Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017: Sausville set to take over Scotia boys basketball

   Leading off today: As expected, Mark Sausville is getting the nod as the new boys varsity basketball coach at Scotia-Glenville following the retirement of 400-game winner Jim Giammattei.

   Sausville, 55, was the school's JV coach the past two seasons and previously won a NYSPHSAA championship during a 12-season run at Schenectady.

   "I met with the athletic director (Jamian Rockhill) and he asked me if I would accept," Sausville told The Daily Gazette. "I had to talk to my family about it to see if they were OK with it. It's a big commitment. It's different than the JV."

   Sausville's son Alex played for the 2014 team that won NYSPHSAA and Federation championships, and Giammattei directed the 2015 team to another New York State Public High School Athletic Association crown.

   With only three players back from a 17-5 team, the new coach will have some rebuilding to do.

   "G's objective was always to put the kids in a position to be successful," said Sausville, a special education teacher at Schenectady. "That's what I am going to try to do."

   Sausville was 198-75 in a dozen seasons at Schenectady earning a state title in 2001. His appointment will become official when the school board meets Monday.

   An interesting gig: Carthage boys lacrosse coach Kirk Ventiquattro will run the sideline for the Philippines team scheduled to compete in the 2018 FIL Men's Lacrosse World Championship in Israel.

   The Federation of International Lacrosse championships, starting with a field of 50 participating countries in regional championships, will take place July 12-21 in Netanya, Israel.

   "Our connection to the Philippines is strong as my wife's mom Carmen who was born in Manila and came to the United States after marrying my father-in-law James while he was serving as a U.S. serviceman stationed in the Philippines," Ventiquattro told The Daily Times.

   Ventiquattro hopes that his son Tony will serve on the coaching staff and his son Mario will be trying out for the team, which will be chosen next month.

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   Riding off into the sunset: Budd Bailey, who's filled a variety of roles in 24 years at The Buffalo News, including helping on the high school beat the past couple of years, has retired.

   "(Former sport editor) Lisa Wilson once told me that we spent more family birthdays, anniversaries and holidays with each other in the office than we did with our respective spouses," he wrote in a blog. "I must have set a Ripken-like record for most Healthy Choice frozen dinners consumed in a career -- probably 2,500 or so. Plus, you may have heard that the newspaper business is a little different these days, with instant deadlines and few true days off. I asked co-worker Kevin Noonan once why he was retiring, and his answer was, 'It's time.' Now I know what he meant."

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   Bailey's final story was an update on Sweet Home distance runner Sam Peterman's ongoing pursuit for a solution to her battle with neurocardiogenic syncope (NCS), a medical condition that causes fainting.

   Peterman, who'll begin classes at Duke University next month, was one of the top runners in Western New York with 12 Section 6 championships and qualified for 10 state championships. Because of her medical condition, many of those races ended with Peterman fainting upon crossing the finish line.

   Doctors allowed her to compete, saying there was nothing wrong with her heart. That changed over the past winter, when she an EKG flagged a problem for the first time and sent her to the sidelines. It led to a visit to the Cleveland Clinic in March that came up with a solution that hasn't fully resolved the problem yet but will at least allow her to get back to training and eventually competing.

   On the move: Section 5 is moving its football championships out of Capelli Sport Stadium (formerly Sahlen's Stadium) in Rochester in favor of college stadiums in Brockport and Alfred for the upcoming season.

   Scott Barker, the sectional football coordinator, cited the cost and dissatisfaction with the locker rooms among the factors behind the decision.

   "At Brockport and Alfred which is where we are going for championship weekend, they have facilities that are built to host big-time, large football games, and that was a big drawing point to us also when we started to look at the financial piece of it," Barker said.

   The City of Rochester and the operators of Capelli Sport Stadium have thrown some money into the facility the past two years, but the rental cost and the poorly conceived location -- jammed into a small parcel in a blighted neighborhood -- have been a continuing concern.