ALBANY — Five years ago, the Albany Academy for Girls’ basketball team did not win a game. The Bears remained at the bottom of the Colonial Council standings the following season. When Bryan Capitula arrived to take over the program as head coach for the COVID-altered 2020-21 season, AAG had no discernable level of success as a varsity team since the program began.
That has all changed. This season, the Bears won the Colonial Council title for the first time. The team earned the No. 1 seed for the Class B sectional tournament and proceeded to capture the program’s first sectional championship with a 64-36 victory over Catskill. Naturally, the Bears’ state quarterfinal win to secure a regional title with a 62-37 decision over Saranac was also a first.
“I think it is a huge honor that the program has come this far. We have grinded out that success,” said senior guard Saige Randolph, who began her varsity career at the bottom of the league standings as a freshman. “Not that we are so much better than other teams. We have busted our butts to be in this position. Winning the regional title was a huge honor.”
Capitula’s charges have set records for wins in back-to-back seasons and enter Friday’s state semifinal game with a 24-1 record and ranked No. 2 in the state. The Bears will face top-ranked Putnam Valley (25-1), the champion from Section I, at Hudson Valley Community College with an 11:45 a.m. scheduled tip.
“I don’t think they realize where they are at this point,” Capitula said. “They know they are in the state semifinals, but we’ve never been here before. They don’t know how to feel, which I think sometimes is good.”
Everything the Bears do Friday, and potentially Saturday, is history-making for a program that had never won more than 16 games prior to the 2021-22 season. As often is the case when a private school finds success competing as a member of the…
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