Leading off today: The best may be yet to come. That's one perspective on the girls basketball landscape with the long-delayed release of the 2024 New York State Sportswriters Association all-state team that features four underclassmen earning player of the year recognition.
Those four honorees, all from New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship teams, are:
• Julia Scott, Albertus Magnus (Class AA).
• Tanavia Turpin, Catholic Central (A).
• Ella Trinkaus, Utica Notre Dame (B).
• Caraline Wasileski, Moravia (C).
The seniors honored as players of the year are:
• Kate Koval, Long Island Lutheran (AAA).
• Jordan Smith, Moravia (C).
• Landree Kenyon, Hammond (D).
Wasileski and Smith were co-players of the year in Class C.
The nine-month wait for the announcement of the all-state team was sore point for fans of the sport as well as for us. It was the result of a longtime NYSSWA helper who was in charge of the process finding himself overwhelmed by new work responsibilities and "quiet quitting" on the task. By the time I realized getting a finished product was not possible, it was too late to recover the necessary resources.
Thankfully, Kevin Devaney Jr. approached us late this past fall and offered to reach out to sources across the state and reconstruct the needed data. Scholastic sports fans in the downstate metro area are familiar with "KDJ" and have long been grateful for his work in several capacities. Now, the rest of the state almost certainly concurs that he's an MVP-level supporter of high school sports.
2024 All-State team, large-school classes
2024 All-State team, small-school classes
Dual meet championships
The NYSPHSAA's winter championships schedule kicks off on Saturday with the boys wrestling dual meet championships at the SRC Arena and Events Center on the Onondaga Community College campus.
The meet is broken into two divisions, and the fields in each are split into groups of three for preliminaries at 9 a.m., 10:30, and noon. Group winners advance to the semifinals at 2:30 p.m. and the championship bouts at 5 p.m.
There will be a new champ in each division. Plainedge, which defeated Minisink Valley for the 2024 Division 1 crown, has moved to Division 2 this season, and three-time defending small-schools champion Tioga is not in the 2025 field. Minisink Valley and John Glenn are the top seeds in their respective divisions.
Here's the roster of competing teams, with their mat number for the first round in parentheses.
| Sec. | Division 1 | Division 2 |
| 1 | Briarcliff/Byram Hills/
Valhalla/Westlake (1) | Nanuet (6) |
| 2 | Shenendehowa (3) | Salem/Cambridge (8) |
| | Saratoga Springs (4) | |
| 3 | West Genesee (2) | Sherburne-Earlville (7) |
| 4 | Horseheads (4) | Unatego/Unadilla
Valley/Franklin (6) |
| 5 | Webster Schroeder (2) | Wayne (8) |
| | Brockport (3) | |
| 6 | Niagara Wheatfield (1) | Chautauqua Lake (5) |
| 7 | | Peru (5) |
| 8 | Long Beach (2) | Seaford (6) |
| | Farmingdale (3) | Plainedge (7) |
| 9 | Minisink Valley (1) | Port Jervis (7) |
| 10 | | Gouverneur (8) |
| 11 | Sachem North (4) | John Glenn (5) |
Milestone
Staying on the subject of wrestling, longtime Beekmantown coach Len Gadway recorded his 500th dual-meet victory last week with a 33-32 victory over Saranac courtesy of a final-match pin by Jacob Magiera at 145 pounds.
The 2024 National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee joined the head coaching ranks in 1982 at Beekmantown.
Passings
Highly admired Olean coach and AD Don Scholla died on Tuesday at the age of 68.
"The thing about Don is that he just gave everything to help somebody else out," said longtime Allegany-Limestone AD Art Mohegan "He was the epitome of what a good person is, and I will miss him terribly. His kindness, his generosity. You'd ask him something and then you'd say, ‘Can I do something for you?' and he'd say, 'No, that's what friends are for.'"
As Olean's first boys soccer varsity coach, he led the Huskies to three league titles and a Section 6 Class B championship in 1992. As the girls coach in the sport from 2002-05, he guided Olean to a mark of 41-23-5. After replacing longtime girls basketball coach Martha Altmire, Scholla lead the program to five Section 6 titles from 2006-13.
2026 state track meet still an unsettled issue
I'll preview next weekend's quarterly NYSPHSAA Executive Committee meeting in an upcoming blog, but an ongoing and perplexing problem caught my eye while scouring the agenda.
The Executive Committee in all likelihood will approve two bids -- Cicero-North Syracuse High (2027) and Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island (2028) -- as future hosts of the outdoor track and field championships.
Middletown was previously approved for this spring's meet in mid-June, but there remains a hole in the schedule. The NYSPHSAA office has now sent out bid requests for a 2026 venue twice as part of the normal business cycle and has been met with collective apathy twice.
This isn't the first time there has been little or no interest shown in hosting the meet, and it's somewhat understandable. The track championships generate a lot a bus and spectator traffic on a school day in a Friday/Saturday format, which has led superintendents to believe they would have to cancel classes for a day. But the meet takes place in mid-June, when school districts are focused on the upcoming local and Regents final exams, so that's a tough pitch to make to the school board.
Even a suggestion that the week could be run entirely on the weekend hasn't moved the needle.
The NYSPHSAA office will now have to go out and seek a venue outside the normal process. I'd guess -- maybe "hope" is more accurate -- that there's a college out there willing to take on the task at a reasonable price. As it is, the 2028 meet in New York City is going to be pricey in terms of stadium rental and hotel availability, so the state association doesn't need more bad news.
What a way to start a season
Iona Prep, fresh off a state Catholic schools championship, tweeted out its 2025 football schedule, and the opener is, well, an eye-opener.
The Gaels will host three-time defending NYSPHSAA Class A champion Somers on Sept. 6 in a game that will attract a lot of interest from football fans.
