What to know about NY high school football as practice starts for 2024 season

Eight months have passed since Whitesboro took the field at the JMA Wireless Dome and competed for a state football championship in December. The Warriors and the rest of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association are back to Square 1 with practice for the 2024 varsity season starting Monday.

Adirondack and Dolgeville in classes C and D, the smallest 11-player schools, and Frankfort-Schuyler in the growing eight-player division joined Class A Whitesboro as Section III champions in 2023, and New Hartford came within seconds of winning Class B in an impressive postseason showing for the eastern side of the section.

Indian River and Christian Brothers Academy of Syracuse were the section's other champions in classes B and AA.

Sixty 11-player programs and 14 eights head into the season with a familiar classification alignment. The one newish face will be Clinton which makes a second attempt at fielding an eight-player team after canceling its 2023 season following two early forfeits; now the Comets, Clinton last competed as the Warriors in Class C in 2022. Clinton started out with 16 players but did not have the required 12 to suit up for games against Bishop Grimes of Syracuse and Sauquoit Valley.

Whitesboro won 12 games in a row last fall and swept through Section III with wins over two AA schools. An explosive offense topped 40 points 11 times while defense shut out one opponent and limited five others to single touchdowns.The Warriors move on without all-stat selections Kyle Meier, Tony Dorozynski and Jordan Hughes, but have Memphis Ferguson, a second-team selection on defense, returning.

Frankfort-Schuyler also made it as far as the schedule would allow, a regional playoff at Waterville's Brothertown Stadium. Playing the eight-player game for the second time after a year without a varsity team, the Maroon Knights went 9-1 with a junior-loaded roster that returns all-state selections Martino Rocco and Lionell Coulthurst and honorable mention lineman Sebastian Veloz.

The Maroon Knights are 16-4 in two eight-player years; they had gone without a win in the abbreviated Fall II season in the spring of 2021, but had won the program's second sectional title with an 11-player squad in 2019.

Dolgeville repeated as sectional champion while making a coaching change for the 2023 season, playing for the first time with a former Blue Devils player - Justin Daukontas - leading the way on the sideline. The team started the season with two losses on the road, followed by a two-week break left by Clinton; the Blue Devils then won their five remaining games in the regular season and swept through the sectional playoffs on the way to an 8-3 finish. Trevor Borst returns as an all-state honoree and 1,000-yard rusher; the departed Brett Mosher was also an all-state selection.

Adirondack worked its way through injuries at the start of the season, and avenged its only regular-season loss in two years when the Wildcats defeated General Brown in a 30-26 thriller in the sectional final. John Hennessey was a first-team all-state pick on defense, and returns as a senior to play one last season under his father and coach, Rob Hennessey. The Wildcats finished 10-2 in 2023 after a 8-1 season in 2022.

Interscholastic play kicks off with scrimmages and Week Zero games the weekend after Labor Day, Sept. 5-8. The sectional finals are scheduled for Nov. 15 and 16 with state championships for 11-player teams the first weekend in December.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: What to know about NY high school football as practice starts for 2024 season