Whitesboro football: Top players, schedule, what you need to know for 2023
A strong regular season sparked by a deep group of juniors last fall leaves Whitesboro's Warriors with a veteran team hoping for more in 2023.
The 2022 Warriors lost once in league play and earned the No. 2 seed for Section 3’s Class A playoffs. A 7-3 season ended with a 35-28 loss to eventual champion West Genesee in the semifinals.
Quarterback Kyle Meier and Anthony Dorozynski, a two-way starter at wide receiver and defensive back, were first-team All-Mohawk Valley honorees as juniors, and Meier earned another first-team honor in the New York State Sportswriters Association's Class A all-state picks.
Meier accumulated more than 3,400 yards of total offense in 2023 - including 1,002 passing and 2,270 rushing - and accounted for 41 touchdowns for an offense that averaged 36.8 points per game and topped 40 five times.
Dorozynski caught 10 of Meier's 15 touchdown passes and gained 600 yards as the team's top receiver.
There are other experienced seniors.
Third-year starters Matt Brinck and Vincent Zajac return to the offensive line and draw double duty on the other side of the ball with Brinck on the defensive line and Zajac at middle linebacker. Brayden Czternastek and Patrick Wands will see action at both running back and receiver on offense with Czternastek at free safety and Wands at linebacker on defense.
The junior class returns two-way linemen Thomas Price and Matthew Yardley, and Memphis Ferguson, a running back and linebacker who led the team in tackles as a sophomore.
"We have a good senior class with a lot of experience," coach Curtis Schmidt said, "and there are many talented underclassmen coming up from an undefeated JV team."
Whitesboro football at a glance
Head Coach: Curtis Schmidt
League: Class A-1
2022 Record: 7-3, Section III Class A semifinalist
Last Section III Championship: Whitesboro completed a sectional threepeat with its 10th Class A championship in 2017.
2023 schedule
Sept. 2: vs. Shaker at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 8: at East Syracuse-Minoa, 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 15: vs. Utica-Proctor, 7 p.m.
Sept. 22: at West Genesee, 6 p.m.
Sept. 29: vs. Syracuse-Henninger, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 5: at Rome Free Academy, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 13: vs. Syracuse-Corcoran, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 20: vs. Auburn, 6:30 p.m.
Marquee Matchups
Whitesboro plays Utica-Proctor and West Genesee, two of the teams it lost against last season, back-to-back Sept. 15 and 22. The Warriors get Class AA Proctor at home in the first game; Proctor was a 62-60 winner in a wild game last fall that saw the teams combine to score 50 points in the first quarter. Whitesboro follows the Proctor game with a trip to Camillus for a game against Section III's defending Class A champion, a team with which the Warriors split decisions last fall.
Those two games follow Whitesboro's Section III opener at East Syracuse-Minoa and a challenging Week Zero contest against Section II Shaker from Latham. The teams will meet Saturday evening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.
"We wanted to play the strongest team/program we could find early," Schmidt said. "Shaker will be a great test, and we are looking forward to opening up with a program with as much tradition as them."
Locally, New Hartford's drop to Class B leaves the neighbors without their popular rivalry game this fall. In addition to its home game against Proctor, Whitesboro travels for an Oct. 5 game against Rome Free Academy, Oneida County's other AA team.
Top Returning Players
Matt Brinck, sr, OT/DL
Brayden Czternastek, sr, WR/RB/FS
Anthony Dorozynski, sr, WR/FS
Memphis Ferguson, jr, RB/LB
Kyle Meier, sr, QB
Thomas Price, jr, OL/DL
Patrick Wands, sr, WR/RB/OLB
Matthew Yardley, jr, OL/DL
Vincent Zajac, sr, C/MLB
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Preview of Whitesboro's 2023 football season
