Tuesday, July 10, 2018: State tennis champ Andreach has left the state

   Leading off today: Reigning NYSPHSAA girls tennis champion Julia Andreach transferred to IMG Academy in Florida midway through her sophomore year and will not be defending her state title in the fall, the Democrat and Chronicle reported Tuesday.

   The Our Lady of Mercy standout started attending the Bradenton, Fla., school in January.

   "The overall competition is just different because there are so many international players and more people that are there to just focus on their sport," Andreach told the paper. "It's inspiring to be around them."

   Attending IMG also affords her opportunities beyond the U.S. junior circuit. In February, she went into the Copa Universidad Galileo in Guatemala unranked but won the tournament. At the Barbados Junior International tournament in April, Andreach was the No. 2 seed and also won that tournament. She also competed in Germany.

   Andreach had three straight undefeated regular seasons at Mercy, reaching the New York State Public High school Athletic Association semifinals as an eighth-grader and lost in the final as a freshman.

   Softball umpire dies: Veteran Western New York softball umpire and administrator Mike Terlecky died Saturday at the age of 74.

   "He was the glue that held the Western New York umpires together," said Chris Hope, an officiating colleague. "He did all the teaching. He was the umpire-in-chief at the Aunt Rosie's softball events five weekends in the summer. He worked really hard. He will be a loss to the officiating community, especially in the sport of softball."

   Terlecky worked Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference softball games as well as Section 6 contests in the sport. He also officiated baseball, volleyball and girls soccer.

   He was regional umpire-in-chief for USA Softball and was inducted into the Western New York Softball Hall of Fame in 2016.

   Reflecting on changes: The Journal News rehashed some of the surprising and involuntary coaching departures of the past school year in a story this week. There was not much in the way of new information on the individuals. Rather, the chief takeaway of the story was the reminder that there is no legal recourse for coaches ousted in New York, where contracts are for one-year terms to be reviewed each year before reappointment.

   A second takeaway might be the affect that dismissals can have.

   Girls lacrosse coach Genette Zonghetti, dropped at Scarsdale just weeks before the start of her 11th season this past spring, said she noticed an increase in parental

ADVERTISEMENT

NYSSWA All-Sport Championship   KERR CUP HOME  |  2018 top overall schools   Class-by-class boys  |  Class-by-class girls   Annual top 10 | Annual class champions   2017 Kerr Cup | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009   More about NYSSWA Kerr Cup

involvement over the years and saw at least some connection to that development to turnover at the administrative level -- including the school having four athletic directors in her 10 seasons.

   Despite receiving other offers following her departure from Scarsdale, Zonghetti opted to serve as an assistant coach at recent state finalist Bronxville. She said her experience on the way out the door at Scarsdale completely turned her off to the idea of returning to the helm of a program.

   "I will never head coach girls lacrosse again," she said.

   New look in Pennsylvania? It's more a concept that a proposal at the moment, but Pennsylvania's largest high school sports organization may add what's being called a "Super Class" to its playoff structure for football and basketball.

   When Robert Lombardi, executive director of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, gave his annual testimony to the state legislature last month, he floated the idea of a Class 7A.

   Class 6A schools that qualify under the formula would move up. Schools could also voluntarily opt in to Class 7A. Lombardi's testimony suggested a Super Class of eight schools in football and 16 both in boys and girls basketball. Most if not all of the potential candidates to move up if the idea becomes policy are private and charter schools, primarily from the metro Philadelphia area.