EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. — Columbia junior Alivia Landy still remembers vividly when the initial sign-up sheets came out this past Winter, for prospective members to join the school’s new flag football team, competing in Section 2’s inaugural season this Spring.
“When signups went out, we had maybe four girls, so it wasn’t popular at all,” Landy said in an interview at Nicholas Budowski Field, just before Thursday afternoon’s practice.
It was a gradual growth recalled Landy, as within a month, the number was pushing 30, and by the time of tryouts, before opening day in April, the number breached 50.
Ever since then, the growth went from gradual, to exponential, and it didn’t happen on paper, but rather in the film room, and on the field. In year one, after winning the first-ever Sectional title, followed by the first-ever NYSPHSAA Division-I Regional Championship, Columbia is on to the Final Four.
“The plan was, once it started, that we just wanted to try to get as many kids as we could together. Like, it’s a combination of kids from all different sports and non-sports, so when we got those kids together, the coaches had a plan and we had some goals,” Cavotta said on Thursday. “Did we think that we were going to be able to achieve those? Not at the beginning, but the the kids sure had high expectations for themselves which made it that much more fun and that much more successful as the season continued to go on.”
“I feel like a lot of this has been happening really fast and it’s honestly important to just remember what we have done and where we started and the things that we will do,” added Landy.
Columbia’s trailblazing campaign has the team at 14-1 overall thus far, but in the State Semifinal round this Saturday, at 9:45 a.m. at Cortland High School, they’ll meet with an established powerhouse in the budding sport- Section VIII’s Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK.
The Hawks have won 36 games in a row across the last three seasons, winning already two State titles in the budding sport, including last season’s in what was then Class A.
“The kids are well aware of that,” said Cavotta. “They just want to go out there and have a chance. They’ve worked to put themselves in this position and we’ll see what happens.”
“Just knowing that every game is 0-0, what happened in the past is in the past, and that you can’t win forever,” added Landy on the mindset heading into the contest. “We tie our shoes the same way, so we’ll be on the field, and on the field, you can’t hide anything. So, we’ll just see what happens.”
“We always set to be the expectation, but obviously, we don’t know everything and you can always continue to be learning, so we definitely will take the ‘goods’ and then note the ‘bads’ and just continue to be authentic in ourselves.”
While new to the sport, the Blue Devils have also had to get used to the different rules of the NYSPHSAA Championship Tournament, compared to their normal, Section 2 regular and postseason. Cavotta said the adjustment was apparent in the team’s 12-0, Regional title win last Saturday at Shenendehowa High School, versus Corning-Painted Post.
“The State plays by a different rule on defense, where it’s only a one-yard rusher, instead of seven yards, so the scores are a lot different. So, we’ve had to adjust quickly because we’ve been playing different all year,” said Cavotta. “We had two practices going into the Regional game, and now we have a week, so we’re trying to implement different things offensively to try to be able to move the ball because it’s a lot harder with the one-yard rush, and then we’re able to do some more things differently, defensively, because of that adjustment as well.
“I mean, it was 0-0 at the half, which was good. We were doing what we needed to do defensively, but we were struggling to move the ball which I knew was going to be an issue,” he continued, “we need to, obviously, do some more things playing in the State Semis. We need to be able to move the ball and score more on offense.”
The defense hasn’t been much of a problem for Columbia, which has only allowed 20 points or more in a game three times (unofficially) this season.
“I harp to them about defense, because I think defense is a little bit different. It’s a little bit harder to get on defense in this, but they’ve really bought into that,” said Cavotta. “We stress defense, we do a lot of defensive drills, we practice really hard on defense, and I push them really hard on that side of the ball and they’ve responded to everything that the coaches have done, so it’s been great.”
The Blue Devils have proved potent through the air on offense as well, with sophomore Ava Tran catching four touchdown passes in the 34-12, Sectional title win over Albany and Landy snagging the go-ahead touchdown pass from senior quarterback Bella Satalino in the Regional Championship.
“Eye contact is very important; you know when she’s gonna give it to you and you know when she’s not, at this point. I’d say, we grew a bond where if I’m not open or people start to key in on me more, we have other great players and I think that’s another big thing for our team. Some teams don’t understand that- you can key in on one of us, but that’s gonna leave another person open,” Landy said of the connection to her quarterback.
In case there was any doubt Columbia had forgotten about the third phase of the game, Landy silenced that, adding a punt return for a touchdown to her line in the win over Corning-Painted Post last weekend.
“I remember the kicker, she seemed to have a pattern to where she kicked to her left –my right – so I had a feeling it was going to come to me, but punt returns and scoring off of them is not likely. So, in my head, I’m just like, ‘I’m just gonna get it, I’m gonna go and we’re gonna see what happens next,’” Landy recalled from the play that eventually put the Blue Devils ahead by the winning, 12-0, margin and advanced them into this weekend’s Final Four.
“When I was running with the ball, I didn’t hear a whistle and I just kept going until I was in the endzone.”
Overall, the team has come a long way from this past winter’s sign-up sheet, and it has led to Cortland, NY, for the final weekend of 2024’s inaugural campaign. Columbia’s biggest strength along the way, however, according to the team, isn’t found in the ‘X’s and O’s.’
“Getting kids together from all different aspects and bringing them together and trying to get them to work together as a team and become one; to me, that’s what football is all about and they’ve bought into that,” said Cavotta, proudly.
If the Blue Devils were to win on Saturday, they would advance to Sunday’s NYSPHSAA Championship Final to meet with the winner of Saturday’s opposite Division-I semifinal, between Scarsdale and Clarence. No matter how the weekend ends, history has certainly been made in a program and sport that’s only just getting started.
“They’re setting the standard for how they want the program to go, going forward. Some of the seniors (five) this is their one chance and they want to leave their mark and leave it for the rest of the kids,” Cavotta said, “they’ll leave a legacy here that hopefully teams will be able to follow going forward.”
“In the beginning especially, there was a lot of like, ‘Oh, flag football; it’s just another sport,’ but now we’re going to states, so clearly it’s not just another sport,” added Landy. “It means a lot and you can see it’s becoming a lot more popular, especially with us making this run.”
