June 26, 2025: All-state softball team announced

   Leading off today: One season after landing a spot on the first team, Bloomfield shortstop Ashlyn Wright has added a player of the year honor in softball after leading the Bombers to the NYSPHSAA Class C championship.

   Joining her as a repeat first-teamer ascending to player of the year is Smithtown West pitcher Erin McDaid in Class AA.

   The other athletes honored as players of the year by the New York State Sportswriters and Coaches Organization for Girls Sports are:

    • Lancaster battery-mates Alyssa Brunner (pitcher) and Brennah DeWald (catcher) in Class AAA.
    • Miller Place pitcher Ava Zicchinelli in Class A.
    • Chatham pitcher Skylar Groom in Class B.
    • Hamilton pitcher Ellie Freeth in Class D.

   Besides Wright and McDaid, seven other players repeated as first-team selections:

    • Matti Johnson (Corning pitcher/ outfielder, Class AAA).
    • Alyssa Budzinski (Williamsville South pitcher, A).
    • Skylar Secondino (Seaford pitcher, A).
    • Kaili Witherell (Bath pitcher, B)
    • Addison Kota (Gowanda pitcher/shortstop, C).
    • Sophia Keays (Salem pitcher, D).
    • Morgyn Ross (Friendship/Scio catcher, D).

    The complete 2025 all-star team is available in our reference section.

Noteworthy coaching move in Section 2

    KIPP Capital Region High School in Albany will be opening in August, and the charter school has landed an accomplished coach for its boys basketball program.

    DJ Jones, 118-39 in seven seasons with a 2024 NYSPHSAA Class AAA championship at Green Tech, is making the move to KIPP, which will start its Section 2 presence in Class C.

    "I had a lot of great years at Green Tech, 12 years overall and a lot of success with students, on and off the court," Jones told the Times Union. "KIPP is intriguing because it is a brand new K-through-12, so I have an opportunity to create a feeder program starting at the early ages in the inner city."

    Green Tech made five straight trips to Section 2 finals, winning three in a row. Junior point guard Indavier Barnes, who played shooting guard on the 2024 state Class AAA championship team, will make the move with Jones.

    • There are more Section 2 hoopsters on the move.

    Troy sophomore Stetson Merritt, a fifth-team Class AA all-state player, is transferring to the New Hampton School, a NEPSAC school in New Hampshire.

    Sophomore Davon Maloney of LaSalle Institute, an 11th-team Class AA all-state player, is leaving for the Newman School, a NEPSAC school in Massachusetts.

Counterparts, spectators save stricken coach's life

    Andrew Pihlblad says he had no preexisting health conditions when he collapsed in the second half of a June 4 summer-league soccer game at Wilson High School in Western New York. The former Jamestown High boys coach owes his life to the lightning quick reaction of the people around him that evening.

    "I went from standing up, coaching, and doing whatever to just my heart stopped and I fell down," Pihlblad told WKBW-TV. "Nothing felt weird, nothing felt strange the whole time, until it just kind of happened."

    Within seconds, Wilson varsity coach Paul Herrmann was racing down the sideline. At the same time, a nurse came down from the stands and began CPR while others in attendance raced into the school to grab an AED kit.

    Three AED shock cycles restarted Pihlblad's heart, and he regained consciousness before being transported to a hospital by ambulance.

    "I would have died without the CPR and the AED, there's not even a question," Pihlblad said.