Tuesday, July 24, 2018: All-state basketball player dies in crash

   Guerra was third-team all-state in Class D as an S.S. Seward sophomore and made the fourth team last season in Class C.

   He was on his way home from playing basketball when his car swerved and struck a tree, soccer and assistant basketball coach Bill Steele told the Times Herald-Record.

   "This is what makes it so difficult," Steele told the paper. "He was a tremendous kid. Great student. Even better person. Regardless if he played basketball, he was a good person.

   "It makes it very tough when you lose a kid with the potential not just to be a basketball player but to be a good citizen."

   Guerra led Seward to the NYSPHSAA quarterfinals as a sophomore in 2017 and reached 1,000 career points in the final regular-season game last season. He was also a member of Seward's 2017 Section 9 Class C soccer championship team.

   Coaching moves: Nick Friedman will take over the Briarcliff boys basketball program after serving as an assistant there for five seasons, Kevin Devaney Jr. tweeted.

   He replaces Cody Moffett, who will take the head job at Poughkeepsie after guiding the Bears to two Section 1 Class B titles and a berth in last season's NYSPHSAA semifinals. The move allows him to be closer to his Dutchess County home.

   Restitution set: Lakeland school board member Steve Rosen will only have to pay back a fraction of the money he earned in violation of state law while helping out at scholastic sports events, The Journal News reported last week.

   Rosen was paid nearly $16,000 more than he should have accepted from 2009-16 but will repay the school district about $30 a month over the next 10 years for a total of $3,750 under terms of an agreement, the paper reported.

   District Superintendent George Stone said that the school board weighed Rosen's years of "dedicated services to the district" and his ability to repay the district.

   Under state ethics law, school board trustees can earn no more than $750 a year from the school district they serve. Rosen was paid $22,690 from 2009 through 2016 for operating the game clock and other duties at Walter Panas and Lakeland high schools.

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   Rosen did not respond to the paper's email message.

   The school board settled with Rosen in February, but the paper obtained the agreement only after appealing once the

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school district failed to answer a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

   Summer school: Eliza- bethtown-Lewis AD and boys soccer coach Paul Buehler used personal days and paid his own way to make the trip to Chautauqua Lake to study that district while assessing whether his own district should merge with Westport.

   The potential E-L/Westport consoli- dation, which has been under discussion for nearly two years, is still in the study phase and Buehler serves on the merger advisory committee.

   "A lot of what we have been discussing is theoretical, and I thought it was important to hear from people who have gone through it and find out if they are satisfied," Buehler told the Press-Republican.

   Buehler said he deliberately looked for some negative aspects of the Chautauqua merger but couldn't find any. If the respective school boards and district voters give approvals beginning in September, a final E-L/Westport merger vote could come in December.

   Extra points: Aquinas and Canisius have moved their scheduled Week 3 football game to Thursday, Sept. 13 at New Era Field in Buffalo, which I suspect sets it up to be televised on MSG as part of an agreement with Pegula Sports and Entertainment.