Champions Week: Fonda-Fultonville

FONDA, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Thursday's featured team for Champions Week put together arguably the most impressive season of any Section II champion last year: Class C's Fonda-Fultonville. After ending a 24-year section title drought, Fonda-Fultonville knocked off the first two teams it faced in the state tournament by a combined score of 55-7, reaching the first state championship game in program history.

Fonda did come up just short in the final, falling to Section IV's Waverly. But this year's group is using that loss as the ultimate motivation.

"After losing, it was a bitter moment; bad taste in our mouths," said junior wide receiver/safety Colin Pickering. "We're coming back for it."

"There's a lot of drive behind our guys; especially guys that were on varsity last year and got to experience all that, and then come up short," said senior quarterback/safety Mason Smith. "There's a lot of fire behind them. We're just fired up and ready to go."

"To get to that point was big for us, 'cause now we understand what it takes to get there," added head coach Mike Mancini. "I think the understanding of those things is a tremendously important thing for a football program; [to] figure out, "Okay, this is what I need to do to get where I want to go."

Fonda does face an uphill battle in its pursuit of a return to the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse. The Valley Hawks graduated their top three skill position players, as well as the entirety of last season's starting offensive line. And freshman phenom quarterback Keegan Croucher transferred out of the program.

It's a young squad with some learning to do, but that's the beauty of high school football sometimes.

"That's the exciting thing when you have a young team; you get to see the progression and the growth of them over the course of time," said Mancini. "It's been a very short time, but you can already start to see the light bulbs flipping on for some of these guys. We're really excited about the opportunity that some of these young guys have, and hopefully...they take the bull by the horns...get their opportunity, and run with it."

This team does have some experience to lean on. Smith is back at his natural quarterback position after switching roles last season with the breakout play of Croucher. His transition under center has been a seamless one.

"I feel like this summer was a really important progression year," said Smith. "I went from playing all wide receiver last year, to having to get back to where I'm in that quarterback mindset. I feel like I've progressed, and I'm ready to go out there and get it."

"Mason pushed Keegan to the limit last year," said Mancini. "He was our No. 2 quarterback. He was a guy that - God forbid something happened last year - we didn't have any hesitation about throwing him in. He's an extremely smart, intelligent football player. He's been around our program since he was a little kid. This is not something that's foreign to him. He knows all the coach speak, and he knows how to handle himself. And he knows what we're doin' offensively. We have a tremendous amount of faith in him."

Smith will be joined in the backfield by Pickering - a talented running back with great pass-catching ability, who racked up over 600 all-purpose yards last year.

Pickering hasn't been affected by the switch from Croucher to Smith at quarterback, and he's looking forward to the challenge of being likely the top offensive weapon for the Valley Hawks.

"I've been playing with Mason since I was six years old, so it's nothing new," said Pickering. "I'm ready, and I'm ready for the opportunity. I'm excited for the season."

"Having Colin come back is great," said Smith. "He's a really great football player. We have a lot of great skill-position guys that are ready to rise to the challenge, and make plays for us all throughout the year, and…hopefully score a lot of touchdowns."

Fonda may not have the firepower and size it did last year. But they're out to prove they're still the team to beat in Class C.

"We want to come out of the gates hot," said senior left tackle/outside linebacker Jake Hernigle. "I know that we got a target on our backs. We want to show everybody that, yeah, we might've lost some big guys. But we have guys that can fill those spots, and we can do it."

"We've always been a program that people have [targeted] and wanted to come after us," added Mancini. "We relish that opportunity; we're excited about it. We don't have a lot of the 6-foot-2-inch, 6-foot-3-inch, 250-pound guys walking around that we had last year. But I think we got a couple guys that are gonna play with that chip on their shoulder; they're gonna play with a little bit of an edge. Playing fast and physical is what we really wanna do. That's gonna be our mentality as the season progresses."

And Fonda will put that to the test Friday, Sep. 6 in its season opener with Central Valley Academy. That’s Week 0 of the high school football season. That’s also when 1st and 10 begins! NEWS10 Sports has you covered with all your local high school football action all season long; every Friday at 10:30 on FOX and 11 on ABC.