Thursday, April 16, 2015: Roland, Wincowski, Manning earn POY honors

   Leading off today: Seniors Jordan Roland of Westhill and Joel Wincowski of Lake George have been selected boys basketball players of the year in their respective classes for the second time.

   The announcement came this morning as the New York State Sportswriters Association released its all-state teams in Classes B, C and D.

   Roland, a 6-foot-1 senior heading to George Washington University in the Atlantic-10 Conference this fall, repeated in Class B after averaging 21.4 points a game. He twice was selected MVP of the state basketball finals in Glens Falls after the Warriors won back-to-back NYSPHSAA crowns in Class B. Earlier today, Syracuse.com named Roland as its All-CNY small schools player of the year after he helped his team to a 70-6 mark over the past three seasons.

   Wincowski was the NYSSWA Class C player of the year in 2013 as a sophomore, and John Rooney of Hoosic Valley earned the honor a year ago. Now, Wincowski makes it three in a row for Section 2. The Maryland-Baltimore County recruit averaged 33 points a game as a senior and finished as Section 2's career scoring leader.

   He capped his stellar career with a story-book shot -- knocking down a game-winning 3-pointer vs. Waterville in the NYSPHSAA Class C title game at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

   The Class D player of the year could be the next two-time award recipient. Charles Manning Jr. averaged 22.9 points a game as a junior in leading Bridgehampton to a NYSPHSAA championship.

   Manning is the first Long Island player to earn the Class D honor since Ryan Creighton of Greenport shared the 2009 award with Chris Secky of Maple Grove in 2009. Manning's father, Maurice Manning, was the NYSPHSAA Class D player of the year for the Killer Bees in 1997 and '98.

   The complete 2015 all-state team for Classes B, C and D can be found here. The Class AA and A teams are scheduled to be announced next week. Here are some helpful links to basketball-related material from the NYSSWA:

Past NYSSWA players of the year

• 1981-89 | 1990-2000 | 2001-14

Recent all-state teams

• 2010 AA-A | 2010 B-C-D
• 2011 AA-A | 2011 B-C-D
• 2012 AA-A | 2012 B-C-D
• 2013 AA-A | 2013 B-C-D
• 2014 AA-A | 2014 B-C-D

   On the move: The word out of Troy is that Catholic Central star guard Anthony Mack will transfer to Blair Academy in New Jersey in the fall.

   Mack told The Record he expects to reclassify to the Class of 2017 when he enrolls at Blair Academy.

   Mack led Catholic Central with 26 points a game in the just-concluded season and is the school's career scoring leader.

   "I'm super-excited. Every player I'll be playing with on my team will go D-I and I'll be playing my own position," Mack told the paper. "Blair has a great coach and a great background."

   Mack already holds offers from Dartmouth, Yale and several other schools.

   Baseball milestone: Holy Trinity baseball coach Bob Malandro secured career win No. 400 Wednesday with a 6-0 win over Manhasset St. Mary's. Malandro, 68, is in his 26th season as head coach -- all at Holy Trinity.

   Following up: The controversy at Jamesville-DeWitt isn't fading away all that quickly. Supporters of the ex-boys basketball coach returned to Wednesday's school board meeting to reiterate their support for Bob McKenney, Syracuse.com reported.

Get all the N.Y. boys lacrosse info

   The board and Superintendent Alice Kendrick faced nearly 90 minutes of questions and comments from residents about McKenney, who was informed he would not be retained after 19 seasons and five NYSPHSAA championships at J-D. The board and Kendrick continued to insist they can't discuss any aspects of the issue because it's a personnel matter.

   In his only public comment, McKenney said last month the administration and school board never talked to him or his staff before the termination.

   Among those in attendance Wednesday were McKenney's daughters, Amanda and Becky. Amanda McKenney said after the meeting that the family has been "frustrated" in trying to learn the reasons for her father's ouster. She and others told the board that they would return to future meetings to press for more answers.

   Quite the mess: The president of a youth travel basketball league based in Louisville apologized this week for the collapse of the organization that led to teams being left out in the cold over the weekend in Georgia and New Jersey.

   League president David Kelly of the Elevate Basketball Circuit, based in Louisville, did not guarantee refunds, though coaches and parents of players who'd paid up to $1,600 per team to participate in tournaments throughout the spring and summer.

   The ElevateBasketballCircuit.com website disappeared Sunday. It reappeared Monday with an open letter from Kelly explaining the "sobering reality" that he had run out of money. Kelly, who envisioned building a league with hundreds of teams from grades 5 to 11 in at least 16 states, wrote that he collect fees from fewer than 300 teams and couldn't afford operating costs, USA Today reported.

   "David Kelly basically just left," said Rennie Alston, Elevate's director of boys basketball said. "He walked out with whatever money was there, and he's basically gone into hiding."

   The Syracuse Elite Hoopstars was among the organizations left holding the bag. On Sunday morning, the 13-year-old players and their parents found themselves locked out of a gymnasium in New Jersey and wondering what happened.

   "Nobody was around. Nobody knew what was going on," said coach Jon Paninski. "We tried making some phone calls. Nobody had any clue at that point. Then we saw that everything -- the website, all the social media -- was deleted and it started to sink in that we got ripped off."