Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018: Nordic ski meet moved to Gore Mountain

   Leading off today: The New York State Public High School Athletic Association announced Thursday tat the nordic portion of its skiing championships is being moved to Gore Mountain next Monday and Tuesday due to a lack of snow at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area in Section 5.

   The alpine portion of the meet will remain at Bristol Mountain in Canandaigua, which has snow-making capabilities, as previously scheduled.

.    "While this is not ideal, it is always our goal to provide the best championship experience for our student-athletes in the safest environment and in the best possible venues," NYSPHSAA Executive Director Robert Zayas said in the statement announcing the change.

   Waaaaaaaaait a minute: A funny thing happened on my way to confirming that this is the second year in a row in which the NYSPHSAA has had to move the ski meet due to unfavorable weather -- or the lack of it.

   I went back to my blog item from a year ago. Sure enough, there's the identical quote from Zayas.

   You can check it out here.

   No. 1 team eliminated: It took three regulation periods, four overtimes and a shootout, but Baldwinsville defeated West Genesee 2-1 in the Section 2 Division I boys hockey semifinals Wednesday.

   West Genesee is ranked No. 1 and Baldwinsville 13th this week by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   Tanner McCaffrey's goal on the sixth round of the shootout was the decider.

   "I've never in 33 years of coaching been involved in a game like this," Bees coach Mark Lloyd said. "We have been in tournaments where we have had shootouts, but never anything like this."

   The win advances Baldwinsville into the Division I final vs. Syracuse.

   Huge turnaround: Salamanca lost to Silver Creek in boys basketball during the Section 6 regular season by scores of 81-42 and 94-49.

   The rematch in the prequarterfinals of the sectional tournament was quite the different story. The Warriors upset the Black Knights 56-55 at Silver Creek in Class C action.

   Freshman guard Isaac Brown scored the game winner with :02.1 seconds left. Brown took the ball the length of the floor for the basket after a Silver Creek player missed the first one-and-one.

   Salamanca came into the sections with a 7-13 record.

   Moving up a notch: Gabrielle Zaffiro moved into second place all-time on the Long Island girls basketball scoring list with 31 points in North Shore's 73-56 win over Island Trees in a Section 8 Class A quarterfinal.

   The senior has totaled 2,596 points as a six-year starter for the Vikings, moving past Sachem's Nicole Kaczmarski (2,583). Garden City's Bethany LeSueur is first on the Long Island list with 3,167 points.

   Another day, another record: North Rockland sophomore Katelyn Tuohy would not have been able to run at full strength if the Section 1 indoor track championships were held as scheduled on Sunday.

   Weather intervened, giving Tuohy three extra days to get over a high fever and she made the most of it by clocking 4:23.91 in the 1,500 meters at The Armory.

   Her time makes her the national high school season leader and is a U.S. sophomore class record.

   "I wouldn't have run that time (Sunday)," she said. "I lucked out with the weather -- six inches of snow to 80 degrees."

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   Worth a read: The Journal News had a couple of interesting stories in recent days beyond the usual wall-to-wall coverage of games.

   (1) Ossining freshman Cruz Vernon will be a rarity -- a male gymnast competing in the NYSPHSAA girls gymnastics champion- ships March 3 at Cold Spring Harbor. Vernon finished fourth in the floor exercise in the Section 1 championships to qualify.

   At a height of 6 feet, Vernon is atypical for gymnasts -- male or female. His long, relatively thin frame helps make some of his tumbling runs pop a little bit more.

   Sandra Mitchell-Radcliff, who's coached at Ossining for 24 years, said teammates and opponents alike look forward to seeing his skills and his charm."

   Vernon, who also competes in cross country and spring track, has been in the program since seventh grade.

   "The best thing it gives me are all the memories and the friendships I've made," Vernon said of gymnastics. "It's nice to see how I've progressed since I've started."

   (2) I recently referred to Scarsdale as the place where coaching careers go to die. Reporters Nancy Haggerty and Josh Thomson confirmed my suspicion by talking to some of the numerous coaches who've been kicked to the curb recently. Not surprisingly, parents behaving like terrorists is a significant issue.

   "My biggest concern is there are a bunch of loud-mouth parents going over the athletic director's head and to the superintendent, who doesn't want to hear it. It's easier to cut people loose," former booster president Kathy Coleman said.

   Coleman characterized those complaining as "helicopter parents."

   "These coaches are up against it with this community," she said.

   One of the surprises of the story is that AD Ray Pappalardi agreed to be interviewed, there there was no insight into why five coaches have been dismissed during his brief time there.

   You can read the whole story here.