Leading off today: Marcellus junior forward Lexie Fragnito and Byron-Bergen senior midfielder have been selected girls soccer players of the year in their respective classes for the second consecutive year.
Fragnito earned he honor in Class B. Gray was selcted the top player in Class C for the second time and made the all-state first team selected by the New York State Sportswriters & Coaches Association for the fifth consecutive year.
The other player of the year selections are:
• Class AAA, Ava DeMarco (Northport)
• Class AA, Teigan Cunnane (Albertus Magnus)
• Class A, Charlotte Keenan (Rye)
• Class D, Jocelyn Turshman (Cincinnatus)
Cunnane and Keenan earned spots on the first team for the second straight season.
In Class B, 106-goal scorer Brooke Huleatt of Mount Academy earned her fifth straight first-team recognition. She played in Class D in 2021 and '22, Class C in 2023, and Class B last fall.
The full 2025 all-state team can be viewed in our reference section.
Monroe receiver earns Gatorade honor
Gatorade has begun revealing its state athletes of the year in fall sports, and the first honoree is Oregon-bound wide receiver Messiah Hampton, who helped Section 5's Monroe High to the NYSPHSAA Class B football championship.
Hampton caught 61 passes, 13 for touchdowns, this season. He also rushed for five scores and made 81 tackles and two interceptions at defensive back.
He is the first Section 5 football player to win the Gatorade honor since Aquinas quarterback Jake Zembiec in 2015.
Rankings progress
We plan on delivering the season's first sets of boys state basketball and ice hockey rankings next week, with the initial girls hoops rankings making their debut on Dec. 23.
We're still looking for girls basketball help from some sections around the state. Media members or coordinators/league chairs interested in helping with weekly class-by-class updates can reach out to me at jmoriello@yahoo.com.
Passings
George Steitz, who coached Penfield boys soccer to 411 wins, baseball to 456, and other sports including softball to 458 more victories, died on Nov. 14 at the age of 101.
The Brooklyn native began teaching and coaching at Macedon High in 1949 and moved five years later to Penfield, where he later served as athletic director. Though he retired from coaching the soccer team in 1984, Steitz remained active in multiple aspects of sports, including officiating school sports into his 90s, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Interesting then-and-now perspective
The
Finger Lakes Times profiled Canandaigua girls wrestling coach Lauren Lamb, and it put the evolution of the sport into perspective.
Lamb, 48, first competed at the U.S. Nationals in 1990, and she told the paper she counted just 26 girls in the entire tournament.
"We were on our little mat in the corner," Lamb said. "It was like, 'Let the girls do their thing,' and, 'Isn't that cute they want to try and wrestle?'"
Thanks to the methodical growth of the sport, particularly in the last five years, there are now individual school teams in New York with as many participants. Midlakes' holiday tournament o Dec. 27 is expected to draw 200 wrestlers.
The National Federation of State High School Associations reported New York had 2,104 girls competing last season compared to 563 in 2022.
