has helped both club and
team.
“We have a great working
relationship with GPS be-
cause I believe in the pro-
gram,” stated Schiappa.
Ryan Louis is the coaching
director and does a great
job. Their facilities are
the best, coaching staff is
strong, and is still grow-
ing. It is the best youth
club in WNY and that’s
coming from a guy that
coached (and won three
state titles) with Empire,
which is their competi-
tion. Player development
is predicated on train-
ing. With GPS they train
3-4 times per week com-
pared to Hamburg Mon-
archs training zero times
per week at times. Do the
math and that’s an extra
6-8 hours weekly, or 40
hours monthly. All that
adds up, especially to 16-
17 year old kids.”
All that adds up to a
preseason that just gets
busier. There was a time
when school ended so did
the training for sports.
Kids took time off to let
their bodies heal, or they
played another sport.
Now, sports is a year
round commitment for
both players and coach-
es. To have a successful
program there has to be
100 percent commitment
from everyone involved.
Summer time is now be-
ing used for camps and
other training methods
to get the teams prepared
before official training
camp.
Hamburg is one of many
high school to have camps
throughout the summer
to get the kids ready for
the start of training camp
and the season.
“We run camps all the
way up until preseason
so all the kinks that we
notice are out of the way.
Whether it’s fitness, tac-
tics, technical and phys-
iological we try to hit all
the basics and work on
those in the summer so
we can advance ourselves
when camp starts,” ex-
plained Schiappa. Every
coach will always believe
they are fully prepared
heading into match #1
but it never quite works
like that. Once the match-
es start there are always
adjustments needed or
things fixed that maybe
you didn’t see leading up
to it.”
All the hard work is lead-
ing to one goal and that’s
for the Bulldogs to bring
home their first section-
al title since 1994. A title
that has been elusive. Last
year is was McKinely who
did the trick knocking the
Bulldogs out of the play-
offs.
This year, the goal is
simple do what hasn’t
been done in 23 years.
“We just take it day by
day - and implement an-
other addition yearly.
We have been fortunate
AUGUST 2017 | SportsUnion
enough to have some suc-
cess since then with three
straight league titles - now
we need to keep working
to win our first sectional
title since 1994,” stated
Schiappa. “It comes down
to great kids, parents and
a supportive athletics de-
partment. If you have that
and take it one day at a
time - success will come.”
To get playoff ready, the
Bulldogs embark on a very
tough non-league sched-
ule. With all the success
they’ve had recently, you
would think not many
teams would want to play
them.
But, that’s completely
the opposite. Teams want
31
to challenged themselves
against the best - and
Hamburg is one of the
best.
“Will East, Starpoint,
Sweet Home and Will
South are all very compet-
itive teams in our league,”
stated Schiappa. “McKin-
ley is personal for us since
they knocked us out of
the playoffs last year and
Wheatfield is our first
game. Throw in St. Fran-
cis for senior day and you
kinda just agree that ALL
games are big and import-
ant. We just take it one
game at a time and pre-
pare as best as possible
for every match.”