Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015: The 2014-15 New York school year in review (con't)

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    • In softball, Livonia turned eight seventh-inning hits into seven runs and walked off with a 10-9 home win vs. Avon. Lindsay Schubert scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, then Molly Stewart singled up the middle to score Danielle Bosch with the winning run.

   Four days before all that mayhem, Gloversville rallied with eight runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and defeated Glens Falls 9-8 in Foothills Council baseball as winning pitcher Cam Stewart drove in the deciding run.

   The Tampa Bay Rays selected Niskayuna outfielder Garrett Whitley with the No. 13 overall pick in the MLB Draft in June, paving the way to a nearly $3 million signing bonus.

   No New York high school senior had been taken with such a lofty pick since the Cleveland Indians drafted Manny Ramirez out of George Washington High in New York City with the 13th pick in 1991. Dee Brown (Marlboro, Kansas City Royals, 14th in 1996) was the last New York senior taken in the top 25 picks.

   The PSAL went rogue at the end of basketball season, agreeing to send the Wing Academy boys and South Shore girls teams to participate in the Dick's Sporting Goods High School National Tournament in New York City.

   As was the case during a similar episode in 2011, the development did not sit well with the other Federation organizations. This time, though, there were consequences.

   Officials of the two schools said the PSAL didn't advise them that the PSAL had been warned about participating in the form of a hand-delivered letter delivered by Robert Zayas, executive director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.

   The NYSPHSAA is the designated organization through which other National Federation of State High School Associations governing bodies verify a New York school's status when clearing them to play opponents from their respective states.

   "In fairness to other states throughout the country, they are asking me, 'Do these schools abide by all the rules and regulations of your state?'" Zayas said. "By participating in a national event, I can't in good faith say that they do for a period of one year."

   As a result, Wings and South Shore will find it difficult to schedule opponents outside the PSAL in many sports for the 2015-16 school year.

   In other NYSPHSAA business aside from the transfer rules mentioned above, the state's largest sanctioning body paved the way for a return to 20-game schedules beginning with an option for sections to OK a 19th game last season.

   In the Spring, the Utica Memorial Auditorium's long history as the home for the NYSPHSAA boys hockey championships came to an end when the next three tournaments were awarded to Buffalo's new HarborCenter. The Utica Memorial Auditorium agreed to host in 1988 after The Aud in Buffalo booked a circus for the scheduled tournament dates, and the NYSPHSAA had come back every year since.

   The Syracuse school district consolidated its five high schools into a single entity when it came to fielding teams in baseball, boys lacrosse and softball in a bid to offset

declining participation numbers. The district previously combined its girls lacrosse teams into one program.

   Henninger (1,329), Cor-coran (1,118), Nottingham (1,018), Fowler (692) and ITC (406) have a combined BEDS figure of 4,561 for the upcoming school year; Brentwood is the largest school in the NYSPHSAA with a 2015-16 BEDS figure of just 4,406.

   Remember, the Syracuse high schools were among those that bolted from the Onondaga High School League in 2007 to form the Central New York Counties League, in the process abandoning Syracuse CBA and Bishop Ludden ... you know, those private schools that beat up on public schools because they allegedly field all-star teams of athletes from a wide geographic area.

   Rush-Henrietta's Sammy Watson capped her sophomore year with a gold medal in July in the girls 800-meter race during the ninth IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia. The winning time was 2:03.54, and some 90 minutes later, she ran a 53-second anchor for Team USA in the mixed-gender (two boys, two girls) 1,600 relay that coasted to victory in 3:19.54.

   In the winter, Watson ran a 2:06.78 anchor as R-H set the national high school record of 3:52.68 in the sprint medley relay at the New Balance Nationals Indoor Championships at The Armory.    In the spring, Watson pulled off a highly unusual 400/1,500 double at the state championships and then a week later helped Rush-Henrietta crush another U.S. sprint medley relay record in 3:47.65 at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals.

   Fayetteville-Manlius returned to the top of the Nike Cross Nationals awards podium with an unprecedented sweep in Portland, Ore. The girls team, which had its streak of seven championships snapped a year earlier, ate just 70 points in defeating Great Oak, Calif., (149) and Carmel, Ind., (173). In the boys race, F-M won with 111 points, well ahead of Wayzata, Minn., (159) and North Spokane, Wash., (178).

   It was the first time a school swept the competition.

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