Leading off today: Chatham pitcher Skylar Groom has repeated as the Class B player of the year on the softball all-state team announced Thursday by the New York State Sportswriters and Coaches Organization for Girls Sports.
The junior threw five no-hitters this spring, including three straight to complete the Section 2 tournament. She threw a one-hitter with nine strikeouts and belted two home runs during a 13-2 triumph vs. Dobbs Ferry for the NYSPHSAA championship.
The other NYSSCOGS players of the year are:
• Class AAA: Corning pitcher Matti Johnson.
• Class AA: Ursuline outfielder Ava Papaleo.
• Class A: Averill Park catcher Natalia Mancino.
• Class C: Gowanda shortstop/pitcher Addison Kota.
• Class D: Savannah Durham of Oakfield-Alabama and Hannah Tuttle of Windham-Ashland-Jewett, both pitchers.
Kota capped her high school career with her fourth consecutive appearance on the first team. Several other players repeated as first-teams selections:
• Class AAA: Corning's Johnson makes her third consecutive appearance, and pitchers Alyssa Brunner of Lancaster and Kate Schweitzer of Commack made her second appearance.
• Class AA: Ursuline's Papaleo made the 2024 team as a sophomore.
• Class A: Shortstops Abbey Milazzo of Ichabod Crane and Laney Vomero of Miller Place repeated.
• Class B: Chatham's Groom, Tamarac's Toni DeLorenzo, and Susquehanna Valley's Lil D'Introno repeated.
• Class D: Fillmore catcher Rorghyn Ross three-peated, and sophomores Meyah Putnam of Argyle and Meyah Putnam of Avoca/Prattsburgh made it two in a row.
The complete 2026 all-state softball team is available in this site's reference section.
Shaker star Jackson on the move again
The Shaker girls basketball team that took eventual champion Albertus Magnus to overtime in the NYSPHSAA semifinals last March will look completely different next season with the news that another player is moving on to a NEPSAC school.
Malia Jackson, the Times Union large-school player of the year and a second-team all-state selection by the New York State Sportswriters Association, is enrolling at Darrow School in New Lebanon. The girls team there captured the 2026 New England Preparatory School Athletic Council Class AA championship.
The development comes after sisters Sofia and Giada Lanni decided last month to leave Shaker for Hoosac School, a NEPSAC member in Hoosick Falls coming off the Class AAA championship.
"Basketball has changed so much in the last two years," Jackson told The Times Union. "You have to go with it or get left behind. I have to go with it."
Jackson, who transferred to Shaker from Hudson after her freshman year, will reclassify and graduate in 2028. The 6-foot-2 center averaged 16 points and 9.8 rebounds to help the Blue Bison to a 21-3 record last season.
Minor timing change in boys basketball
Meeting in late April, the NFHS basketball committee made a
clock-management change potentially affecting the final minute of each quarter and overtimes.
In the last 59.9 seconds, a minimum of three-tenths of a second must come off the game clock when the ball is legally touched by a player inbounds after a throw-in. The only time it does not apply is if the game clock does not display tenths of a second.
The change is consistent with the rule governing tip-in baskets in the final three-tenths of a second.
Boys basketball in New York is played under National Federation rules, but the girls game in the NYSPHSAA is governed by NCAA rules.
Section 4 league makes format change
The
Southern Tier Athletic Conference will change its playoff format beginning in the fall to crown champions in large school and small school classes.
Division winners from the West and Metro will meet in the STAC champion for large schools. Central and East division titlists will meet for the small-school crown.
The change does away with semifinal games, allowing schools to schedule an additional non-leaguer during the regular season.
New leader for the NFHS
Davis Whitfield, chief operating officer of the National Federation of State High School Associations for the past 11 years, will become the organization's chief executive officer on Aug. 1.
Prior to joining the NFHS staff in 2015, Whitfield was commissioner of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for five years. Before that, Whitfield was an Atlantic Coast Conference staff member for more than seven years.
He replaces Karissa Niehoff, who began her tenure as the CEO in 2018.
