Wednesday, April 18 2018: Chautauqua Lake hires Fischer to coach football

   Leading off today: Curt Fischer, who won 221 games and two NYSPHSAA championships at Maple Grove before resigning early this year, was approved as the new football coach at Chautauqua Lake during a school board meeting Tuesday.

   Fischer, 54, replaces Rich Morton, who will take over as coach of the modified program and also assist the varsity. Morton guided the team to a 4-6 record last fall.

   Chautauqua Lake and Westfield will form a combined team for the 2018 season.

   Dan Greco, Fischer's longtime defensive coordinator and himself a former Chautauqua Lake head coach from 2009-12, will also join the football staff.

   "The success of Coach Fischer and Coach Greco on the football field is well documented, as they have won numerous league and sectional championships together and two state championships," said Josh Liddell, CLCS supervisor of athletics. "If you add up how many years they have coached football -- Dan (46) and Curt (33) -- it totals 79 years."

   Fischer was 221-45 at Maple Grove from 1992-2017, capturing nine Section 6 titles, including two with the Maple Grove/Chautauqua Lake combined team in 2014 and 2015.

   B'ville edges West Genny: Cole Peters' two first-half goals started Baldwinsville on its way to an 8-7 victory over West Genesee in one of the first major Upstate boys lacrosse matchups of the season.

   The game was played in less than optimal conditions at West Genesee, with a steady snow coating the field.

   Baldwinsville entered the game ranked fourth and West Genesee eighth in Class A according to the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   West Genesee rallied from three goals down to tie the contest at 55 at halftime. Brendan Wilcox, Spencer Wirtheim and Austin Bolton then scored consecutively to give the Bees an 8-5 advantage with 10:29 to play.

   More weather: Syracuse.com took a look at results reported by Section 3 schools and came up with a list of 139 sports teams that have yet to play a contest this wet, cold spring.

   Not surprisingly, Boys golf leads the way with 40 teams not yet having matches under their belts. There are 19 baseball and 15 softball teams that still have not yet played.

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   Sports is educational: Bob Chavez of The Daily Messenger in Canan- daigua took inventory of what he's learned in 28 years of covering high schools ports, it's a pretty entertaining read.

   Among the highlights:

    • Twenty eight years goes by in a hurry.

    • I never liked math in school but excelled in writing so I got into sportswriting thinking I could avoid math. I was wrong.

    • When you cover Section 5 basketball games at the War Memorial, wear wool socks. The hockey ice below the flooring catches up with you real fast.

    • Circus performers have nothing on sportswriters who learn to juggle notepads, pens, cameras and hot dogs from the concession stand.

    • I have the best job.

   You can read the column in its entirety here.

   Following up: Here's a story from late last week that I missed:

   Mike Avramidis scored 10 goals in Schenectady's 20-12 lacrosse win over Averill Park on Thursday to tie a Section 2 single-game record.

   There was no need to search far and wide for the mark that he tied. That's because his twin brother Stavros Avramidis had set the records a week earlier.

   Mike Avramidis tacked on two assists in the win to tie a school record with 12 points in the win.

   Extra points: The Rochester City School District finally as a full boys varsity lacrosse team up and running. East United is off to a 1-3 start, with its first win coming last week vs. Batavia.

   Clarkstown South retired No. 3 in honor of baseball coach Ron Gamma before Tuesday's game. Gamma retired as Rockland County's all-time wins leader in the sport. He finished with a record of 522-257 in 33 seasons.

   "I loved teaching at Suffern," he said. "I miss that, and I certainly miss coaching team and being involved. But I knew it was time, and it's fun to sit back and watch. And with the weather this year, it's a good time to be sitting."