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Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019: NYSPHSAA golf tournament will move next spring

   Leading off today: With apologies to Jim Nantz, "A tradition unlike any other" is no more ... at least for boys golf in New York.

   In a decision signaled seven weeks earlier, the NYSPHSAA is all but certain to move its boys golf championship tournament out of Ithaca after four decades at Cornell University's Robert Trent Jones Golf Course.

   Meeting on Monday, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association office staff and its golf committee concurred in selecting the Mark Twain Golf Course in Horseheads over one other bidder for a three-year contract beginning next spring. The bid won out over one from SUNY Delhi.

   Their selection goes to the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee for final approval next month. The 2020 NYSPHSAA boys golf tournament will be held June 6-8.

   Monday's action concluded a re-opened bidding process after the only original bid from Cornell's Robert Trent Jones Course was rejected in July at the NYSPHSAA Central Committee meeting. That bid sought to move up the dates for the 2020 tournament by a week and also could not guarantee to host for three years due to a combination of scheduling conflicts and campus construction.

   The Mark Twain course, designed by Donald Ross, is a 6,857-yard, par-72 layout.

   More golf: A long winning streak was snapped by a three-stroke margin on Monday.

   Girls soccer: Patrice DeVito scored the goal on an assist from Lily Winters in Albertus Magnus' 1-0 victory over Arlington, handing the Admirals their first Section 1 loss since Oct. 15, 2016.

   Anna Donnellan made 14 saves for the shutout.

   Arlington went 58-5-1 overall from 2016-18.

    • Stillwater, which never trailed in a game during a 2018 run to the NYSPHSAA Class C championship, has been living dangerously in the 2019 season.

   The Warriors have fallen behind in three games already, the latest coming Monday before regrouping for a 5-1 triumph against Mechanicville.

   "It takes us a little bit, but we always end up finding ourselves," junior striker Teya Staie said.

   Brooke Pickett, the program's all-time leading scorer, scored with 52 seconds left in the first half to spark the rally and start her on the way to a hat trick.

   Stillwater improved to 5-0-1 with a 29-5 scoring margin.

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    • Stephanie Sparkowski, who kicked four extra points for the football team in a 28-6 victory Saturday, and had a huge contribution to Monday's 1-0 soccer win vs. Farmingdale.

   The fifth-year East Meadow goalkeeper, a fourth-team all-state selection in Class AA as a junior, sent a booming free kick toward the net. Myla McLeod corralled the ball off a rebound and scored the lone goal of the Section 8 matchup.

   Sparkowski's brother Dan was also a soccer/football player before her. She is committed to continue her soccer career at the University of Michigan.

    • Junior Grace O'Hara scored at the final horn to give Pittsford Mendon a 2-1 win over Aquinas.

  
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   "I don't think I've ever had one and I've been coaching for 12 years," Mendon coach Eric Pritchard said of the goal as the horn sounded.

   The loss dropped Aquinas to 4-1-0 for the season.

    • In Saturday action, freshman Grace Kulnis- zewski and sister Morgan, a senior, scored three goals apiece in Iroquois' 7-0 triumph over Cheektowaga. Morgan also had three assists, giving her 10 goals and 10 assists for the season. Grace had two assists and has 17 goals and 10 assists.

   Boys soccer: Niagara-Wheatfield improved to 7-0 with a 3-0 win over Kenmore East. Jake Vallas scored in the 20th and 59th minutes and assisted on a goal by Ralph Wence to close out the scoring.

   Ex-coach convicted: A Suffolk County jury found former Sachem North football coach David Falco, 53, guilty of filing false timesheets.

   Falco's timesheets billed the district $5,755.68 for supervising weight room sessions at the school from Dec. 8, 2017 to Jan. 15, 2018, work that was actually done by his assistant coaches, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said. He told the assistants who supervised the room that they would not be compensated for the work.

   "He was essentially stealing from his colleagues," Sini said.

   Falco was charged with third-degree larceny, public corruption, corrupting the government in the third degree and other charges in a seven-count indictment. He faces up to a 5-to 15-year sentence in prison when he returns to Suffolk criminal court Nov. 12.

   Falco has been on paid administrative leave since his arrest in November 2018.

   Ex-coach convicted: Rochester police and school officials met to discuss the Friday melee that involved at least 200 people and left five people arrested and two officers injured after a football game at East High.

   "Both the police department and the school district have a plan in place to provide for safety and security," according a joint statement that did not outline the steps that will be taken. "The actions of a few individuals following the game Friday night are absolutely unacceptable.

   "We will continue to work collaboratively with one another to ensure the safety of our student-athletes and spectators at all district athletic events."

   School board President Van White said the issue goes beyond the school.

   "As I understand it, at least half the people involved were grown adults," White said. "People have to not only think about what the school district or athletic department can do to address the issue. It's not just schools -- it's malls, it's festivals, it's throughout the city and throughout the country, including suburban districts."

   An observation: I attended the McQuaid-Aquinas football game in downtown Rochester the previous weekend, a contest that attracted more than 4,000 spectators. I looked high and low and could find no sign of rioting afterward.

   Leave it to a teen to have a more firm grasp of reality -- or perhaps a less disingenuous one -- than the president of the school board.

   "I feel really bad about what happened," East senior running back Freddie Brock told the Democrat and Chronicle. "They are messing up our games. ... They are making it an unsafe environment."


  
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