Monday, Nov. 6, 2006
Wow, did I ever pick a week to be unavailable for blogging and other random musings. To wit: A soccer game -- and a girls game, at that -- ends with a punch to the face and assault charges; Title IX hits the sidelines -- and hits hard; The transfer rule undergoes a major change.    I don't even know where to start, so I'll go to Plan B for now and ask this question: Will reporters be required to serve two years on the courts beat -- criminal or civil, either will do -- before being deemed qualified to cover high school sports?    We haven't even touched steroids testing. We haven't had a school sanctioned for recruiting violations. No Residential Treatment Center has suited up a championship-level basketball team yet. And already it's shaping up as a regal year for the legal system intruding on scholastic sports.    We'll reserve this entry, though, for the most serious subject: The fracas following the girls soccer game between Wallkill and Cornwall, which resulted in a serious injury.    Cornwall police charged Walkill's Jasmine Crespi, 16, with second-degree assault after Tuesday's		Section 9 Class A quarterfinal. Crespi punched Cornwall's Ashley Thorpe once in the face during post-game handshakes in an unprovoked incident, police said.    Thorpe, a junior, suffered a broken jaw and a fractured palate, and she also had three teeth knocked out. She underwent two hours of surgery shortly after the incident.    The lack of apparent provocation makes this whole thing frightening. The Times Herald-Record has reported extensively on the case in the last week, and no one was able to pinpoint problems during the game that might have suggested that a Class D felony might take place.    "It doesn't seem like anything precipitated this," Cornwall police Sgt. Philip Sinagra told the newspaper.    It was way over the line, to the point that school disciplinary action -- a suspension issued by the principal or district superintendent -- doesn't begin to address what needs to be done here. This is a case that clearly belongs in the court system.    And it's also a case that needs to be discussed at the community level. How did we get to the point where something so brutal and brabaric could happen because of a children's game?

Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006
Free, unsolicited advice for Syracuse CBA quarterback Mike Paulus: Keep your options open, now that North Carolina has announced that John Bunting won't return as football coach next season.    The Tar Heels are going full-speed ahead with the search for a replacement in order to give the new staff time to confirm commitments from Paulus and the other members of a strong incoming class. But there are only two pools of candidates to work from at this point: Guys who are unemployed, quite often for good reason. Guys who are currently employed elsewhere, are only halfway through their season and really should be concentrating on putting forth their best effort for the people signing their paychecks.    Butch Davis' name has come up frequently in connection with the impending vacancy, and it's probably a good thing for Paulus and the other potential members of the incoming class that his candidacy is now being downplayed.    The Paulus family is quite familiar with the recruiting process and won't rush into making a decision the way the Tar Heels seem to be scrambling. There's no harm in reviewing the list of finalists on Mike's roster of prospective suitors and checking to see who still needs a QB. Speaking of CBA, curious timing on the part of The Post-		Standard, which on Friday ran a package about the school's football program -- a week after their season-ending loss.    There was in-depth reporting by Donna Ditota, an indication that this story had been in the works for some time with the expectation that the Brothers' season would last for at least several more weeks.    Anyway, the report touched upon allegations of improper recruiting. And, once again, no one was able to offer proof of anything untoward. Hopefully that will put an end for now to the potshots that CBA and other private and parochial schools have to endure.    By the way, you can always count on Coach Joe Casamento for a colorful quote. His latest gem:    "If I could recruit," he told the paper, "we'd beat Colgate." So much for my live longshot in boys soccer. White Plains (14-3-1) saw its season end yesterday with a 2-1 loss to 14th-seeded John Jay in the first round of the Section 1 playoffs.    White Plains had gone to the state final four a year ago and had a late-season string of 11 shutouts. How did Arkport girls soccer amass an 18-0-0 record during the regular season? I'm not sure, but Megan Gee's 51 goals and 22 assists for 124 points were probably a factor.

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006 (evening update)
David Zapata is not in a class of his own, but the class he is in certainly has a mighty short roll call.    The Hornell junior scored six more touchdowns this afternoon in a 40-0 victory over Waterloo in the Section 5 Class B semifinals at PAETEC Park in Rochester.    Zapata, all 5-foot-8 of him, ran 31 times for 246 yards to bring his season totals to 34 TDs and 1,949 yards for the Red Raiders (9-0), ranked second in the state by the NYSSWA.    He's on pace to shatter the sectional record of 37 TDs in a season by Wade Rowcliffe of Cal-Mum in 1994 and already has found the end zone 60 times in his career, making him a candidate to become the fifth New Yorker ever to reach 100.    It's also not unthinkable that he can finish his career as the No. 2 rusher in state history, behind Onondaga legend Mike Hart (11,045 yards) but just ahead of North Babylon's Jason Gwaltney (7,800). He's already at 4,253 with as many as four games remaining this season. Best wishes to Nick Fitzgerald, who leaves Watervliet to take over next week as AD at South Glens		Falls in Section 2.    Fitzgerald played football at Watervliet and took over as head coach following the death of Dan Reinfurt in 1997, one of the truly tragic recent stories in high school sports.    He wrapped up a 69-28 career record with a 22-20 loss to Schalmont today, but the Cannoneers won four league titles during his tenure. It didn't quite match up to Reinfurt's 116-38-2 mark, but Fitzgerald helped heal the pain and maintain a winning tradition after Reinfurt's death. The Democrat and Chronicle wrote a feature on Rochester soccer star George Tor, who's lived a very full 17 years thus far -- born in Nigeria, spent two years in France, moved to the U.S. in 1998 and already a father at the age of 17.    The 5-foot-6, 140-pound junior midfielder generally plays against inferior competition, but don't be fooled. He has enormous talent and brought totals of 33 goals and 30 assists into the weekend and would be the featured player for just about any program in the state.    One wonders what else is in store for him down the road.

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006
Westhill's Dale Ross certainly had one of the all-time games last night in the Section 3 Class B football semifinals.    The junior tailback ran 27 times for 306 yards and four touchdowns, scored on an 80-yard catch-and-run play and picked off two passes as a defensive back. And, oh yeah, he threw a 13-yard TD pass off an option play in a 48-28 win against Holland Patent at Solvay.    Unconfirmed reports also had Ross, who stands 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds, selling 63 boxes of popcorn and 203 hot chocolates at the concession stand and leaping several tall buildings in a single bound.    "Dale was phenomenal tonight," Westhill coach Gary Griffo told The Post-Standard in Syracuse. "He had some big games for us earlier this season, but nothing like this. It seemed like whenever we needed a score, Dale made it happen, either by running the ball, or passing it or catching it." A tip of the hat to Joe Altieri, director of marketing and media relations at the NYSPHSAA, and state football chairman Dick Cerone.    They apparently prodded Rochester Rhinos management into enclosing the press box area at PAETEC Park this week, which should allow reporters and photographers to do their job at the Section 5 finals next weekend and again at the state semifinals two weeks after that.    It will still be cold in the press area, but rain and snow won't be an issue for ink-stained wretches. All our guys want is a fighting chance to be able to do their job, and it's too bad that a brand new professional stadium is so lacking.    Of course, Rochester has a history of doing things on the cheap. I don't think it's possible for anyone over 6-foot-2 to sit comfortably in Blue Cross Arena, and Frontier Field lacks any meaningful roof/overhang to		shield the paying customers from rain without retreating to the concourse. We received a few pieces of hate mail early this season when poll editor refused to start defending Class A football champ Amsterdam off at No. 1 in the 2006 season while the other four '05 titlists stayed atop the roost.    Well, Neil had it pegged just about right. A 6-3 season came to a close last night with a 50-30 loss to Lansingburgh in the Section 2 semifinals. Earlier this season, Lansingburgh tacked a 54-13 defeat on the Rams.    Still, that doesn't change the fact that Amsterdam has been a long-standing power in Eastern New York and figures to reach the state tournament again in the not-too-distant future.    Coach Pat Liverio is a gaudy 100-19-1 at Amsterdam. Is it my imagination or has every game story I've read this month contained the phrase "rain-soaked?" My already-foul disposition is not being helped by the soggy weather.    As bad as it's been in Greater Rochester, reports out of downstate have been even worse. And a drive through the Syracuse area last week revealed numerous fields and large yards with standing water. Rich Desiderio has been named girls basketball coach at traditional Section 1 powerhouse Haldane as the replacement for Andy Cameron, who became an administrator in Brewster this fall.    Cameron led the Blue Devils to their 13th and 14th consecutive sectional crowns the last two years. Before him, Ken Thomas guided Haldane to four NYSPHSAA championships.    Desiderio coached nearby Kennedy last winter.

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006
A few quick thoughts after a day of watching Mike Hart and Ray Rice excel on the football field again. Syracuse CBA had been living on borrowed time, so the Brothers' failure to reach the state quarterfinals wasn't surprising. But losing in the sectional opener to Fayetteville-Manlius was startling.    With CBA outof the picture, I just don't see a upstate challenger on the horizon capable of putting up a fight against the downstate survivor in the state Class AA playoffs with the possible exception of Orchard Park.    Still, if anyone offers me odds on the winner of Monroe-Woodbury vs. New Rochelle against the whole rest of the N.Y. field, my money's on the Crusaders and Huguenots to such a degree that I may not even bother going to the Carrier Dome for the final. Advance warning for reporters having to cover the Western semifinals of the state football tournament at PAETEC Park in Rochester in three weeks: The working conditions are horrible. I'm told that there is a lack of enclosed, heated seating in the stadium.    I've yet to attend an event there, but I heard from a reporter who's had to deal with the sub-standard conditions there. I can't believe Section 5, let alone the NYSPHSAA, would allow such a Mickey Mouse set-up.    I'll be shooting an e-mail to the		NYSPHSAA about this impending disaster right after I hit the "send" button on this blog. It used to be that the Clell Wade Coaches Directory was mandatory equipment for sportswriters on the high schools beat but that's not the case anymore.    I counted 258 high schools -- or about a quarter of all listings -- that lacked sport-by-sport listings of coaches names altogether or had not been updated from the 2005-06 school year.    Clell Wade also sells access to an online version of the directory, which does seem to have updated names for a number of schools. However, there is no access to the (limited) phone numbers and e-mail addresses found in the print version. Shenendehowa boys soccer coach Mike Campisi took a hit in the form of a letter to the editor recently in The Times Union.    My best guess is that Campisi regrets the harsh tone of his words in the aftermath of a 1-1 tie with Niskayuna. I don't know if it was the case here, but typically reporters hit coaches with questions literally moments after the game ends, and emotions can still be running high.    Everyone -- reporters, athletes, coaches and readers -- would probably be better served if there was a cooling-off period after games to allow everyone to collect their thoughts.