Thursday, May 17, 2018: Chaminade rallies past St. Anthony's

   Leading off today: Pat Kavanagh darted out from behind the cage to score with three seconds left and give Chaminade a come-from-behind, 14-13 victory over St. Anthony's in the CHSAA Class AA league boys lacrosse championship game Wednesday.

   It was the completion of Tuesday's game, which was suspended while tied 8-8 at halftime because of a storm.

   Kavanagh's second goal capped a five-goal fourth quarter for the Flyers that erased a 12-9 deficit and allowed Chaminade to earn the No. 1 seed in the CHSAA Class AA downstate tournament.

   "This rivalry always brings out the best in both teams," said Chaminade goalie Andrew Bonafede, who made five of his 10 saves in the fourth quarter.

   Ohio changes rule: The Ohio High School Athletic Association has for all practical purposes acted a one-year eligibility ban for athletes without having to frame it as such.

   Meeting on Wednesday, the OHSAA changed an existing rule by requiring transfer students who don't meet exemptions to sit out the second half of the regular season plus all of the postseason. The previous rule required transfers to sit for only the first half of the regular season.

   That had become an issue across the state, especially in boys and girls basketball. The rule led to some drastic midseason roster changes aimed at making postseason runs.

   "That's not what high school sports is supposed to be all about," OHSAA commissioner Dr. Dan Ross said. "You're not supposed to be stacking teams and they were using the 50 percent rule to do just that."

   The new rule takes away the incentive to use transfers at all for many schools. Using transfers who won't be available down the stretch and in the playoffs takes playing time away from athletes who could play a big role late in the season.

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   This is H.S. sports in 2018: The Washington Post and ousted Louisville coach Rick Pitino have offered a side of college recruiting that has existed for years but seldomly gets discussed other than in acknowledgements that it happens all the time.

   Pitino told The Courier-Journal on Wednesday that Adidas played a crucial and totally legal role in motivating high school basketball star Romeo Langford to commit to

Indiana University.

   The shoe and apparel company did it by winning the battle last year to sponsor an AAU team run by the player's father. That landed Tim Langford's team in Adidas' summer league, which created the unofficially official expectation that Romeo Langford would land at a college whose coach endorses Adidas.

   Pitino, still coaching at the time and actively pursuing New Albany, Ind., star Langford, said he got the background info from two Adidas representatives.

   "What they said to me (was) they're doing everything possible to keep Romeo Langford's team on the (Adidas) AAU circuit," Pitino told the paper.

   Pitino shared text messages with the Post that supported his story.

   The 6-foot-6 guard picked Indiana, an Adidas school, over Kansas (also Adidas) and Vanderbilt (Nike).

   "That's the way that world works," Pitino said. "Which is completely legal, by the way."

   A 2,600-word Washington Post story is chock full of deeper details of how the system works in general and in this particular case.

   A key nugget: Shoe company sponsorships of summer-league teams can reach $150,000, and team directors who limit expenses can pay themselves salaries from those amounts.

   Eight-man update: Holley and C.G. Finney will be the first two Section 5 teams to participate in the revived eight-man football program, which is entering its third season in New York.

   Section 5 football coordinator Scott Barker said Sections 4 and 5 have worked out a scheduling arrangement similar to what Sections 3 and 10 have in place. Section 9 has enough teams (eight) to support its own league.

   Holley played six-man football from 1948-55 before dropping the sport until it was reinstated as 11 man football in 2002.