Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017: Buddy Boeheim will play for his father at SU

   Leading off today: Buddy Boeheim will play for his father, Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim, a little more than a year from now.

   The younger Boeheim made that official Friday, though it has been widely presumed even before he upped his stock considerably with a strong season on Nike's EYBL circuit after his junior year at Jamesville-DeWitt.

   Since his father is a university employee, Boeheim will likely be a non-scholarship player. That's a bonus for the Orange.

   Boeheim, second-team all-state after averaging 25.8 points as a 6-foot-5 junior, is spending the current school year attending Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H.

   Tough bit of luck: This isn't quite what people usually have in mind when discussing the value to athletes of playing more than one sport. When speaking on topic, it's usually in the context of avoiding some of the pitfalls that can come with specializing in one sport for 12 months a year.

   Jake Carberg was branching out this fall at LaSalle Institute in Section 2, playing both soccer and football. It's not an unusual feat in New York or nationally, since soccer players have a knack for being able to kick footballs with power and accuracy.

   It didn't work out too well for Carberg and LaSalle this week. Carberg suffered a concussion when a soccer ball struck him in the head Thursday, taking him out of the mix for Friday's football game vs. Columbia.

   With Carberg unavailable, the Cadets missed an extra-point kick and their first 2-point conversion attempts in a 21-20 loss.

   "Kicking-wise, that made a huge difference, coach Gary Lauver told The Record. "We were kind of stuck with that. ... Their hearts are broken (with the loss). The sun comes up tomorrow."

   Another Sec. 2 injury: Warrensburg opened its football season with a 20-7 win over Woodstock, traditionally one of Vermont's better small schools. Alas, the victory came at a price.

   Senior linebacker/running back Greg Shambo, a second-team all-state defender as a junior, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament that will end his season.

   "He was the MVP of the (Class D) league last year, and he was looking even better this year after a great offseason," coach Mike Perrone told The Post-Star.

   Registration reminder: The Basketball Coaches Association of New York has landed a respected youth coach as a presenter at its 36th annual coaching clinic.

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   Don Showalter of USA Basketball will speak on "Safe Sport Standards: Protecting You and Your Players" and "Developing Youth Through Basketball" on Sept. 29 at SUNY Cortland.

   USA Basketball has turned over much of the national age-group program to Showalter, a high school coach for 42 years and recipient of numerous national honors. Most recently, Showalter led the 2016 USA Basketball Men's U17 National Team to a gold medal in Zaragoza, Spain.

   Other clinicians at this year's event include Irondequoit coach Chris Cardon, Fairport coach Scott Fitch (nationally

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known these days for his presentations on the use of social media) and Todd Mulvaney of Moravia.

   Pre-registration ends Sept. 23. Details can be found in a PDF on the BCANY website.

   Striking a balance: An annual complaint common to many sports has returned now that the fall sports season is in full swing: The grind of the game schedule -- 16 games over seven to eight weeks in the regular season leaves little time to teach fundamentals and rest players.

   Mike Dougherty of The Journal News reported recently that some Section 1 leagues made the situation worse by opting to open practice Aug. 21 -- a week later than most of the rest of the state.

   Keep in mind that there are ways around the schedule logjam. Schools and leagues could start practices on the first permitted day, eliminate some non-league games and/or tell the section to cut sectionals back to eight teams per class to cut one or two rounds from the schedule. If other sections have similar concerns, they could start the process to try getting the state tournament pushed back a week so that the finals are played on the third weekend of November even if that risks angering the weather gods.

   You can read The Journal News story here.

   Lights, camera, action: The Monsignor Martin Association and Pegula Sports and Entertainment (i.e., ownership of the Buffalo Bills) have reached a multi-year deal for live broadcasts of four football games on MSG Network and OneBuffalo.com. The deal is likely to expand to more football games and other sports down the road.

   The first game is a non-leaguer next Saturday at New Era Field between St. Joe's and Aquinas. The schedule culminates with the Monsignor Martin championship game Nov. 18.

   "It's a good deal for the league" Canisius High AD Jim Mauro told The Buffalo News. "It gives all the schools visibility. ... It's advertising you probably don't have budget dollars for. I don't know if we would just buy (a 30-second commercial) spot. Now you have your football team there and you can produce some spots that will run during the game."

   Earlier: In case you missed it, I blogged some of Friday's football highlights to lead off the day.