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

[ Continued from Page 11 ]

   Gary Dillingham, a longtime varsity and junior high coach for Cortland and Section 3 wrestling hall of fame member, died following an apparent heart attack during a January match at the school.

   George Davis, a former Mohawk High football standout who went on to star at Syracuse University, died at age 89. Davis went on to coach at Mynderse, compiling a 130-30-8 mark in 21 seasons. In 1970 he became head coach at Hobart College, where his teams went 37-16-1 in six seasons.

   Charlie Dingboom, best known for his tenure as football coach at Buffalo Riverside from 1959-1989 -- with a career record of 120-94-11 and a 41-game winning streak in the 1960s -- died at age 88. Dingboom totaled 61 seasons coaching with stops at UB and Kensington before moving on to Riverside as a head coach. After retiring from Riverside in 1989, he spent six seasons as an assistant coach for Kenmore East and then helped out at Nichols from 2000-2012.

   Joe Viglione Sr., who won 194 games coaching at Port Jervis and Warwick, died at age 86.

   Incoming Frontier boys soccer coach Tom Kacalski died before the start of the 2014 season. Kacalski took on one of the most thankless jobs in recent New York State high school history in 2007, rehabilitating the reputation of a Lackawanna program with a history of dirty play and disrespect for officials. He coached Lackawanna to three division titles and two ECIC team sportsmanship awards before leaving in 2013 to be an assistant coach at Daemen College.

   Steve Piorkowski, who coached softball and girls basketball at Bayside in the PSAL, died at age 54.

   Former Niskayuna/Schenectady hockey coach Todd Templeton died at age 48. After serving as an assistant coach for three seasons, Templeton took the head position for the 1994-95 season and remained in charge through the 2012-13 season.

   Shenendehowa scored points in 11 sports and ran away with the New York State Sportswriters Association's seventh annual Kerr Cup All-Sport Championship.

   Albertus Magnus students at the state girls basketball final took to taunting the daughter of Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim for no reason other than the fact that she was the daughter of Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim.

   Albertus Magnus administrators apologized to the Jamesville-DeWitt freshman promptly and unconditionally.

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

   James Suarez, a Shoreham-Wading River student, gave up his senior wrestling season in preparation for serving as a bone-marrow donor for his sister Kaitlyn, who had been battling Hodgkin's lymphoma on and off since May 2008.

   James Suarez, 17, stepped up in August 2014 when Kaitlyn relapsed for the third time. Testing determined that he was a very rare 100 percent match to serve as a potential donor, but it would come at a price: Under protocol for the procedure, any head trauma -- an absolute risk in wrestling no matter how much caution is taken -- would rule him out as a donor.

   James never hesitated to give up wrestling, his sport since seventh grade.

   "That's the kind of person he is, James Suarez, and that's why we're proud to have him as part of the team," S-WR coach Joe Condon said. "This would have been his year to be a starter. I know he's doing something that's much more important. He's a hero. He's really a hero."

   If you somehow managed to make it this far into the recap -- sorry, I honestly didn't intend to write 10,500 words about stuff that's already in the rear-view mirror -- and want to refresh your memory regarding what led up to this very newsy year in New York sports, you can brush up on the 2013-14 Year in Review here.