Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006
Give me New York City's top teams and I'll take my chances on the basketball court against any other metropolitan opponent.    Give me Central New York or Long Island's finest in lacrosse and I'll take on challengers from all precincts up and down the East Coast.    But for pure domination of a sport on a statewide basis, give me New York's best in girls cross country and I know who'll win any day of the week and twice on Sunday.    The facts don't lie.    Saratoga won the inaugural Nike Team Nationals in 2004.    Hilton and 'Toga ran first and second a year ago.    And then Fayetteville-Manlius and Hilton went one-two this morning in the 2006 edition of NTN in Portland, Ore.    Three meets. Three N.Y. champions. From three different sections of the state.    You say you've got a contender to win NTN next year? Bring 'em on. My money will be on New York.    F-M rolled up just 128 points against the deep, 20-team field today, outdistancing Hilton (178) and everyone else. Mackenzie Carter and Kathryn Buchan finished fourth and fifth, respectively, to lead the way for F-M.    Shenendehowa placed sixth in the boys race, which Saratoga had won a year ago. Tina Charles, national player of the year last season as a Christ The King senior, is off to a strong start for the UConn women's basketball team.    Charles has been averaging 10.3 points and 9.5 rebounds in just 23.5 minutes per game for the Huskies, hitting 42.5 percent of her field-goal attempts.    By the way, Epiphanny Prince, she of the 113-point game for Murry Bergtraum last season, is also off to a flying start. She's averaging 17.8 points, 4.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds for Rutgers, coming off the bench to the tune of 30.5 minutes per game. It will be interesting to see if there is an appeal or a new strategy following last week's ruling by a Wisconsin court that Keith Michael Bukowski cannot sue his way onto a girls gymnastics team. For now, the court has correctly made a strictly technical ruling, leaving the question at the heart of the matter untouched.    The District 4 Court of Appeals upheld a judge's dismissal of the lawsuit against the nonprofit Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic		Association, which has a rule prohibiting boys from competing in girls' sports.    Bukowski filed the lawsuit as a high school junior in 2004, contending that he should be allowed to compete for the girls team because his school did not have a boys team. His lawyer argued that the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds, needed to be considered.    But the appeals court said Bukowski failed to show that WIAA, which sets rules for sports competition, could be sued under either argument; it's neither a state-operated organization nor does it receive federal funding that could be related to a Title IX claim.    Bukowski's attorney, Jared Redfield, told The Associated Press female sports no longer deserved what he called a privileged status because participation among women has increased since the inception of Title IX.    "Why not treat the genders equally?" he asked. "If women can go on our football team and they can wrestle in tournaments, why in the world if there's no access for a male to participate in gymnastics should they not be on the girls' team?"    The kicker to the story? The high school recently hired Bukowski as an assistant coach for the girls' gymnastics team.    Bukowski is now a student at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Oneonta sportswriter Rob Centorani was the latest to chime in last month regarding penalty-kick shootouts, which are used to determine which team advances when soccer playoff games end in ties.    While the number of people who support penalty kicks as the answer can be counted on the one hand of a bad woodshop teacher, I can't support Rob's idea of awarding points for shots that require the goalie to make a save. That changes the strategy at a critical juncture of the game, empasizing quantity over quality scoring chances.    Rather, I'd like to see each team have to take two players off the field at the start of the first overtime and, if necessary, sit down two more players in the second OT.    Getting it down to 9-on-9 or 7-on-7 -- or even 7-on-6 in the case of a red-card ejection -- bears more of a resemblance to real soccer than any of the other solutions I've seen without opening the door to endless hours of scoreless, 11-on-11 action when the winner must play again the next day.

Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006
Hilton's girls cross country team will seek to defend its championship next weekend in the Nike Team Nationals at Portland, Ore.    The Cadets were awarded one of the two remaining at-large berths this afternoon as organizers filled out the fields of 20 boys and 20 girls teams for the third annual event. Saratoga's long-shot hopes for an at-large berth on the heels of an NTN title in 2004 and runners-up status last year, went by the boards.    The Shenendehowa boys and Fayetteville-Manlius girls were awarded Northeast Region slots earlier this month following big efforts at the NYSPHSAA and Federation meets.    On Saturday, New York qualified its usual slew of runners for the Foot Locker national finals.    On the girls side, Saratoga junior Hannah Davidson was second, Suffern sophomore Shelby Greany sixth, Honeoye Falls-Lima senior Liz Deir seventh and Hilton senior Allison Sawyer eighth. Hilton's Caroline Schultz was edged at the line for the 10th and final spot by New Jersey's Danielle Tauro, who fell twice in the late stages of the race and barely		made it to the line.    Junior Caitlin Lane of Greenwich, bidding for a return trip the the finals, had to drop out of the race at about the 2.5-mile mark.    Among the boys, Tommy Gruenewald of Fayetteville-Manlius was third, Steve Murdock of Shenendehowa fourth and Brian Rhodes-Devey seventh. Three other New Yorkers were in the top 14 in a show of depth. I apparently missed the announcement on this, but Tony Bergeron left Wings Academy after going 31-1 on the basketball court last season. He's now the coach at American Christian, a private school in Aston, Pa.    Billy Turnage is the new coach at Wings, and it figures to be somewhat of a rebuilding year despite the presence of Drexel recruit Jamie Harris, a 5-9 point guard. East Syracuse-Minoa (9-2) and Chenango Forks (10-2) had the distinction of losing only to state champions in football this fall. Both dropped games to Corning East and Geneva.

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006
SYRACUSE -- Auburn's improbable run to a NYSPHSAA football championship, which was capped off by a 27-26 win in overtime over Monroe-Woodbury, certainly qualifies the Maroons for our top spot in the New York State Sportswriters Association Class AA ratings.    But it creates a problem: Does Auburn (10-3) deserve to stand alone on the top perch when there are four undefeated teams still out there? Our organization's braintrust will have to bat that one around in the next 36 hours, having already started deliberations this weekend at the Carrier Dome.    My gut feeling is we'll have to take St. Anthony's (11-0), Fort Hamilton (12-0) and Curtis (12-0) out of the equation. Though each ran the table, it was largely against mixes of teams that don't quite measure up. St. A's early win over St. Joe's lost some of it's impact when the Buffalo school lost to a good but not great Class A Aquinas a few weeks later.    With Bellport having been stunned today by Lawrence, that leaves William Floyd (11-0).    Floyd capped its season with a 42-20 rout of previously perfect East Meadow on Friday night Long Island's Class I bowl game and has two wins over an otherwise unbeaten Brentwood on its resume.    Bellport would have been a prime candidate if not for the 28-27 loss to Lawrence in Class II before Auburn took the field at the Carrier Dome.    I support giving Floyd a piece of the top spot although I really have no idea what we're going to end up deciding, but the remainder of the discussion should be lively. The 2000 U.S. census lists Auburn's population as 28,574, and almost a third of the citizens were at the finals to watch their beloved Maroons take on Monroe-Woodbury, easily making it the most crowded and festive title game in the history of the tournament.    For the first time ever, NYSPHSAA Assistant Director Walter Eaton said, the crowd filled all of the bleachers in the lower bowl behind one of the sidelines and spilled over the sections behind the end zones -- and not by just a little. Throw in the approximately 2,500 fans on the		M-W side of the field, and total attendance for the middle game of the tripleheader was around 12,500.    I've attended Syracuse University games where the crowd was larger and louder, but the Auburn faithful made themselves heard in a big way when Brandon Tape reeled in a 49-yard TD catch midway through the first quarter to offset David Lanesberg's 83-yard return with the game's opening kickoff.    The celebrations got progressively more deafening from there, culmin- ating with Darnell Murphy's 20-yard TD strike to Jeff Richardson on the first play of Auburn's OT possession and then Matt Hoey's second-chance conversion kick for the final margin.    By the way, it was the first overtime final since Dover defeated Syracuse CBA and Edgemont downed Elmira Notre Dame in consecutive Class C finals beginning in 1997. Not to be mean-spirited, but Gevena vs. Albany Academy was almost unwatchable after the classic between Auburn and Monroe-Woodbury. The five fumbles, six turnovers and six penalties in the first half of Geneva's 33-7 win gave the game the feel of playground ball rather than a state championship.    I decided that the first half's final play -- Andy Torruella's 45-yard scamper into the end zone after a lateral from John Warner, who had just intercepted the ball and returned it the first 40 yards -- was God's way of telling me it was time to get on the Thruway and go home. Could the Chris Wagner Era at Dobbs Ferry start with back-to-back championships? With the 24-0 win over Falconer in the 2006 Class C final now in the books, the Eagles have to be regarded as a substantial threat to repeat next fall.    Wagner, you'll recall, was pressed into service following the mid-May death of Jim MacKenzie, who had gone 11-1 last fall and took Dobbs Ferry to a Dome final against Sidney in his only season at the helm.    Though several played key roles, there were only eight seniors on this season's roster. Quarterback Trevor Saunders is only a junior, and all 232 rushing yards in the final against Falconer came by underclassmen.

Friday, Nov. 24, 2006
SYRACUSE -- A couple of quick hits from the Carrier Dome following Day 1 of the NYSPHSAA football finals:    Class A: I think I'd rather give birth to twins than try to defend against the Corning East offense.    With waterbuggish Coleman Flory at the helm, the Trojans simply wear the defense down by running a package of fakes and misdirections that leaves the opposition mentally numb over the course of the game.    As potent as Cornwall's spread offense can be, that style at least looks "containable." No such luck with Corning East's veteran cast in a 27-14 victory in the NYSPHSAA final.    Class D: If he had a chance to do it over again, I'm pretty sure Oakfield-Alabama coach John Dowd would kick the ball downfield with 6:11 to play rather than go for the onside kick against Tuckahoe.    Following Jason Kirkum's 73-yard TD throw to Tucker Smart, Tuckahoe recovered the ball at midfield and marched it in for the final points in its 27-14 victory. It's entirely possible the Tigers would have done the same thing had they started the drive at their own 25, but O-A might have forced Tuckahoe into a couple of third-and-longs along the way.		Joe Melendez ran for two short TDs and scored another on an eight-yard catch for the winners. The junior QB was 14-for-20 for 119 yards and no interceptions. With perfect weather in the forecast, I'm expecting Auburn and Geneva fans to make their way down the street in large numbers tomorrow, giving the Dome some atmosphere. Corning East fans turned out in strong numbers, and Cornwall brought a decent crowd as well. A tip of the Fedora to The Post-Standard for five and a half pages of All-Central New York all-star packages for football soccer and cross country in the Friday newspaper.    For all the space the paper devotes to Syracuse University sports, they always remember to take care of the scholastic athletes. The boys/girls double pulled off by Aquinas last weekend marked the sixth time in the history of the NYSPHSAA soccer playoffs that a school has won championships in both tournaments the same season.    Aquinas scored a double in 2000, Cold Spring Harbor did it three times (1985, '86 and '93) and Shenen- dehowa pulled it off in 1992.

Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006 (post-turkey dinner edition)
OK, you guys win.    I've gotten several e-mails from readers wanting my picks for this weekend's NYSPHSAA football finals -- they apparently plan on making money by flying to Las Vegas and betting against me -- so here I go: Monroe-Woodbury 27, Auburn 14 Corning East 28, Cornwall 20 Albany Academy 33, Geneva 27 Dobbs Ferry 28, Falconer 7 Tuckahoe 14, Oakfield-Alabama 12    I don't especially care whether I'm right or wrong. I'm just hoping for a steady diet of exciting games. I've been kicking the tires on this one for a day, trying to decide which recent cross country meet was the biggest strain on credibility since Charles Barkley had to defend a particularly inflammatory portion of his autobiography by explaining he'd been misquouted. St. Peter's won the Staten Island boys cross country title on Tuesday -- roughly 72 hours after the Federation meet, which allegedly capped the official New York post-season schedule by crowning a state champion. Section 2 held its championship meet a week the NYSPHSAA cross country intersectionals. Oh, wait -- the Federation meet only looked like a sectional meet because the Capital Region had 13 of the 32 boys or girls teams.    After thinking it over, let's call it even and resort to the sixth-runner tiebreaker. By a nose, we'll say holding the Staten Island championship after Feds was sillier, but just barely.    Regardless, it's time to stick a fork in the Federation meet. This baby is done. It serves no useful purpose.    It needlessly extends the season by a week for a handful of marginal teams good enough to win sectional championships but not good enough to win at the NYSPHSAA meet.    It's a thorn in the side of uber-harriers from Fayetteville-Manlius,		Saratoga, Shenendehowa and Hilton who would benefit from a "down" week between the state meet and the national postseason of Foot Locker and/or Nike Team National races.    And it achieves nothing for the CHSAA, PSAL and AIS entries, who win there about as often as supermodels accept dates with me. Bravo to the Lackawanna school board for pulling the plug on the district's varsity and JV boys soccer programs by a unanimous vote last week.    Lackawanna's players and fans have not exactly had a stellar reputation recently, and the shenanigans during and after a 3-2 loss to Akron in the season finale reportedly were far over the line.    One can't help but take notice when a rep for the local soccer officials board says he has concerns about the safety of his referees at Lackawanna games.    By dropping the sport for a year, to be followed by three years of probation, school board members have sent a strong message to the miscreants. Entries will be closing soon, and Albany Times Union free-lance writer Tom Robinson is the leader in the clubhouse for the 2006 Smart-Ass Journalist (yes, that's redundant) Award.    Lamenting how difficult it was to obtain results in a timely fashion at the NYSPHSAA cross country meet two weeks ago while trying to cover the event, Robinson noted, "The NYSPHSAA turned the assignment into investigative reporting."    Good stuff, though I don't lay the blame directly at the feet of the whole NYSPHSAA. It's really up to the organizing committee (oh, look, now I have a redundancy and an oxymoron in the same blog item) to be sure they have their act together.    And if they lacked the foresight to anticipate crashes, slips and slides at the finish line and the ability to sort them out quickly then perhaps they shouldn't be burdened with the responsibility of conducting future meets.