Saratoga freshman Ella Kurto placed sixth.
Starting 'em young: When I think of male high school athletes, I'm generally picturing juniors or seniors -- the core of nearly every varsity team. Freshmen and sophomores certainly play a role, too, but middle-schoolers are a rare commodity -- especially in the large-school ranks.
That's why a soccer note from Saturday caught my eye.
Seventh-grader Nathan Hohl, who's just 12 years old, recorded the shutout for Class AA Frontier in its 7-0 victory vs. Cheektowaga in the championship game of the ADPRO Frontier Alumni Kick-off boys soccer tournament.
Football development: Aquinas may still be the favorite in Section 5 Class AA based on the amount of experienced returnees, but the Little Irish will have to make a go of it with a pair of sophomore quarterbacks after Jon Kloch decided on the eve of fall camp to not play this fall. Kloch threw for 13 TDs and more than 1,200 yards as a junior while sharing time with then-senior Jonathan Parrinello.
That makes Thursday's opener between Victor and Pittsford a bit more important than it already was in the Section 5 large-school landscape.
File this for future reference: Arizona high school students will compete for a state championship in video games this winter, the Arizona Interscholastic Association announced last week.
The AIA, which will label the competitions as activities rather than varsity sports, will run three-on-three competitions in "Rocket League," a game of vehicular soccer, and five-on-five competitions in "League of Legends," a multiplayer battle game.
Beginning next year, the AIA will shift to two esports competition periods each academic year, in the fall and spring seasons. The contests will be sanctioned by the National Federation of State High School Associations, which announced a partnership with PlayVS to build a platform for high school competition.
Colleges have already embraced esports in a big way. Syracuse.com reporter Donna Ditota did an in-depth piece last week about the online gaming community at SUNY Canton, which has budgeted $500,000 to construct a state-of-the-art game room.
Canton's esports team competes with other colleges and universities on a virtual playing field and is operated as part of the athletic department. The Kangaroos will hold team tryouts this week to begin preparations for their matches organized by the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and the National Association of Collegiate Esports.
Extra points: Joe Amelio is the new boys basketball coach at Scarsdale. He previously directed the Varsity B team at St. Raymond's.
