Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017: Spectrum lists more than 100 football games it will show

   Leading off today: Spectrum Sports has identified more than 100 Friday night Upstate high school football games it plans to show on the cable system's 24-hour news channels or via live streaming to laptops, smart phones and tablet devices.

   The New York State Sportswriters Association has compiled the list on its RoadToSyracuse.com website.

   In past seasons, Time Warner Cable showed a single weekly game in most of its New York markets. The Charter Communications merger with TWC resulted in the renaming of cable systems to the Spectrum brand and also brought about philosophical changes.

   Spectrum is doing away with channels dedicated to local sports and will move some of that programming, including a Friday nigh football game of local interest, to its 24-hour news channels. That contest and up to three more local games on Fridays will be streamed for Spectrum subscribers through myspectrumsports.com, using smaller crews but taking advantage of the available bandwidth.

   Spectrum has not yet released schedules for sectional and NYSPHSAA tournament coverage.

   Help from across the pond: The Times Union ran a feature on how LaSalle Institute's soccer program has been benefiting indirectly in recent years from one of the Capital Region's great treasures -- racing season at Saratoga.

   This week marks the third year in a row that John Revell and Pete Brown, who are part of the soccer academy at Norwich City Football Club in England, are helping out at LaSalle's soccer camp. They're stateside because of the Saratoga racing season, which has been a calendar fixture for Revell for many years, and he met Cadets coach Matt Michaud at a soccer camp at St. Lawrence nearly 15 years ago.

   Michaud traveled to Norwich City four years ago to examine the franchise from the ground up, including the academy program Norwich City created in 1999.

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   "Every time I come along, I try to bring something out of the academy," Revell told the paper. "Like this year, taking responsibility and being someone who is their own person, within the team."

   Michaud has embraced the "four corners" philosophy of developing players' physical, mental, technical/tactical, and social/emotional skills. For his part, Brown has marveled at American soccer's athleticism.

   For planning purposes: The Wayne Eagles Cross Country Invitational is on the schedule for Sept. 16 and will attract a top-notch field since the meet is a dry run for the NYSPHSAA championships slated for that course on Nov. 11.

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   Sec. 6 baseball coach exits: Longtime Williams- ville North baseball coach Jerry Scarcella, whose team reached the Section 6 Class AA final this spring, has retired from teaching and coaching.

   "I'm 62, going to be 63. My kids are grown," he told The Buffalo News. "We're probably moving to Florida for part of the year. I have an opportunity to work with some pitchers in the minors down there. I still know guys from when I played in the (San Francisco) Giants organization ... just some fun."

   The Giants drafted Scarcella out of Long Island's Walt Whitman High in 1972 and he reached Triple-A ball before suffering an Achilles tendon injury.

   Change of address: Former Aquinas linebacker and running back Taylor Riggins has left UMass and resurfaced at the University at Buffalo.

   The Bulls project Riggins as an edge rusher on defense.

   You may recall that Riggins held a scholarship offer from then-coach Scott Shafer at Syracuse University. After Shafer was fired, Riggins was among the slew of recruits unceremoniously dumped by new coach Dino Babers' staff.

   Let's see if this lasts: New Baylor football coach Matt Rhule made news last week by saying that his staff will not even set foot on campus at high schools that recruit players out of the state of Texas, a shot clearly being fired at IMG Academy in Florida.

   While many high school coaches and ADs have been critical IMG Academy and other programs that have lured out-of-state transfers, Rhule is the first power-program coach to go public with a boycott pledge.

   While it sounds good as a television sound bite, time will tell how long Rhule sticks to his guns if a four- or five-star player at IMG announced his interest in attending Baylor.

   The New York City native did a masterful job turning Temple around in four years -- going 10-4 and 10-3 the past two seasons -- but he's not going to get very far cleaning up the mess that Baylor has become (off the field, in particular) if speaking in absolutes costs his the services of players he's chosen to blacklist.