Leading off today: Section 5 basketball star Thomas Bryant is leaving the state and will attend Huntington Prep in West Virginia this fall, a move that reportedly caught Bishop Kearney's coaches and administrators off guard Thursday.
Huntington Prep coach Rob Fulford confirmed the move shortly after 10 p.m. following several hours of chatter by analysts and reporters on social media that the transfer was either imminent or had already taken place.
The 6-foot-9 Bryant was selected third-team all-state as a sophomore last season after averaging 13.7 points a game to help the Kings, featuring the tallest front court in Section 5 history, to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA championship in Glens Falls.
He won a gold medal in June while playing for the USA Under-16 National Team in the 2013 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.
New job: Former girls basketball coach Bill Pierce has been named athletic director for the Corning-Painted Post School District as administrators work to complete the consolidation of East and West highs into one school next year. Sports teams there are already merged.
"This construction phase is a bump, but it's also a path to where we're going," he told The Leader. "When we get all those students under one roof, I think we're going to be much more connected as a body. We have 400 kids out right now for fall sports and that's not shabby and the turnout at the Monday (parent) meeting, there's a lot of interest here.
We're just a little fragmented still and it's going to be a tough year, but if we bear down and take the obstacles one at a time, I think the prize is going to be really worthwhile."
Mixed competition update: Horace Greeley's girls volleyball team will have two male players this fall, The Journal News reported this week.
Yonkers' Jenson Daniel played on the girls team in 2011 but was denied the opportunity to compete as a senior last year under guidelines for mixed competition participation. Croton-Harmon coach Robin Cooke told the newspaper that two boys tried out this fall but were rejected due to their superior qualifications under the testing guidelines.
Mixed competition has been a thorny issue in New York for several years, particularly in volleyball. Section 5 has had more than a dozen male players over the past three seasons. The topic was discussed briefly last month at the NYSPHSAA Central Committee meetings, but officials are awaiting clarification on potential policy revisions from the
