Leading off today: In a just world, reporters covering high school sports deserve eight weeks of uninterrupted vacation beginning around June 20 to make up for covering what surely must feel like 250 events from before Labor Day to after Memorial Day.
Alas, the beast requires feeding -- even over the summer. So, aside from reporting on some coaches retiring and athletes transferring to new schools, we resort to lists. They're fun, they're often easy to compile, and they engage readers.
To that end, MaxPreps dropped a list the other day: The best high school athletes produced by New York State so far this century.
Keeping in mind the obvious -- it's a big state with a lot of sports and even the most diligent observer never sees more than a microscopic percentage of athletes -- the list gets a lot of the names right. Sadly, there is a glaring error related to the disclaimer at the top of the list: Selections were based primarily off high school resumes.
If that's the case, then they have JG3 six spots too low.
For the record, here's what they came up with:
- Tina Charles, Christ the King basketball.
- Breanna Stewart, Cicero-North Syracuse basketball.
- Katelyn Tuohy, North Rockland distance running.
- Greg Paulus, Syracuse CBA football and basketball.
- Sebastian Telfair, Abraham Lincoln basketball.
- Marcus Stroman, Patchogue-Medford baseball.
- Joe Girard III, Glens Falls football and basketball.
- Lance Stephenson, Abraham Lincoln basketball.
- Sonia Citron, Ursuline basketball.
- Sammy Watson, Rush-Henrietta track and field.
I'll start by saying I love the inclusion of Watson, whose range -- 400 meters to 3,000 -- might never be seen again in my neck of the woods.
Off the top of my head, though, there might be a better case for Tuohy as the top female athlete on the list despite how dominating Charles and Stewart were. And I wonder if maybe Saniya Chong of Ossining deserves Citron's spot among basketball players at this moment in time while recognizing that Citron is well on her way to a superb WNBA career.
But, again, the primary criteria is supposed to be the high school resume.
As such, how does Girard not rate the No. 1 position? MaxPreps named him its National Athlete of the Year as a senior, an honor matched only by Stewart, Tuohy, and Paulus in Gatorade's annual accolades. On top of that, he obliterated the state scoring record belonging to another basketball star on the list (Stephenson).
Throw in JG3's state championships in football (2016, 2018) and basketball (2019), and the high school portion of his resume is complete.
St. Dominic pulls off a coaching coup
No one saw this one coming, and that includes the AD ad the coach at the center of this development. Keith Cromwell, who guided Manhasset boys lacrosse to a pair of NYSPHSAA championships in his eight seasons as coach, was named the St. Dominic girls lacrosse coach on Thursday,
Newsday reported.
"Other than marrying my wife and when my children were born, it's probably one of the happiest moments of my life," St. Dom AD Chris Mueller said with a laugh. "It was huge. I didn't expect it. And when he opened the door a little bit, I kicked it in. You don't get many chances to hire people like that."
Cromwell was perfectly happy at Manhasset, which fell to Garden City in the recent Section 8 Class B final, but his son Aiden and daughter Alexis play lacrosse at St. Dominic. The girls squad is coming off a 16-2 season in which the Bayhawks played St. Anthony's in the CHSAA Class AA final.
"It wasn't an easy decision by any means," he said, "but I think ultimately, my son being a senior up that neck of the woods, and with my daughter trying to carve out a path and the success that their teams had, I just ultimately thought it was a really good opportunity and something I'm ready to dive all-in on."
Another coaching change
The newly formed Bishop Ludden-Grimes program has parted ways with baseball coach Tom McLaughlin and hired Eddie Gray as his replacement,
Syracuse.com reported.
Gray served as head coach at Grimes from 2017-2020 and spent the past two years as an assistant at Pulaski, his alma mater.
McLaughlin began at Ludden in 2019. His last three Gaelic Knights teams were top-seeded in the Section 3 tournament. At issue was a disagreement with second-year AD Shaun Smith over control of fundraising money.
"We went back and forth on this the last couple years and it kind of just got to a head," Smith told the website. "I totally did not expect that we'd be looking for a new coach. Tom's been an unbelievable coach for the last seven years here. We definitely appreciate all the leadership and service to Ludden, he comes to different games, very supportive. But we had to make a change."
Encouraging sign about officiating from NFHS
The number of registered high school sports officials grew by 6% during the last school year, according to a
follow-up survey of 36 NFHS member state associations that originated in 2018-19.
The data showed 237,811 registrations during the 2024-25 school year, up 14,432 from the previous year, and an 8% boost from pre-pandemic numbers (220,340) reported in 2018-19.
There was an estimated loss of 50,000 officials during the COVID-19 pandemic, but availability has increased each year since the 2021-22 school year.
Twenty-seven states reported they were back above their pre-pandemic levels in 2024-25.
