Leading off today: Coaches from a boys basketball team in Great Barrington, Mass., not much more than a stone's throw from the New York border, have resigned after
accidentally uploading audio of themselves criticizing players and using profanity during a loss, The Berkshire Eagle reported.
Head coach Randy Koldys and the Monument Mountain boys coaching staff uploaded game footage of last Thursday's loss to South Hadley in the PVIAC Western Massachusetts Class B quarterfinal to the team's Hudl account.
Athletic director Karl Zigmand disclosed the situation in an email to parents, the paper reported. It's not clear how widely disseminated the audio was.
Monument Mountain's schedule this season included mid-January victories over Tuckahoe and Berne-Knox-Westerlo.
One family, four wrestling finalists
A Selden family advanced
four siblings to Suffolk County sectional finals over the weekend. Julianna, Zoey, and Madison Hernandez advanced through the girls field at Stony Brook University while Alex Hernandez was repping the Newfield boys team.
"It's an incredibly gifted family," said Darren Goldstein, who oversees the boys and girls wrestling in Rocky Point. "The girls come to practice every day traveling from Newfield to Rocky Point. The girls are all distinctly different in personality and wrestling style. The family is truly amazing, 10 siblings, and I'm sure the wrestling is non-stop at their house."
Julianna Hernandez, who won a girls state crown at 120 pounds last season as a freshman and previously was the first girl to win a boys Suffolk league title, captured her third Section 11 title with a fall in 4:01 in the 126-pound weight class.
Another 2,000-point scorer
Senior Westin Retzos connected on a mid-range jumper in the final minute of Friday's 74-54 loss to Tully to reach 2,000 points for his basketball career.
The fifth-year Faith Heritage varsity player is averaging 23.5 points a game this season.
Connetquot caught in the middle
I wondered after reading a recent update whether the Connetquot school district was facing a no-win situation. Now,
Newsday confirms that is precisely the case.
It the district keeps its new nickname for Connetquot team, the T-Birds, they will run afoul of the federal government. If they go back to being the Thunderbirds, they'll be at odds again with the state.
The federal Education Department ruled last month that T-Birds violates Title VI of federal civil rights law because it barred the use of Native American mascots while allowing those "derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the 'Dutchmen' and the 'Huguenots.'"
The department has threatened to refer the matter to the Department of Justice, with a possible loss of funding in play.
Connetquot made its name change in September to comply with the state's public schools ban on Native American names and imagery.
"This is going to have to be worked out in the courts," said Alan Singer, professor emeritus of teaching, learning and technology at Hofstra University.
Emma Hulse, education counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the Trump administration applied an unfounded interpretation of federal civil rights law.
District officials have not indicated how they plan to proceed.
