Thank you for visiting NewYorkSportswriters.org, the online home of the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   I'll be posting various observations and from time to time answering some of your e-mails on this page in between my full-time job at DemocratandChronicle.com in Rochester and my efforts to add more content to this site.

Friday, Dec. 16, 2005

   This week's confirmation that people should be forced to pass some sort of intelligence test before being allowed to post their "thoughts" on Internet forums, courtesy of redwingron on Syracuse.com:

   "There shouldn't be rankings out until at least after Christmas break. Ranking teams on records of 2-0 and 3-0 is an utter joke. Nothing against New York Mills but how can anybody honestly form an opinion that they are #1 in the State thus far? In reality, there really needs not be any state rankings for any sport that has a true state playoff championship. The only ranking that matters is who wins it all. Is there any merit to being ranked high early? Will it effect your seed in the playoffs? Of course not. The rankings are really just a vehicle for the New York State Sportswriters to prove just how moronic and uninformed they are. . . . Somebody has to teach these clowns what classes the schools are in before their comprehensive state rankings can be taken seriously. Not for nothing, but how does Harry Dixon from Amherst know whether New York Mills or Southern Cowtown is number 1 in the state class D? But, we will continue to crow about the rankings and talk a lot about them on here."

   It would be easy to ridicule redwingron as ill-informed and shallow. In fact, that's the easiest analysis I've ever had to write.

Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005

   Add Rochester to the list of locales experiencing problems with fan behavior at basketball games early this season. A fight last night at Edison Tech led to two arrests and the game against East High being postponed.

   Two adults started fighting in a hallway, and that fight led to other skirmishes, Rochester Police Capt. Glenn Hoff told The Democrat and Chronicle.

   See the Dec. 10 blog entry below for information on other incidents around the state so far this season.

   I'm a huge Mike Krzyzewski fan. The man plays by the rules and has turned Duke into the elite program in Division I basketball. But that American Express commercial of his, which started airing last spring, drives me nuts. I'm at the point where I want the NCAA to ban that ad the same way Congress passed a law that keeps active athletes from appearing in beer commercials.

   Speaking of TV, how much more affordable might tuition at Duke be if the university hadn't bought ESPN? Ownership is the reason why the Dukies are on ESPN 14 times this season and ESPN2 six other times, right? I bet even Greg Paulus' family only plans to watch 10 or 12 games.

   The Buffalo News reports that Turner Gill will be at the University at Buffalo for a second interview today as the school continues its search for a football coach. Gill interviewed with AD Warde Manuel last week in Detroit.

   Gill is on the Green Bay Packers staff this fall. He was 28-2 as a quarterback at Nebraska and went on to coach Tommie Frazier and Eric Crouch as an assistant to Tom Osbourne. He has a reputation as a relentless and persuasive recruiter, which would certainly come in handy at one of the worst programs in the country.

   It says here, though, that if he gets the UB job and wins seven games in a season with the Bulls he'll be roamin' the sidelines in Nebraska again the following fall -- as the man in charge.

   Manuel, according to the newspaper's sources, also interviewed Michigan offensive line coach Andy Moeller (See related blog entry, Nov. 22) and UConn offensive coordinator Norries Wilson, who on Monday got the top job at Columbia.

   NYSSWA contributor Steve Grandin reports that Section 2 will have its first new football program in 35 years next fall when Hoosic Valley fields a team.

Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005

   Jim Melaro, a sportswriter for The Times Herald in Olean, came up with a gem of an observation the other day in his column about the selection process for the paper's Big 30 all-star teams in various sports. We're wrapping up the time of year when many newspapers (and the NYSSWA, for that matter) make their decisions on the fall season, publish their compilations and then get criticized from seemingly all precincts over slights real and imagined.

   To be sure, some wrong decisions get made and some worthy athletes somehow are overlooked. But, by and large, the writers making the picks and the coaches submitting nominations tend to have more experience and credibility than the offended parents and boosters who pepper them with questions or, worse, accusations of bias.

   Back in the late 1980s, I had a football father calling me twice a week for a month to complain that I'd erred by overlooking his son for All-Greater Rochester first-team football in favor of one of the young man's linemates. My decision had (barely) gone against how coaches had leaned during all-league voting, but it was consistent with what other observers thought and what I saw on the field during sectionals.

   Later, the coach of the two young men told me privately that he thought I had probably made a mistake but that he understood my explanation and considered it to be a reasonable decision. And then he gave me a "welcome to my world" speech, recounting how he'd just gone through his worst season ever of Sunday morning phone calls from fathers wanting to know why their sons didn't get more carries yesterday or play more downs or get mentioned in the newspaper write-up of the game.

   A few weeks later, the coach called me again and said he'd submitted his resignation. The more he thought about it, the more he'd become frustrated with dealing with the parents. He loved the kids and was quite good at getting results from them but he was tired of the parents.

   Interestingly, it's never -- and I do mean never -- the kids who do the complaining. Are they disappointed about being overlooked? Certainly. But they don't turn it into a cause. They just roll with it and quickly move on.

   Here are the last few sentences of Jim's column:

   "(P)eople who complain about All-Star picks often forget that high school student-athletes don’t compete to earn accolades.

   "They compete to enjoy their game of choice and learn some life lessons such as team work, dedication, sacrifice and leadership.

   "We believe the players who earn Big 30 All-Star status meet the standard in each of those areas.

   "And because of that, we don’t apologize for the selections made."

Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005

   We haven't even hit mid-December yet, but there have already been at least two instances of serious fan violence following boys basketball contests. The first was a week ago in Lockport, where "fans" of that school's team and Niagara Falls mixed it up after a first-round tournamnent doubleheader, causing officials to lock out spectators for the finals the following night.

   On Thursday, Carmel and Mahopac school officials had to deal with a brawl that erupted as fans were leaving the gym after another tournament semifinal. More than two dozen officers from five police departments responded to a call that as many as 250 young people were involved in an altercation. There was a smaller incident -- still, it involved as many as 50 people -- later that night outside a nearby restaurant.

   There were no serious injuries reported from either incident, and there was one arrest at the Lockport fracas and three at Carmel.

   Sheriff Donald Smith said anyone involved under the pretext of being a fan had "a misbegotten notion of reality," according to The Journal News report.

   We've said it before and we'll say it again: Young people are impressionable and overly emotional/irrational at times, but there is no excuse for violence and, for that matter, no reason for it. All fans, young and old, must act responsibly. That means resisting the urge to act like a thug, which really isn't all that much to ask in a civilized society.

   Don't spend too much time scouring the internet for results of Albany-area contests from Friday night. Many Section 2 events were wiped out by the weather as a snowstorm hit the Albany region on Friday.

   Snow storms in mid-December? Will someone please remind the blog author why he didn't pursue that job offer in Florida in 1989?

   Sweet Home basketball star Terrell Rankin is done for the season following an early-season knee injury. The 6-foot-2 Sweet Home (Section 6) junior, who was the ECIC I Player of the Year last winter, suffered a torn ACL and cartilage in his right knee after landing awkwardly following a layup. He averaged 22 points and six rebounds for the Panthers as a sophomore guard.

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005

   The latest NYSSWA weekly newsletter contains news of the late-summer death of Ricardo Pierce, 18, the leading scorer for Section 1 Class C basketball champion Lincoln Hall. Pierce's stay at Lincoln Hall, a residential treatment center in Somers, ended in March and he had returned to Rochester.

   He was gunned down Aug. 28 during an early-morning altercation at an party in Rochester, making him one of the more than 50 homocide victims in the city this year. Lawrence L. Buggs, 17, was picked up less than two weeks later by the U.S. Marshals Service and New York State Police. He awaits trial on charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

   The 6-foot-3 Pierce averaged 20.6 points for Lincoln Hall (16-7) and was selected second-team all-state in Class C by the NYSSWA.