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

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   Minisink Valley softball coach Bruce Guyette posted career win No. 500 in April. Also in softball, 400 was the magic number for Nanuet's Tony Toronto and Oswego's Mike McCrobie.

   Syracuse CBA boys tennis coach Tom Daviau earned his 400th career victory when the Brothers blanked Chittenango 5-0 to open their season.

   In baseball, retiring Syracuse City School District coach Bob Southworth notched his 700th win in 50 seasons early in the spring. Holy Trinity's Bob Malandro, 68, secured career win No. 400 in his 26th season as head coach, all at Holy Trinity.

   Ed Grezinsky, who built one of the state's great dynasties in directing Murry Bergtraum to 15 straight PSAL girls basketball championships from 1999-2013, stepped down before the season. Grezinsky, who coached five Federation champs. left the door open to return to coaching.

   Football saw a number of big winners exit, with Joe Casamento's departure from Syracuse CBA among the biggest surprises. Casamento, 143-27 in 17 seasons, resigned to take a job in Washington, D.C., as the associate head coach at St. John's College High School and direct its entrepreneurial innovation leadership institute.

   Among the sports other big names to exit: Garden City's Tom Flatley, Long Island's winningest active football coach with a 264-44-7 record and five Long Island championships; Southwestern's Jay Sirianni, 101-26 with two NYSPHSAA crowns; Tom Pugh, who logged 42 seasons at Holy Cross; Brian Moran, LeRoy's 203-game winner; and Tom Neidl, 178-54-1 at Cazenovia.

   In addition, Steve Fisher, 69, said in March he will take the 2015 season off at General Brown, leaving him standing at 268 career triumphs.

   Boys basketball coaches deciding to call it a day included Tony Hammel, the winner of 373 games and three Section 2 titles at Glens Falls, and Mike Durr, winner of 335 games and six Section 3 trophies in 21 seasons at Utica Notre Dame.

   Ray Preston stepped down as girls soccer coach at Davenport before the 2014 season after 426 victories in 32 seasons but stayed on for his 36th girls basketball season.

   In boys soccer, Mattituck coach Mat Litchhult went out a winner at age 37, stepping down following the 3-0 win over Beekmantown in the NYSPHSAA Class B championship game. Litchhult's teams went 181-50-14 and Mattituck won the state 2003 Class C title in his second season.

   Shoreham-Wading River held a ceremony in August 2014 to honor baseball coach Sal Mignano, who retired after 583 wins and seven Section 11, one state and 12 league championships since 1977.

   Andover baseball coach Rich Gill retired at the conclusion of his 38th season at the Section 5 school.

   Josh Wende was an outfielder this spring, but the Half Hollow Hills West baseball player threw a couple of perfectos this year. He rolled up perfect scores on both his

SAT and ACT college admission tests.

   Wende scored 2230 out of 2400 on the SAT the first time and 35 out of 36 on the ACT. He aced both tests the second time around.

   "I enjoy (baseball) but I try to enjoy all aspects of my life," Wende, who'll attend Dartmouth in the fall, told Newsday. "I try not to inundate myself with schoolwork ... I love baseball, but I try to love everything."

   Tyrone Wheatley Sr., who's been a prized recruit, a University of Michigan star, an NFL player and recruiter/coach through the years, has been hired onto Jim Harbaugh's Michigan staff, which successfully recruited his son T.J. Wheatley out of Canisius.

   Not surprisingly, Papa Wheatley was been very active in his son's recruitment and had great insight:

    •"First and foremost we told him we're not looking for a place for a head coach. We're looking at bricks and mortar and internal. The landscape of college football is three and out. Three and out, you lose and you're gone OR three and out, you're hot and you're gone. Either way, whether the coach is doing well or doing badly, coaches are gone."

    •"You're going to curse them, but every coach is going to be a jerk. They'll flash their pearly white smiles in recruitment, tell you everything you want to hear, but as soon as you sign your name on the dotted line, they have you. Now it is time to get to work. That's the part that the kids don't see. It goes from 'Wheatley, I love you' to 'Damn it, Wheatley, you suck!' I told him to look at all coaches as jerks and then look at the bricks and mortar, the internal, meaning the academic people. Who is going to support you? Those are things that matter most."

   Though its work wasn't directly related to high schools, The Journal News made an impact upon New York scholastic sports by documenting irregularities that brought basketball at Westchester Community College to a screeching halt in October.

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