Leading off today: Here's your reminder that the three-day BCANY Summer Hoops Festival in Johnson City kicks off Friday in the high school and elementary school gyms.
Boys and girls regional teams will be playying 16-minute halves with no shot clock -- not that you actually need a shot clock in showcase events like this.
Daily passes are $5, with weekend ($10) and family weekend ($20) passes also available.
More details on the Basketball Coaches Association of New York's ninth-annual tournament, including rosters, can be found here.
Things that make you say, "Huh?": This week's puzzling decision to push a coach out the door comes from Newburgh, where the school board apparently wants to rid itself of boys track and field coach Malcolm Burks.
Parents and athletes mobilized quickly this week when it was learned that Burks was not on the list of coaches up for appointment at Tuesday's school board meeting at the Newburgh Free Academy, the Times Herald-Record reported.
Emerging from executive session, the board approved 31 fall coaching appointments, but the list of five winter appointments that did not include Burks was tabled until the scheduled Aug. 13 meeting.
The paper reported that school board members and Superintendent Roberto Padilla were not made available for comment after the meeting and that its reporter was urged upon arrival by the school district's communications strategist to "exit swiftly" as soon as the meeting had adjourned.
More coaching developments: Joe Bucello will not be brought back for a third season as the boys lacrosse coach at Mahopac after compiling a 23-14 record and twice reaching the Section 1 Class A semifinals.
It will be up to recently hired interim AD Frank Miele to appoint the programs fourth head coach since 2015. Bucello had been the JV coach for two seasons before moving up to the varsity position.
"I thought I was just going to meet the new athletic director and within five minutes I was done," Bucello said. "It had nothing to do with the product on the field. He just told me they wanted somebody who bleeds blue and gold."
• Brian Davis, 30, has been named the Buffalo McKinley football coach. He replaces Micah Harris, an interim appointee last fall.
Davis, a three-sport athlete at Williamsville North who played at Edinboro University, had served as an assistant coach at Buffalo Bennett the past two seasons.
Rules changes: Allowing players to freely move after a whistle is one several changes to high school girls lacrosse rules that will take effect next spring.
The change to free movement eliminates the requirement for players to stand in place after an official's whistle.
"This will be an exciting rule change for the high school game, one which we believe will enhance the athlete experience on the field and ease the workload on officials to monitor players off the ball," said Caitlin Kelley, U.S. Lacrosse women's lacrosse director and the USL liaison to the girls lacrosse rules committee.
The change was approved at a joint meeting of National Federation of State High School Associations and U.S. Lacrosse administrators in June.
Other significant rules changes include:
