Saturday, Dec. 29, 2018: Corcoran's Marsh posts 500th basketball win

   Leading off today: Jim Marsh became the second Section 3 girls basketball coach to reach 500 career wins when his Syracuse Corcoran squad edges Syracuse CBA 48-42 on Friday.

   Freshman Tayahja Scott led the way with a game-high 28 points. Senior Shondra Henry grabbed 15 rebounds.

   Marsh has guided the Cougars to eight sectional championships since taking over the program in 1983. He sat out the 2015-2016 season while undergoing treatment for liver cancer.

   "I've never played basketball. I never put a uniform on. I've been fortunate enough to do this for 34 years," he told the crowd after the milestone win. "(No. 500) is not just about this group of girls, but it's about all of the groups that I've coached for 34 years. These kids were here when I won my biggest game two years ago at Sloan Kettering (Cancer Center) and to be able to come back and share this with each group of kids, it's been a wonderful process. These kids have fought very hard and they're a part of this."

   Westhill's Sue Ludwig was the first Central New York coach to reach 500, hitting the milestone exactly two years before Marsh.

   "Sue's a great coach, a good friend," Marsh said. "To be mentioned in the same breath with her is a compliment in and of itself."

   Wrestling milestone: The era of 50-match seasons has made reaching 100 career victories much more common that used to be the case. Few wrestlers, however, can boast of winning 100 matches via pins.

   Aiden Rabideau can now boast of that accomplishment. The Clarence standout, who won his weight class at the ECIC Wrestling Championship earlier this month, tied his school's record for pins with No. 100.

   The Brown countdown: Northstar Christian's Miles Brown needs 24 points Saturday to become the Section 5 career scoring leader in boys basketball. The senior guard poured in 40 in Friday during an 88-84 win over Lyons in the first round of the Geneva tournament.

   The contest was a showcase of undefeated teams with premier players. Lyons star Justice Smith accounted for 26 points.

   Following up: The referee who forced a wrestler to cut off his dreadlocks before competing will not be assigned to meets in which the Buena Regional (N.J.) School District competes.

   In a letter posted to the district website, Superintendent David Cappuccio said referee Alan Maloney "will no longer be permitted to officiate any contests" in which the Buena district competes. He reaffirmed the policy at a school board meeting Wednesday.

   "He's done working with our district," Cappuccio said.

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   On Dec. 19, Buena junior Andrew Johnson was given a choice to cut off his dreadlocks or forfeit his pending match. Johnson's hair cap was not attached to the headgear, which is a requirement in dealing with long hair. Maloney gave Johnson 90 seconds to decide whether to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit the match.

   An investigation over the incident is taking place, during which time the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association will not assign Maloney to matches.

   More reading, Part 1: I wrote about Northstar's Brown last week in my column for The Press & Sun-Bulletin.

   This week's column is a look ahead to 2019 and the key subjects that figure to be addressed by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association beginning with the Feb. 1 meeting of the Executive Committee.

   More reading, Part 2: Forbes.com had a fascinating look this week at the issue of powerhouse high school teams that owe a disproportionate degree of success to infusions of transfer students.

   According to the story, one New Jersey newspaper website keeps a "transfer tracker" for boys basketball, with 79 players on the list for 2018-19 season. The author cites his own alma mater in Carmel (Ind.) as benefiting in swimming via transfers.

   There's not much in the way of hard data in the story, but there are some interesting thoughts regarding both public and private schools.