Tuesday, June 7, 2016: Bronxville's Daly wins NYSPHSAA golf championship

   Leading off today: Bronxville's Connor Daly shot an even-par 71 Monday to finish three-over for 36 holes and win the NYSPHSAA boys golf championship on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University.

   The senior played the back nine three-under to rally to a one-stroke win with a 145 total. Somers freshman Nathan Han, the first-round leader, Ardsley senior Brent Ito and Ward Melville's Gerry Mackedon finished at 146.

   Han and Ito missed birdie putts at No. 18 that would have forced a playoff with Daly, who had to wait out five players in the final two groups who were within a shot of his lead.

   "I really felt like someone would birdie the 18th hole," Daly told The Journal News. "It was nerve-racking. It's tough. You have to decide if you want to watch and that makes you nervous or if you want to go the practice green and stay loose."

   CHSAA baseball: Iona Prep routed Kennedy Catholic 13-0 on Monday to move within a win of the CHSAA championship series. Iona Prep will play defending champ Monsignor Farrell on Tuesday for the right to advance.

   Iona Prep jumped to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. Anthony Piccolino scored on a wild pitch, senior Joe LaSorsa slugged a two-run triple and third baseman Michael Gorman followed with an RBI single.

   Gorman had three run-scoring singles in the game.

   Anthony Piccolino threw five scoreless innings for the win. The junior needed just 63 pitches, making the left-hander a candidate to start again later this week.

   Kennedy plays Archbishop Molloy on Tuesday in an elimination game.

   Busy week ahead: There are five schools that still have two teams alive in the NYSPHSAA baseball, softball and/or baseball semifinals this week. It's almost surprising that Greenwich isn't one of them.

   As The Post-Star pointed out this week, Greenwich does have its baseball team heading to the state semifinals Saturday morning, continuing an outstanding 2015-16 school year for a mid-sized program.

   Already, Greenwich has earned a NYSPHSAA championship in girls cross country, played in a state football final and made it to the tournament in boys lacrosse. The school has also amassed a Section 2 championship in girls track and played in the final in boys soccer.

   For the record, the schools doing double duty this week in the four team sports are Marlboro (baseball and softball), Victor (both lacrosse), Yorktown (both lacrosse), West Islip (baseball, girls lacrosse) and Pittsford (girls lacrosse and Mendon's softball team).

   Following up: I linked to a Suffolk Times story in a blog last month about twins John and Joe Tardif from Mattituck.

   Newsday did its own story on the Tardif family this week, complemented by the sort of high-quality video that all newspapers-turned-media companies should be aspiring to match.

   For the uninitiated, John and Joe Tardif were born prematurely. Now, 18 years later, Joe is a star player in baseball, soccer and basketball at Mattituck. John has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and cannot speak, but he is his sibling's No. 1 fan.

   Saratoga uproar: Will Springstead of The Post-Star had a strong take this week on an issue in Saratoga Springs that had escaped my notice last month.

   Students, parents and coaches gathered en masse at a school board meeting last month to comment on Saratoga girls soccer coach Adrienne Dannehy in the aftermath of

NYSPHSAA boys lacrosse NYSPHSAA girls lacrosse NYSPHSAA baseball NYSPHSAA softball Past years' brackets

accusations by three players at a previous meeting that the nine-year coach and physical education teacher bullied players last season.

   Interestingly, those who wanted to speak on the matter did so behind closed doors as the board sat in executive session -- a new policy for dealing with complaints about district personnel.

   From a journalistic point of view, "executive session" is something to be frowned upon because it compromises a reporter's ability to gather all the pertinent information. My sense of decency, however, says that the accused should have a right to keep the allegations behind closed doors unless and until the board takes some sort of action. In short, allegations do not equate to truth, and the employee in question is entitled to hear the accusations and put forth a defense based upon what is said.

   As long as both sides are represented in the executive session, it's probably the fairest way to go.

   Anyway, Springstead notes that the school district has suspended or fired three varsity coaches since January 2013. He writes:

   "I don't know if any more people need to temporarily or permanently lose their jobs, but the district must ask itself, among other questions: Why does it keep recommending coaches that it ends up suspending? Has there been protection of coaches until a point it can no longer ignore the accusations? Is the district protecting students against bullying in the classroom, but letting it slide on the athletic fields? Does the district have the right people in the right jobs to ensure its sports programs run smoothly and that all student-athletes feel, overall, that sports were a positive experience?"

   Extra points: Sports reporter Greg McNall is leaving at the end of the week after 11½ years at the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva. He didn't specify what's next for him other than saying he'll be moving to Clifton Park and won't be in sports journalism anymore other than occasional free-lance work.