Syracuse, N.Y. — Basketball season is underway in Section III and there’s plenty to watch for.
Bishop Ludden and Bishop Grimes have been powerhouses in their respective classes, but Grimes is no longer a school. The schools have now merged to form Bishop Ludden-Grimes as the Gaelic Knights look for a repeat in Class AAA.
West Genesee will look to continue its reign over Class AA, but Nottingham hasn’t been far behind recently and will be a thorn in the Wildcats’ side.
Since the creation of six classes, Westhill has been a dominant force in Class A and the Wolf Pack returns its important pieces for a chance at another section title run. Jamesville-DeWitt tried to play the spoiler last season but came up short and will try again this season. There’s also newcomer Phoenix, which made a deep run in Class B last year and will try to build on that success in A this winter.
There’s a lot to pay attention to and here’s everything you should know heading into the 2025-26 season:
Class AAATeams (2024-25 records in parentheses)
Baldwinsville (8-13), Bishop Ludden-Grimes (20-3), Christian Brothers Academy (10-11), Cicero-North Syracuse (20-2), Liverpool (16-7), Rome Free Academy (17-1), Syracuse Academy of Science (3-14), Utica Proctor (8-11)
Last year’s section champion and state playoff finish: Bishop Ludden-Grimes; lost in regional finals.
Last year’s runner-up: Liverpool
Gone from AAA: Fayetteville-Manlius
Team Outlooks
Baldwinsville: “Should be an interesting season. We have lost seven seniors last year, so always tough coming back with a lot of loss. But we got a lot of good players coming back.” — Brian Montanaro, Baldwinsville coach
Bishop Ludden-Grimes: “I’m cautiously optimistic. I think we got a good group. We lost some really good players to graduation and we lost a kid to prep school. But when you turn, you know — as long as Jahzar Greene’s in a Bishop Ludden uniform, we’re gonna have a chance to win games. We’ve added some really good players I like. I’m excited. I felt that we’ve had a real good summer, a real good fall so far.” — Gallagher Driscoll, Bishop Ludden-Grimes coach
Christian Brothers Academy: “The energy that we have coming back with the seven guys coming back, our JV team was tough. They had a great year. So I’m just looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be one of those things, we’re going to be a wild card, I think, and I’m looking forward to working with it. We’ve got a whole bunch of guys that are hungry, so I’m really looking forward to the season. I’m pretty excited.” — Buddy Wleklinski, CBA coach
Cicero-North Syracuse: “We got a brand new team. We have one starter back, Miy’Jon McDowell Reed, who’s also a star on the football field this fall. So you’ve seen his name a lot. He played about 30 minutes a game for us at the guard spot. Other than that, we lost four starters. Three of them are playing at the college level. We have five guys back altogether. Four of them were sophomores and freshmen last year. So they’re ready to make a big jump.” — Kyle Martin, C-NS coach
Liverpool: “It’s a little different than last year. We got some guys that are new, guys coming up from JV, good guys. They had a good year last year, but as you raise the level, they have to raise their level. They’ve been pretty good so far in open gym. I expect my older guys to kind of show them the way and push them the way. But all good guys, coachable guys, guys you want as far as your program goes. Hard working, humble and I can think of worse problems to have.” — Preston Shumpert, Liverpool coach
Rome Free Academy: The Black Knights were one of the top teams in Section III last year and were upset in the semifinal round of sectionals. They were led by a trio of 1,000-point scorers consisting of Uzziah Grimes, Deandre Neal and Surrafia Norries. Grimes and Neal have graduated, but Norries is back with Luke Hammon to help try and get RFA over the hump this season.
Syracuse Academy of Science: “I just want these guys to play with effort and compete. And I think if we do that, we’ll have some pretty positive outcomes.” — Gil Speights, SAS coach
Utica Proctor: The Raiders will look to bounce back from an 8-11 season under first-year varsity head coach Carvon Brazier. Proctor returns leading scorers Marcello Moorehand and Rosear Devose. With talented scorers and a new regime, the Raiders could be a team making a deeper run this season.
Games to watch
Liverpool at Bishop Ludden-Grimes, Dec. 6: This is a rematch of last season’s section championship and it comes early in the year. The Legends were top dogs in Section III for three straight seasons before the Gaelic Knights knocked them off last season.
Rome Free Academy at Cicero-North Syracuse, Feb. 12: The Black Knights and Northstars were the top seeds in last season’s playoffs, but were knocked off in the semifinals. Both teams will look different this season, but always have championship aspirations. A late-season matchup against one another is a perfect playoff tune-up.
Class AATeams (2024-25 records in parentheses)
Auburn (5-17), Carthage (0-20), Central Square (5-16), Corcoran (5-16), East Syracuse Minoa (13-8), Fayetteville-Manlius (11-10), Fowler (6-15), Fulton (12-7), Henninger (10-13), Nottingham (17-6), Oswego (12-10), Watertown (13-9), West Genesee (18-6), Whitesboro (8-11)
Last year’s section champion and state playoff finish: West Genesee; lost in regional finals.
Last year’s runner-up: Nottingham
New to AA: Carthage, Fayetteville-Manlius
Team Outlooks
Auburn: “Well, we were really young last year. We had to play up in the Metro Division. We’re back in Empire this year, so that’s gonna be a great help to us. First of all, we have two great captains back. Collin Wilson, who led Section III in assists during the regular season. He’s the son of a coach, so that helps. And Jontay Smith … so those guys are back. We have a good young group of sophomores. Four sophomores will be up. Guards. They’re all pretty good.” – Jim Marsh, Auburn coach
Carthage: “We had a great offseason, great summer, dedicated ourselves to the weight room and really put in four to five days a week starting June and July and we’ve had a great fall. We have some returnees back who are hungry to turn the page on last year. Last year, we went through a tough, tough year. A lot of things we could not control. But some of the things that we could control, we really worked on this summer. Have a senior whose back has turned into a specimen in Phillip Norgaisse. And he has put in a lot of work in the offseason and led us. And then I have a transfer from Glens Falls. Aiden Prunty is a sophomore, started for Glens Falls the last couple of years and he’s won back-to-back state championships. So he’s brought a sense of knowing what it takes to get it done. A lot of energy. So those two have led us this offseason.” — Jeff Ventiquattro, Carthage coach
Central Square: “We’re returning seven, so a lot of kids are coming back with a lot of experience. Obviously, the division’s still the same, so I don’t really know, but we’ve been putting a lot of work in, going all summer, so I’m excited to kind of get started and see what the boys can do.” — Beth Bonin, Central Square coach
Corcoran: “Just trying to get back to where you have team ball, camaraderie, play together, try to get a good run.” — Eddie Mitchell, Corcoran coach
East Syracuse Minoa: “We got really good returners. We got a great nucleus. So the sky’s the limit. If we can finish around the basket, we can shoot. I think we can compete with almost anybody.” — Jim Kilpatrick, ESM coach
Fayetteville-Manlius: “Excited about this group. We’re going to be pretty young. Lost a lot from last year. Had nine seniors on the team. All five of them started, so a new group. But really, really excited. They’ve been working hard a lot in the offseason.” — Luke Tucci, F-M coach
Fowler: “I’m kind of excited. I think we’ll be pretty young. Got some good athletes coming in. So excited to get at it after it.” — Christian Schmidt, Fowler coach
Fulton: “We had a good year last year. We returned our two leading scorers from a year ago who were sophomores. Really good incoming junior class and we have some good senior leadership. So I feel like it should be another good year for us. We should kind of take a step forward from last year.” — Kyle Perry, Fulton coach
Henninger: “We’re looking good. We’re looking young, we’re looking fast and we’re motivated. Ready to get after it. … We’re excited.” — Brandon Hanks, Henninger coach
Nottingham: “We’re excited. Looking to get this thing going. I think we have a good group. Unfortunate how our season ended last year. We’re looking to change that for this season.” — Lamar Kearse, Nottingham coach
Oswego: “Expectations are high. This is my fourth year. The kids are very athletic, play hard, we play fast and like I said, high expectations.” — Bob Connelly, Oswego coach
Watertown: “We have a lot of young guys this year, but it’s guys who want to work hard and we’re just focused on taking the next step when it comes to playing together as a team and playing hard altogether.” — Mason Hurst, Watertown player
West Genesee: “The outlook, pretty much just playing together, you know, just having fun.” — Musbah Ahmed, West Genesee player
“We just don’t really pay attention to (the pressure). We just mind our business, just stay focused, do what we got to do, play as a team.” — Ahmed
Whitesboro: “We’re just trying to go to work every day, just trying to get better from day one to day two, focusing on each opponent individually and just trying to get better, trying to be competitive.” — Garrett Herthum, Whitesboro coach
Games to watch
West Genesee vs. Nottingham, Dec. 19 and Jan. 27: The Wildcats and Bulldogs have met in the playoffs two of the past three years, with West Genesee coming out on top both times. The Wildcats are replacing their three leading scorers and Nottingham is replacing its top two scorers. That hasn’t stopped either team from making postseason runs before and likely won’t stop them this season.
Fulton vs. East Syracuse Minoa, Jan. 6 and Jan. 30: The Red Dragons and Spartans were just behind West Genesee and Nottingham last season, but proved to be threats in the class. Both squads return key players this winter and two battles against one another could set the tone on who is ready to make the leap to the top of the class.
Class ATeams (2024-25 records in parentheses)
Camden (10-11), Central Valley Academy (13-8), Chittenango (8-11), Cortland (15-6), Homer (4-15), Indian River (11-10), Jamesville-Dewitt (17-7), Mexico (12-7), New Hartford (10-9), Oneida (3-17), Phoenix (17-5), South Jefferson (18-5), Syracuse ITC (12-10), Utica Academy of Science (13-8), Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (4-16), Westhill (23-3)
Last year’s section champion and state playoff finish: Westhill; lost in regional finals.
Last year’s runner-up: Jamesville-DeWitt
New to A: Phoenix
Gone from A: Bishop Grimes (school closed and combined with Bishop Ludden), Carthage
Team Outlooks
Camden: “Just looking forward to another exciting year. We have a bunch of new faces coming into our team this year. We are going to be a very team-oriented group with a lot of athletes and just looking forward to using their athleticism this year as a whole to build on the success we have in our whole program.” — Mason Swancott, Camden coach
Central Valley Academy: “I think our first goal is usually to try to win a division title and then obviously make a pretty decent sectional run. That’s usually where our goal is every year. So that’s what we’re doing this year. Small and get bigger.” — Luke Judd, CVA coach
Chittenango: “We’re a younger varsity squad. I have a couple of returning seniors who saw significant playing time last year, moving up from JV the last two years. So the group that’s moving up with me has been with me. We’re looking to do better than we did last year and to go a little deeper in sectionals.” — Shea Skeele, Chittenango coach
Cortland: “We’re cautiously optimistic. We’ve got seven players who graduated last year, so we’ve got four returning players in the squad. A real good mix of athletic kids, future college athletes, which is outstanding and a talented group of kids coming up from JV. So, again, cautiously optimistic. A good mix of size and athleticism and ball handling. So we’re excited about moving forward.” — Jeremy Milligan, Cortland coach
Homer: “We’re gonna play hard, we’re gonna be resilient and we’re gonna be a tough team to play. Up and down 94 feet. Still early in the process.” — Anthony Perioli, Homer coach
ITC: “We got all our leading scorers coming back, guys that we’ve had since they were freshmen. So there are a lot of expectations on this team. It’s a veteran group. We got everything from size, speed, athleticism, strength, high basketball IQ.” — CJ Hodge, ITC coach
Jamesville-Dewitt: “I think it’ll be a good season. We got a real good group coming back. Our second leading scorer is coming back, Steph (Bazile). We got Braeden (Baker) coming back. So I think we’ll be pretty good. Got some young guys coming up that’re going to be pretty good. So real good group.” — James Jones, J-D coach
Mexico: “We’re pretty excited. Last year, we had one of our most successful years we’ve had recently and I return a lot of players from that team. And so we’re excited we got some players that are going to be seniors this year that are looking to make some noise.” — Jon Gagnon, Mexico coach
Oneida: “I just say that we got to come together more as a group, be more of a family. I think this group is the best family I’ve had in sports yet. I think that with Justis (Brown) and Preston (Cashman) and Matt (Castle) and four returning players, we’ve got a young squad this year and I think it’ll be a good group this year.” — Ryan Cashman, Oneida player
Phoenix: “We have six seniors, coming off a good year. Last year we made it to the sectional semifinal for the first time in who knows how long. We have a lot of inexperience, but at the same time, that’s a good thing. Sometimes we can get those guys rolling on what we do and we have a couple of young guys coming up, but we expect to be in the mix. Of course, we have a tough schedule. I think we have 12 AAA and AA games, which is unusual. But now I schedule it that way because of the new model, so that’s what we’re going with.” — Nick Perioli, Phoenix coach
Utica Academy of Science: “Hopefully, a winning season. League, playoff run.” — Anthony Lee, UAS coach
Vernon Verona Sherrill: “Feeling confident. I think with the group of guys we have now, we’re really gelling as a team. We’ve had some rough seasons, but I think this year we’re really coming together as a group. And I think. I really think we’re a tough team to play against this year.” – Brett Knapp, VVS coach
Westhill: “We got eight seniors coming back. We got a group with some chemistry. They actually like each other, so that’s a positive thing. They trust each other and we’re excited about what we’re returning.” — Jon Connelly, Westhill coach
Games to watch
Westhill vs. Jamesville-DeWitt, Dec. 30: The Wolf Pack and Red Rams faced off in the section final last season, with Westhill coming out on top. The teams seemed to be a collision course for one another last season and this season could be the same. A December matchup against a quality opponent will be vital to both teams’ long-term success.
Central Valley Academy vs. New Hartford, Jan. 13: The Thunder and Spartans have been two of the best teams in the Tri Valley League for the past few seasons and that success has translated to success across the whole section, or even the state. CVA hasn’t been able to capture a section title, but New Hartford has gone as far as the state final four twice in the past four seasons, including being a state title runner-up in 2022.