Leading off today: One of the great runs -- no pun intended -- in New York scholastic sports ended this week when Fayetteville-Manlius administrators revealed that Bill Aris will not be returning to coach this fall.
Aris, 71, was the longtime track and cross country coach, and it was in the latter that he developed a juggernaut that left local, regional, and national competition in the dust. The F-M girls cross country team won the Nike Cross Nationals championship 11 times in 12 years beginning in 2006, a streak interrupted only by a second-place finish in 2013. The boys won the meet in 2014 and posted six other top-five finishes from 2004-18.
Aris' status was in limbo after being placed on administrative leave early in the outdoor track season while the district investigated complaints about his training methods and general treatment of athletes.
"After careful consideration Head Coach Bill Aris' seasonal coaching position has not been renewed, and he will not be returning to coach at Fayetteville-Manlius," F-M Superintendent Magda Parvey and Athletic Director Scott Sugar wrote in an email sent to parents Wednesday afternoon. "We are grateful for Coach Aris' more than three decades of dedication and service to the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country and track and field programs and recognize the positive impact he has had on many student athletes over the years."
"I'm very surprised and disappointed," Aris told CNYCentral.com. "I was told that the DASA (Dignity for All Students Act ) investigation was unfounded. I was told the accusations were not legitimate, so it's very disappointing."
In their email to parents, Parvey and Sugar wrote that they are working to rebuild the program's culture, Syracuse.com reported.
"We know the past few months have been challenging for many of our athletes, families and coaches," they wrote. "Our priority now is to help our team to move forward by rebuilding a positive unified culture centered on trust, sportsmanship and a shared commitment to student success."
A very tame NYSPHSAA Central Committee meeting
As was
predicted here, the annual NYSPHSAA Central Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday didn't generate any significant news. Given some of the big issues that had been dealt with at recent quarterly meetings of the Executive Committee, it was a deserved respite for the representatives from the 11 sections.
The most noteworthy vote saw Nassau County Aquatic Center prevail over Webster Athletic Center for the right to host the boys swimming and diving championships for three years beginning in 2028.
The vote figured to be a nail-biter because the sport committee supported the Section 5 venue, though only by a 7-4 margin, and the NYSPHSAA office staff preferred the Long Island facility. The Championship Advisory Committee convened in late June and saw no disqualifying issues with either bid.
What transpired Tuesday afternoon in Buffalo was a case study of the NYSPHSAA at its best. Though the four voting reps from each section arrived with a plan in hand for how they would vote, there nevertheless was a round of discussion during which advocates for each facility spoke up, and members were able to ask questions.
With the vote looming, delegates huddled with their respective sectional executive directors for one last chance to reconsider their intentions. Ultimately, Webster was rejected 27-20, followed by a 31-16 approval for Nassau.
It's increasingly rare for multiple venues to submit quality bids to host an event and rarer still for a difference of opinion between a sport committee and the office staff, but the process played out smoothly and transparently.
Some additional notes from the meeting
(1) The Classification Oversight Committee (COC) has heard its first four appeals regarding the placement of non-public and charter schools in tournament fields and has overruled a local decision.
Binghamton Seton Catholic, which played eventual champion Penfield to within three points in an overtime boys basketball state semifinal in March, was slated by Section 4 to remain in Class AA. However, the COC stepped in to bump the team up to Class AAA for the upcoming season despite a tiny BEDS number of 152.
(2) The boys tennis championships have been held at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for three decades, and there are two years remaining on the existing contract. However, sufficient access to the courts has been an issue of late, and the NYSPHSAA is eager to hear from schools and local tourism bureaus that might be in a position to host beginning in 2029.
(3) Pupil Benefits Plan, Inc., an insurer used by 340 districts across the state, did a breakdown by body parts for claims paid out in the most recent school year. Knee injuries accounted for $1.8 million, or 52% of all claims that were approved. Shoulder ($398,709), ankle (331,876) and finger ($191,157) injuries were next on the list.
The real cost of mishaps is actually far higher since the families of athletes generally carry primary insurance, with PBP kicking in for uncovered costs beyond that.
(4) The Strategic Planning Committee will reconvene in February to discuss priorities to tackle in the NYSPHSAA's next five-year plan.
(5) The boys and girls swimming committees continue to lobby for consideration of team championship meets. However -- through no fault of their own -- there just doesn't seem to be a workable plan even though the Executive Committee has been hearing pitches for several years now.
Like indoor track, swimming is handicapped by the ratio of athletes to building size. Making the individual and team meets separate events incurs additional expense for a sport whose two state meets last school year lost a combined $29,000.
Sticking with a single meet and limiting the 11 teams representing a section to just eight competitors apiece (on the premise that many of them would have qualified individually as well) raises questions as to just how legitimate a team competition would be.
Also worth noting
• Sectional executive directors positions don't became vacant very often, but a plum one has opened up. Section 5 Executive Director Kathy Hoyt has announced her impending retirement, and
applications are being accepted through Aug. 14.
Aside from having the most member schools of any section and a mix of public, private, and charter schools -- making for an influential voice in big-picture issues -- Section 5 was at the forefront in establishing state tournaments in football and basketball. This spring, the section worked with the track and field committee to pull off a successful state meet at Webster Schroeder when literally no other school would bid when requests for proposals were put out in the field multiple times.
Additionally, the section has a deep bench of experienced committee members that the executive director can call upon when there's work to be done.
• The Central Committee meeting was Russell Bartlett's final one as immediate past president and the last for Tim Mullins as NYSPHSAA president. Serving as an officer is an eight-year commitment, meaning the two of them carried much of the burden of navigating the NYSPHSAA through the pandemic and its immediate aftermath.
Alden Superintendent Adam Stoltman begins his two-year term as president on Sept. 1.
"Serving as president of NYSPHSAA has been an incredible honor," Mullins told the Central Committee. "The strength of this association has always been the dedication of our member schools, volunteers, committees, and staff who work tirelessly on behalf of New York's student-athletes. I leave this role with great confidence in the future of NYSPHSAA and I look forward to seeing the association continue to thrive in the years ahead."
