Leading off today: Wallkill football coach
Brian Vegliando, 5-for-5 in reaching the Section 9 championship game during his tenure, has resigned, The Times Herald-Record reported Wednesday.
Vegliando said he wants to spend more time with his wife and sons -- Jackson, 6, and Maxwell, 4. "It was absolutely the hardest coaching decision of my life," he told the paper. "It's a hard thing. It's just something I decided to do for our family."
Vegliando, 34, went 36-15 at Wallkill, winning the Section 9 Class A title in 2010 at his alma mater. A history teacher at Wallkill, Vegliando said he hasn't ruled out a return to coaching.
"Brian is a class act, a great guy," Cornwall coach Marcus Hughes told the paper.
No merger just yet: The proposed merger of the Chenango Forks and Chenango Valley school districts is off as residents in Chenango Forks soundly defeated the proposal and those in the Valley narrowly approved it in separate votes Tuesday.
In Forks, an average of 700 people vote on school budgets each year. On Tuesday, 2,370 lined up at the polls, thePress & Sun-Bulletin reported. In Valley, an average of 950 people vote on school budgets; nearly double voted on the merger.
Taxes may have been a crucial factor in the vote. Projections indicated a Forks home assessed at $100,000 would see about a $300 annual increase, according to a state-funded study. A Valley home assessed at $100,000 could have seen about a $200 reduction. The loss of opportunities to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities was also considered a factor.
A consultant's recommendation concluded potential benefits outweighed drawbacks because both districts would find themselves in a budget crunch in future years, but the presidents of both school boards opposed the merger.
Cleared to suit up: Abraham Lincoln star defensive lineman Thomas Holley, ejected from the PSAL football semifinals for scuffling with an opponent, has been OK'd to play in the Dec. 10 championship game at Yankee Stadium.
PSAL rules say players ejected from one game has to sit out the next, but the school successfully argued that the incident in the semifinal did not rise to such a serious level. The Railsplitters, ranked second in the state in Class AA this week, will play Tottenville for the title.
Holley continues to be recruited by Penn State, Florida and Ohio State, among others, The New York Daily News reported.
Milestone: Carthage girls volleyball coach Angela Robbins recorded her 300th win with a 25-14, 25-14, 25-16 triumph vs. Lowville.
Robbins, a Lowville graduate, was presented with balloons and flowers and sprayed with silly string, which she said was better than being showered with Gatorade.
Great start: If wrestling is the baraometer, the merger between Ilion and Mohawk is working out just fine. Central Valley Academy posted a perfect score in its dual-meet debut with a 90-0 win over East Syracuse Minoa on Monday.
The Thunder posted pins in all 10 of the contested matches, with nine of the falls coming in the first period --
