Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015: Deceased athlete's parents file wrongful death suit

   Leading off today: The parents of the Curtis High football player who collapsed and died at a 2014 practice have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, The Advance reported Saturday.

   Miles Kirkland's parents, Tanza L. Kirkland and Jamar Thomas, allege in court papers filed that the city, education officials and emergency workers failed to provide him adequate care after the 16-year-old junior was felled by a genetic heart muscle disorder called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy during practice on Sept. 1, 2014.

   The lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court on Staten Island this month seeks unspecified damages.

   "The parents are still grieving for their terrible loss," lawyer Jonathan Ginsberg told the paper.

   Taking the long way home: Once you filtered out the graduating seniors and the prep school-bound underclassmen from the 2013 all-state basketball team, it was easy to project that Bashir Ahmed was capable of making the leap from fourth team for Bronx JFK that season to the first team in 2014.

   It never happened, which we were reminded of over the weekend when the junior college star made a Division I college commitment. The Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College star said he will enroll next fall at St. John's, giving coach Chris Mullin a reliable 6-foot-7 piece of the puzzle for two seasons.

   He'll join Thomas Jefferson combo guard Shamorie Ponds in St. John's 2016 class, and the Red Storm is also in the running for former Christ the King guard Rawle Alkins, doing a year of prep school in North Carolina.

   Ahmed averaged 24.2 points a game as a JFK junior and had committed to Iona College when he disappeared from the New York City hoops circuit over the summer and resurfaced at The Robinson School in Bayonne, N.J. With too many holes in his transcript, however, he never made it to Iona and instead enrolled at Hutchinson CC, where he's currently averaging 19.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

   Ahmed was the freshman of the year in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division last year and an honorable mention JuCo All-American after averaging 16.3 points and shooting 37 percent from 3-point range.

   Forward his mail to ... More than a few of us around Rochester figured point guard Griffin Kornaker might eventually end up playing for his father at St. John Fisher College or a Division III school with a high academic profile. While that may still happen, a transfer from Aquinas to the New England prep scene is starting to raise the 6-foot-2 junior's profile to the point that Division I ball is more than a remote possibility.

   Kornaker is a regular for Suffield Academy in Connecticut, where college coaches are tracking him. A report this week said he's hearing from some Ivy League schools and other Division I programs.

   Milestone: Wantagh girls basketball coach Stan Bujacich notched his 300th win in 23 seasons on Tuesday with a 53-21 victory over New Hyde Park.

   Wantagh improved to 5-2 for the season.

   Tough talk: If you think I'm a little bit rough in some of my blogs, try this recent story lead out for size:

   "Someone forgot to tell Lackawanna's girls basketball team that MMA events still aren't legal in New York State.

   "That seems to be the most reasonable way of explaining the thought process behind the rough style of play

Lackawanna employed during its 50-39 loss to (Cheektowaga) JFK Dec. 16, a game in which the Lady Steelers were whistled for 33 total fouls -- with JFK coach Steve Sokolski saying of the fouls that 'a lot of them were intentional, and some of them were flagrant.'"

   The coach went on to add, "I don't think the WWE has ever held an event that was more brutal than this game. Three of my girls were hurt -- with a concussion among them -- and yet none of those plays that led to those injuries resulted in fouls.

   Lackawanna is 0-4, and the JFK game is the only one in which the Steelers have lost by fewer than 35 points.

   Impressive, but ... Paced by a perfect game from Anthony Naujokas and a 287 by Nick Caruana, the Sachem boys bowling team set a Section 11 record on Dec. 17 with a 1,323 pinfall in the opening game vs. defending NYSPHSAA champ East Islip.

   It's an indisputably impressive feat, but it does raise the obvious question: Where are Sachem East (BEDS figure of 1,785) and Sachem North (1,710) fielding a combined team?

   Sachem won three state crowns from 1996-2000 before the district split into two high schools. There are still two high schools there, are there were separate bowling teams until this winter.

   Even taking into consideration that the Sachem schools field a full complement of winter sports options, are there not at least a dozen bowlers at each high school capable of competing for the five spots in the bowling lineup?