CAMBRIDGE — Doug Luke understands the fascination with what he does. The Cambridge football coach has helped forge a winning tradition few athletic programs throughout Section II will ever match, yet the Indians are currently in a colossal holding pattern.
In fact, the entire Cambridge athletic department is stuck waiting for the go-ahead to resume activity as the coronavirus pandemic has either halted or severely altered high school sports throughout the state.
There was no football played in the state. For Cambridge, a member of the Wasaren League, there was no sports period during the fall as the league canceled everything. For an athletic program so entrenched in its community's identity, zero activity has been difficult to deal with for a town with slightly more than 2,000 residents.
“I think everybody misses it," Luke said. "When I do get out and people see me, they want to talk football. Nobody says, ‘Hi Doug, how are you doing?’ All they want to talk about is football and how the team is doing. It is missed here.”
The Section II football playoff system began in 1978 and Cambridge did not qualify for postseason play until 1992. In that season, with Ken Baker as head coach and Luke as one of his assistants, the Indians ended Watervliet's 36-game game winning streak with a 7-6 upset victory in the Class C Super Bowl at Bleecker Stadium. Over the past 29 seasons including its first playoff appearance, Cambridge has played in 23 sectional finals and claimed 17 championships (the most in Section II history). During that span, the Indians captured Class D state titles in 1999, 2016 and 2017 and own a glossy record of 255 wins, 43 losses and one tie.
Cambridge girls’ basketball coach Bob Phillips guided his 2018-19 squad to the Class C state championship with a starting five comprised entirely of sophomores and freshmen. The Indians were on the precipice of a second straight state championship in March when the 2019-20 season was halted for good at the state quarterfinal stage.
The state Health Department has deemed basketball to be a high-risk activity among the winter sports and it is currently unable to begin practice. Phillips, whose daughters Sophie and Lilly Phillips are the stars of the team and who both have signed to play next year at the Division I level, has found not knowing when, or if, the season will be played tough enough. He also realizes why sports mean so much in Cambridge.
“You don’t see everyone as usual, but I think just the feel you get as a school and community is kind of a feeling of helplessness — if that is the best word. It probably isn’t the best word," Bob Phillips said. "There is nothing you can do. There is just a sense of waiting. It does not seem like it is going away anytime soon. Because it is such a sports town where we’ve had a lot of success in football, girls’ basketball and other things, I think not having sports is disappointing for a lot of people on a lot of levels.”
Cambridge senior center Fiona Mooney, who is headed to Stanford University to compete in rowing, said, “Last year when we missed out on the last couple weeks of the season, we were definitely upset. Then we thought, ‘Well, we have our senior year.’ That has not wound up happening. I guess we could see this happening in advance. I think the decision not to play is the right decision, even if it is not ideal for us. There is a feeling of something is missing.”
Edith Phillips, the wife of Bob Phillips and previously a star basketball player at Cambridge, said the lack of sports has left a void.
“We are all isolated. People not only came out to see the games, but it was a chance to see each other," Edith Phillips said. "So many people have commented on how much fun the girls are to watch. It is an amazing group to see as a spectator, so I think everyone realizes what they are missing out on. At Cambridge, this is a once-in-a-lifetime type of team that no one is getting to watch. It is definitely a bummer for everybody.”
“Look at our girls’ basketball team right now: last year, they did not get to play (at the end) and this year, who knows? We haven’t done anything this year," Cambridge Athletic Director Deb Lauver said. "The Wasaren League canceled everything during the fall and everything right now is on hold.”
Chris Crucetti is a 2012 Cambridge graduate and is in his fourth year as the president of the school's booster club. He echoed the sentiments of the coaches and athletes.
“It is incredibly frustrating without sports. The health and safety of the student-athletes is always first and foremost. At the same time, it would be nice to have some normalcy and be able to go to a game and celebrate the success of student-athletes doing what they love to do.
“For any sport, it would be tough for people not to be able to attend. To be a week away from January and not have an athletic event this (scholastic) year is something that hopefully never happens again. It has been weird, a surreal feeling to have nothing going on.”
“I know how much I miss it. It is killing me,” Luke said. “I keep looking and hoping that these vaccines will happen and we get out there and start all over again. ... Watching other states play and not us is difficult. Not being able to play has been hard. People in the town are upset and it has been difficult for the coaches. We would do anything to be out there, but you also don’t want to put kids in jeopardy either. It has all been tough.”
Bob Phillips said leaving the school in the early evening during the fall has been nothing like anything he experienced before.
“It was eerie and it was sad. I am leaving and there was just silence. That’s never happened," Bob Phillips said. "The kids, coaches, teachers and people in the community are just making the best of it.”
“This situation is something you can’t control and it is scary, and things with (COVID-19) are ramping up again," Lauver said. "There is nothing you can do. You just have to wait.”
Cambridge, much like other small-school programs such as Fonda, Fort Ann, Fort Plain, Hoosick Falls, Lake George, Mechanicville, Stillwater and Watervliet, are playing the waiting game. It is the toughest and most unprecedented contest of all.
“Those are schools where the high school is the center of the town and everyone comes out to football games, basketball games, track and field meets, soccer, softball or baseball games,” Bob Phillips said. “There is a feeling of disconnect (with the town) and there never has been.”
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