Leading off today: I know what you've been saying: New York just doesn't have enough feudin', fightin' and fussin' in high school field hockey to keep you interested in the sport.
Well, we've got the solution for you courtesy of a weekend controversy that's already gotten ugly and yet could still take a turn for the worse.
The Journal News reported Tuesday that Section 1 has upheld Valhalla’s protest of its 3-2 loss at Ossining on Saturday, determining the winning goal was scored when Ossining had an extra player on the field.
The ruling by the section's protest committee leaves open the possibility of replaying the final minutes of the game, though it may be in everyone's best interest to declare it a tie and keep a safe distance between two programs that seem to have issues with each other at the moment.
“It seemed on the field they just wanted to fight,” Valhalla coach Jenna Wenk said of the Ossining players, who she says cursed and shoved her players.
Ossining coach Kathy Lees called the game "very heated" and said both teams bore some responsibility.
The protest arose after Sade Tukuru scored the apparent go-head goal with 3:51 to play and two players from each team serving 10-minute misconduct penalties. The Valhalla sideline immediately protested that Ossining had 10 players on the field instead of nine.
According to the paper, Wenk questioned whether the error was innocent or whether Lees had intentionally inserted an extra player during a timeout with 4:20 left. Officials forced two more Ossining players to sit for the remainder of the game due to the error, put the protest committee determined that wasn't an adequate remedy.
For more on Saturday's fireworks, follow this link to the full newspaper story.
Coming soon to a court near you: The family of a former Webster Thomas hockey player has sued the school district and hockey coach for keeping him off the varsity for four years "in spite of his advanced skills."
The lawsuit (read a copy here) was filed last month by Michelle Capellupo on behalf of her son, Stephen Capellupo, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. It claims coach David Evans cut the youth from the team vindictively after the family complained to school administrators.
Capellupo made the varsity team as a freshman in 2008 but was demoted to the junior varsity after a period of academic ineligibility. For most of the next three years, he participated in offseason activities, attended extra practices and "dominated" JV competition, the suit says, but was frozen out by Evans.
"Evans' failure to select plaintiff for the varsity team was an abuse of Evans' power that had a deleterious effect on (Capellupo's) future as a hockey player," the suit asserts.
