Wednesday, March 12, 2014: Peekskill coach reassigned, paper reports

   Leading off today: Peekskill coach Rodney Headley Jr. was not with his team in the NYSPHSAA girls basketball quarterfinals loss to Maine-Endwell on Saturday because he was reassigned, The Journal News reported Tuesday.

   Peekskill Superintendent Larry Licopoli said Headley, who has coached Peekskill to three Section 1 Class A titles and one state crown in his five seasons, is being investigated regarding an unspecified "personal matter" reported by the district.

   Peekskill lost 62-47 with Headley's father and assistant, Rodney Sr., filling in as head coach.

   "We reassigned (Headley) until the investigation is complete," Licopoli said. "I don't know when it will be completed, but we're hoping there is a resolution sooner rather than later."

   TWC releases schedule: Time Warner Cable SportsChannel will broadcast this weekend's 10 New York State Public High School Athletic Association basketball championships across much of New York.

   Coverage will be split across two channels on TWC systems.

Region	Boys Channel	Girls Channel
Buffalo	323	87
Rochester	323	98
Central NY	323	98
Albany	323	324
Hudson Valley	197	198
New York City	197	198

   All 10 games will also be streamed live on TWCSportsChannel.com.

   Schedules and pairing for the boys action in Glens Falls and girls games in Troy can be found on our brackets page.

   Brisson steps down: Matt Brisson has retired as girls basketball coach at Sachem East after going 218-48 in 12 seasons with one NYSPHSAA championship and two trips to the final four.

   A health and physical education teacher for three decades, Brisson turned in his retirement papers last week. His final season on the bench ended with a 50-47 loss to Baldwin on Friday in the NYSPHSAA Class AA quarterfinals. The team finished 16-7.

   "It's been an amazing ride and I've loved it," Brisson told Newsday. "I've been blessed and very fortunate to have great kids over the years and I'm really thankful."

   Calling all helpers: For over four decades, the New York State Sportswriters Association has selected the all-state boys basketball teams. The NYSSWA's Steve Grandin has begun work on assembling the 2014 edition and is once again looking to media members and league chairmen to help in the process.

   Please forward your all-area team, as well as any all-section, all-class or all-league teams to Steve, who is also seeking specific information (height, grade in school, statistics, honors) for leading players in each of the five state classes.

   Reporters are asked to nominate players by class, also ranking players within the class. As has been the case recently, we will not be choosing players by position since roles are often so fluid on the basketball court.

   Please forward info to Steve via email no later than March 30. Although your all-area team may not have been

More N.Y. postseason coverage All sports • NYSSWA site for brackets of tournaments from the past and present seasons. Boys basketball • Road to Glens Falls for scores and stats. • NYSPHSAA tourney brackets • Current state rankings. Girls basketball • Road to Troy for scores and stats. • NYSPHSAA tourney brackets • Current state rankings. Ice hockey • NYSSWA site for tournament brackets. • Current state rankings. Wrestling • NYSPHSAA Div. I | Div. II

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released by that date, it's likely selections will have made by then; the NYSSWA will keep all-area picks confidential prior to publication by your paper.

   We can also receive printed information by mail to Steve Grandin, 28 Orenda Spring Drive, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

   Following up: Some tweets from people watching last weekend's state hockey playoffs caught my attention, and then the topic at hand resurfaced in the form of a couple of emails I received Sunday and Monday.

   As noted by Mike Dougherty in a blog for The Journal News, there was more than a little grumbling about the status of goalie Brandon Kasel, who helped Ithaca to a 6-4 win over Scarsdale in Saturday's semifinals before the Little Red fell to Massena in the NYSPHSAA Division I championship game.

   Kasel only played 130 minutes for Ithaca this season because he split his time between high school hockey and a junior team in Rochester. State rules stipulate that a player be an "eligible participant" for six regular-season games in order to play in the postseason, so Kasel was within the rules.

   "Do I have a problem with that?" Scarsdale coach Jim Mancuso said. "Yeah, I have a problem with that. He doesn't do that on my team. I have a problem with that kind of stuff. It doesn't go on my team. It's not fair. I can't look in the face of a kid who played his heart out to get us here and then tell him, 'You're not going to play now. He's coming back so you just sit out.' I couldn't do that to him."

   Enough was enough: All five girls basketball coaches for the Independence, Iowa, schools resigned last week in response to the behavior of parents.

   Assistant coach Rob Ratchford said the coaches went motivated to quit after dealing with a recent string of unreasonable criticism from a handful of parents of players. "I received phone calls this week threatening to fight me, to come over to the house and fight him over summer basketball stuff," Ratchford said.

   Ratchford said he and varsity coach Rod Conrad decided they had enough. The three other girls coaches agreed that resigning was the only way to send a clear message.

   School administrators declined to comment, citing the situation as a personnel matter.