Bethlehem High School

Best part for me watching the high school baseball championships at Joe Bruno Stadium was watching Bethlehem win its first Section II title since 1998.

New York Mets manager Buck Showalter, despite not winning a World Series, has had a pretty good year. First, after being spurned by a canceled spring training appearance, Showalter gets to meet pop-star Shakira. (Who would have thought that would be a big deal for the the Mets skipper but it was.) Then, Buck's team rattles off 101 regular season wins, leading to Showalter being named National League Manager of the Year for the fourth time in his career. But the biggest and maybe most surprising honor of all came out this week. Buck appears to be the best looking manager in Major League Baseball. No, I'm not kidding.

There were 24 games on the Section 2 high school football schedule for the final Friday of September. Big road wins, close games and upsets highlighted the halfway point of the gridiron season. Other games saw some of the Capital Region's most highly ranked teams continue to roll in 2022.

As the first week of school was behind the students and the realities of the fall season began to sink in, fifty-two Section 2 high school football teams were preparing to play! There were 19 Friday night match-ups with another 7 on Saturday. For most programs, it was their first week of game action.

Coaches tell their players all of the time, you never know. If you do your jobs, play smart and execute properly, good things happen, like a #13 seed can upset a #3 seed on their home floor. That's why you play the games. Upsets happen in the NBA. They happen more often in college and certainly more than that in high school sports. Tuesday night had a few examples in the Section 2 championships.

Sunday was a special day for the Bethlehem Eagles and one of their alumni. The Syracuse University Athletic Department held a special ceremony retiring the jersey of Bethlehem High School graduate and University at Albany women’s lacrosse head coach Katie (Rowan) Thomson. Thompson wore #21 during her four-year career with the Syracuse Orange.

February is an awesome basketball month. High school teams are battling it out with their conference opponents to try to get the best seeding possible for their tournaments, starting in less than a few weeks. On the first day of the month there was 33 games on the schedule for the boys and 18 for girls basketball.

As the temperature drops, the rivalries in high school hoops heat up. Tuesday night was no different on basketball floors in the Capital Region. There were 29 boys games on the docket and another 22 for the girls. A big shout out to Tamarac boys basketball for their #1 ranking in Class B in New York State. Congrats to Coach Eric Medved and the Bengals!

104.5 The Team wants to recognize the top high school athletes in Section II. This week, Bethlehem Central Girls Cross Country runner, Rylee Davis is this week's 104.5 The Team's Student-Athlete of the Week!