Saturday, July 1, 2006
Welcome back.    The fact that my last entry was nearly five weeks ago suggests that I intend to be an infrequent blogger during the offseason, but I have saved up a few items worth mentioning.    So, in no particular order, here we go: How is it that Army football coach Bobby Ross can welcome in a class of 66 recruits and not one of them is from New York?    I mean, c'mon, New Mexico had a kid recruited. Iowa had three. Jeepers, even Belgium has a kid on the incoming roster, which is a mix of true freshmen and graduates of West Point's prep school. I hate to say it, but Mahopac's budget defeat and its implications for schoastic sports programs, may just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg.    The board of education adopted a $95.8 million contingency budget that cut $2.8 million from the plan voters nixed. Gone are all extracurricular activities, including sports, and an additional 13.5 jobs.    Parents and boosters have started organizing, and they estimate they'll need to raise more than $1 million to restore sports and clubs. Without an infusion of substantial outside donations, varsity athletes could be asked to pay $432 per sport.    I applaud the board for trying to keep the increase in the overall budget under 4 percent, which qualifies the district for certain state benefits, but the implications are frightening. There's no way many families can afford an extra $1,300 a year to suit up their three-sport athletes.    On the other hand, school tax increases have been exceeding the inflation rate in any number of districts across the state as a matter of routine over the last 10 or 15 years. The middle class is		feeling the squeeze and is also getting older.    A lot of 30-somethings and 40-somethings either no longer have school-aged children or will be empty-nesters within a few years. They're going to make up a significant percentage of the population and they're going to be tired of paying for a service -- the school system -- they no longer use.    Taxes have to come down or more budgets will be shot down. Wanna bet there will be an average of three schools with pay-to-play sports programs in every section of the state by 2012? I hate the ESPY Awards, a contrived concept if ever there was one. But you know darn well I'm going online this week and casting a bunch of votes for J-Mac -- if for no other reason than to be sure that Kobe doesn't win.    By the way, how did the George Mason basketball team get on the ballot? All things considered, their Final Four run wasn't a big deal. I'm glad to see that aluminum bats are coming under increased scrutiny because of possible safety issues.    If safety alone isn't enough of a reason to go back to wood bats, then perhaps purists can convince the tinheads that scores of 15-9 on a routine basis aren't especially good for the sport.    For the record, I was opposed to alumninum bats even before I found out that many popular brands and models cost in excess of $250. Dan Bazzani has my vote this fall. There's no way he screws up the New York State Assembly any more than the current passengers on the gravy train.    While Bazzani is stepping down as basketball coach at Niagara Falls, he’ll remain as the AD.

Monday, May 29, 2006
You just knew that the story of 17-year-old Tatyana McFadden was going to have an unhappy ending. But I have to admit that I didn't see this scenario coming.    McFadden, a two-time Paralympic medalist, was disqualified from Saturday's 1,600-meter race in Maryland's state track meet after it was ruled she had paced teammate Alison Smith, who won the race before her time was tossed.    Without Smith's points, Atholton High finished third in the Class 2A meet.    McFadden, whose time wasn't counted because she was the only wheelchair competitor, finished ahead of Smith. But the next two finishers lodged protests that McFadden was racing near Smith and encouraging her along. That meets the U.S. Track and Field Association definition of pacing.    McFadden, who has spina bifida, filed a lawsuit this spring challenging the Howard County school system policy that forced her to compete separately from runners. A federal judge granted her a preliminary injunction until the case can be heard in full.    McFadden finished Saturday's race at Morgan State University in 5:01. It says here that she shouldn't have competed at all this weekend -- at least on the track with runners.    Wheelchair racing is a legitimate sport -- McFadden won a silver and a bronze at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens -- but it has little in commion with traditional track and field. The paucity of competition -- there are few U.S. high school wheelchair athletes competing anywhere in any sport -- makes inclusion in a traditional track meet a farce.    I won't even get into the potential safety issues, other than to point out that the first injury resulting from a crash with a wheelchair athlete will almost certainly lead to the first lawsuit and a sizeable monetary award.    I'm not callous -- my mother depends upon a wheelchair for much of her own mobility -- but I am a realist. Inclusion is great, but disruption isn't. Perhaps the opposition was waiting until the state meet to ambush McFadden with the pacing allegation, but the violation appears clear.    In the course of fighting for what they believed was right, McFadden and her family created a situation that affected and hurt a number of other athletes. Staying outside New York for a moment, you've got to love the progressive thinkers in the state of Connecticut who've decided that you can legislate sportsmanship by punishing the coach of any high school football team that wins games by 50 or more points.    Such routs are considered un-		sportsmanlike and offending coaches will be suspended for their next game, said Tony Mosa, assistant executive director of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference.    "This is something that we really have been discussing for the last couple of years," Mosa told The Associated Press. "There were a number of games that were played where the difference of scores were 60 points or more. It's not focused on any one particular person."    Some have dubbed it the "Jack Cochran rule," after the coach whose New London team had four wins of more than 50 points last year.    Connecticut's football committee looked at other options, including using a running clock once the margin reached a certain point in the second half. But Mosa said committee members believed that would penalize younger players who likely would be on the field during lopsided games.    "They should be able to participate (rather) than to simply run out the clock," Mosa said.    And that is where the lack of clear thinking on the issue begins. If we are assuming that younger players (for both teams) will already be on the field by this point, then why do we need any new sportsmanship rule at all? The only genuinely effective way to run up a score is for a coach to keep his starters in the game too long, yet the CIAC is saying that probably isn't happening.    And what about this scenario:    Team A rolls out to a 28-0 lead by halfime and benches its starters after the first series of the third quarter but still moves out to a 49-0 lead late in the fourth quarter after returning two fumbles a total of 25 yards for touchdowns.    The rather inept Team B then gets its measure of revenge by taking an intentional safety in the closing seconds, making the score 51-0.    Crazy, you say? I can think of three rivalries in Section 5 alone where coaches would make that choice in the blink of an eye. Thank you to Neil Kerr and Perry Novak, respectively, for putting together the boys and girls all-state basketball teams this spring. I heard only a handful of complaints about either list, and most was merely splitting hairs.    One e-mail, though, did stand out. I won't name names or get into details that might risk identifying and embarrassing the author's son, but let me say this:    Anyone who begins building a case for his own son by criticizing Johnny Flynn of Niagara Falls needs to step back and inject himself with a dose of reality. Immediately. And, for God's sake, stay away from any basketball game that I'm attending.

Sunday, May 21, 2006
There was terrible news out of Section 1 this weekend as word arrived that Dobbs Ferry football coach Jim Mackenzie suffered a fatal heart attack Friday. He was 56.    Mackenzie was a modified and assistant varsity football coach for two seasons before taking the top job on short notice last fall. Dobbs Ferry reeled off 11 consecutive victories before a 48-21 loss to Sidney in the state Class C final at the Carrier Dome. He also coached varsity softball since 2005.    Mackenzie is survived by his wife, Patricia, and three grown children — Michael, Ryan and Lauren. This is how high the bar has been set in Camillus. The West Genesee boys lacrosse team is 14-4 and folks across the state are asking what the heck is wrong.    West Genny is having its worst -- I can't believe I'm even using that word -- season since going 16-5 in 1992. To be fair, three losses were one-goal affairs and the other was by a 10-7 margin to Fayetteville-Manlius.    Still, this just doesn't happen to a Mike Messere team, particularly one with 15 seniors. The Wildcats have		been New York's champions of champions with an all-sports record 14 state crowns, including the last four in a row. Messere's career record is an absurd 639-40.    "It's not like we can't compete with good teams because we scrimmaged West Islip when we had a bunch of pre-season scrimmage games in Connecticut in March," Messere told The Post-Standard.. "At the very least, we played on even terms with West Islip that day, so I know what this team is capable of. Neither I nor my assistant coach, Bob Deegan, have figured out the problem. But, we're still working on it." Friday's news from Saratoga Springs was nothing but good as a Connecticut man pleaded guilty to trying to kidnap Saratoga Springs distance-running star Lindsey Ferguson following an Oct. 31 practice at the school.    John F. Regan, 49, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted kidnapping and will be sentenced in July to 12 years in state prison and five years of probation, prosecutors said. The plea doesn't affect charges of kidnapping, stalking and attempted sexual assault Regan faces in Connecticut.

Saturday, May 20, 2006
I was almost disappointed in the restraint that the tabloids showed yesterday in reporting that Danny Almonte is married to a 30-year-old woman, though you have to give The Daily News points for going with a quintuple-byline story, which approximately matches the resources that other newspapers typically put into quadruple-fatal car wrecks, indictments of governors and notebook compilations from pro football home openers.    Almonte, for the two or three of you who can't quite place the name, was being tabbed five years ago as the greatest Little League pitcher ever to emerge from The Big Apple. But the story soured when it was determined he faked his age and was two years over than the Little League cutoff.    He has now emerged as an above-average pitcher for Monroe High and is likely to be drafted by a major-league team next month. The papers descended on him early this week to write about his selection to play in a national all-star game, and somebody spilled the beans on his latest secret.    Almonte confirmed that he married hairdresser Rosy Perdomo in a City Hall ceremony last October.    This is hardly scandelous fodder. After all, people in Williamsport, Pa., will tell you the kid has always been mature for his age. The budget in East Islip got shot down by a wide margin this week, and the school board has decided it won't bother submitting a new plan for a re-vote, instead choosing to go directly to a contingency budget.    More than 60 percent of the 6,500 ballots opposed an $88.2 million plan that would have raised taxes by more		than 14.8 percent. The contingency plan is for $86.2 million -- still a 13.25 percent tax increase -- and kills off interscholastic sports.    In reality, parents and boosters will probably raise several hundred thousand dollars to restore at least a portion of the sports program, because that's the way these situations usually play out.    No such luck, though, for full-day kindergarten or a suite of Advanced Placement courses. Those offerings, and 45 teaching positions, appear as good as gone for the '06-'07 school year.    My question is this: How the heck did the board and the administration ever allow themselves to be in a situation that would require them to hit residents with such a large tax increase? It's hard to imagine voters accepting an 8 or 10 percent hit, so 13 or 14 percent qualifies as crazy.    Someone owes answers to a whole bunch of athletes. Beginning next season, only one warning will be given for any of the four delay situations before a technical foul is assessed, including the newly approved delay situation for water on the basketball court following a timeout.    This change was the most significant revision from the National Federation's basketball rules committee last month.    Besides water on the court, the other delay situations are for throw-in plane violations, huddles by either team and/or contact with the free-throw shooter, and for interfering with the ball following a made shot. Until now, a team could be warned for each transgression before a technical foul was assessed.