Leading off today: Four standouts from NYSPHSAA championship teams and two from CHSAA titlists are among those earning player of the year honors in boys lacrosse from the New York State Sportswriters Association.
The Class A honorees are seniors Daniel Rooney of St. Anthony's (CHSAA Class AAA champion) and Tim Plunkett of Iona Prep (CHSAA Class A champion), and junior Nolan Wieczorek of Massapequa, which won the NYSPHSAA final.
Senior Cameron James of Smithtown East is the Class B player of the year.
The co-recipients in Class C are sophomore Will Niejadlik of NYSPHSAA champion Rye and senior Devin Paccione of Wantagh.
In Class D, senior Rex O'Connor and junior Roy Testa of NYSPHSAA champion Cold Spring Harbor share the honor with senior Christopher Moshna of Marcellus.
The full 2026 boys lacrosse all-state team can be found in our reference section.
Newsday: Flag football cannibalizing L.I. spring sports
A Newsday examination shows flag football launched with 38 girls varsity teams and 1,010 players in 2023 and rapidly expanded to 66 varsity teams and 1,716 players this past spring for a 70% increase in player participation in that time frame.
Digging deeper into the numbers, reporters Jared Valluzzi, Gregg Sarra, Tess Ferguson produced a 1,900-word examination of a concerning effect: a decline in participation of other girls spring sports.
The paper examined participation data from the National Federation of State High School Associations and New York State Public High School Athletic Association -- some of which is incomplete or extrapolated to account for schools across the state that did not report data in a timely fashion. Together with interviews with coaches, administrators, and athletes, Newsday determined that participation in other spring sports such as lacrosse, softball and track and field has declined in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
For that same 2023 to 2026 window as flag football, the number of girls lacrosse players declined 18.4% (from 4,030 to 3,288), softball dropped 24.4%, and track and field slumped 16.5%.
"The numbers in flag football continue to climb each year,” said Tom Combs, executive director of Section 11. "We saw a huge enrollment in the very first year. We thought it was just the novelty and the excitement of a new sport, but that wasn't the case. It continued to trend up as more and more schools offered teams at the middle school and high school levels. And it'll continue to grow as athletes see possibilities in college programs."
The story notes that flag football is getting a significant boost from the NFL. The New York Jets purchased state championship rings for Half Hollow Hills and presented them to the team at MetLife Stadium during a preseason game Aug. 14. The team has also hosted media days at MetLife.
(The New York State Sportswriters Association previously reported that Buffalo Bills committed $10,000 a year toward the site bid that will bring the NYSPHSAA championship to Section 5 over the next three seasons.)
Some of the effects on participation are impossible to ignore. Wantagh, the Long Island Class A softball champion this spring, did not field a JV team after adding a flag football program.
Massachusetts approves Super 8 for football
Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association administrators voted Wednesday to adopt the
"Super 8" format for football, thereby restructuring the football playoffs.
The 12-2 vote sets off a classification realignment that balances the number of teams per class. It will also reduce the number of playoff teams in the six smallest classes and diminish the number of early-round mismatches, which was creating opt-outs.
Under the adjusted format taking effect next year, Division 1A will be formed from eight top-tier Division 1 and 2 teams. In Divisions 1 through 8, the top eight of approximately 34 teams will qualify for the postseason..
The MIAA also added a ninth regular-season game to the schedule and will continue to block out Thanksgiving for traditional rivalry games the week before state finals.
Veteran football coach steps down after first practice
MacArthur football coach
Bob Fehrenbach resigned after Monday's opening practice from the job he has held for 28 years, Newsday reported.
Fehrenbach, 59, retired as a physical education teacher last year and said not being around the students all day affected his coaching.
"The connection wasn't as close as years past, and I'd been struggling with this and thinking about it," he said. "Being out of the building all day and not seeing them in class or in the halls was a problem for me. I thought summer 7-on-7s, the morning workouts with the middle school, and elementary school camps would rejuvenate my enthusiasm."
Fehrenbach guided MacArthur to Long Island Class II championship games in 2002 and 2015. His career record was 151-97-2.
Assistant coaches Steve Fazzolari, Tommy Bobal, and Ryan Cunningham ran Tuesday's practice. The district does not have an AD following John Coscia's departure in June.
