Thursday, March 12, 2015: Scotia-Glenville pushes win streak to 50

   Editor's note: This blog was updated at 7:45 p.m. on March 12 and again at 6:30 p.m. on March 13 to add streaks to the list.

   Leading off today: Joe Cremo topped defending state champion Scotia-Glenville with 23 points and Mike Palleschi tallied a career-high 21 during an 80-33 rout of Peru in the first round of the NYSPHSAA boys Class A basketball tournament Wednesday.

   Scotia-Glenville improved to 23-0 for the season in extending its winning streak to 50 games. Scotia-Glenville began its run to the 2014 NYSPHSAA crown with a 70-41 win over Peru last March.

   Scotia-Glenville will take on Syracuse CBA on Saturday at Colgate University for a berth in the final four the following weekend in Glens Falls.

   More about the streak: In anticipation of Scotia-Glenville's latest victory to reach an even 50 consecutive wins, I started sifting through old files to try to come up with other lengthy streaks in New York boys basketball.

   What I ended up with was more questions than answers, though I did narrow a few things down. For starters, it's beyond dispute that Belleville's 104-game run from 1966-71 is a state record and the 71-game run by Power Memorial from 1961-65 is a New York City best.

   Beyond that, the best I can do is say Scotia-Glenville's active streak appears to be the best in New York State since the Roosevelt Bouie-era Kendall program had its streak stopped at 57 in the 1976-77 season. The best run since then was the Prattsburgh 48-game streak that ended in 1992.

   Pine Plains AD Jeremy Weber supplied details Thursday on his school's 62-game streak, and Paul Hutzler supplied the Amherst and Maple Grove streaks Friday.

   Here's the summary of 40-game streaks thus far, but please feel free to email me if you can shed light on mistakes or omissions:

• 104, Belville, 1966-71
• 71, Power Memorial, 1961-65
• 62, Pine Plains, 1959-62
• 57, Kendall, 1974 to 1976-77 season
• 48, Amherst, ended in 1957-58 season
• 48, Prattsburgh, ended in 1992
• 47, Lackawanna, 1975-78
• 45, Clyde-Savannah, 1985-87
• 43, Watervliet, ended in 1992
• 40, Maple Grove, ended in 1969-70 season
• 40, Syracuse Nottingham, ended in 1988

   Also, I know Cornwall went 21-0 in both the 1971-72 and '72-73 seasons, but I haven't seen a definitive reference to the length of its streak.

   Following up on J-D: The ultimatum to quit or be fired that boys basketball coach Bob McKenney received this week was preceded by a meeting of Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball parents, Syracuse.com reported.

   What isn't absolutely clear is whether the parents were mobilizing against the coach, the administration or both and how their meeting might have affected the status of Dom DeRegis. The senior forward was benched for Sunday's loss to Syracuse CBA in the Section 3 Class A championship game.

   The website reported two parents said it was J-D administrators rather than McKenney who suspended DeRegis after he got into a verbal altercation at practice with a teammate. Their action was initiated by a request from a parent that DeRegis be disciplined.

   With several players protesting Sunday by taping DeRegis' No. 5 to their warmup jerseys Sunday, speculation has arisen that McKenney drew the wrath of administrators for not shutting down the protest. DeRegis watched the game from the bench and was allowed to accept the team's runner-up plaque after the game.

2015 NYSPHSAA boys basketball brackets 2015 NYSPHSAA girls basketball brackets 2015 NYSPHSAA boys hockey brackets N.Y. wrestling championships (PDF): Div. I | Div. II N.Y. indoor track championships: Boys | Girls

   McKenney has not commented to reporters thus far. Superintendent Dr. Alice Kendrick's statement Wednesday said "any issues concerning the leadership of the program are unrelated to any circumstances surround-ing the final sectional championship game, any individual player, or the team as a whole."

   As if the seemingly inevitable dismissal of a 500-game winner with five NYSPHSAA trophies isn't intriguing enough, Syracuse.com points out J-D's roster this season included the sons of Syracuse University head coach Jim Boeheim and assistant coach and former SU star Adrian Autry.

   A Change.org petition in support of McKenney was launched late Wednesday night and had 781 signatures as of 3 p.m. Thursday. The petition was started by Brian Becker, a co-captain on J-D's 2004 state championship team.

   'It's pitting parents against parents': Lancaster district officials are under increasing pressure to make a decision about the Redskins nickname that has became the subject of a lingering controversy across Western New York.

   Parents say players on school teams are being put in the middle of the ugly debate and could suffer the consequences, The Buffalo News reported.

   "It's pitting parents against parents, and pitting kids against kids," Amy Napieralski said at a Lancaster school board meeting this week.

   Administrators have said no decision on the fate of the Redskins nickname will be made during the current school year, but Napieralski urged board members to act quickly.

   "We can't keep letting this fester," she said. "It's starting to tear this community apart and brings way too much negativity into this community."

   Akron and Lake Shore have already called off scheduled lacrosse games this spring against Lancaster.

   "Certainly, parents have heightened our awareness. We are looking at weighing that seriously," Lancaster Superintendent Michael J. Vallely said Tuesday. "The board has to consider the impact of this on the sports teams. I have had no other notifications from other districts, but I could imagine other ramifications from other districts."

   Vallely and school board President Kenneth Graber have said they do not favor a hasty decision and do not favor trying to settle the issue with a vote by residents.

   "The process used to determine a prom queen should not be used to determine a civil rights issue," Vallely said.