Leading off today: When I resumed blogging this past fall, it was with the intention of writing perhaps three times a week but sticking primarily to the bigger picture rather than trying to recap last night's action -- too much of which now resides behind pay walls.
I've already strayed from one goal by not keeping up the pace as consistently as I'd expected. Even in retirement from a "real" job, I'm finding there's not enough time in the day to write as much as I should. And now I'm breaking my other rule -- but just for today -- by capturing a snippet of two days of girls basketball in Western New York.
On Thursday night, Cardinal O'Hara defeated Lancaster St. Mary's 76-68 in what observers tell me was some of the best brand of basketball at any level and in any region of the state this winter. O'Hara is ranked 20th in the state in Class AAA this week by the NYSSWA, and St. Mary's is No. 11 in Class AA.
The star of the show was Kyla Hayes. The senior forward, a second-team all-state selection last season, finished with 50 points in a spectacular performance.
Afterward, the St. Mary's social media account showed total class in acknowledging what had just transpired:
While that game was going on, another was taking place nearby. Until 24 hours earlier it didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things as Tonawanda carried a 3-13 record into its matchup with 6-12 Alden.
But Tonawanda also carried some mental baggage into the contest. The Timberwolves were playing their fourth game in as many nights and entered on a nine-game losing streak if you disregard a victory picked up via forfeit.
The most recent game was one that attracted a lot of attention courtesy of the final score. North Tonawanda is state-ranked (No. 29 in Class AA) and won by roughly 60 too many points; the final score was 120-9.
With its season going nowhere, the loss was the sort of blow that could easily have led to players throwing in the towel. Instead, Tonawanda stayed focused and earned a 38-26 win.
It was a win in more ways than one.
Super Bowl redux
New York may not be a major supplier of Division I and professional football talent, but we can usually count on more than just a tenuous connection between the Empire State and the Super Bowl. Sunday's game in New Orleans did not disappoint in that respect, and in this case it was the winning coaching staff with some significant New York ties.
Downstate, the Port Richmond football community celebrated graduate Jeff Stoutland, the Philadelphia Eagles' offensive line coach and run game coordinator.
Sections 5's connection is Eagles defensive line coach Clint Hurtt, and the Section 6 connection is ever bigger: head coach Nick Sirianni.
Hurtt was a first-team all-state lineman in Class A for Gates Chili in 1995.
Sirianni's scholastic resume runs deeper than that. The NYSSWA's Steve Grandin reached out to recently retired Clymer/Sherman/Panama coach Ty Harper, who explained how big a deal the Sirianni name is in Chautauqua County.
Two Sirianni brothers (and their father) are already in the county's sports hall of fame, and Nick is slated for induction this month. Jay Sirianni coached Southwestern to a pair of NYSPHSAA football championships, and Mike Sirianni has been the head coach at Division III Washington & Jefferson since 2023, compiling a 194–46 record. Before that, he played wide receiver on Mount Union's first NCAA D-III title squad.
One streak ends, another continues
Moriah's 38-game Champlain Valley Athletic Conference winning streak in boys basketball ended Monday with a
69-66 loss to Northern Adirondack.
Kingston Tucker (26) and Calvin Magoon (23) combined for 49 points to hand the Vikings their first league loss since Feb. 1, 2022, and first in the league at home since Jan. 18, 2019.
• The Saratoga Springs girls gymnastics team captured it 23rd consecutive Section 2 championship by a 174.375-171.475 margin over Bethlehem. The last 19 titles have come under coach Deb Smarro.
Saratoga freshman Lily McKinley finished second on bars (8.60) and floor (9.125), third on vault (9.025), and fourth on the balance beam (8.90) to secure her second straight all-around championship.
Details matter
A development in Ohio I spotted yesterday reminded me to follow up on something I'd done last week for the sake of accuracy.
According to the Toledo Blade, the Ohio High School Athletic Association had seeded its boys basketball tournament with inaccurate results data on 81 schools, resulting in just 21 of the 56 districts statewide being absolutely accurate.
The reason is because the OHSAA is in its second year of using the RPI ratings calculated by MaxPreps.com to determine playoff pairings. A schools rating is comprised of 40% of its winning percentage, 40 percent of its opponents' winning percentage, and 20% of the winning percentage of opponents' opponents.
At issue is as slew of missing or inaccurate results in the massive database. In some cases, Ohio schools has their RPIs boosted or docked by games they never played; the persons setting up schedules through an online form sometimes flagged similarly named out-of-state schools instead.
The newspaper story pointed out that ultimate responsibility did not lie with MaxPreps, which is probably the most popular and complete high school sports data service in the country. Rather, the Ohio schools are supposed to be monitoring their respective MaxPreps pages during the season to assure accuracy. The website has an online form available to point out errors, and the OHSAA is presumably a priority client because of the business relationship.
The reason I raise this is because I've been editing the NYSSWA's girls basketball rankings this season and was having trouble digging up results on the powerful Manhasset St. Mary's squad early in the season. Coach Kevin White has since started providing me weekly updates, and a few other coaches and ADs from schools not utilizing MaxPreps have been doing likewise.
Last week, I messaged MaxPreps to let them know that their schedule pages for St. Mary's in Manhasset and St. Mary's in Lancaster (whose results data is more or less complete) contain instances of mistaken identity. For instance MaxPreps has both St. Mary's teams beating Rochester's Bishop Kearney on Dec. 3. Also, the Manhasset team is credited for a victory against Webster Schroeder than belongs to the Lancaster school.
All in all, MaxPreps is a very good tool for sports fans, but it is vulnerable to the "garbage in, garbage out" issue that we all know too well. As of this morning the St. Mary's schedule glitches remained unresolved.
Parting thought
With the NFL having taken an active interest in promoting the fastest-growing girls sport in the country, it was cool to see a commercial
promoting flag football during Sunday's Super Bowl telecast.
That being said, was it really necessary to do it in the context of ridiculing males and making them look like villains and losers?
That was beneath the dignity of the most popular and successful league in the country and one of the most powerful brands in the world.
