Leading off today: Onondaga has postponed its season-opening football game following a car crash Monday that involved several players heading to football practice,
Syracuse.com reported.
The Tigers were supposed to visit Hannibal on Saturday. Hannibal AD James Drancsak said Onondaga counterpart Ryan Cooper informed him Tuesday that his school would not be able to play. Cooper and coach Josiah Jones did not return phone calls, and Kassi Balduzzi, assistant to Onondaga Superintendent Robert Montgomery, declined referred an inquiry to the school statement issued to district parents on Monday night, the website reported.
It was not clear how many players were hurt, the extend of their injuries, or when Onondaga might return to the field. The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office reported four people taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries following the report of a vehicle crash into a tree.
Drancsak said he was looking for options for a replacement opponent for Hannibal.
Section 11 teams adjust schedules on the fly
Decisions this week by Port Jefferson and Amityville to drop varsity football for the season have sent Suffolk Division IV programs scrambling to fill out schedules.
Center Moriches, Hampton Bays, Kings Park, Miller Place, Wyandanch and Greenport/Southold/Mattituck had both schools on their schedules. Shoreham-Wading River and Harborfields had one opening to fill.
The division already had some built-in byes because of an odd number of teams, so sectional Executive Director Tom Combs said teams were able to add replacement games as non-league contests, Newsday reported.
That got all but one team back up to eight-game schedules, and it's possible non-league games against competition from outside the section could also be used to fill gaps.
Amityville administrators had gone into the past weekend thinking they might be able to field a team. However, they changed their minds Monday because nearly half the players on the roster were freshmen.
Where things stand ahead of Week 1
It's not unusual for teams to drop varsity football or switch to eight-man due to a shortage of players, but it does feel as though there has been more preseason turmoil that usual this year since the opening of football practice.
Here's what we know at the moment, as complied by Steve Grandin:
Section 1 -- Hastings canceled its Week 1 game vs. Dobbs Ferry.
Section 2 -- Cambridge/Salem and Hoosic Valley canceled their seasons; Stillwater/Saratoga Catholic, Lake George/Warrensburg/Bolton, Rensselaer/ Loudonville Christian, Hudson Falls/Fort Edward, and Broadalbin-Perth dropped to eight-man.
Section 3 -- None.
Section 4 -- Unadilla Valley canceled its season and joined the Unatego/Franklin combined program.
Section 5 -- Mynderse canceled its season and joined forces with Waterloo; Wilson/Early College also canceled, with players being shifted to the existing Edison/Padilla/School of the Arts/School Without Walls arrangement.
Section 6 -- None.
Section 7 -- AuSable Valley canceled its season and merged its squad with Peru; Ticonderoga canceled its season and joined with Moriah.
Section 8 -- Jericho canceled its Week 1 game.
Section 9 -- None.
Section 10 -- None.
Section 11 -- Port Jefferson and Amityville canceled their seasons.
PSAL -- None.
CHSFL -- None.
Monsignor Martin Association -- None.
NYSAIS -- None.
Tragedy strikes Adirondack CSD athletics
A two-vehicle crash took the lives of Adirondack modified football coach Darrel Gray and his daughter Nora, a gymnast and swim team member, last Thursday,
Syracuse.com reported.
Darrel, 52, and Nora, 17, were declared dead at the scene after the family's SUV crossed into the oncoming lane on Route 294 in the town of Ava and collided with a tractor-trailer, the Oneida County Sheriff's Office reported.
Darrel Gray was an assistant coach on the varsity football team from 2015-24 before becoming the modified coach last fall. He previously coached in the local Pop Warner league. The Adirondack varsity and Pop Warner football teams canceled games and scrimmages Saturday.
Nora Gray, a senior, was a diver on the swim team and was heading to practice at the time of the crash.
Corning promotes Streeten to head lacrosse coach
The new era of Corning boys lacrosse will start next spring with a familiar name leading the way.
With head coach Chris Hogue having stepped down after 12 seasons, longtime assistant Duncan Streeten is taking over in a move formally approved by the school board last week.
Streeten was the JV coach from 2018-25 and then Hogue's varsity assistant this past season.
Beyond that, though, the family connection makes Streeten more than just the next man up. He is the son of Bob Streeten, who chalked up 544 victories and a 1990 NYSPHSAA championship with Corning East before the district consolidation.
Duncan Streeten was an All-American at Corning East and went on to serve as a two-year captain at Binghamton University.
Corning's 2026 season ended with a loss to Ithaca in the Section 4 Class A final after six consecutive sectional championships.
Former LuHi star makes headlines with departure from LSU
The complexity of sports intersecting with the real world has rarely been more apparent than the pas week as rising basketball star Kate Koval departed LSU. The statement by coach Kim Mulkey characterizing "personal reasons" for the decision doesn't do the situation justice.
Koval was the Gatorade player of the year for New York as a junior at Long Island Lutheran and then took the New York State Sportswriters Association's honor in the top classification the following season.
Koval transferred out of Notre Dame after one season and played last season at LSU, where the 6-foot-5 center averaged 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. She would have been a key piece of the Tigers lineup for the next two seasons, but everything changed when Mulkey signed Anna Minaeva as an incoming freshman in mid-August.
The fact that Mulkey spoke to Koval about the impending development does not mitigate the fact that the coach was bringing in a Russian citizen at the same time Koval's father is in the Ukrainian army in defense of the ongoing Russian invasion.
It's not as though Mulkey is completely callous -- she reportedly changed the name of the team's "Russian Rebounding Drill" to the "Ukraine Rebounding Drill" last season in deference to Koval. But the highly successful coach can't deny that she placed winning, which goes hand-in-hand with her livelihood, ahead of a concern deeply important to one of her current players.
The contrarian view, of course, is that Koval may have surrendered the high moral ground of loyalty when she'd already transferred once previously. On the other hand, sometimes an athlete legitimately doesn't feel like the first choice out of high school was the right fit.
Coaches and players are all adept now at managing the nearly unlimited movement between schools that has become part of the college landscape. However, Mulkey's decision about what's best for the program came well after the transfer portal closed and potentially left Koval unable to play in the upcoming season.
