Leading off today: It's been a news-filled couple of days for New York high school sports. Unfortunately, quite a bit of the news is either sad or mysterious.
Definitely not the way I would have handled it
As a mid-level manager at one of my former gigs, I would sometimes need to meet with employees I supervised in order to deliver news that they weren't going to like. I learned early on to conduct those meetings in a private setting other than my office; once the discussion had run its course, I would be able to reiterate the key points, including the timeline for following up (if necessary), and return to my duties.
If the employee needed time to reflect or regain their composure, they could do so in the privacy of the room.
I never took some one to a restaurant to tell them I was freeing up their future.
Veteran Livonia baseball coach Scott Gilman wasn't so fortunate. In the latest disclosure in what has been an ongoing topic in Livingston County sports circles this month, Gilman revealed the contents of his email to school board members earlier this month.
Gilman, who'd coached the Bulldogs to a 413-245-2 record with six sectional championships and three appearances in the state semifinals in 33 seasons, said AD Rick Ellis broke the news to the retired physical education teacher at a popular local burger restaurant. It's purely conjecture, but it's the sort of pre-emptive move one might make if they feared the other person might make a scene.
(I was scratching my head trying to remember where I'd seen that before until someone pointed out it was a page from "Jerry Maguire," the 1996 movie starring Tom Cruise.)
What makes it particularly odiferous is that Gilman, coming off a 15-win season, said the meeting with the AD had been rescheduled to take place after Livonia's 2017 NYSPHSAA championship team was being inducted into the Section 5 baseball hall of fame.
"My guess is the AD didn't want to put a damper on the celebration by telling me 'it's time' a few days before that," the coach told the school board members in his email.
More intrigue at Fayetteville-Manlius
Scarcely a month after head coach Leah Tuck and assistant Brenna Bastian guided Fayetteville-Manlius to a spot in the NYSPHSAA semifinals, Fayetteville-Manlius is in the market for a new girls varsity lacrosse staff.
Syracuse.com reported the district declined to renew their contracts for the upcoming school year and has posted notices for both openings.
Tuck just completed here seventh season and Bastian her fourth. They were teammates on F-M's 2005 state championship team.
Tuck, whose teams went 51-60 with a pair of Section 3 championships, told the website she was caught by surprise by the decision to not renew her coaching assignment.
"I believe transparency, communication, and a fair evaluation process are important and I have shared those concerns directly with district leadership," she said in a statement. "Equity across all athletic programs is essential to long-term success and I hope it becomes a guiding principal for F-M moving forward."
She did not elaborate on the issue of equity, and AD Scott Sugar couldn't be reached for comment.
Bastian said when she met with Sugar, he indicated the program had grown "stagnant."
The girls lacrosse development comes at a time when the status of veteran track and cross country coach Bill Aris remains unresolved following complaints by some F-M parents and athletes that led the school to order an investigation into his coaching methods.
Passings
Two communities have been rocked in recent days by the deaths of athletic directors.
Michael "Bubba" DeRosa, who spent eight years at Bridgehampton as the AD, dean of students, and assistant baseball coach, died July 10 after being diagnosed last year with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. He was 42.
The baseball program at Bridgehampton, one of the tiniest school districts in the state, had been dormant until DeRosa revived it in 2021. He also established the school's first girls JV basketball team in 2025, paving the way for a varsity squad that will take the court later this year. He also helped create Bridgehampton's first varsity boys soccer team last fall.
"His energy was infectious and he was always positive, always smiling, always laughing," Principal Michael Cox told Newsday. "That's a big reason why kids wanted to be around him. Everyone brings their own situation to the table, but Mike had a way of re-steering them and guiding them. He believed in you even if you didn't believe in yourself."
Meanwhile, Lowville friends are reeling after the sudden death on Friday of recently retired AD Rob Goss at the age of 62.
Goss was a fixture in the school district for four decades and served a term as president of Section 3. He was selected the Chapter 3 NYSAAA Athletic Administrator of the year in 2023.
Along the way, he coached football, basketball and the lacrosse program that he and assistants Leo Sammon and Ted Bach began to construct in the last 1990s.
"We were just grabbing guys that had never played the sport," Bach told Syracuse.com. "We just grabbed athletes and just kept telling athletes that you can play this sport and legally hit somebody with a stick. That's sort of how we recruited a lot of the kids. We just leaned on Rob because I had never played."
Long Island school drops football
The news has gone from bad to worse for the football program at Holy Trinity in Hicksville. First, newly hired head coach Cain Mack informed administrators earlier this month that he was resigning effective immediately. Now, the school has dropped the sport and will try to reboot the program by fielding a junior varsity in 2027.
Principal Brian Colomban notified parents on Wednesday, Newsday reported.
The Titans' varsity and JV rosters had a combined 53 players, including 11 seniors, last fall. The varsity posted a 7-4 record last fall.
Eight schools, one football team in Section 1
It seemed unwieldy in 2018 when Yonkers, one of the five largest school districts in the state but one perennially struggling with finances and academic performance, consolidated its eight football programs into two varsity teams: Yonkers Brave and Yonkers Force.
It's a new season on the horizon and a new plan. Lincoln (BEDS number of 861), Yonkers (800), Saunders (789), Gorton (728), Roosevelt/Early College (723), Riverside (557), Barack Obama (407), and Yonkers Montessori (276) will field a single varsity football team -- the Yonkers Guardians -- when practice opens next month.
Roosevelt alum Doug Hogue, who went on to star at Syracuse University before a brief NFL career from 2011-12, will be the head coach.
"I view the football field as an extension of the classroom, where the ultimate goals are building character, fostering teamwork and helping young men develop into successful leaders," Hogue said in the district's announcement.
The district's plan is to add a freshman team next fall to re-establish a player pipeline for subsequent JV and varsity teams.
Putting the Guardians' combined BEDS figure in perspective, their combined BEDS figure of 5,141 exceeds that of Section 11's Brentwood (4,422), the largest NYSPHSAA member. It's also larger than Section 1's New Rochelle (2,459) and North Rockland (2,124) combined.
