider to go to the statem e e t at N o t t i n g h a m H i g hSchool, w h e r e , in the 50 f r ee, h efinished in the to p 20.

He ho lds no f ewer t h an s ixFulton school records: 50 free-

style (21.89 se conds), 100 frees-tyle (49.12 sec onds), 100 but terfly(56.36), the 100 backstroke, andthe 200 medley and 400 freestylerelay. In 13 me ets last season, .hele d the t eam by sco r i ng 139points.

Besides lifting weigh t s , LaDueb egan playing th e sprinter posi-tion for the Syracuse water poloteam l as t sum m er , wh i ch p l ayedin t ou rnam en t s in Washington,D.C., and Toronto.

LaDue com pe t ed on the Cen-t ra l water p o l o team'at theEmpire State Gam es last s u m m e r

Rivals challenge LiverpoolBut senior-laden Warriors should prevail in the water

sphoto

FULTON'S RICH LaDUE is a rue demon for the swimming team.

Rich LaDue

School: Fulton.

Sport: Swimming.

Key numbers: 5-foot-11. 150-pound, 16-year-old senior.

Other sports: Soccer, weightlift-

ing, water polo.

Hero: Matt Biondi.

Hobbies:Downhill skiing:

Sports goals: To continuethrough collegewith swimming.

Career goals: Tc become a

physcal therapist.

Greatest sports achievement:Setting each high school recordand going to the state meet lastyear.

in Ithaca, w inning a silver medal .He swam at the Games in Syra-cuse in 1988, finishing in the top10.

He has played stopper on theRe d Raiders varsity soccer teamfo r three years.

"It takes the place of weight -l i f t ing , and i t s t r eng t h en s m ylegs and my cardiovascular sys-tem ," he said.

A m e m b e r o f t he Fulton sci -ence c lub, Ladue is co-presidentof h is senior class, and in Octoberh e w a s named hom ecom ing k ing .

L a d u e i s a l so a m e m b e r o fanother p rest igious group — t heNational Honor Society. Hiscum ulative grade po int averageis 93, and his favori te subjec tsinclude science an d m a t h . LaDue

aclnowledges th e dif f icu l ty ofm aintaining a full academ ic andathletic schedule.

"It's a lot of set scheduling," hesaid. "You set aside t im e forpractice, and you set aside tim efor hom ework . It's vigorous try-in g to keep up wi t h everything."

LaDue has been co-captain ofthe Red Raiders swim team forthree years.

"I f e e l like I'm looked up to abit as one of the team leaders,"he said. "It'smy job to keep thespirits up on the t eam , to get ral-l ie s go ing when we n eed t h em . "

One of LaDue's most passion-ate supporters is his coach atFulton, Dave Garber.• "He's very likeable and sup -portive of his teammates,"Garber said. "He has a h a p p yattitude, bu t h e can be instantlyserious about the task at hand .He's also able to conduc ta m e e t -i ng wi t h his t e a m m a t e s at thesnap of hi s f ingers, because theyall respect and l ike h im."

LaDue is optimistic about Ful-ton's c h a n c e s this season,quickly po in t i ng o ut t h a t m e m -bers of the YM C A Speed Demonsare ready to take th e spots ief ib y graduating seniors.

So LaDue prepares to end onepart o f h i s sw i mmi ng career bybeg i nn i ng h i s f inal h i gh schoo lseason. It is appropriate that th eother co-captain on the Ful tonteam isnone other than the long-time close f r i end who got LaDue- into racing, Tom Coss.

ByA n d r e w M i ln e rContributing Writer

j Theujpcoming 1989-1990Onon-daga High School League boys'swim m ing season promises to becom petitive from start to finish.

Even Liverpool, the one schoolmost coaches said would win theleague, has several top rivals atits heels. A r u n d o w n of the 10teams in the OHSL, with twonon-league schools thrown in.

• Rome — Coach Paul Gigliottii s looking for success wi t h theBlack Knights through the per-formance of the vounees t in his

"We'll have a young team,"Gigliotti said. "We'll have a fewkids coming up f rom th e juniorhigh."

On e m ainstay is Mike Kunkel , -w h o represented RFA in thestates in 1-meter diving last year.

• BaMwinsville - Coach M ikeFoster doesn't think losing fourseniors will prevent the Bees (8-1in the league, 12-2 overall) fromrepeating a strong second placein theOHSL.

"We've got s o m e real goodkids coming back," Foster said.A m o n g t h e m senior are RogerAcke r — who ho lds t h e schoolrecord in the 500 freestyle — ands o p h o m o r e backstroker ErikDalaker.

• Liverpoo l —According tocoach Bill Wallace, the squad'ssuccess is multilayered.

"The strength of our team is

that we h ave so m any k ids swim -mi ng so many di fferen t styles,"Wallace said.

TheWarriors, finishing a solidsecond at sectionals behind NewHartford, lost to graduation MikeRyan, who w e n t to states in the

100-meter but terfly. Nonethe-less, they retain more t h an 10sen io r s , i n c lud ing co - cap ta i n sDrew Kelly an d Arkady Lapi -dius.5 No t t i ngh am — Once aga in ,

it's a case of Paradis f ound fo rthe Bulldogs.

S e v e n t h - g r a d e r G r e g o r yParadis jo ins broth ers Andre, asenior, and J.P., a junior, on theNott ingham varsity squad. Gre-gory will swim distance freestyleas we l l as backstroke. His broth-e rs w e n t to the states, finishing

in the top 10 in both the 200-iind500-meter

freestyle."We're also bringing a longf o u r or f i ve k ids who've hadsome s w i m m i n g experience,"said coach Robin Bright.

• Fulton —The Red Raiders(9-5) lost two strong swimmers tograduation in Greg Gilliland an dJohn Nagelschmiat. But coachDave Garber looks ' toward twoseniors as reasons to f e e l confi-dent about the new season.

Rich LaDue, who won the 50-yard freestyle at sectionals, holdssix school records. Tom Coss fin-

j fifth in fha TO O frop ?t < J P O .

uonais and holds the schoolrecord at that distance.• Fayetteville-Manlius — The

Hornets (4-5) hope to succeedwi t h t h e e f fo r t s of two sets ofbrothers f r o m C i c e r o - N o r t hSyracuse, wh i ch sw im s w i th F-M .

The fi rst pair o f brothers "arethe Burkes. Sean is a senior but-terilyer and individual me dleyswimmer, whi le Matt is a sopho-m ore sprinter and backstroker.

The other brothers pair are theSecors. Matt Secor, a f r e shm anfreestyler, joins junior individualmedley swimmer Jamie.• Jame svi l l e -De W it t—The Red

R a m s have f our keys to a suc-cessful 1989-90 campaign.

TheRed Rams (6-8) will be ledby seniors David Tauber, a free-styler at 100, 200 and 500yards,individual m edley swim me r MattKaplan, sprint freestyler MarkThorne and backstroker ShawnDicke r sbn . In all,13 s w i m m e r sreturn to the program.• Auburn —Last season, four

m em ber s o f t h e M aroons' boys 'swimming team set a New YorkState high school record in the

400-yard freestyle relay wi th at ime of 3:08.47.

But three of the f o u r swimmers

— Tom Simon, Scott Charlton

an d Ardie D a n d i n o — graduated.

Only Chad McMil lan remains tohe lp the Maroons (1-5, 2-10).

• W e s t Gene s e e —D e s p i t e asol id four th-p lace finish in theOHSL (11-7, 12-7), veteran Wild-cats coach George Falwel l hasfe w pretensions about maintain-ing that level in a competitivel eague .

"Everybody in the league wi l l

be pret ty strong,"Falw ell said.

The Wildca t slost

100-yardbu t t e r f lye r Sean Greis to Pots-da m State and breaststrokerBlake Connors to Norwich Uni-versity.

Returning are backstroker andfreestyler Jay Brinson, distancef r e e s ty l e r Greg Randa l l , andbreaststroker Dave Honis, allSeniors.

• Osw ego — "Last year, weha d our best season ever," coachJim M c C a u l said. "We have ab u n c h of f i n e r e t u rn i ng swim -m er s , an d wi t h t a l en t ed n ew-POTrtorQ ttm <7V*r>nM V.Q yo-^v «r»*v>_

peiuive."Th e Bucs (6-3, 9-4), w ho f i n -

ished fourth in sect ionals, lostPatChetney, a state m eet final istin th e breaststroke, an dal l - league diver Dave Kells tograduation.

But they retain co-captains

Matt M itchel l and Rick Web ber,bo t h senior freestylers. butter-f l y e r s an d ail-leaguers, a longwith all-league f r e sh m e n D r e wT h o m a s (a di s tance f r e e s ty l e r )an d Jeff Tonkin (backstroke).

"We're equally b a l a n c e dthroughout the l ineup," M cCaulsaid.• H ol la n d P a t e n t (Tr i - Va l ley )—

G o l d e n K n i g h t s c o a c h M a r kCelecki admits that the gradua-tion of four seniors from last sea-so n hurts. "We lost sprinters (50-and 100-yard freestylers)," hesaid. "But we m aintained specia-lity swimmers."

C e l e c k i says thatH-P's

strength lies in such d i s t ancefreestylers as seniors Scott Car-ney and Evan Davies and suchind iv idua l m ed l ey and back-stroke swim me rs as Harold Hig-ley and Christian Holmes.• W e e d spor t — The Warriors

(11-3 in the Finger LakesLeague, 12-4 overall), winne rs ofthe Section Three Class B title,su f f ered a blow as a resul t o f afootball injury.

Backstroker Ch ris Jorolemonhur t h i s k n e e in a Warriors foot-bal l gam e and is l ikely to missm u c h of the season.

W e e d s p o r t has 14 r e t u r n i n gswim m ers , i n c lud ing Jeff Riley,w h o finished f if th in the 100-yardbackstroke at the sta te champ i-onships.

Bees' Alexander rolls up

team , individual honorsHe spends all of his f r e e time at the lanes

By M i k e S g a r l a taStaff Writer

A

I

t the age of 17, Art Alexander hasn o t c h e d m ore t han h i s sha r e ofbowl ing accompl i shments .

Hi s credentia ls include three p e r f e c tgame s last year. One cam e during try-outs fo r Team USA, w here h e just missedqualifying against o lder bowlers for thenational touring team . Anoth er cameduring practice for the sectional all-stargame.

Alexander concluded the all-star seriesby get t ing another 300, which w as onlyth e second perfect game in the all-stargame's h istory and the first in 12 years.His all-star-leam-high-series of 1,252 w astops on a record-set t ing team that wonth e state title.

Mo reover, the Syracuse Y oung Ameri -ca n Bowling Alliance hono r ed th e left -hander at the Syracuse Bowling Associa-tions Presidents an d Hall of F am e Din -n e r whe r e h e w as p i cked a s th e you t hbow l e r of the ye ar in Syracuse.

Part of the success that Alexande r hasach i eved in b o w l i n g c o m e s f r om h isexper i ence and dedication to the sport .

"A LOT OF pract ice contributes tobecoming a m ore consistent bow l e r , an dI try to bow l in the off-season as muc h asI can," Alexander said. "I had a reailygood season last ye^ar with some pret ty

steady scores."He also has the advantage of work ing

as a pin-chaser fo r t h e Thunderb i rdLanes in Baldwinsville. One of the job'sbenef i t s is he gets all the f r ee bow l ing h ewants .

In addition, Alexande r wil l spend m os tof th is winter around bowling as he takespa r t i n a S atu rday m orn ing bow l i ngleague and a Saturday a f t e r noon trav-

eling league.

And, on every other Sunday, Alex-ander plays in the Youth Bowlers Tour.This i s the same league he b owled in lastyear in which he fin ished th i rd overallan d w o n a t ou rnam en t . So far th is yearhe has m atched his perform ance in theleague by winn ing a tournament .

However, perhaps his. best times inCentral New York's bowl ing alleysc o m e s as he represents his school, B a l d -

p a r t o f a B'vi l le team that f i n i s h e dbehind only Oswego in the OHSL lastyear.

Besides their second-place f inish in theregular season, the Bees won the OHSLt ournamen t and f in ished four th in thesectionals.

LAST YEAR, Alexander of t en cam et h r ough for his coach B'ville coach JoelBart, who said, "I have never seenanyone bow l as wel l as he does. He canm a k e any shot. He is awesom e."

Alexander finished last year with a 206average and 23 gam es of 200 or bet tergam es and seven 600 or bet ter series.Bart ex pec t s m o re f rom his star thisyear.

" H e h a s b e c o m e m o r e p o w e r f u l a n dconsistent," Bart said. "He is a leaderand a captain of the team. It only takesone 300 g a m e to really build your confi-dence in bowling."

Some of Alexander's biggest competi-tion in the OSHL wil l c o m e from hi s ownt eam m a te s .

"I am going to have trouble picking astarting lineup ," Bart said. "This year w ehav e the p otent ia l to go to states."

R i g h t b e h i n d A l e x a n d e r is s u p e rsop homor e Steve Volkin, wh o had a 203average last year. They are jo ined b yhard throwe rs Joe Petrowski and AndyPicciano. Up and coming eighth-graderAnd y Volk in adds m o re dep t h t o t h eBees.

Kur t Kaeting is another B'vi l le bow lerw h o could possibly make som e al l -start eam s . In hi s f i rst day of pract ice th isyear, he bow led a 298.

"I WOULD LIKE to see the team go toth e states instead of j u s t me . We shouldhave done i t last year, but the guys w erestill young," Alexander said. "Were at igh t -kni t group wi th many of the play-ers in many of the same leagues as m e."

" When Alsxsnder is not cont r ibut ing tothe bow ling team, he is a start ing ha l f -back on the Bees' soccer team. He alsoen joys p i t c h i ng fo r t h e Bees ba seba l lteam. However, th is year h e m ay not goou t fo r ba seba l l becau se h e w an t s t ospend more t ime bowling.

Alexander 's parents h ave also helpedin h is bow ling. Art , h is fa ther , teame d upw i t h y o u n g Ar t i n t he AVCO FamilyTournamen t , w h e r e t h e two advanced o

JMCOMMENTUCCI/StaftPhotographer

AR T ALEXANDER rolls for morehonors as the top man on Baldwins-ville'sbowling team.

Ar t Alexander

School;Baldwinsville.

Sport:Bowling.

Key numbers: 5-toot-8, 140-pound. 17-

year-old senior.

Other sports; Soccer and baseball.

Hero; None. -Sports goth To be a professional bowter^

Ctittf god; Art/advertising.

MobbtoK Soccer, hunting.

Greatest sports achievement: His 300game in last year's sectionals.

3 teams to stay kingpinsOswego, B'ville, ES-M to bowl over foesBy Mike SgarlataStaff Writer

Last year, Oswego, Baldwinsville andEast Syracuse-M inoa ruled OHSL boys'bowling.

Oswego won t h e regular-season title,but Baldwinsville took the league tour-nament and ES-M l ingered ne ar the top.This year, these three still appear to bethe t eam s to beat .

Baldwinsvi lle seems to have remainedthe m ost in tact from a year ago as itlooks to im prove on its 25-11 m ark .Coach Joel Bart will have several keyreturning people — Art Alexander, KurtKaeting andSteveVolkin.

East Syracuse-Minoaand Oswego bothhave gone through som e changes.

ES-M, 27-9 in the OHSL last year, w ashit hard bygraduation and by the depar-tureof last year's coach Carl Pulverenti,who s t epped down to spend m ore t im ew i th h is fami ly.He wil l be replaced w i thBill Kendrat, wh o i s - in hi s second tour ofduty as coach of the Spartans.

"I am looking forward to g et t ing backinto it,"Kendrat said. "When I was h e r ebefore, we had a dominant team that set

m a n y records."

Like ES-M, Osweg o lost many of lastseason's players to graduation. Howe ver,the Bucs still have the opposition scared.

Cicero-North Syracuse coach Joh n Piz-zuto stated, "I believe they lost fou r oftheir top f ive bowlers. However , youcan ' t count them out. They always seemto have agood team."

Pizzuto knows som ething about losingplayers. He lo s t two key m em ber s fromlast year's squad. However, th e return ofsenior Carmen Serbio and junior JeffChapman could provide a solid nucle usfo r th e Northstars.

Another school with an outside chancein th e OHSL is Fulton. After f in ish ingthe year wi th a perfect 30-0 m ark and aCiass B cham pion sh i p , the Red Raidersmoved up to Class A. Coach Dean Distincould have h i s p rob l em s w i t h a youngteam and a m ore comp eti tive schedule.He b r i n g s b a c k John Taylo r , whoaveraged 206last season, and WayneDebendorf .

Cor t land i s on e o f t h e m any youngteams expected to im prove th is season.The Tigers return Jason Tripoli, DanSmith and John Bishop.

Liverpool needs a strong year f r o mM i k e Scnartt, who is the o n l y player inschool history to average 200 for a sea-son.

R o m e Free Academy is a l s o expectedto do better by bringing back three b o w l -ers with averages in the 170s ~RichardM a lv a n e y , Larry G u i l i a n o a n d J o h n Bas-

W e s t h i l l , a c o e d team, s h o u l d beupgraded wi th th e return of ex pe r i en cedplayers Jason Fellows and Andrea Scri-mal l e.

• Tri-Valley League boys —Cam den isthe f avori te in the Tri-Val ley. Leadingthe way for coach Steve Baker 's BlueDevils are three experience d seniors —Jamie Turne r, Clayton Clark and RichCampbel l .

Vernon-Verona-Sherrill is ano th e r to pcontender . The Red De vi ls have one ofthe l eague ' s best bowl e r s , sophom orePete G l o v e r . Last y e a r , he had anaverage of 190 and w as a m e m b e r of theSection Three All-Stars.

"We w i l l be very c o m p e t i t i v e byreturning six out of the top e i gh t bow l e rsfrom last year," said V-V-S coach BillBoyd. "However, I am always m issingone or two people to m ake a real go of it

in the league."• O H S L girls —This league appears to

lack a clear-cut favorite.Like i ts boys, ES-M has a team capable

of upset t ing th e equilibrium. Coach FayeGrant is optimistic.

"We came in fourth in the sect ionalslast season and we only lost on e playeroff that te am," G rant said. "Co-captainsAngela Fullana and Amy Smith w i l l leadus again. We were only a couple ofpoints away last season, an d this year w eagain appe ar solid from top to bot tom."

De f end i ng c h a m p i o n t f t i ca an d lastseason's runner-up C-NS are others thatshould chal lenge for the title.• Tri-Valley League girls - One ea m

that could be in co ntent ion for top teamboth in Central New York and the Tri-Valley League is Te rry Oliver's Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.

TheLady Red Devils have either wonor tied the Tri-Valley Leagu e the pastthree seasons. Besides being Tri -Val ley

cham ps l a s t s ea son at 12-2, they alsotook the Class B sectionals. The Devilsshould continue to be tough as they haveexperience in veteran al l -stars Jenni f erEaton an d Am y Myers . One o f coachTerry Oliver 's b iggest problem s wil l b er ep l a c i ng s t andou t Andi P a lu ck , w hogradua t ed and t ook w i t h her severalschool records, including a record-high615 series.

" M a n y of our girls have potential,"O l i v e r said. "0-jr biggest c h a l l e n g e s thisyear will c o m e f r o m C a m d e n a n d N e wH a r t f o r d . B o t h are big.schools and havea lot o f bowlers to chose f r o m . "

Camden is the o t h e r d e f e n d in gco-champion of the Tri-Valley at 12-2.New H a r t f o r d f i n i s h e d at 11-3.

M i c h e le Heintz o f Utica Notre Dameand Tricia Callahan of Clinton are bow l-ers to watch. However, both need superyears f o r their schools to reverse last

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