Leading off today: Gannett reporter Justin Ritzel did some deep dives this month into the rise of girls lacrosse in Section 5, and it was good reading thanks to the amount of work he did gathering details from players and coaches.
But a former coach's observation, deep down in Ritzel's latest piece raised a significant point that I hadn't considered. Recently retired Honeoye Falls-Lima coach Kevin O'Connell sent up a reminder that there is not an endless supply of athletes out there -- particularly in communities that have seen a lot of outward migration in the past decade or so:
"Flag football will be the demise of girls lacrosse in western New York. The powers that be never thought about the impact that adding flag would have on current spring sports. Don't get me wrong, it's entertaining. Everyone loves football and who wouldn't want to buy in? But at what cost? Gates, Greece, they're losing kids and will never get lacrosse back to the level they want. For the smaller schools that do start offering flag football, it's gonna be a serious problem."
Though flag football has grown at an insane pace and now features 225 teams across the state -- Ritzel follows up by pointing out that lacrosse has the advantage (for now) of being firmly entrenched at the collegiate level, where scholarship money and need-based financial aid flow for the distaff version of the fastest sport on two feet.
Still, O'Connell isn't being unreasonably alarmist. Schools can still offer golf and track and field in the spring with less than full rosters. But what happens to lacrosse -- and softball, for that matter -- when the roster shrinks to eight or 10 girls?
I don't ask that as the start of an agenda against flag football (more on that sport below). Rather, I'm just putting the thought out there as a reminder to ADs and the coaches from other sports that there may be a new urgency to continue building interest at the youth level.
LuHi's Mingo earns Gatorade honor
Long Island Lutheran senior Kayden Mingo is Gatorade's state player of the year in boys basketball after averaging 13.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists through 27 games.
The 6-foot-2 guard is a Penn State recruit.
Unusual coaching feat for brothers
I missed this
story on LoHud.com when it was published last week. But I'm a sucker for quirky accomplishments, and this one certainly fits the description.
Brothers Jerell Jones and Adrian Pritchett were accomplished high school athletes at Yonkers' Roosevelt High and earned college football scholarships while also excelling in track and field.
Jones now coaches track and field at Poly Prep, and Pritchett is an assistant coach in the sport at New Rochelle. On March 8, they each coached a champion in the state high school meet at the Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex.
Nothing too extraordinary about that, right? After all, there are a couple of dozens boys or girls champions crowned every year. But what made it unique is that the champions earned their titles in the same race, the boys' 600 meters.
How'd that happen?
Poly Prep's Kofi Rossi and New Rochelle's Ryan Temistokle crossed the finish line in first and third place, respectively. Obviously, Rossi was the winner. But Temistokle was the top finisher among NYSPHSAA entrants, putting him atop the podium for that body's awards recognition.
Thus, both brothers had a champion in the same race.
NYSSWA progress update
Work on the all-state teams is now underway, but the
final rankings posted Tuesday in boys and girls basketball more or less wrap up the winter sports season.
There's still a little bit of work remaining to be done in lining up helpers from some parts of the state, but I'm pleased to say we will be adding baseball and flag football to our list of spring sports with state rankings beginning next month, joining softball and boys and girls lacrosse.
Time to re-think six classes?
I meant to tackle this topic a week ago, but it is no less relevant now than it was then: Should we be asking if six classes in team sports is one too many for NYSPHSAA championship tournaments?
The BEDS cutoff number to populate Class AAA with 75 members (not including private and charter schools bumped up by sectional classification committees) this season was 1,084 for boys basketball.
Of those, 48 schools came from Sections 1, 8, and 11. Two sections didn't have a school remotely close to the enrollment cutoff, and three others had only three apiece. at 1,084 or above We ended up with Section 4 conducting a one-game "tournament" to determine its champion and representative into the state tourney, and two others conducted two-game tourneys.
Based upon the system in place, we've also seen similar issues in soccer and girls basketball, with baseball and softball still to come this spring.
Are schools legitimately earning championships and berths into the state tournament with so little coompetition?
