The Columbia Paper

Panthers take a pair from Titans

April 15, 2012 by GREG DEDRICK

CHATHAM–Arguably the two top softball teams in the Patroon Conference opened their league schedules against each other Tuesday and Wednesday of last week as Chatham hosted and defeated Taconic Hills 2-0 in game one, before going on the road and topping the Titans 8-1 Wednesday. The two early season wins put the Panthers in great shape, while the Titans will now have to hope Chatham slips up somewhere along the way.

On Tuesday Kayla Doty racked up 11 strikeouts to shut down Taconic Hills, while Kaitlin Pearson racked up three hits and Karsyn Sawyer slugged a home run in the 2-0 win. Nicole Torchia and Hannah Sears shared pitching duties for the Titans in the loss, as Michelle Link and Michelle Kostszewski each tallied two hits. Read more…

Riders win, Chatham falls in volleyball finales

March 10, 2012 by GREG DEDRICK

HUDSON–On Sunday, March 4 at Hudson High School the Ichabod Crane Riders topped Catskill 3-1 to win the Class B boys volleyball title, while Chatham lost 3-0 to Coxsackie-Athens in the Class C/D final.

The top seeded Riders, who are 20-1, defeated the Cats 25-20, 25-22, 23-25 and 25-20 and will now head out to western New York Saturday to face off with the Region III champion. Chatham, the third seed, competed well with the top seeded Indians, but fell 15-25, 20-25 and 21-25, finishing the year at 17-6 overall. Read more…

Senior duo leads Riders advance, with sectional win

February 25, 2012 by GREG DEDRICK

KINDERHOOK–In the final home game of their careers, Ichabod Crane seniors Joe Fey and Tyler Zeh each recorded a double-double in their team’s 69-37 victory over Corinth in the first round of the Class B basketball sectionals. Fey finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds while Zeh had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the win. The victory moved the Riders into the next round where they were scheduled to travel to top seeded Watervliet Tuesday night. The two teams met earlier this season in Valatie, where the Cannoneers won 60-44. Read more…

Germantown hosts trio of sectional games

February 25, 2012 by GREG DEDRICK

GERMANTOWN–The school here hosted a triple header of Section II Class D, first-round playoff games Tuesday, February 21. The night started off with the fifth seeded Hawthorne Valley boys basketball team hosting Bolton, followed by a match-up between the eighth seeded Germantown girls against the ninth seed Hawthorne Valley and a nightcap between eighth seed Germantown boys and Fort Edward.

In the first game the Wildcats got all they could handle in a game that was closer than many expected. In the opening quarter Christian Peterson scored seven points for the Wildcats, but they still found themselves in a five-point hole. Peterson put up another eight in the second quarter, but the deficit widened to eight at the half. Read more…

FROM FARM TO SCHOOL: School Foods: commodity vs. local

September 12, 2011 by VIRGINIA MARTIN

THE FARM TO SCHOOL CONCEPT centers on the notion that feeding local, farm-fresh foods to our school children is superior to giving them foods that aren’t local, are probably processed and not fresh, and came from who-knows-where after being raised by (probably corporate) farmers and processed by related corporate entities.

It’s a nice ideal. In reality, it’s difficult (and currently impossible) to fully achieve. Practical food-service pros like Paul Ventura from Greenville Central and Pam Strompf from Taconic Hills marry the two to reap the benefits of both. Under the aegis of the Healthcare Consortium’s Kids in Motion program, Ventura and Strompf recently met with other Taconic Hills food-service staff to share tips for making the most of resources while aiming for the farm-to-school goal.