Leading off today: Teammates Jayden Leederman and Ellie Edwards, who led Pioneer to a NYSPHSAA championship last month, have been named state Class C co-players of the year, highlighting the inaugural New York State Sportswriters Association all-state team in flag football.
Samantha Heyman of Half Hollow Hills captured the player of the year recognition in Class A, and Eve Girardi of Tappan Zee and Olivia Moynihan of Sayville earned the honor in Class B.
The NYSSWA selections were announced on Tuesday.
Edwards, a sophomore quarterback, threw for 42 touchdowns. Leederman, a junior, rushed for 1,288 yards and piled up 86 flag pulls, 40 tackles for loss, and six interceptions in Pioneer's championship season.
Heyman, a junior, took Half Hollow Hills to the NYSPHSAA Class A final by throwing for 3,954 yards and 60 touchdowns. She also ran for 18 scores and intercepted 16 passes on defense.
Tappan Zee's Girardi displayed similar two-way production en route to the Class B final, finishing with 3,418 passing yards, 55 TD throws and 12 interceptions on defense. She also returned three punts for scores.
Moynihan, a senior, completed 71.9% of her throws for 2,886 yards and 57 TDs. She also rushed for 1,151 yards and eight TDs.
COMPLETE 2025 FLAG FOOTBALL ALL-STATE TEAM
Moore Catholic won't field football team this fall
Some news from late March suddenly makes a whole lot more sense now, but the latest development still leaves Staten Island football observers with more questions than answers.
Administrators at Moore Catholic revealed on Friday that the school will not field a CHSFL football team this fall because of an expected low player turnout. It's the second time in 17 years that the school has suspended play, but the Mavericks had been highly competitive since returning to football in 2016 and earned three of the last four championships in their division.
However, cracks started showing in March when head coach Nick Giannatasio resigned after a 5-6 season and then turned up almost immediately as the co-head coach six miles to the northeast at St. Peter's. This was preceded by meetings with Moore Catholic administrators during which the school's president indicated Giannatasio sketched out a blue print for the future of the program.
His vision apparently did not match with her vision, because Gina DeSantis' memo on Friday announcing the program's shutdown cited leadership's rejection of the recommendation that the school should "accept students who are neither academically, socially or emotionally qualified to meet the rigor of a Moore Catholic student-athlete."
But once Giannatasio left, so too did enough players to destabilize the program. Now, eight CHSFL opponents (plus Abraham Lincoln from the PSAL) find themselves with a hole in their schedules.
Stay tuned. We've likely not heard the last of this situation.
Section 3 soccer standoff intensifies
Readers of a certain age will understand this: Generalisimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
And so, too, are the NYSPHSAA's negotiations with the Central New York Soccer Association, which represents Syracuse-area referees.
Syracuse.com reported over the weekend that the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, frustrated with a delay in talks between the sides, plans to start a new officials chapter in Section 3 and recruit refs to handle games. Syracuse-area officials make $119.50 per varsity soccer game. Utica-area officials are paid $121.60 and Watertown officials $123.
The NYSPHSAA canceled a recruiting session scheduled last week after the CNYSOA agreed to meet for discussions, but the situation went south after that meeting did not happen. With the start of fall practice a month away, the NYSPHSAA understandably feels it can't let the CNYSOA string out negotiations.
"It's just getting to a point where we're wasting a lot of time," said Robert Zayas, executive director of the NYSPHSAA. "And now the kids' season is in jeopardy as a result of that."
The primary issues continues to be the use of Arbiter Pay, a nationwide system that processes payments for officials, by an increasing number of schools. Some CNYSOA members turned down games at schools using Arbiter Pay, resulting in cancellations and postponements.
The website reported referees remain concerned about personal data security with Arbiter Pay. That argument seems specious at best since the technology has been widely used across the country for a number of years.
QB-turned-coach Teddy Bridgewater suspended
Teddy Bridgewater holds a special place in my heart. Back in my days at FoxSports.com, I often worked early Saturday afternoons alone or with just one or two others stationed around the country. One of the responsibilities in the fall was to monitor the day's early NCAA football games, specifically those carried by the network, in case anything newsworthy happened.
That meant seeing a lot of Louisville games, and Bridgewater was just flat-out fun to watch. I knew he was going to be star material in the NFL; sadly, his catastrophic knee injury left us to wonder what could have been.
As you may have read, Bridgewater, now the head coach for a powerhouse Florida high school program, has been suspended by the school in light of an investigation by the Florida High School Athletic Association.
At the center of his trouble is Bridgewater's social media post last week revealing he spent a substantial amount of his own money to provide players with Uber rides, meals, and physical therapy last season. He asked fans to donate and cover those expenses for the upcoming season.
Last fall, the FHSAA came down hard on another school over findings of free meals and Uber rides. The sanctioning body hit that school with a two-year playoff ban and a $36,000 fine.
