Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018: Discouraging national news on the coaching front

   Leading off today: Granted these are just a handful of coaches out of tens of thousands across the county, but their stories also pretty good examples of why it gets a little bit tougher with each passing year to attract and retain people in scholastic sports:

   (1) The girls varsity and JV basketball coaches at Salmon High in Idaho resigned suddenly after the varsity coach's car was severely vandalized while the team traveled to a game. Richard Barany's car had its tires slashed and a headlight smashed out, prompting the coach to quit. JV coach Sarah Foster followed suit, and the school put the season on hold pending the hiring of replacements.

   (2) Brainerd (Minn.) boys basketball coach Scott Stanfield, a retired police officer, gave notice that he and his staff will leave at the end of the season.

   "I go from being a cop to this, and it's one stressful job to another and it's time for a break," Stanfield said. "Coaching was worse. Coaching has been way worse.

   "If you win, it doesn't matter. If you lose, it doesn't matter. If their kid doesn't get enough playing time ... look out."

   Stanfield said it started last year and has spilled over into this season, which began with five wins in six games but has seen the team;s record since slip to 5-6.

   "It was after an away game, and over the year it just kind of hit a boiling point, and it was time to re-evaluate what we're doing as a school, maybe as a staff, and maybe as a parental community," Stanfield said. "We're not on the same page as far as what we want our kids to get out of the experience."

   Brainerd activities director Charlie Campbell said he's taking this resignations personally.

   "The hardest part for me is just the sense of professional failure that in some ways I have failed to create an environment where coaches want to take part in," Campbell said. "I know this is one coach and his staff so I need to be careful, but it's really a personal thing. What could I have done differently? What should I be doing to create an environment that is more conducive to keeping people?"

   Boys basketball: Brooklyn Collegiate scored its second victory of the season against Abraham Lincoln, ranked third in the state in Class AA, by defeating the Railsplitters 62-59.

   Glen Anderson led four Collegiate scorers in double figures with 17 points and also contributed 10 assists.

    • Frontier made a school-record 17 3-pointers in an 88-59 win against Depew. The Falcons made 14 of the threes in the first half and finished 17-for-32 from behind the arc. Ben Taylor made 7 of 8 threes to lead Frontier.

   Girls basketball: Aurora DeShaies finished with 19 points and eight rebounds as fifth-ranked Bishop Ludden downed No. 3 Westhill 61-54 in overtime in a matchup of state-ranked Section 3 Class B teams.

   Amarah Streiff added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the winners.

   With Westhill standout Danielle Rauch in foul trouble, Ludden took a 27-14 advantage into halftime.

   Change of plans: Not only has Casey Rogers changed future schools, the former Westhill football and lacrosse star has switched sports.

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   Rogers is doing a post-grad year at Avon (Conn.) Old Farms. Up until recently he was expected to enroll at Syracuse University next fall and play lacrosse for the Orange. However, he tweeted Wednesday that he will instead attend Nebraska and play football.

   Rogers, an all-state defensive end while at Westhill, said he has received offers from Cal, Rutgers, Temple and

Vanderbilt. He took visits to Nebraska, Alabama and Ohio State.

   "One of the reasons I went to prep school is to get more exposure. Because I made that flip from lacrosse to football, I needed more exposure. The opportunities are starting to come, and day-by-day more are coming," Rogers had recently told Syracuse.com.

   Sec. 6 school mourns: Iroquois junior Rachel LoFaso, 16, died in a two-vehicle crash Sunday near her Elma home.

   LoFaso played most of the recent girls soccer season on the junior varsity after being cut from the varsity during tryouts. Her work alongside younger teammates ended up earning her a late-season call-up to the varsity.

   When school resumed Tuesday after the holiday weekend, numerous students and staff members wore purple, which was the teen's favorite color. Counselors were made available for students seeking help.

   Good reading: Greg Brownell, sports editor at The Post-Star, wrote a solid column this week about two-sport star Joe Girard III, who's on the verge of breaking Lance Stephenson's state career scoring record in basketball.

   But this wasn't a feature about Girard. Instead, it explained how the paper was wrestling with worries about writing too often about the talented junior.

   "I'm concerned about putting any high school athlete on the front page day after day," Brownell wrote. "The problem is, just about every time he steps on the court, something newsworthy happens.

   "After Thursday's game I thought to myself, 'Let's leave him alone for a while.' The next night he put up 59 (points). Granted, it came against 3-8 Broadalbin-Perth, but do we want to treat 59 points -- against anybody -- as so commonplace that it doesn't get a headline?"

   Brownell recalls going through a similar experience with Jimmer Fredette a few years back, but online data confirms that interest in Girard is off the charts.

   "I swear, we could post a story about him buying a ham sandwich and 500 people would read it within the hour," he wrote.