Leading off today: It's not often that a team coming off an unbeaten season seeks a fresh start, but Warrensburg/Lake George/Bolton is getting that under the guidance of one of the most successful football coaches in Section 2 history.
John Irion, who took four Queensbury teams to NYSPHSAA Class A championship games, winning one in 2013, has been recommended as the next head coach of combined Class D team, The Post-Star reported.
The appointment awaits approval from the Lake George school board on Tuesday.
Warrensburg/Lake George/Bolton went 8-0 last fall and was ranked No. 1 in the state in Class D before shutting down its season on the eve of the playoffs when an alleged incident on a return trip from an Aug. 31 Syracuse University football game came to light.
The Warren County Sheriff's Department and the three school districts investigated the allegations, and two Lake George players were charged with public lewdness and endangering the welfare of a child.
Then-head coach Mike Perrone and his assistants were not re-appointed.
Irion coached for 20 years at Queensbury, winning the 2013 state final vs. Williamsville North. His 1997, 1998, and 2014 teams also reached NYSPHSAA finals. He also coached at Granville for three seasons, and has been an assistant at South Glens Falls for the last four years.
"I still have the fire in me to coach, it's an exciting opportunity," Irion, who has a 172-102-1 record, told the paper. "I think I've had enough success to keep the program going forward. It seems like an exciting place to be, in my eyes."
Long Island bowling coach wins PBA championship
Gary Haines now has a lifetime exemption from hearing "those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
Haines, the 36 year-old coach of the St. John the Baptist boys team in West Islip, capped off the best week of his bowling career by winning the USBC Masters title on Sunday in Allen Park, Mich.
The tournament was the season's third major on the PBA Tour, and the victory by a 192-186 score over Anthony Simonsen -- the youngest bowler to win five majors -- in the stepladder final earned Haines $100,000.
Minutes earlier, Simonsen had scored a 207-172 victory over Haines in the double-elimination format, forcing the decisive match televised by Fox.
"It was stressful being under the TV lights for the first time," Haines said. "It was just a different environment that I'm not used to, so it was more of just battling that, and I didn't do a great job of it. I'll be the first one to say it. But somehow in the end, we were there."
Haines became the boys coach at St. John the Baptist this season after the death of longtime coach Bob Hamilton in September. His wife, Lauren, has been coaching girls bowling at the school for three years.
The victory makes Haines exempt from most pre-tournament qualifiers on the PBA Tour, but he told Newsday he has no plans to quit his job with National Grid to compete full-time.
"I don't think you're going to see me out here any more than you already did," he said. "I have a very good job at home. It would not make sense for me to quit, come out here and think all of a sudden I'm going to be the best in the world. I'm not."
However, he will enter the PBA Players Championship, which begins Monday in Jackson, Mich., and is considering moving on to the PBA Tournament of Champions the following week in Fairlawn, Ohio.
Felony charges following arrest at flag football game
Two teenagers were arrested after they brought a loaded handgun to a Syracuse high school flag football game on Thursday, police said.
The teens were charged with one count each of second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon after a city worker spotted the gun at the game at Henninger High School, according to a Syracuse police spokesperson. The city employee alerted authorities, and Syracuse school resource officers then approached the teens.
The spokesperson said the weapon was a ghost gun with no serial number, Syracuse.com reported.
