Leading off today: Real life has been consuming an inordinate amount of my life for the past month, so I've been neglecting my blogging. Though I've been storing away a few nuggets worth mentioning over the latter half of the month, I just wasn't feeling the momentum needed to summarize them and post.
And then I saw this ...
The ultimate Ramblin' Man poised to make another move
I store the phase "Dior Johnson is on the move again" in the library of my HTML software so that I can write it with one keystroke instead of having to type it out each time. That's because I use the phrase frequently. Today is one of those days.
The 6-foot-3 junior guard is heading for the NCAA transfer portal after averaging 24.0 points a game -- while coming off the bench in 18 of his 20 appearances, no less -- this season for Division I Tarleton State.
Johnson, of course, is from the Lloyd Daniels School of Basketball, which is to say he has more transfers than the driver of a public transit bus serving a large city high school.
After coming to widespread attention by reaching 1,000 career points while still in eighth grade at Saugerties, Johnson began a nomadic existence that carried him to IMG Academy in Florida, back to Saugerties, then to Findlay Prep in Nevada only to see that "school" fold. From there, he embarked on a journey of even more high schools and purported high schools, sprinkling in verbal commitments to Syracuse University and the University of Oregon along the way.
When it finally was time to enroll in college, he bounced from Pitt to Clarendon College (a Texas JuCo where he averaged 29.7 points a game) to Central Florida.
He moved on to Tarleton, which plays in the Western Athletic Conference, last fall and tore up the competition. His scoring, in addition to 3.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, earned Johnson the conference's sixth man of the year award and second-team All-WAC.
With Monday's announcement about entering the transfer portal, an encore seems high unlikely. In fact, it's almost a sure be that he'll land i one of the top conferences or at the very least with a high-caliber mid-major school.
Ambitious upgrade hits huge stumbling block
The project to install synthetic turf fields at Brighton High School outside Rochester was already controversial, and now it has hit an expensive snag: the site is laced with lead, mercury, chromium, and arsenic above state-approved levels. It's a consequence of the property's life more than a century ago as a brick factory where clay was excavated.
Consequently, the prep work has been halted pending additional investigation by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Health, and a consulting firm retained by the school district.
The cost estimates for remediation range from about $3 million for grading and covering the contamination to $14 million for complete removal, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
Even before the disclosure, some area residents expressed concerns about synthetic turf fields on environmental and safety grounds. The sports fields component is about one-third of the $21.9 million, district-wide capital project previous approved by voters.
It all adds up to further delays for the school's baseball and softball teams, which play their games off-campus.
State champion going independent next fall
Fresh off a NYSPHSAA state Class A championship, the East Aurora boys soccer team will play an independent schedule in the 2026 season,
The Buffalo Newsreported.
The Blue Devils also won a Class B championship in 2023.
"Over the past several years, our program has been fortunate to experience a high level of success and with that comes a responsibility to continue challenging our players in meaningful ways," coach Kevin Beale said in a statement. "Our decision to go independent is not a reflection of any lack of respect for the teams in ECIC Division 3. We have great respect for those programs and the work their coaches and athletes put in each season.
"At the same time, we are entering a period of transition, having graduated a strong group of multi-year starters while also returning a talented core. It's important for us to find a balanced and competitive schedule that will both develop our newer players and push our returning group. Playing a wider range of opponents will better prepare us for postseason play, where every game presents a high level of competition."
Tammi Reiss takes SEC coaching job
One of the all-time greats in New York girls basketball moved up another notch on the coaching ladder last week.
Eldred legend Tammi Reiss, 55, resigned as the head coach at Rhode Island to accept the job at the University of Florida of the Southeastern Conference, arguably the best NCAA Division I women's league.
Her seventh Rhode Island team went 28-5 and earned its first NCAA Tournament bid in 30 years.
Reiss reached three Final Fours as a player for Virginia. Before that, Reiss was nearly unstoppable as a scholastic player, She graduated from Eldred with 2,871 career points, which represented the state record at the time.
Potential changes coming in Florida
Florida legislators approved letting
booster clubs complement what school districts pay their scholastic coaches.
The bill passed the state senate unanimously after a 104-6 vote by the lower house. Gov. Ron DeSantis previously signaled support for the measure.
Backers have pointed to top high school football coaches in neighboring states routinely earning salaries well out of the reach of most Florida schools.
Earlier this month, legislators passed the Teddy Bridgewater Act, which would allow head coaches to spend up to $15,000 of their own money each year to support student-athletes welfare.
The funds can be used for food, transportation, sports equipment, and other basic needs. Any outlay will have to be documented with receipts.
The bill is named after NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who was suspended from coaching at his alma mater for admitting that he paid for food and transportation for his players.
Kansas ponders and radical change
Kansas lawmakers are considering
banning practices and games on Wednesday evenings and all day on Sunday, saying the time might be better used for family and church activities.
The idea -- which would also create a seven-day shutdown around Christmas and four days around Easter -- was added to a previous bill as an amendment to another bill but later removed. If revived and passed into law, the proposal would expand a Kansas State High School Activities Association rule prohibiting sports activity on Christmas Day and July Fourth at private and public schools.
