Leading off today: A pair of Long Island stars earned player of the year honors Sunday as the New York State Sportswriters Association unveiled its inaugural all-state team in girls lacrosse.
Garden City senior Jenn Medjid was selected the large schools player of the year after finishing with 57 goals and 21 assists for the Trojans. Medjid will attend Boston College in the fall.
Meaghan Tyrrell, a Mount Sinai senior, was selected the small schools player of the year after finishing her career with 331 points. Tyrrell, who had 59 goals and 38 assists as a senior, will attend Syracuse this fall.
The complete all-state team can be seen in our reference section.
Buffalo update: It will be interesting to see how the first few days of football practice go at Hutch-Tech. As noted in the previous blog, that's where Tony Tuilizio was the surprise pick last week to take over as football coach even though Nick Todaro had been running the offseason work and it had been widely assumed the interim label on him would be removed.
The decision to go with Tuilizio came down to seniority and is not being well received by players and parents, who are calling on Buffalo Public Schools to change the hiring practices for coaches. Tuilizio, a longtime teacher and coach in the district had recently transferred into Hutch-Tech.
"Seniority should not be a reason to take a team from a coach," senior Xavion White-Baines told The Buffalo News. "Our coach being taken from us really is like a father being ripped away from his family."
The paper reports a committee including teachers and representatives from the district has been working for the past year on a better method for selecting qualified coaches.
Speaking of disputes: The latest development in the contract dispute between Section 3 and its game officials is discussion about the minimum number of officials to be assigned to varsity games. According to Syracuse.com, the three officials boards covering the region want the minimum standard to be five-man crews -- a standard practice in the past.
Section 3 Executive Director John Rathbun said the offer was reviewed and sent back to referees with a counter proposal. Rathbun added that the section accepted the financial terms in the offer, which included a flat rate of $103 per varsity contest.
