Friday, Jan. 17, 2014: Cain breaks world junior record for 1,000 meters

   Leading off today: New York teen Mary Cain broke the long-standing world junior indoor record for 1000 meters with a time of 2:39.25 at Boston University on Thursday.

   Cain, a 17-year-old Bronxville senior, beat the mark of 2:40.1 by U.S. runner Diana Richburg in 1982 and defeated American 1,500-meter champion Treniere Moser 2:39.32). She now holds US junior indoor records for 1000, 1500, mile, 3000 and two miles.

   Cain could pursue the world junior indoor mile mark when she returns to Boston Jan. 25.

   No decision from Section 9: Our Lady of Lourdes will remain in Section 1 for the 2014-15 school year after Section 9 tabled for the second time the school's application to switch, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.

   "I think the Athletic Council needs to do some more fact-finding on the subject," Section 9 secretary/treasurer Jim Osborne told the paper.

   Lourdes has been seeking to join Section 9 and the Mid-Hudson Athletic League. Poughkeepsie was approved on Nov. 26 to move from Section 1 to Section 9 for the 2014-15 season, and numerous other Section 1 schools also have explored options recently.

   "Our Lady of Lourdes fully respects the rationale behind the decision of Section 9 to table our application for membership," AD Matt Pascale said in a statement. "A vote to table allows the current application to remain open, and consequently, Lourdes will not have to apply again next year.

   "I remain very optimistic, based upon conversations I had directly with (Section 9) Executive Director Bob Thabet, that the committee will vote to admit Lourdes into Section 9 for the 2015-16 school year."

   Milestone: Williamsville North coach Bob Rosen chalked up his 400th career boys ice hockey victory as the Spartans beat Lancaster 3-1.

   Rosen has coached at Williamsville North since the first season of the Federation in 1990-91 and racked up four NYSPHSAA championships.

   "A lot of great years and a lot of great kids over the years I've been able to coach and be around," Rosen, 52, told The Buffalo News. "Not just hockey players but people. Twenty-four years removed, some of those kids are in their 40s and have their own families and it's pretty special."

   He can play: Northville Superintendent Debra Lynker said Thursday that Tim Monette can play basketball while battling cancer, presumably ending a growing controversy in the school district.

student athlete fighting cancer will be able to play on the high school basketball team.

   A day earlier, Shawna Monette said she was informed her son couldn't play anymore because he was being tutored from home for the two courses he needs for graduation and wasn't physically in school. Monette, 17 was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma in November and keeps up with schoolwork at home with the help of a tutor.

   He completed chemotherapy last month and was OK'd by doctors to resume playing, only to be informed Wednesday playing would violate a school policy that students may not play sports when they're absent, The Times Union reported.

   "When he said he couldn't play, my heart just dropped," Shawna Monette told the paper. "His basketball and his sports are everything to him."

   Friends and teammates immediately protested via social media and about 200 of them staged a sit-in Thursday.

   "It made me feel really good that everyone cared about my happiness and they wanted me to play on the team," Tim Monette said.

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   Soon afterward, Lynker apologized to the teen for what she termed a misunderstanding and told him he is eligible to play.

   "They said it was a misunderstanding, but it really wasn't," Monette said. "They handled it the wrong way, but it's been resolved."

   Kicking (oops, can I say that?) a question around: Chad Andrews, author of the highly informative View From Centercourt blog in Western New York, strayed from his usual topic -- basketball -- a couple of days ago to start an interesting discussion that crops up every so often amongst reporters and editors.

   What is appropriate (or inappropriate) when describing the outcome of games between high school athletes? Specifically, is it disrespectful to say one team mauled, clobbered or whipped the other? Is dominated still too much? Dismantled?

   The issue surfaced after Andrews was scrolling through Twitter and saw a tweet admonishing the keeper of a school account for using the word "dismantling" in a brief (I realize that's redundant on Twitter) recap. "Shame on Amherst High School in letting this word be used. Educators in this school should be teaching humility," the critic -- a newspaper photographer Andrews does not identify -- wrote.

   If my understanding is correct, the photographer -- who subsequently lumped "dismantled" in with "killed" and destroyed" -- has ties to Springville, the 68-42 loser in that game, which adds a layer of complexity to the discussion.

   There's much more detail in Andrews' blog, but I can't resist pointing out that he knocked the ball out of the park (sorry for mixing baseball into what started as a basketball topic) with this observation:

   "The worst, most inappropriate thing that was said through all of this was actually tweeted by the first twitter cop & then retweeted by the second ... Shame on Amherst High School," Andrews wrote. "Are you kidding me? Shame? Check out the definition of that one:

   "[S]hame - a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior."