Leading off today: Five players who led their teams to New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships have been recognized as players of the year in girls soccer.
The New York State Sportswriters and Coaches Association for Girls Sports announced the selections as well as the full 2024 all-state team on Sunday.
In Class AAA, senior midfielder Maddie Costello of Ward Melville captured the honor to go along with her second consecutive selection to the first team.
In Class A, Pittsford Mendon senior goalkeeper Kate Crowley won the award. Sophomore forward Lexi Fragnito was the recipient of the top honor in Class B.
In Class C, junior midfielder Mia Gray of Byron-Bergen was the pick for the award. Senior midfielder Lily Klippel of Northville took honors in Class D.
Also garnering a player of the year honor was senior midfielder Kennedy Ring of Class AA runner-up Columbia. King is a three-time pick on the Class AA first team.
You can view the full 2024 all-state team as well as previous selections in the New York State Sportswriters Association reference section.
State Assembly bill proposes separating playoffs
With Saturday's thrilling final between Syracuse CBA and Albany CBA -- the first NYSPHSAA football final between two private schools -- still fresh on everybody's mind, the
Times Union noted over the weekend that a state assemblyman proposed a bill seven months earlier that would require all of New York's high school athletic associations to conduct separate playoffs for public and non-public schools.
The proposed law contends non-public schools hold an unfair advantage over their counterparts.
"I played sports my whole life," Matt Slater told the Albany newspaper. "I have no problem with them competing during the regular season -- I have no problem with them playing the best of the best during that time. But I think when it comes to the state championship, it's time we finally throw a flag on the field."
Slater, a Republican from Yorktown, introduced his bill in May, and it was referred to the State Assembly's education committee. The state government database tracking legislation showed no co-sponsors of Bill A10121 in the Assembly, nor does it appear that a version of the bill was put forward for consideration in the State Senate. The assemblyman intends to reintroduce the 2025 legislative session, at which time he expects more support from colleagues.
Aside from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, which is the state's largest governing body for high school sports, the Public Schools Athletic League in New York City would be the organization most affected. The PSAL includes charter schools in the five boroughs.
The proposed amendment to the education law reads as follows:
"The commissioner shall require the public schools athletic league, the New York state public high school athletic association, and other high school interscholastic athletic associations hold separate state interscholastic athletic championships for public and non-public schools. Such requirement shall prohibit public and non-public schools from holding interscholastic athletic competitions prior to any state interscholastic athletic championships for a particular sport."
FWIW, the second sentence seems to be worded awkwardly; a literal interpretation would seemingly bar regular-season contests between public and non-public schools, something Slater said in the interview was not his intent.
My two cents on the proposed law
In the interview, Slater said the glaring difference between types of schools is that public schools are limited to students who live in their district while private schools can attract students from outside district boundaries. According to the paper, he also said non-public schools typically have more athletic funding and can offer scholarships to especially talented athletes.
Slater is either misinformed or possesses lingering hard feelings from a loss suffered to some private school in some sport when he was a teen. Specifically:
• The Rochester City School District has a long-standing arrangement with several suburban districts allowing students to cross district boundaries. The Urban-Suburban Program works in both directions but typically is used more often by city residents.
Suburban school boards like the program because state aid travels with the student, allowing the districts to monetize what would have otherwise been empty seats in elementary, junior high, and high schools. I can think of two Olympic fencers who went from the suburbs to a Rochester high school and probably list 25 instances of athletes who went on to win sectional individual or team titles going in the opposite direction in the past decade alone, so the implications are real.
I'm guessing there are similar initiatives in other areas of the state, as well as other potential loopholes that get around the issue of boundaries.
• The idea that non-public schools "typically" have more athletic funding is so laughable that I'm not even going to expound upon it.
• Finally, if athletic scholarships do exist in private schools, how does that offset the fact that enrollment in public schools is free?
As for the implied recruiting allegation, the NYSPHSAA already has rules against such behavior. As for New York City, history has repeatedly shown that a PSAL school is every bit as likely to pluck a basketball player from a CHSAA counterpart as private schools are to lure players from private schools.
Again, sloppy work on Slater's part.
For better or worse, Slater leaves working out the mechanics of separating public and non-public schools in the postseason to the respective organizations. The NYSPHSAA has another ad hoc committee soliciting ideas, with preliminary input due to be heard by sectional coordinators and the organization's Executive
Committee in the coming weeks, but not a single new idea with potential has surfaced thus far.
And that's after ravaging forests for the paper consumed by previous studies and proposals over past decades. Bottom line: If it was so simple, someone would have done it by now.
Above all else, here's the No. 1 reason Slater's proposed legislation is dead in the water -- and it's a sad reality: Slater, who was first elected to the State Assembly in 2022 and re-elected a month ago, is a Republican. The New York Assembly and Senate are controlled by Democrats by overwhelming margins, and the two parties do not play well together at all.
Even assuming that Slater finds enough bipartisan support on the Assembly's education committee, where only 10 of the 30 members are Republicans, to move the proposed legislation to the full chamber, he'll still need a sponsor to move it forward in the Senate, once again overcoming the insurmountable us vs. them odds.
It might be a different story if a Democrat should write a comparable bill and line up support, but Slater is about as likely to get his legislation passed as Liz Cheney is to be voted woman of the year by the national Republican party.
(As I often do when I'm expressing a opinion or doing extensive analysis on this hot-button topic, I note that I attended a private high school in Section 5, where I currently serve on its hall of fame committee. As such, you may choose to weigh that when considering the contents of this blog. -- John Moriello)
