The New York State Sportswriters Association has released its all-state football teams in Class AA and A, naming co-players of the year in both classifications.
Sharing the honor in the large-schools classification are receiver Darien Williams, who helped Syracuse CBA to the NYSPHSAA Class AA championship, and Iona Prep running back Crew Davis, who helped his team to the CHSAA state title.
The picks in Class A are quarterbacks Miguel Iglesias of Somers and Joseph Filardi of Half Hollow Hills West. Somers captured the NYSPHSAA Class A title, while HHHW reached the Division II semifinals in the Long Island Championships.
The all-state selections in the small-school classifications were announced last week.
Eight-man football all-state selections
NYSPHSAA inching toward awarding more at-large berths
I made my debut this morning as an occasional contributor at WNY Athletics by pointing out that the New York State Public Athletic Association appears on course to add some at-large berths to state playoff tournaments under certain circumstances.
The proposed plan, developed as the organization looked to pare back some long-distance travel in early-round games, will be discussed further at the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee meeting on Feb,. 5 and could get the go-ahead in May or July.
The condensed version of the story is that the "Three-Region Concept" expands upon the use of at-large teams already seen in the Division II hockey tournament and some classes of the state football playoffs, but only in sport classes in which an odd number of sectional champions are crowned across the state.
It will affect some early-round pairings and anchor early-round contests involving at-large teams in Section 4 venues.
You can read about it in greater detail at WNYAthletics.com.
Whitesboro voters leave teams without a nickname
We've all heard of the "player to be named later," a frequent component of trades between Major League Baseball teams. But have you ever heard of a school to be named later -- or not at all?
The athletic teams at Whitesboro High School are about to go nameless. According to Syracuse.com, the district announced on Monday that it has decided to replace "Warriors" with nothing rather than trying out a new nickname. Pending formal board approval in February, the teams will simply be known as Whitesboro beginning July 1.
The district reported that a community vote favored that option over Whitesboro Blue by a narrow margin of 1,812 to 1,704. The school's colors will remain royal blue and white, and its primary logos will remain the block "W" and script "W'boro."
The district was put into the position of having to make a choice by a 2023 order from the New York State Department of Education instructing public schools to end the use of nicknames, mascots, and logos associated with Native American culture.
Record winning streak in girls basketball
Incarnate Word Academy in St. Louis made girls basketball history over the weekend by winning its 139th straight game to break the national record for consecutive victories.
The Red Knights set the mark by downing Blue Valley North from Overland Park, Kansas, 68-51. The record was previously held by Central Plains High in Claflin, Kansas.
The five-time defending state champions, who improved to 8-0 this season, last lost a game on Feb. 8, 2020. Over the course of the streak, Incarnate Word Academy has outscored its opponents by 9,572-5,023.
