Sunday, July 27, 2014: Greece to reconsider dismissed soccer coach's fate

   Leading off today: The Greece school board will meet in special session Tuesday when it is expected to reconsider its previous decision to not bring back Greece Athena boys soccer coach Bill Hueber.

   Despite being recommended for his 13th varsity season by the superintendent, building principal and athletic director, Hueber, 56, was rejected by a 4-3 vote (with two abstentions) July 8.

   According to the Democrat and Chronicle, board president Sean McCabe would not specify what the revote would be for other than to say it's a "personnel action."

   The July 8 decision sparked community protests, and Hueber (111-73-30 career record) made the rounds on local radio talk shows during which he pointed out one of the votes against him was cast by a Adam Crandall, who was once cut by Hueber as a player. Board member Julia VanOrman had a son play on last year's Athena team.

   Looking ahead: NYSSWA girls cross country editor Dan Doherty has furnished his annual preview of the upcoming season, running down the lists of returning all-staters and projected top teams.

   He can still play: Veteran Benjamin Cardozo boys basketball coach Ron Naclerio, 55, can still play the game.

   Naclerio, the state's active leader with 681 coaching wins as well as one of the most quotable characters on Twitter, was one of eight players who took on a team of players half their age in a new Centrum vitamin Web video titled "These old guys still got game?" He played alongside streetball legends like Jack "Black Jack" Ryan, Anthony "Half Man, Half Amazing" Heyward and Malloy "The Future" Nesmith in pickup games to 21 points -- and won them all.

   "You get back out there and you try to do the things you were accustomed to when you were younger,” Naclerio said. "I was as fast as anybody. I can't go by guys, but I'm still faking right and going left."

   "The 3:42 video has become an Internet must-see, rolling up almost 900,000 views in its first month on YouTube. Naclerio told the Times Ledger he was inspired to vet back into shape last fall when his cardiologist told him 2045 pounds was too much for him to be carrying around. With the help of a daily regimen of long, slow distance plus sprints on the basketball court, he's down to 176 pounds.

   "He knows the game of basketball," Ryan said. "He definitely was in shape. There were a couple of guys huffing and puffing and he wasn't one of them. He played great."

   Said Cardozo guard Rashond Salnave: "Seeing coach play was a little humorous and it showed me he's still got a little something left in him."

   Harsh reality: It's not a New York story, buy it's a script played out by any number of New York athletes at colleges around the country each year.

   Kevin Gleason of the Times Herald-Record recently wrote about former Delaware Valley (Pa.) High quarterback Bryan Schor, who made the best of a bad situation by landing a scholarship at James Madison University, and NCAA Football Championship Subdivision team.

   Schor intended to play at Miami of Ohio last fall, but the football staff instead had him delay his enrollment until January ("grayshirting"), to preserve his five years of

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eligibility while preserving a scholarship for someone else last season. When January rolled around, new head coach Chuck Martin (hired after an 0-5 start cost Don Treadwell his job) told Schor he no longer figured into the team's plans. His scholarship was rescinded, though Schor told the paper he didn't get official word until it was too late to hook on at another four-year school during the February signing period.

   "It's one of the ugliest aspects of major-college football," Gleason wrote. "There is no protection afforded players making verbal commitments. Nor is there protection afforded programs if kids decide to go elsewhere, as is often the case. Worse, scholarships are on a yearly basis, giving coaches the freedom to pull them at any point in the player's career."

   Interestingly, that tide may be turning. The University of Southern California announced last month that it was guaranteeing a four-year commitment to football and basketball players who sign for scholarships.

   Police news ... and it's good: I can't remember the last time I used the phrases "former athlete" and "police" in a blog item without an arrest being involved. Happily, the streak is over, courtesy of a recent note in The Daily Gazette.

   Nick Ottati and James Plowden, a pair of two-sport stars in their high school days, were sworn in this month as Schenectady Police Department recruits. Ottati, who also played baseball, quarterbacked the football team to its first winning season (5-4) in 2007, and led the Pats to their first sectional final in 2008. Plowden was a key reserve for Schenectady's 28-1 state championship basketball team in 1998 and a starter the following season. He was also a two-year starting QB in football.

   Extra points: Being a highly regarded quarterback has its perks. Rising junior Jake Zembiec, the state's Class AA player of the year last fall for Aquinas, attended Florida State's camp recently and got to hold Jameis Winston's Heisman Trophy.