Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Maple Hill's Bubniak heading to Averill Park

Mark Bubniak has accepted the position of athletic director at Averill Park.

Bubniak has served as Maple Hill's athletic director since 2009. He has been the Maple Hill varsity girl's basketball coach for the past seven years. During that span, the Wildcats have won the Patroon Conference each year, as well as three Section 2 titles. Bubniak was named Section 2 Class C coach of the year three times.

The Averill Park Central School District appointed Bubniak to the position on July 22. The appointment is effective Aug. 4.

John Bishop, who has served as Averill Park athletic director since 2012, is relinquishing the position to focus solely on his role as assistant principal.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Hytko's position as Cohoes girls basketball coach in question

Rumors are swirling that Dan Hytko may lose his position as varsity girls basketball coach at Cohoes.

Hytko has coached the Lady Tigers since 1998, and coached the boys varsity team the previous 11 years. He was unable answer definitively as to whether or not he is still head coach.

"It's hard to comment because I'm not sure," Hytko said. "It's a little confusing for me. I don't know what to say, I don't know if I am or not."

The issue at hand seems to be that a current Cohoes teacher applied for the position. Hytko said it is the first time in a decade a teacher has challenged for a non-teacher's coaching position.

Hytko has not heard from the athletic director or any administrators regarding the state of his job. He is on vacation and hopes a conversation will take place next week when he returns home.

Coaching positions at Cohoes are one-year appointments, and are approved annually by the Board of Education.

An online petition to keep Hytko on as head coach has started.

"I appreciate the support I've received and everybody who has reached out to me," he said.

Hytko plans to act as the head coach until he is informed the position belongs to somebody else.

"Nobody has removed me yet," he said. "Right now, I'm the Cohoes girls varsity basketball coach. I'm planning to move forward until I'm told otherwise. We have plans for the offseason, we'll do our open gyms. I'm not going to short change my girls. It's not fair to them."

Athletic director Thomas Kostrzebski and superintendent Robert Libby were each out of the office until next week and unable to be reached for comment.


Below is a link to the petition to keep Hytko on as coach:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keep-daniel-hytko-as-girls-varsity-basketball