Friday, Oct. 20, 2017: Ex-CBA star Paulus lands on Louisville staff

   I was just finishing a column for the Press & Sun-Bulletin late Thursday morning when word came down that former Syracuse CBA great Greg Paulus was going to be introduced as a new men's basketball assistant at Louisville. I had intended to contact Paulus early this week for the column before deciding I already had enough material and would probably only be wasting his time.

   The column had made mention of how Paulus, who's now 31 -- How does that seem possible? The state football title game vs. Ray Rice and New Rochelle seems like it was only a few years ago. -- had to choose between two sports and numerous college offers (He ended up playing basketball for Duke) a little more than a decade ago and how he'd been keeping tabs on current Glens Falls star Joe Girard III before Thad Matta was fired at Ohio State and most of the staff was swept out with him.

   Now that he's back in business, it's not out of the question that Paulus will be keeping an eye on Girard again.

   More on Girard: You can read more about Girard on the Press- Connects.com website. We primarily discussed how his recruitment process has changed now that he has a football offer (and more are likely to come) to go with 16 basketball scholarships.

   We talked briefly about comparisons to Paulus, and Girard had his own story about coincidental timing when we sat down last week.

   In the summer before his freshman year, he attended a basketball camp at High Point University in North Carolina, where former Spa Catholic star Scott Cherry has been the coach since 2009. Shortly after the camp, Cherry became the first coach to off Girard a scholarship.

   "You're 13 or 14 years old and you don't have your permit, you haven't even hit high school yet," Girard said. "You don't even know what to expect going into a high school basketball season or a school year in high school."

   What made it great though was a conversation involving his mother, Arleen, a few days before the offer.

   "My mom's side of family was up visiting and they have some kids my age as well, around 14 at the time, and they were talking about buying cars for the kids. My mom says

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out of blue says, 'If he ever gets scholarship to go play a sport for free in college I'll definitely get him a car.'

   "And then two days later I go on a visit and get a scholarship. My mom wasn't with us down in North Carolina, so I called and asked what she thought about the car idea she had because I just got my first offer. ... She thought I was joking at first."

   Following up: My previous blog took the Wappingers Central School District to task for a decision by the school board this week to not approve stand-by ambulances at football games for the district's two high schools.

   My concern was chiefly about assuring the best and fastest care for a seriously injured athlete -- football happens to be a collision sport, in case the school board isn't familiar with the game -- but the board members seemed more fixated on low attendance at games purportedly not justifying such a safety measure.

   Well, check out this excerpt from The Journal in Ogdensburg from last weekend:

   "OFA enjoyed a constant series of big plays on offense and defense to complete its Northern Conference Football season at 6-1 with a 53-0 Senior Night victory, on Friday, over a winless Tupper Lake team which persevered over injuries and low numbers to finish its regular season.

   "But the best performance by light years came just minutes before the opening kickoff when the mother of a Tupper Lake player was stricken with a catastrophic cardiac episode in the bleachers.

   "Within a matter of seconds medical professionals on hand to watch the game were at her side. Art Knauf, an EMT who videotapes OFA's games, rushed from the pressbox with the multi-sport stadium's AED machine and members of the Ogdensburg Volunteer Rescue squad, which staffs all home football games, rushed into the bleachers.

   "Officers from the Ogdensburg Police Department were on the scene in a matter of minutes and OFA Athletic Director Tony Bjork and event supervisors coordinated of the flow of traffic which brought the urgent care and an orderly transport to the victim. The lady was taken to the Claxton Hepburn Medical Center and a Tupper Lake assistant coach relayed great news at halftime that she was 'doing OK.'"

    • Complete state schedule.
    • Ranked-teams schedule.
    • Spectrum Cable telecasts and streaming schedule.

   More coming Friday: Wednesday and Thursday were whirlwind days for me, so I'm running behind on some other news from around the state. I'll be back later today with some playoffs news and college commitments.