Friday, May 19, 2006
The much-delayed release of the NYSSWA's boys basketball all-state team finally took place this week. As usual, there are the accompanying player of the year honorees that need to be acknowledged:    Class AA: Jonathan Mitchell, 6-7 senior from Mount Vernon (Sec. 1)    Class A: Tyrone Nash, 6-7 senior from Lawrence-Woodmere (AIS)    Class B: Lesean Braxton, 6-3 senior from Lackawanna (Sec. 6)    Class C: Matt Newman and Will Cornett, 6-2 teammates from Campbell-Savona (Sec. 5)    Class D: Andy Marchand, 5-8 junior from C.G. Finney (Sec. 5) New of the dismissal of Jim Huntington as boys soccer coach at Edmeston last week was surprising and disappointing news.    Huntington directed Edmeston to the 2003 state Class D championship and the 2005 Section 4 Class D title, going 54-10-3 over five seasons.    There's a fair amount of speculation going around regarding the reason for the school board's 5-0 vote last month. If it's true that he consulted		with a college coach on how to handle a player, then Huntington made a mistake.    But if that's the extent of the rap sheet on him, then the school board quite likely made a bigger mistake. Speaking of coaches, Len Diaz's retirement from the Mount St. Michael track program later this spring will be a significant loss.    Diaz, who won his second straight CHSAA indoor title recently, left his post as a guidance counselor at MSM for similar responsibilities at Monroe-Woodbury recently.    The father of two young children, Diaz said he was spread too thin, hence the decision. Keeping on the coaching theme, Oneonta football is in great shape if bloodlines mean anything.    Adam Hoover, 26, is the son of Section 4's all-time winningest coach and grandson of another well-known coach. Dick Hoover, his grandfather, was 165-38-7 in 26 seasons at Vestal. Jim Hoover has coached Walton to 235 wins in 30 seasons.

Saturday, April 29, 2006
This weekend reminds me that I need to move something way up my "to-do" list in 2007: Return to the Penn Relays.    I've attended the annual relay carnival three times, but the last visit was several years ago, and the memories remain. There's just no beating the atmosphere and excitement of heat after heat of high school races, especially when the weather is just warm enough to allow athletes to pop some times.    If you're a track fan and haven't made the journey to Franklin Field, you owe it to yourself to get there some day soon. You won't be disappointed. As a matter of fact, yes I am gloating over developments on the Title IX front as reported this morning in The Post-Standard.    The gender discrimination complaint against Section 3 relating to girls volleyball got tossed by the U.S. Department of Education's New York Office of Civil Rights this month, meaning that volleyball leagues shouldn't feel obligated to move their seasons to the fall merely to allow champions to advance to the state tournament.    The newspaper's story says the interpretation of the lawyer representing Section 3 is that it's up to schools, not the section or the state, to determine at which time of year a sport should be played. That was my take all along, without having to involve lawyers or the government.    Section 3 Class AA athletic directors voted to move volleyball from the winter to fall starting this year after Liverpool AD George Mangicaro filed the Title IX complaint on behalf of his granddaughter. The complaint alleged that Section 3 volleyball players were being denied an opportunity to compete for a state championship as long as they could not compete in the fall.    Unfortunately, it appears Class AA will stick with its decision and play in the fall, while the four smaller classes will keep volleyball in the winter. Thumbs up to Long Island's Catholic high schools baseball league for using wood bats exclusively during this spring's season.    St. John the Baptist coach John Habyan, who pitched in the major leagues, told Newsday that wood		bats force players to learn "small ball" and rely on fundamentals.    "The game changes with wood," he told the newspaper. "The bigger innings are harder to come by. I love the change."    The two downsides of the switch, however, bear close monitoring. There have been more hit batsmen thus far because pitchers know they can throw inside without getting burned by "excuse-me," seeing-eye grounders that turn check swings into infield singles.    Also, wood bats break -- fairly often. At what point does it become cheaper to go back to six or eight aluminum bats at $75 apiece rather than breaking two or three wood bats per game? Stephen Hart's piece in the Staten Island Advance last weekend was an interesting bit of reading in the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse allegations.    At Duke, lacrosse coach Mike Pressler fell on the proverbial sword and resigned. Considering the nature of the allegations and revelations of other transgressions, he had little choice.    Still, athletes need to be held accountable for their actions and have have to abide by team rules. Coaches at the high school and college levels can't keep track of them 24/7, nor should they even try.    The whole process has to begin with coaches -- and parents -- instilling values from the start. They should be rewarding compliance and punishing violations. But the recruiting decisions do fall squarely on college coaches. If they can't sniff out most "character issues" before offering up a letter of intent it's because they either didn't do their homewaork or didn't want to know too much.    "With recruiting, you have to get a feel for the kid," College of Staten Island men's basketball coach Tony Petosa told The Advance.. "But every coach who recruits takes a chance on a kid that they might have some reservations about. That's one of the dangers ... especially for Division I coaches who are under more pressure to win.    "The best thing is when you recruit not only the kid, but his parents. The best kids are usually the ones who also have the most parental involvement."

Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Perhaps Jonathan Zimmerman was the victim of bad editing in Sunday's edition of Newsday. Otherwise, his essay entitled "Recruiting is also a scandal at Duke" is so far off target that it could be mistaken for a UCLA shot vs. Florida in the NCAA basketball final.    In the course of railing against "affirmative action for white people," the NYU history and education instructor expresses skepticism with respect to the academic credentials of many of the players on Duke's virtually all-white (46 of 47 players) men's lacrosse team, which was disbanded in the aftermath of sexual-assualt allegations made by an exotic dancer who performed at a team party.    Zimmerman infers that lacrosse ability was the sole reason, or very close to it, that many of these athletes were recruited and enrolled into an otherwise highly selective private university.    "Where's the outrage about this system?" Zimmerman asks. "Why don't the same critics who rail against 'preferential treatment' for racial minorities take to the airwaves to condemn affirmative action for white athletes?"    It's a question that would be worth asking if not for Zimmerman's failure to examine the racial makeup of other rosters at Duke and other private schools. A quick glance at media guide photos tells me that a fairly large number of roster spots in football and basketball belong to blacks and other minorities. That starts to tear a hole in the "affirmative action for white people" thing.    I suspect the balloon would really burst if he spent any time examining the composition of the high school teams and leagues that are the feeder system for college lacrosse. An overwhelming percentage of high school teams are from suburban and outlying communities, where the demographics are decidedly white.    Willie Sutton explained his preference for robbing banks by pointing out "that's where the money is." Well, the suburbs are where the players are. Does Mr. Zimmerman think Duke should be recruiting in South-Central Los Angeles rather than Long Island?		The swimming and diving committee of the National Federation has addressed one of the situations that's always driven me crazy. Beginning next season, a false start will no longer automatically require the recall of all the swimmers. Rather, the guilty swimmer will be disqualified after the race.    The starter can still recall a heat under certain conditions, but this change will speed up meets and, more importantly, not penalize the rest of the field.    "Because the first start is generally the swimmer's best start, the rest of the heat is disadvantaged by the action of one," Doug Glaeser, chairman of the rules committee, announced in an NFHS release. Speaking of rules changes, the wrestling committee of the National Federation has weighed in with some adjustments -- 14 to be exact.    A change in the overtime procedure and an increase of 10 pounds in the 275-pound weight highlighted the revisions announced last week.    After a trial in several states last year, a potential of one additional minute was added to OT. If no scoring occurs in the sudden-victory period, two 30-second tiebreakers will take place with scoring conducted as in a regular match.    If the score remains tied, one additional 30-second period will be held, with the first person scoring declared the winner. If no points are scored, the offensive wrestler wins the match. Previously, only one 30-second tiebreaker was conducted after the one-minute overtime.    The limit on the heavyweight class was increased to 285 pounds, the first change since 1987. Dave Gannaway, chair of the rules committee, said the additional 10 pounds will provide football players an increased opportunity to wrestle. Sisters Caitlin and Brittany Lane have transfered from Saratoga Sprints to Greenwich, according to The Post-Star in Glens Falls. Combined with the return of Chelsea Borbolla, Greenwich is about to be very, very good in distance events on the track and then in cross country next fall.

Thursday, April 13, 2006
The spring sports season is off to a fast start as a mild late winter and early April for much of the state minimized the number of postponed contests.    Before we turn our attention to lacrosse, track and the other spring sports, however, there's the matter of putting the wraps on basketball season. And we begin that process by announcing the 2005-2006 all-state girls basketball team.    Players and coaches of the year have been selected in all five classes. The honored players are: Class AA: Tina Charles, Christ The King. Class A: Judith Ann Ray,		Bronx Aquinas. Class B: Sierra Speed, Rochester Nazareth. Class C: Margie McKinery, Elmira Notre Dame. Class D: Jessica Laing, South Kortright.    The selections for coaches of the year are: Class AA: Stephen Shepanski, Rush-Henrietta. Class A: Dan Judd, Pittsford Sutherland. Class B: Pat Bassett, South Jefferson. Class C: Robert Kelly, Elmira Notre Dame. Class D: Harry Nissen, South Kortright.

Saturday, March 25, 2006
So it all comes down to one final day of basketball. The season that gave us the 113-point game, the return of fan violence to school gyms, J-Mac's four-minute rampage and new ire over old classification issues wraps up today with six games at the Glens Falls Civic Center.    The final two, of course, are the main events. Murry Bergtraum gets its rematch with the Christ The King girls, who had to struggle a little bit on Friday against upstate upstart Rush-Henrietta. They are the top two teams in the USA Today ratings.    The finale is the boys' large-school championship, and that game is seldom memorable but the talent is always enormous. It says here, though, that Abraham Lincoln vs. Mount Vernon will live up to the expectations. Each has had to battle hard against top-notch competition the last three weeks.    Neither will be in the mood to give up tonight. I feel an overtime or two on the horizon . . . Section 4 leagues are now wrestling with the girls volleyball issue, and it looks as though officials there are following the ill-advised path taken by Sections 3 and 5 in recent months.    It's a shame that some fundamental issues -- a crowded roster of fall sports and fewer opportuntunities for winter-sport participation, plus a lack of volleyball officials -- are being ignored.    Welcome to life in 21st-century		America. Fear of the dreaded Title IX trumps common sense. It's my blog, so indulge me for a moment as I turn a portion of today's entry into a vanity press.    I'm thrilled beyond words to report that I've been selected for induction into the Section 5 outdoor track and field hall of fame this spring. I'm being honored alongside athletes Karen Elliot (Blodgett) and Lisa Taylor -- both stars at the tail end of my writing career for the Democrat and Chronicle -- as well as high school/college coach Mike Woods.    And, yes, for the record I always figured I'd have a much better chance of being indicted for something before ever being inducted into something. Louis Orr got a raw deal at Seton Hall. The administration's complete lack of support for him these last two seasons, even after rallying this year's team back from a horrible start to a berth in the NCAA tournament, doomed Orr.    There was no way he was going to be able to recruit with short years left on his contract and no hope for even a token extension on the horizon.    It says here that he should be an instant candidate for any mid-major vacancy still out there (sorry, but Canisius is too drastic a step down for him), but Orr would look very good on the Syracuse bench alongside Jim Boeheim if Mike Hopkins finally gets a head coaching position somewhere.