Leading off today: The New York State Public High School Athletic Association added three new championship events to its schedule during Wednesday's quarterly meeting in Saratoga Springs.
The Executive Committee signed off on one request from the swimming committees and another from girls wrestling to add championships beginning in the 2027-28 school year.
Girls wrestling, which has grown steadily over the past decade, already holds individual championships to end the season. On Wednesday, the Executive Committee approved by voice vote the addition of a dual meet tournament taking place on the last weekend of January. It will follow a format similar to the boys tournament that launched in 2018.
Whereas the wrestling committee's request was expected to succeed after receiving no pushback while moving through the NYSPHSAA process, the fate of the request by the boys and girls swimming committees was anybody's guess right up until recent days. Swimming already conducts individual championships for girls in the fall and boys in the winter, but the committees had long sought to add official team championships to each rather than tallying up results for an unofficial title (and no trophy).
They met consistent resistance over concerns about expense and a format that would add competitors to meets that were already unwieldy. The final proposal had each section entering a school team consisting of eight members and an alternate to the existing individual championships. Since the rosters would consist largely of athletes who already qualified individually, cost became less of a concern.
And once the Executive Committee voted 12-10 earlier in the meeting to place more rigorous standards on qualifying for swimming and track and field meets, the swimming committees had their opening. The team championships proposal passed 12-10.
On the subject of championships, recommendations for venues for six sports for 2028-30 sailed through by voice vote:
- LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, boys ice hockey
- Harding Mazzotti Arena, Glens Falls, boys basketball
- Hudson Valley Community College in Troy,girls basketball
- Greenlight Network Grand Slam Park in Binghamton, softball
- Wild Wood Country Club in Rush (Section 5), girls golf
- SUNY Cortland, girls lacrosse
A couple of sport-specific requests were shot down.
Most notably, the baseball committee's request to let pitchers and catchers begin practice a week prior to the official start of the spring season was rejected by an 18-4 margin. (The scheduled vote on implementing lower pitch-count maximums was moved to February's agenda).
Finally, one of the reasons I attend the quarterly NYSPHSAA meetings is because seemingly unrelated matters occasionally get tied together unexpectedly, albeit indirectly.
In this instance, Section 6 brought forth a question during the time set aside for reps to raise concerns on behalf of their membership. At issue was the fact that not all sports use National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) rulebooks, raising a question about uniformity.
Probably the most noteworthy exception in the NYSPHSAA is girls basketball, which adheres to NCAA women's basketball rules.
One concern about NFHS rulebooks is that they evolve from the work of state governing bodies funneling input into eight regional committees for each sport. As such, they are jammed with compromises -- shot clocks being allowed but not mandatory in basketball, for instance -- that make the rulebooks anything but standardized.
Later in the meeting, a boys hockey committee proposal was scheduled for a discussion paving the way for an Executive Committee vote in February. However, the hockey committee asked to go directly to a vote Wednesday so that the rule could be enacted immediately.
The new option being allowed by the NFHS allows the non-offending teams to place the puck for the ensuing faceoff at either location (rather than the spot nearest the violation) following an icing or penalty infraction.
The Executive Committee is generally reluctant to fast-track requests, but the NFHS offered the option in May and the NYSPHSAA hockey committee didn't meet before July's NYSPHSAA session. Thus, Wednesday was the first opportunity to act in time for the 2026-27 season.
Maybe the early discussion about NFHS rulebooks was lingering in members' minds. More likely, however, the Executive Committee had concerns that a proposal worded as being for boys hockey was also going to be applied to girls hockey (without a paper trail that the girls committee was on board).
Following a procedural concern -- should the Executive Committee be voting yea or nay before first passing a motion to allow the vote? -- they rejected the request. At that point, it briefly became a question as to whether the proposal can be brought forward for a vote in February.
The good news for the hockey people is that, even in a worst-case scenario, they have multiple Executive Committee meetings between now and the 2027-28 season to get this squared away.
Canisius assistant resigns in face of suspension
Canisius assistant football coach Paul Woods resigned Wednesday rather than serve what he said is a one-year Monsignor Martin Athletic Association ban for making contact with a referee,
The Buffalo News reported.
Woods, 51, announced the decision on Facebook Live. The incident took place after last weekend's home loss to Syracuse CBA.
Woods said he apologized to the school, AD John Ricotta, the coaching staff, and the players. He added the referee disrespected him without elaborating.
"I did what I did out of emotions," Woods said. "I did what I did to protect our kids, and I'll do it again."
Woods called the incident ongoing and declined to explain what led to it.
The Monsignor Martin handbook says a coach who makes physical contact with an official intending to annoy, harass or intimidate shall be expelled immediately and banned from all sports. The Executive Committee sets the length, up to one year.
The most insane rally we'll see this year
Northport junior
Mikey Falasco was tied for 28th place, 10 strokes off the lead, after Monday's first round of the Section 11 boys golf championship at Pine Hills Golf & Country Club in Manorville.
However, windy conditions on the second day of the tournament clobbered most of the field while Falasco was able to grind his way through it. He followed is opening 83 with a 74 to finish at 11-over-par 157 and win by two strokes.
"Today, I had a lot more confidence because there was a lot less to lose," Falasco told Newsday. "I started off a lot better and just played better the whole rest of the day. ... Nobody's expecting much from the kid tied for 28th, so I just had the opportunity to play my game, and it worked."
Falasco hit his drives low, minimizing the effect of the wind, and he also went 4-for-4 on sand saves. Five birdies helped negate six bogeys in the second round.
Westhampton junior Daniel Schumacher rebounded from an opening 82 to card a 77 and finish second by two strokes.
Milestone victories
Bethpage defeated Calhoun 25-17, 25-22, 25-17 in a Nassau County girls volleyball contest on Wednesday to present coach
Anne DiPrima with her 700th victory.
DiPrima began at Bethpage in 1970 and became Long Island's winningest girls volleyball coach in 2017, when she eclipsed Smithtown coach Maura Stouter's 590 victories.
"I tell the girls, do what you love and love what you do," she told Newsday. "If you do that, you'll always be happy."
DiPrima retired from teaching and coaching softball at Bethpage in 2012.
• Spencerport blanked Gates Chili 3-0 in the opening round of the Section 5 girls soccer tournament, marking the 300th victory of his career for Spencerport's Jamie Schneider.
Section 5 school returns to the wrestling mat
Aquinas is
reviving its boys wrestling program after more than four decades with an assist from a longtime rival. The school has hired coach Christian Boley and strength and conditioning coordinator Brian Hahn to handle the team, which will be embedded in McQuaid's existing program for practices and training.
They will for the most part travel together for competition but compete as separate programs.
Boley was a three-time Section 5 champion for Brockport and a three-time NCAA Division I tournament qualifier. Salvador Cruz will continue to lead the McQuaid program.
