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After 31 Years At Ripley, CLCS, Torrance Rewarded With Trip To States

Mike Torrance, pictured in gray shirt, celebrates with the Thunderbirds after Saturday’s Far West Regional win at Fillmore High School. P-J file photo by Matt Spielman

MAYVILLE — Four times in 26 seasons as Ripley’s head softball coach, Mike Torrance and the Eagles won Section VI titles and played in Far West Regional games.

Four times the Eagles lost, coming up one win short of a trip to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Final Four.

Now in his fifth season as an assistant coach at Chautauqua Lake, Torrance will finally be making the trip east with the Thunderbirds.

“We’re moving on, that’s the biggest thing,” Torrance said Wednesday after the Thunderbirds’ final practice in Mayville before beginning the drive to Glens Falls late Thursday morning. “I’ve never been there. They’ve never been there. It’s like waking up as a little kid who wished for something all year long for Christmas and they got it. It’s something new that we’ve strived for all year long.”

To say it’s been worth the wait would be an understatement.

In 2002 and 2004, Ripley lost to Alfred-Almond in the regional. In 2007 and 2008, the Eagles lost to Elba.

Torrance joined the Chautauqua Lake program five years ago when Ripley began tuititioning its secondary-school students to the Mayville-based district.

Once at Chautauqua Lake, Torrance came close to making the weekend trip to east, only to come up short again. In 2014, the Thunderbirds lost to Franklinville, 1-0, in the Section VI semifinals before a year later losing to eventual state champion Addison, 7-1, in their first Far West Regional. In 2016, Chautauqua Lake fell to Barker, 1-0 in eight innings of a sectional semifinal, before last season the Thunderbirds lost to Portville in the Section VI Class C crossover game before the Panthers lost to eventual state champion Bishop Kearney in the Far West Regional.

But last Saturday, this year’s Thunderbirds finally got Torrance into a state Final Four when they knocked off Section V champion Caledonia-Mumford, 4-3, at Fillmore High School.

What has been Ripley’s loss in enrollment has been Chautauqua Lake’s gain on the diamond. Torrance’s influence has no doubt been a positive for head coach Sue Teets and the Thunderbirds.

“I didn’t know him that well coming in … but he’s probably been my biggest supporter,” junior pitcher Olivia Anderson said of Torrance. “He’s been my rock. He keeps me grounded. He helps a lot mentally with the game because he prepares us for tough games.”

While five of the Thunderbirds were originally Ripley students on that first varsity combined team in 2014, this season just one impact player is originally from Ripley.

“When I knew Ripley was going to join us I thought ‘Oh my gosh, poor Mike,'” Teets said. “Mike and I had developed a rapport and at first he was a little reluctant. I told him, ‘You have five girls … you want to be with them.’ It’s tremendous, his expertise and knowledge. … You can’t do it alone.”

The Thunderbirds’ starter who is originally from Ripley just happens to be the team’s lone senior, shortstop Cameryn Hawkins, whose grandfather Pat Paul is also an assistant coach with the team.

“He’s just so proud,” Torrance said of Paul. “There is so much compassion in that family. They are such good kids and honor students.”

It isn’t lost on Torrance or Teets that Hawkins represents a great tradition Ripley had on the diamond over the years that has now translated to Chautauqua Lake.

“It’s fun. I didn’t want to leave Ripley, I wanted to stay in Ripley, but our enrollment was going down, down, down,” Torrance said. “Over here we’ve got kids galore. We’ve got varsity, jayvee and modified. We’ve got some nice kids coming up.”

“It’s tough when they come here from Ripley. You come into a new school as a seventh-grader and you don’t know a lot of the kids,” Teets added. “I think the sports programs have helped out tremendously. … It just draws them closer to each other.”

Should the Thunderbirds be fortunate enough to win a state title this weekend, they will not only be doing it for the Chautauqua Lake school district, but also for the Ripley community and Torrance.

“Anything I can do to help improve a program, I’m satisfied,” Torrance said. “I’m happy.”

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