Leading off today: Yikes. I've got a bunch of catching up to do on New York high school sports happenings from the past several days. Rather than going chronologically, I'll start with Wednesday's NYSPHSAA Executive Committee meeting.
Hmmm, I didn't know that
In the 1970s and '80s, there was a nationally syndicated news columnist out of Chicago by the name of Sydney Harris. He was regarded as a somewhat influential voice on the left side of the political spectrum, but one of the things that he did that appealed to a broader audience was to compile periodic lists of all the interesting tidbits he learned en route to looking up other stuff.
Fellow NYSPHSAA conspirator Steve Grandin and I had one of those I-did-not-know-that moments at Wednesday's NYSPHSAA meeting in Saratoga Springs.
It turns out that Labor Day can fall anywhere between Sept. 1-7. We were probably confused by the November rule that says election day falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the month, but Labor Day can in fact fall on Sept. 1. It last happened in 2014.
So, those calendars showing Labor Day in 2025 on Sept. 1 as a holiday are correct.
Steve and I were investigating that while listening to discussion of moving up the start of the 2025 fall sports season to what is known as "Week 7," which in this case means Aug. 18. (Without getting too deep into the weeds on this, the NYSPHSAA long ago adopted the National Federation annual planning calendar that denotes the first full week of July as "Week 1.") The discussion culminated in a vote approving the switch from Week 8 in 2025, thus allowing schools to maintain the practice of launching fall practice two weeks (plus or minus a couple of days) ahead of Labor Day.
More from the NYSPHSAA meeting
The vote on moving up the start of the 2025 fall sports season was no shocker. A canvas of the respective committees overseeing fall sports showed all 12 of them voting in support.
On the other hand, one of day's more important discussion items culminated in a move I did not expect. I've written a couple of times in recent months about the "Three-Region Concept," which reshapes and standardizes state playoff brackets, while also introducing at-large berths to some classes in more sports.
The Three-Region Concept has been studied very intensely at the local and state levels since last spring, and it became clear last fall that it's garnered the necessary support to be implemented.
No one ever ruled out launching it in time for fall sports in 2025, but discussions had proceeded largely on an assumption the vote could come this spring or summer and the change would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year because there are still some logistics and guidelines that will have to be developed.
Well, that changed in a hurry on Wednesday because the majority of the room was in a hurry to get started sooner rather than later. A motion from the floor asked to create a sub-committee to explore implementing the change effective this fall. The proposal passed by an 18-4 margin (each section gets two votes), so starting the Three-Sport Rotation in the fall could get the necessary OK at May's meeting.
• Whereas the decision to speed up the timeline surprised me, the source of the dissent did not.
Until New York started experiencing a consistent exodus of residents a decade or so ago, the two sections at the left end of the state had healthy numbers of schools in each class of high school sports competition. That made it a natural for Sections 5 and 6 to almost always -- the exceptions have been extremely rare over the years -- face each other in regional finals -- i.e., the quarterfinals -- of NYSPHSAA tournaments.
The changing population numbers, leading to widespread shrinking school enrollments, has left both sections thin in the largest and smallest playoff classes. While that's not been the motivation behind changes that the Three-Region Concept will bring, the inevitable upcoming change will see Sections 5 and 6 going head to head more frequently in sub-regionals, with the winners advancing to a quarterfinal against either a Section 4 opponent or at-large representative from elsewhere.
Thus, Sections 5 and 6 cast their combined four votes against speeding up the Three-Region Concept.
More from the NYSPHSAA meeting
The Three-Region Concept was not the only agenda item placed on a faster track on Wednesday.
The softball committee, which previously adopted the NFHS rules with certain exceptions, recently realized that requests for two more changes -- requiring the pitches for an intentional walk to be made rather than just waving the better to first base and reporting defensive changes involving pitchers and catchers to the plate umpire -- were in order for the sake of consistency and continuity.
Initially slated as only a discussion item at this meeting ahead of a May vote, the Executive Committee OK'd an immediate vote to allow those changes to take effect immediately.
Other votes included:
With outdoor track and field expanding to three classes, new super and at-large qualification standards were approved.
Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton (competitive cheerleading) and MVP Arena in Albany (wrestling) were approved as championship venues for 2026-28. Cicero-North Syracuse (2027) and Icahn Stadium in Manhattan (2028) were OK'd as outdoor track hosts.
Will Springstead, the only full-time reporter from traditional media who regularly covers the meetings, has additional financial insight into the wrestling vote.
More to come
Wrapping up the meeting portion of this blog, I'll be back in a day or two with details on two other important discussions that were aired on Wednesday.
The TL;DR version of what you expect:
•While adding representation, and the accompanying voting rights, for the state's largest schools districts makes sense, there are some legitimate concerns to tackle before making it a reality.
•Three ideas for dealing with playoff participation for private and charters schools have emerged from an ah-hoc committee but a fresh bump in the road has emerged. An upcoming blog will (a) lay out the details and (b) allow me to say, "I told you so."
Baldwinsville selects new football coach
A former New York State Sportswriters Association player of the year is the new head football coach at his alma mater. The Baldwinsville school board approved Tyler Rouse's appointment at Monday's meeting.
Rouse succeeds Carl Sanfilippo, his former coach. Sanfilippo retired in December after 40 years on the job.
As a senior in 2012, Rouse earned the NYSSWA player of the year award in Class AA. He went on to a career at Boston College, followed by football staff positions there and at Colorado State. Rouse returned to B'ville as an assistant last fall.
Notable from the past few days
The Lyndonville boys basketball team in Section 5 broke a 74-game losing streak with a 53-41 victory against Houghton Academy.
Lane Woodworth scored a team-high 16 points for the Tigers, who jumped out to a 20-6 lead after one quarter.
• Potsdam sophomore Ian VanWagner has become Section 10's career scoring leader in boys basketball. VanWagner's 21 points during the 49-27 win over Ogdensburg last Thursday raised his total to 2,045.
The previous mark of 2,042 belonged to Chateaugay's Jonah McDonald, who graduated in 2020.
• Monsignor Martin Association wrestling powerhouse St. Francis successfully defended its CHSAA dual meet championship on Sunday at Iona Prep.
The Raiders defeated eight straight opponents in two days with Cullen Edwards, Kole Haseley, Rory White, Griffin LaPlante, Tavio Hoose, Zach Caldwell, and Willy Wortkoetter all posting eight victories. Wortkoetter's triumphs all came via pins.
