Leading off today: As one of 10 volunteer firefighters who rushed to the aid of an ice fisherman who became stranded on Lake Ontario, Lucus Patchen seemingly had a good reason for missing the team bus to his high school basketball team's game Saturday.
Try telling that to the policy wonks at Thousand Islands High School. WWNY-TV reported that Patchen was required to sit out the game vs. Sandy Creek after assisting in the rescue of ice fisherman Steve Rubyar of Henderson even though he made it to the gym before tip-off.
The decision stemmed from coach Scott LaLonde enforcing a school policy that says athletes who don't ride the team bus to the game must call the coach or AD and have a parent drive them to the game. Patchen drove himself to the game, and said he was unable to call anyone while he was on the rescue mission.
District Superintendent Michael Bashaw said Patchen was aware of the rule, as the issue had come up before.
Opinion: Hey, Thousand Islands administrators, are you kidding us?
Let me rephrase that.
Hey, Thousand Islands administrators, are you (obscene gerund) kidding us?
Wrestling: Six Long Beach seniors were among the 122 competitors awarded wildcard berths Wednesday into next week's NYSPHSAA wrestling championships in Albany.
Matt Maquet (132 pounds), John Colletti (145), Tyrese Byron (152), Chris Spada (160), Tyreek Bromley (182) and Mark Rivera (220) all were added in Division I as organizers filled supplemented the list of sectional champions with at-large qualifiers to fill out 16-wrestler brackets in each weight class.
Fellow Section 8 team Farmingdale landed four wildcard berths, and Arlington, Depew and Lyndonville picked up three apiece.
Here's a link to the full list of wildcard entries selected.
Falconer junior Corey Keefe was added to the Division 2 field at 182 pounds with a 51-3 record, giving him one more win than Arlington freshman Dennis Robin (Division 1, 99 pounds). Six of the 10 winningest wrestlers added as wildcards come from Section 5, which led the state with 19 bonus berths.
Right behind Section 5 were Sections 3 and 6 and 18 and 16 berths, respectively.
Mahopac 99-pounder Garrett Semenetz had the distinction of getting in with the fewest wins, sporting a 20-6 record. Carson Alberti (Depew) and Dan Alberico (Camden) got into the tournament with 11 losses apiece.
What a finish: Corcoran junior Vinny Frenza was sent to the foul line Tuesday with seven-tenths of a second left in overtime for two free throws on a shooting foul plus two attempts resulting from a technical foul.
He missed the first three but made the fourth to give Syracuse Corcoran a 69-68 upset of West Genesee and a berth in the Section 3 boys basketball tournament. West Genesee is ranked 18th in the state in Class AA.
