A smaller football field could be coming to a town near you

We will begin this high school sports newsletter with a question for Section V sports fans.

How many times have you heard a coach talk about the importance of off-season training and competition?

If you are like us, we are guessing a lot.

Here is what you'll find in the rest of the newsletter:

• Meet the wrestlers who could be among the best in Section V this winter, based on their results in two of the most well-known national tournaments.

• Section V executive director Kathy Hoyt breaks down how much activity there is when it comes to student-athlete transfers to other area schools in this newsletter.

• 8-man football will be played on smaller fields.

Wrestlers to watch in 2022-23

Casper Stewart, Madison Westerberg, Teegan Sibble and her brother Trent Sibble, left their hometowns in Section V and returned as wrestling All-Americans.

Stewart accomplished this not once, but twice.

Any wrestler who scored a top-eight finish at the National High School Coaches Association Championships earned All-America status. The same result at the United States Marine Corps/USA Wrestling Championships in Fargo, N.D. brought the same title.

Stewart, a three-time Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester team member, placed eighth in the 145-pound junior freestyle division at USA Wrestling nationals. He won the seventh-place folkstyle match in Virginia Beach, Va. back in March. This should be Stewart's junior year at Batavia, wrestling on the Attica/Batavia team.

Bolivar-Richburg rising senior Trent Sibble also is established as one of Section V's top wrestlers.

The 2022 AGR Division II or small schools Wrestler of the Year was a national runner-up at the NHSCA Championships in the 220 weight class. Sibble won a Section V class tournament, the Division II 215-pound SuperSectionals and reached the high school state finals before losing just for the second time in 56 matches. Homer rising senior Sam Sorenson won that match by tiebreaker.

Teegan Sibble, who is believed to be the first girl to win a Section V class title, was the fifth-place finisher in the NHSCA girls 112-pound division. She wrestled at 110 pounds last season as a freshman with Bolivar-Richburg, the Section V Class B3 team champion.

When Westerberg, a middleweight at Waterloo, returns for her sophomore year, she will also have All-American on her resume.

Westerberg, who placed fifth in last season's Wayne-Finger Lakes League Championships in Section V, won the 16-under 138-pound third-place match at the USA Wrestling nationals.

Transfer season

This is the time of the year when there is talk of that person is now at this school, as they work out with teams during off-season camps and play with squads at competitions.

Transfers, or at least potential school switches by athletes, brings about talk.

Section V executive director Kathy Hoyt said the amount of paperwork related to transfers is at normal levels, at this point of the summer. Volume traditionally increases August 10-30.

"There is nothing that I'm seeing or that I'm hearing that there is going to be a big shift to a larger volume than in year's past," Hoyt said.

There are more transfers in Section V than in other sections in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Hoyt said, because this region has the highest number of private schools and charter schools.

There was a spike in transfers last school year, many related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hoyt said.

"A lot of kids chose to go to schools in the 2020-21 school year that were in-person five days a week," Hoyt said.

Students then returned to their previous schools as districts increased their in-person classroom schedules. There were 80-85 student-athlete transfers in Section V in 2021-22, according to Hoyt.

That number was 55 in 2020-21 and about 60 the previous school year, Hoyt said.

Recall in Section V 8-man football

Section V 8-man football teams are going to play on smaller fields beginning this season, but the reduction adjusted widths, instead of lengths.

Fields for 8-man games remain 100 yards long from goal line to goal line, and will be 40 yards wide. Section V believed at first that the fields would be 80 yards long and 40 yards wide.

“Some of the states do play on 80 yard fields, but we are going to be 100 by 40,” Section V Football 8-man representative Joe Marchand said. “The 40-yard width is the National Federation of High School Athletic Association rule (but fields can be 100 yards or 80 yards long).

“(Section V and the New York State Public High School Athletic Association) want us to get a state tournament going, so they want us to comply (with NFHS dimensions). The sidelines are brought in closer, is all.”

Until next time, keep up on Section V's sports scene by going to our high school page.

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JAMESJ@Gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: A smaller football field could be coming to a town near you