Friday, Dec. 14, 2018: Dior Johnson back at Saugerties after IMG stint

   Leading off today: Dior Johnson is back in town and now it may be just a matter of days before he's back on the basketball court for Saugerties.

   The talented freshman guard scored a total of 1,098 points in his seventh- and eighth-grade seasons for the Section 9 school before making the decision to enroll at IMG Academy in Florida in the fall. The Times Herald-Record reports that he re-enrolled at Saugerties, which is off to a 2-4 start, on Monday and could be cleared to play by the start of next week.

   "My understanding is as long as the paperwork is in and in correctly there's going to be no issues with him playing because you are allowed one transfer back," Saugerties coach Mike Tiano said.

   Johnson averaged 31.1 points and led Saugerties to the Section 9 Class A final last winter. He never suited up at IMG Academy after developing a stress fracture in his right foot before the season.

   "It feels good being back and being able to come back and help my team," Johnson said. "We are a little in the hole right now but we're definitely going to dig ourselves out."

   More boys basketball: The new year could begin with a new all-time scoring leader in Section 10 as Declan Porter continues to stalk the existing mark.

   Porter scored 41 points Thursday as Canton defeated Malone 86-67. That leaves him 178 points away from tying the mark of 1,907 set by former Canton standout Hal Cohen in 1976.

   Two teams recognized: The New York State Public High School Athletic Association has selected the Canandaigua girls volleyball team and the Eastport-South Manor boys volleyball squad as the winners of the Fall 2018 NYSPHSAA Community Service Challenge.

   The selections were made by the NYSPHSAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which is comprised of student-athletes from each section. This is the first year the NYSPHSAA is honoring winners from each of the three sports seasons, and 106 projects were submitted for consideration.

   Canandaigua created 68 sensory blankets for individuals in the nearby VA Hospital.

   "We are so proud of our girls and their dedication to this project," coach Daina Marsh said in the NYSPHSAA news release. "It was such a humbling experience. Words could never fully express how thankful we are every day for the sacrifices our veterans have made for our freedoms."

   Eastport-South Manor participated in a project for the Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk. The team raised $1,400 to purchase materials and then volunteered their time unloading and hanging sheet rock, building a form for a patio, mixing and pouring cement, and installing insulation.

   Bad practice still intact: A sordid development that too frequently goes hand-in-hand with coaching changes in college football has reared its ugly head again.

   The new coaching staff at Louisville reminded us that verbal commitments aren't worth the paper on which they're written by rescinding scholarship offers to at least four high school seniors previously recruited by Bobby Petrino.

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   The development so close to next week's early signing period has rankled people and put new Louisville coach Scott Satterfield in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

   "Coach Satterfield shouldn't bother sending anyone down here to recruit in the future! I cant look my players in the eyes and tell them to trust anyone @UofLFootball any longer!" Franklin-Simpson (Ken.) High coach Doug Preston tweeted.

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   Franklin-Simpson off- ensive lineman Jack Randolph is one of the affected players. He was set to graduate this month and enroll at Louisville for the spring semester to get a head start on his college career. It was not immediately clear whether scholarship offers he had from five other schools remain intact, and there would be irony if one of his previous suitors had to rescind an offer to another prospect in order to free up a spot for Randolph.

   Observation: I took Syracuse University to task over the same issue at the beginning of the Dino Babers era when it became apparent that his staff had chosen to not honor a slew of the commitments they inher- ited from the old regime.

   History has shown that Babers knows a thing or two about football and recruiting the sorts of guys who fit his system. SU is enjoying great success and putting an entertaining product on the field these days after nearly two decades of dismal results.

   But let's not kid ourselves. De-recruiting teenagers, sometimes even after athletic administrators guarantee that commitments will be honored, is flat-out wrong, particularly since players already on campus face often ridiculous hurdles if they seek to transfer after their coach jumps ship for a better offer.

   Some kids do land on their feet. Taylor Riggins, a Section 5 linebacker dumped by Babers, took a one-year detour through UMass but is now a promising player at the University at Buffalo and could be staring at a career in The Sunday League after graduation.

   And then there are guys like Wake Forest running back Matt Colburn. Two days before the 2015 signing period opened, Petrino told Colburn he would have to wait a semester before enrolling because Louisville needed the scholarship for another recruit.

   Colburn told Petrino to take a hike and instead signed with Wake Forest. If you had reason to watch Wake Forest beat Louisville 56-35 back in October, you would have seen Colburn run for 243 yards and three touchdowns, contributing to Petrino being fired two weeks later.