Dryden-Lansing basketball rivals to team up at Canton

Dryden vs. Lansing is among the greatest rivalries in Tompkins County. No matter the sport, the two schools frequently face off in key IAC divisional matchups. That’s certainly been the case for boys basketball over the past few years, but one Lion and one Bobcat will put aside the rivalry in the next chapter of their careers.

Dryden’s Danny Murphy and Lansing’s Jordan Sidle will join forces at SUNY Canton. They each had different reasons to make the three-hour trip upstate. For Sidle, the Roos’ warm atmosphere set them apart from the other programs he was looking at.

“When I went to Canton, I really felt like it was a family,” Sidle said. “They really liked me a lot, and they really cared about how I felt and being there, whereas at other schools you have the upperclassmen that have their own little cliques and their own little inside jokes and you kind of feel like a straggler a little bit sometimes. When I went on my visit, they included me and everything. They made me feel welcome.”

As for Murphy, Canton’s biggest draw was head coach Dylan Seikel, especially since Murphy wants to become a college basketball coach one day, 

“I want to go into coaching myself, so I thought the best way from playing is to learn from the coaches above you,” Murphy said. “Everybody I told that I wanted to go play or was going to go play basketball at Canton, the first thing they always said was ‘Coach Seikel’. They always had good things to say about him, so that definitely prompted my decision, as well.”

Murphy and Sidle have shared some great battles in a highly-competitive IAC North Large division. Sidle’s Bobcats topped the division during their sophomore and junior years, while Murphy’s Lions reclaimed the crown this past season. They both see the humorous side of going from adversaries to allies.

“I’ve never had a problem with him,” Sidle said. “He was one of the guys that actually never really talked smack when we played. It’s kind of funny. It’s like a full circle moment. We’ve been rivals for so long, and now we’ll be teammates and hopefully pretty good friends [since] we’ll be roommates in college, too.”

“I think it’s great and very ironic that we get to go from competing against each other for eight years to playing side-by-side,” Murphy said. “That competitive edge definitely brings us better for the future and to push each other and to do better for each other.”

Their penultimate meeting against each other came on December 17 is important to highlight. While it was a 57-52 win for Lansing, Murphy believes that acted as the turning point in Dryden’s season, one that ended with a first IAC championship since 1986 and a first-ever Section IV title.

“Like [head] coach [Zack] LeViere said, that was the silver lining through the rest of our season,” Murphy said. “That was definitely the biggest motivator. It was a huge wake-up call for us that things don’t come easily. It doesn’t really matter who you put on the court. You got to play 100% for all 32 minutes.”

Sidle’s time at Lansing also involved a bit of history-making. During his junior season, he helped the Bobcats to break a 16-year-long IAC title drought and guided them to the Section IV Class B championship game. 

Sidle has also written himself into the record books. He ends his career as the third-leading scorer in program history and became the Bobcats’ fifth member of the 1,000-point club. It’s a testament to all of the dedication and effort he’s put into the sport.

“It really felt good to see the hard work pay off, like the individual shots that you practice 1,000 times finally feeling automatic,” Sidle said. “ I shoot probably 500 three-pointers a day. It’s the next-level want. You gotta want to do what I’m doing, and I really do enjoy and want to do what I’m doing.”

As the pair of All-State talents get set to combine powers at the collegiate level, they will each bring with them valuable lessons they’ve learned from their high school days.

“I think the connection with your teammates and the ability to play together in the game of basketball is everything,” Murphy said. “You look at the small schools right now just locally, those teams that win consistently do the same thing day in, day out, have great programs and have kids that have been playing together since they were in fourth grade. They have stuck to it and know their goal and put their time in and consistently work and push each other.”

“Nothing is given,” Sidle said. “Playing time is limited as a freshman, and you need to go in there and work your butt up to get 10 to 20 minutes a game… You might be the top scorer at your high school, and you go to college and you have a certain role that you need to play for their first year or so. You have to be okay with that, or else you’re not gonna flourish.”