Leading off today: Six standouts from state championship teams landed player of the year recognition on the 2026 girls all-state lacrosse team released Wednesday by the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Emma Speed and Sophia Novelli, who led perennial power St. Anthony's to the CHSAA championship, are the co-players of the year in Class A.
Class B also has co-players of the year: Lila Kubrich and Vamryn Adrid of Victor, which captured the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship in June.
Sophia Buffardi of Sayville and Olivia Mulada of Cold Spring Harbor, NYSPHSAA champions in Classes C and D, respectively, round out the list of top honorees.
Mulada is a junior; the others are all seniors.
The full all-state team, edited by the NYSSWA's Joe Giannotti, is posted in our reference section.
GoFundMe campaign for former Albany Academy coach
Former Albany Academy boys basketball coach
Brian Fruscio is facing a long recovery at a Long Island hospital following a series of five strokes, prompting friends to launch a
GoFundMe campaign to assist Fruscio and his family with expenses.
The campaign was launched on Tuesday and had raised more than $45,000 by late Thursday afternoon.
Fruscio is 61-21 in four seasons as the coach at Canterbury School in New Milford, Conn., which is a New England Preparatory School Athletic Council member. Prior to that, he coached 15 seasons at Albany Academy.
Long Island volleyball teams venture outdoors
Smithtown East faced off against Smithtown West in a boys/girls volleyball doubleheader on Monday on a court set up on Smithtown East's football field.
"There had been talks about this for a few years, but to have the court here and stand on it is insane," Smithtown West's Briella Fields told Newsday. "It's not really East vs. West. It's more of a community thing and we're all here playing together."
The event came together with as assist from Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, which lent the school district its outdoor court.
Championships chatter
It's only in the very early stages of discussion, but the NYSPHSAA cross country committee has broached the idea of adding at-large teams to the state meet. While such a move would seem to be within association guidelines, particularly with respect to the Three-Region Rotation, there isn't an actual need to fill out the brackets in a sport that doesn't have brackets.
The committee also used its meeting last month to raise the possibility of restoring the fifth state classification, which was dropped in the fallout from the Great Recession.
Changes to either would have to work their way through the NYSPHSAA process and wouldn't take effect until 2027 or later.
• The football committee also met recently and is considering limiting rosters for the eight-man classification to 23 players.
It's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't predicament; no one wants to turn away prospective players, but fielding a 30-player roster tends to suggest the team could have been playing 11-on-11 ball.
Retired coach, administrator Marc Martone dies
Marcus "Marc" Martone, who coached against Jim Brown-led Manhasset football squads, went on to a career as an athletic director, and also served as president of the NYSPHSAA, died Aug. 28 at the age of 99.
Martone coached football at H. Frank Carey and then served as the AD for the sprawling Sewanhaka district's five high schools. He was active in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and served as the president from 1971-73. He continued with the NYSPHSAA as an assistant director and treasurer through 1992.
He was also president of the New York State Federation of Secondary School Athletic Association from 1977-80.
On the move
Amaya Harris is the latest Section 2 basketball standout to head off to a NEPSAC school. Harris, a 6-foot guard was a fifth-team all-state selection in Class AA at Troy High last season.
The Times Union reported she has enrolled at Darrow School in New Lebanon, where she has reclassified as a freshman.
"A lot of girls have re-classed and (college recruiting) has definitely become harder," she told the paper. "An extra year for improvement will definitely help. Being around players that are also serious about basketball is important."
New athletic director at Albion
Mike Sanders, who has coached baseball, football, and wrestling at Albion is the Section 6 school's new athletic director. He has taught English in the district for 16 years.
Sanders was honored as the Niagara-Orleans League coach of the year in wrestling last season.
