The Ellenville Blue Devils varsity football defeated Tri-Valley 45-7 last week and appears to be in contention to again compete for the Section 9-Class C title. Ellenville hosts Spackenkill this weekend and the Blue Devils, who had to bounce back from an opening game loss to Sullivan West last season, might have to resist getting overconfident this season……….Upon first glance, Ellenville quarterback Robert Borriello appears to be one of those young players who was brought up from J.V. and doesn't quite fill out his uniform. Methodical in his movements, Borriello looks like any other sophomore quarterback who is learning the ropes and adjusting to the speed of the game at the varsity level. But as the Tri-Valley Bears learned on Saturday, opponents should not be lulled to sleep by unspectacular style of the Blue Devils signal caller. Early in the Tri-Valley game, Borriello rolled out to his left and threw back across his body to hit a Blue Devils wide receiver in stride 25 yards downfield with a beautiful pass that resulted in a 60-yard touchdown. The Blue Devils never looked back. Borriello does not get rattled and as he gains more experience, teams will not make the mistake of underestimating him in the future……….Someone does have to explain to me though how a high school football team with a roster that is somewhere shy of 25 healthy players can be up by over 30 points very late in the game and still have players on the sidelines with clean uniforms………..You could do a lot worse than have your son coached by someone like Tri-Valley football coach John Rusin. You would never know that the Bears were down by 30 points to begin the second half-time against Ellenville Saturday as every kid on the sideline was into the game and cheering well into the fourth quarter. If you want to know how hard it is to motivate high school athletes, try doing it with your team down four scores late in the game. Rusin is pure class……….So tennis superstar Serena Williams finally came to her senses and made a half-hearted apology for her verbal abuse of a line judge during her U.S. Open outburst last week. Williams's apology is too little, too late, especially since the mea culpa followed two days of Williams adamantly refusing to admit she was wrong. Williams, who was on the verge of losing her semi-finals match, was called for a rare foot fault when she launched into a verbal tirade against the line judge. The verbal assault allegedly including a threat by Williams to shove a tennis ball down the line judge's throat and was followed up by Williams threatening to kill the line judge. This was obviously a meltdown moment for Williams, which was made even more absurd by the $10,000 fine imposed by the United States Tennis Association. Fining a multi-millionaire like Serena Williams ten grand is not even worth the required paper work. Williams makes more than that in one television commercial. Even more absurd is the fact the TV tennis analyst and former tennis bad-boy John McEnroe was chosen to interview Williams about her unsportsmanlike behavior…….I watched the Ellenville Lady Blue Devils varsity soccer team eke out a 1-0 win at Rhinebeck last week. The overall play was very sloppy, and while these two teams will not be competing for the Section 9 title I am getting sick and tired of watching Ellenville opponents walk off the field after losing to the Blue Devils with a look of disdain on their faces. Ellenville has not won its share of athletic contests in recent years and it is frustrating to see opposing players and parents assume a "How did we lose to Ellenville?" attitude after the game. Everyone at 28 Maple Avenue who has anything to do with Blue Devils athletics should be upset by this. It was not that long ago when Ellenville opponents would take pride in their efforts to remain competitive during losses to the Blue Devils……….Things must seem very empty up at Rondout Valley High School without a varsity football team this season. It is almost inconceivable that the Ganders (the first section 9 team to win a state championship in 2000) could be without a varsity football team less than a decade later. As a Blue Devil, it would be very easy for me to gloat about the misfortunes of the Ganders, especially since Rondout has had the better of Ellenville for quite some time. Many Ellenville fans would feel justified in gloating. It was only a few years ago when the boys' varsity basketball coach at Rondout continued to employ a three-quarter press against the Blue Devils late into the fourth quarter, despite the fact that the Ganders were up by a score of 112-45! Many Ellenville fans were angry leaving the Rondout gymnasium that evening. So it would be understandable to smirk at the Ganders getting their wings clipped. Those who believe in karma would offer that Rondout Valley is getting exactly what they deserve. But as a coach and an educator I realize that Rondout Valley has lost more than just a varsity football season. Rondout is not unlike many schools in our area; schools that are struggling to field teams in an economy that is unkind and in a society where competition for the attention of young people is fierce. For many kids, the lessons learned on the athletic fields will remain with them long after they forget those learned in a science lab. There's just something about a high school football game that is special, and a high school senior who has worked for four years should never lose the opportunity to experience his senior season. So here's hoping that the absence of the Rondout Valley varsity football team is short-lived and that Coach Jim Malak and his Ganders are back at it next season. Until next time…