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and hit with more than $1,000 in fines and surcharges. He'd been found guilty of second-degree harassment and fourth-degree criminal mischief for a confrontation with Mahopac coach Jim Lieto.

   Two high school referees were hurt in a post-game altercation that led to the arrest of Daniel M. Fisher, 63, of Fort Edward in February. Fisher was charged with unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, and non-criminal harassment after the confrontation at Argyle High, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Police said Fisher accosted one of the refs after a girls JV game between Argyle and Fort Edward.

   West Genesee graduate Naesean Howard was arrested in April on assault charges following the stabbing of a pair of his former Syracuse University football teammates who are starters at defensive back. The victims were Orange safety Chauncey Scissum of Rush-Henrietta and cornerback Corey Winfield from St. Louis, both redshirt juniors. Howard and Scissum are both former New York State Sportswriters Association all-state players.

   Howard, 20, was suspended during Syracuse fall camp in 2014 for missing curfew and never played for the Orange.

Paying our respects

   We lost numerous beloved and accomplished sports figures, none more so than Dwayne "Pearl" Washington, the New York City schoolboy legend who went on to a memorable career at Syracuse University.

   Washington played at Syracuse from 1983-86 after a stellar career at Boys & Girls in the PSAL. He led SU in both assists and steals in each of his three seasons. In his junior year, Washington led Syracuse in scoring at 17.3 points per game before making the decision to enter the NBA draft.

   The year before Washington's arrival, the Orangemen averaged 20,401 fans per game at the Carrier Dome. In his junior season, the averaged soared to 26,255.

   "Everybody says that Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin made the Big East, but I think Pearl made the league," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "They were the best players, but Pearl was the player that people turned out to see and turned on their TVs to watch."

   Luther "Ticky" Burden, an Albany scholastic sensation and then an All-America basketball guard at the University of Utah, died following a reaction to anesthesia prior to undergoing cataract surgery.

   Burden is still No. 6 on the career scoring list at Utah, where he was named to The Associated Press All-America team in 1975. Before that, he was one of the great players to come out of the Albany area, landing on the New York State Sportswriters Association first team as a junior and senior at Schuyler High, where his shooting stroke and leaping ability made him nearly unstoppable.

   "It was so crazy, I could not taking my eyes off him," said Willie Dobbs, a high school friend and Burden's agent. "Nothing but net, nothing but net. I've never seen nobody shoot like that."    Will Smith, the 2000 Utica Proctor graduate and Pro Bowl defensive end who won a Super Bowl with the NFL's Saints, was shot and killed shortly before midnight Saturday in New Orleans. He was 34.

   Poughkeepsie senior Caval Haylett Jr., 18, died after being shot once in the head while on his way home following the Dutchess County Basketball Coaches Association Exceptional Seniors Game. Caval had scored 21 points in the all-star contest and was carrying his plaque designating him as an all-county selection.

   In New York City, Loyola School sophomore Thomas Jakelich, 16, died following a collision with another player during a boys varsity soccer game on Randall's Island.

   Jakelich was hospitalized with internal bleeding following what initially appeared to be an unremarkable collision during the game against United Nations International School. He needed to be helped from the field moments later, and an examination at Harlem Hospital determined his liver had been lacerated.

   John DeFonce, 20, a former Harrison football player profiled recently in a story about athletes who become addicted to heroin through prescription pain medication, was found dead in his parents' home.

   DeFonce had recently completed a four-month treatment program. In a late-summer interview with The Journal News, DeFonce told the paper he traced his drug addiction

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to pain pill prescriptions he received for a football knee injury in high school. When his doctor refused to write him more prescriptions, he said, he began buying drugs on the street.

   Cardinal Hayes junior defensive tackle Delano Cowan, 16, died hours after the team beat Holy Cross to advance in the CHSFL playoffs. Police responded to a call for someone who had fallen off a building and found Cowan unconscious outside a building on E. 152nd Street in the Bronx.

   Former Yonkers Saunders baseball player Michael Nolan, a prospect in the Oakland A's organization, died from gun-shot injuries suffered Sept. 18. Nolan, 23, was gunned down outside a Yonkers fast-food restaurant. He had been drafted by the Oakland A's in the 18th round in 2014.

   Albertus Magnus AD Joe McGuinness died of complications from cancer at the age of 56.

   Active head coaches who died included fourth-year Southold boys basketball coach Phil Reed, White Plains girls lacrosse coach Mike Leone and Port Jervis tennis coach Luann McCarthy.

   Frank Fronhofer Sr., a Salem wrestling assistant for 40 years and teacher for 38, died from injuries suffered in a mountain biking accident in Argyle.

   Brad Paddock, a Livingston County wrestling champion in 1983 whose sons went on to more than 1,000 career wins and seven state titles at Warsaw and many more with the Team X club team he founded, died at age 50. He had ties to wrestlers who rolled up 90 Section 5 individual titles and three state team crowns.

   Longtime Andrew Jackson and Campus Magnet boys basketball coach Charles Granby, who retired as the PSAL's all-time leader in wins, died at the age of 81.

    Joe Girard Sr., a longtime coach at Glens Falls St. Mary's and a Section 2 fixture for decades, died at age 75. Girard made his reputation as coach of boys basketball and football teams at St. Mary's in the 1970s and '80s. He also served on the NYSPHSAA basketball tournament committee and was a longtime baseball umpire.

   Retired Wantagh coach Mike Byrnes, who helped co-found the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation that spawned top-notch national high school competitions, died at age 83.