Leading off today: Watertown Immaculate Heart Central quarterback Nicholas Draught threw for five touchdowns and ran for two more Sunday in a
50-42 win over Bishop Ludden in a Kickoff Classic contest at the Carrier Dome.
Draught completed 22 of 36 passes and rushed 17 times for 188 yards. He also converted three two-point plays, including the last with 3:14 left to play.
Ludden QB Sh'ikem Lee completed 13 of 19 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 161 yards on 11 carries and ran for two TDs. His last TD tied the game with 5:52 left, but IHC responded with a 16-yard scoring pass from Draught to Silas Baker.
Induction set: Spring Valley boys coach Willie Worsley will be one of the honorees when the 27th New York City Basketball Hall of Fame class is inducted Sept. 14 at the New York Athletic Club.
Worsley was a guard at Dewitt Clinton in the PSAL and went on to play for the legendary 1966 NCAA Championship team at Texas Western (now UTEP). Texas Western was the first college in the south to integrate its sports programs, and the 1966 team defeated an all-white Kentucky squad in the championship game. This story was retold in Don Haskins' autobiography "Glory Road" and the 2006 movie of the same name.
Worsley played for the New York Nets of the ABA in 1968-1969. Former NBA players Steve Burtt (Charles Evans Hughs H.S), Olden Polynice (All Hallows), Sam Stith (St. Francis Prep) and Jayson Williams (Christ the King) are also among the inductees.
St. Francis Prep grad Gus Alfieri, whose teams won two New Jersey state titles, is being inducted as a coach, and Howard Garfinkel, co-founder of the groundbreaking Five-Star Basketball Camp, will be honored as a trustee. The contributor inductees are Jim Couch and Jerry Reinsdorf.
Following up: The abrupt transfer of first-team all-state lineman Jeremiah Sanders from Buffalo South Park to Bishop Timon-St. Jude remains a hot topic in Western New York.
The Buffalo News' Miguel Rodriguez followed up his reporting from earlier in the week with a column pegged to South Park coach Tim Delaney's vow that "I'll never play a Catholic school again."
That has all sorts of implications for football throughout the left end of the state.
For one, the relatively small Monsignor Martin Association needs some degree of cooperation from Section 6 schools for scheduling purposes in most sports. There are only so many trips a team can make to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Section 5 before the travel gets expensive and tedious, particularly for mid-week contests.
But fewer inter-association matchups also deprive fans of some great matchups. Canisius and Jamestown faced off in Week 4 of the 2014 season, after which both schools went on to win their respective state championships.
