I understand that many student-athletes, parents, and coaches have been eagerly anticipating winter sports registration and ultimately the start of the remaining winter sports. NYSPHSAA, Section 2 and the Suburban Council have been working tirelessly to put together a winter season that has the health and safety of our student-athletes and coaches as the top priority. With high-risk sports gaining approval from NYSDOH and the Rensselaer County Health Department, the remaining approved winter sports will begin on Monday, February 1.
This winter, at the JV and varsity level, we plan to offer boys basketball, girls basketball, competitive cheerleading and boys ice hockey (as part of our merger agreement with Shaker, South Colonie, Columbia and Tamarac). Boys bowling and girls bowling began in December. At this time, we are actively engaged in discussion regarding wrestling. Due to the compressed timeline, registration for wrestling will be open as more information becomes available and a decision is made by the Suburban Council and the District regarding if there will be a wrestling season. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer indoor track & field because there are no facilities available in Section 2 for competitions.
For 7th/8th grade student-athletes interested in going through the Athletic Placement Process (APP) to participate in a JV or varsity winter sport, only those student-athletes personally asked by the head varsity coach will be allowed to go through the process. Once registered you will be emailed a permission slip and a physical maturity form to be completed by your family physician. Please return the permission slip to Monica Shupe (shupem@apcsd.org) and the physical maturity form to Kate Juliano (julianok@apcsd.org) by Thursday, Jan. 28. If your child is not registered and/or the permission slip is not returned by the deadline, your child will not be allowed to go through the APP process and will only be allowed to play at the modified level.
Unfortunately, the Suburban Council has had to make the difficult decision to not schedule any contests at the modified level this winter. This was done for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, lack of officials, lack of transportation, getting virtual and hybrid students to school for practices/contests, and the difficulty of implementing all health and safety protocols.
In order to give our modified student-athletes an opportunity to participate in a structured sports environment this winter at Averill Park, we have decided to offer skill development sessions in the winter modified sports of boys basketball and girls basketball with our modified coaches. Based upon approval, we will also attempt to offer skill development sessions in wrestling. Modified student-athletes would only attend on their in-person day and not on their virtual day. Fully virtual students would attend on the day that they would have been in school had they elected the hybrid model. This enables us to have smaller groups while keeping cohorts together and alleviates the issue of student-athletes worrying about getting back to school on their virtual day.
Registration for winter sports is now open. All winter student-athletes must have their parent/guardian complete the Winter 2020-21 Registration Form (https://www.familyid.com/averill-park-central-school-district-athletic-department) by Thursday, Jan. 28 if they wish to participate. Our turnaround time to get everyone registered and ultimately cleared by Monday, Feb. 1 is extremely tight, so please register as soon as possible and adhere to the deadline. Due to the pandemic, a physical from Sept. 2018 or later will be accepted for the winter season. A schedule of practices for the first day will be released over the weekend.
Please know that we have worked, and will continue to work, to give our student-athletes the best possible athletic experience this winter. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out to me by email (bubniakm@apcsd.org) or by phone (674-7010).
Mark Bubniak
Director of Athletics