Wednesday, January 17, 2007
There are co-players of the year on the Class AA football all-star team announced today by the New York State Sportswriters Association.    Sharing the honor are Monroe-Woodbury senior quarterback Greg Sullivan and Auburn senior running back Quendel Ellison.    The Class A player of the year is Coleman Flory, Corning East's senior		quarterback.    The all-star squads and players of the year in classes B, C and D were announced by the NYSSWA last week. The season's first set of boys ice hockey ratings will be posted this evening, as will the weekly updates in wrestling and boys and girls basketball.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
The New York State Sportwsriters Association has announced the first portion of its 2006 all-state football team, with four seniors collecting player of the year recognition.    The all-state teams in classes B, C and D were announced today. Classes AA and A will be released next week.    The Class B player of the year is Geneva's Brian Fowler, a 6-foot-1,		205-pound running back.    The co-players of the year in Class C are Tony Jackson, a 5-9, 195 running back from Bishop Kearney and Kadeem Scott, a 5-8, 175 receiver from Dobbs Ferry.    Class D honors go to Lowell Robinson, a 6-1, 185 running back from Tuckahoe.

Thursday, January 4, 2007
Jamesville-DeWitt's stay at No. 1 in the state Class A boys basketball rankings may be short-lived, now that Brandon Triche has been lost for the season with a knee injury.    Triche, fifth-team all-state last winter as a guard, played with a sprained ankle last week as J-D won the CBA Holiday Classic. Additional tests subsequently showed a torn ACL in his right knee. Syracuse.com blogger Phil Blackwell also says tomorrow's much-anticipated game between Utica Proctor and Fayetteville-Manlius has been postponed.    It appears to be related to threats reportedly made against Proctor's Mario Whitehurst. Proctor's Dec. 22 game vs. West Genesee was also postponed. I assume it's his last chance, but Jason Gwaltney is getting		one more chance to play football at West Virginia.    Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez confirmed this week that Long Island's most celebrated running back of the last decade will return to school this month and can participate in spring practice.    The former North Babylon star, who rolled up 7,800 yards rushing and 135 TDs, left college in the fall 2005 due to academic difficulties. Believe it or not, it's actually a bit of a rebuilding year for the Christ The King girls, who already have three losses this young season.    Playing its usual strong national schedule, the relatively inexperienced CTK squad dropped back-to-back games to Long Beach, Calif., Poly, 64-48, and San Jose, Calif., Archbishop Mitty, 50-37, before Christmas.

Friday, December 29, 2006
The fourth of our five fall-season all-state teams was announced this week with the release of the boys cross country all-stars compiled by editor Tom Cuffe.    Leading the way is runner of the year Steve Murdock of Shenen-dehowa.    The class runners of the year are Fayetteville-Manlius senior Tommy Gruenewald, Ticonderoga junior Lee Berube, Hamburg sophomore Joe Whalen and Honeoye Falls-Lima freshman Alex Deir. Monroe-Woodbury senior Kramer Jakubek is competing on two varsity teams this winter.    Jakubek used to be exclusively a swimmer in the winter season, but he cleared 6-4 in the high jump last spring and is competing in indoor track now.    There is one potential scheduling conflict ahead: The state swim meet (in Buffalo) and track meet (Ithaca) are on the same weekend, making it impossible for him to compete in both.		The case of Jasmine Crespi, the 16-year-old Walkill soccer player whose punch after a game last month seriously injured a Cornwall opponent, will go to the grand jury next month.    Published reports have her lawyer indicating that the teen may claim the punch was justified. I've got to believe there was some pre-existing bad blood in the boys basketball matchup between Brandon High and Plant City near Tampa, Fla., last week.    The entire Brandon team and five starters from Plant City were suspended indefinitely pending an investigation by the state association.    Witnesses said up to 50 fans spilled onto the court in an altercation that lasted about three minutes but ended without any injuries or arrests.    The incident took place in the opening moments of the game, with Brandon leading, 2-0.

Sunday, December 24, 2006
Boys & Girls pulled a minor upset of Rice, 62-60, in boys basketball yesterday in PSAL action at the Gauchos Gym in the Bronx.    Boys & Girls also owns wins over Wings Academy and Abraham Lincoln already this year and is off to a 7-0 start.    So I have a question: Why don't folks make a bigger deal out of the fact that the Kangaroos are coached by a woman? I realize that she's a not a novelty -- there have probably been at least a dozen women coaching boys hoops in the PSAL alone in the last 15 years -- but Ruth Lovelace has won a bunch of games in her more than a decade as the woman in charge.    On the one hand, I'm happy that gender (like race) is no longer a barrier, or even a big deal in the coaching ranks. But considering she's coaching at the school that gave us Connie Hawkins, Pearl Washington and Lenny Wilkins, the woman does merit some attention. A tip of the cap to the PSAL for dealing swiftly and forcefully with the situation at Robeson High, shutting down the basketball program for the remainder of the season.    First and foremost, our schools exist to educate students in a safe environment. By all accounts, the gym there has not been a safe place during games for far too long.    Shutting it down and starting fresh, with better security and supervision, is definitely the way to go. I'm half expecting someone to file a Title IX complaint now that Freddie Thomas High in Rochester has dropped girls basketball for the season.    All things considered, the decision		was prudent. There wasn't a lot of talent there to begin with, and now half the roster is gone. Calling up JV athletes to play out the string would not have been a solution. I continue to be amazed by the volume of high-quality invitational fields on the basketball scheule. I made reference in a recent blog item to the Nike Super Six on Jan. 14 at Madison Square Garden.    There's a massive event that same weekend at Baruch College and Hunter College, bringing together 23 teams from seven states and Canada in the 4th Big Apple Basketball Invitational.    Among the highlights: Niagara Falls takes on Benjamin Cardozo from Queens at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 14, at Baruch, and then meets Manhattan Rice the next day at 2:30 p.m. at Hunter. Cardozo also plays Jacksonville, Fla., Arlington Country Day (ranked No. 9 by USA Today) on Saturday at Baruch at 8:45 p.m. Newark, N.J., St. Benedict's Prep (No. 3 according to USA Today) vs. South Kent, Conn., Saturday at 6:45 p.m. at Baruch. A personal note: Life is a little chaotic for me right now, so blog entries will probably be less frequent for a little while.    Thankfully, a couple of friends have offered to step up and help on daily headline updates, so we'll continue to have fresh content on the site each day.    Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Kudos to The Journal News staff, which continues to crank out enter-prise reporting in between day-to-day coverage, features, notebooks and multi-media projects.    The latest bit of work was a story yesterday noting how rare it is for Section 1 athletes to be able to stay home -- or even close to home -- to compete in New York State Public High School Athletic Association or Federation championships.    The timing, early in the winter season, seemed odd, but the story suddenly took on more meaning for me when the NYSPHSAA sent out a release later in the day to announce that tickets were on sale for the 2007 wrestling tournament in Albany.    Most of the release was nuts-and-bolts stuff, but the next-to-last line caught my eye: The 2008 NYSPHSAA wrestling finals will be at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.    With football locked into Syracuse, basketball a longtime fixture on the Glens Falls/Troy circuit, hockey always in Utica and lacrosse a Section 3/Long Island thing, there are few treats for the rest of the state.    Oh, sure, Rochester gets a state cross country or outdoor track meet every once in awhile, but nothing		else that really revs me up is ever available locally. Until now.    Wrestling hasn't been here since 1969, but now its less than 15 months away. Count on me being queued up in the line at the box office the day tickets go on sale. The 2007 wrestling finals at Pepsi Arena (which will be renamed Times Union Center at the end of the month) will be held March 2-3.    Weekend passes costing $33-38 are on sale at the arena box office, some Price Chopper stores and www.PepsiArena.com. The $38 package includes premium seating near the floor for the finals.    Single-session tickets -- there is one session Friday and two on Saturday -- are $12 apiece. A thank you goes out to girls cross country editor Dan Doherty for compiling the 2006 all-state team.    Junior Hannah Davidson of Saratoga is the recipient of Runner of the Year recognition, with Liz Deir (Honeoye Falls-Lima, senior), Shelby Greany (Suffern, sophomore), Mackenzie Carter (Fayetteville-Manlius, freshman) and Shaylan Tuite (Pittsford Mendon, 8th grade) earning the other class honors.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Buffalo News reporter Keith McShea made his annual plea today for the scheduling of non-league games between some of the region's public and private football teams.    Though I respectfully disagree with Keith on his contention that the Catholic schools should never be absorbed into Section 6, I'm on board with him on the rest of the column. There's no good reason for these schools to not be playing non-leaguers against each other.    The Monsignor Martin-ECIC Challenge in basketball has been held the last four years. Last weekend, the leagues split eight games, several of which featured top-notch action.    Western New York fans would love to see Orchard Park vs. St. Joe's and St. Francis vs. North Tonawanda. The private schools would jump at the opportunity, but public schools ADs and administrators have traditionally been the obstacle.    They've got spots open on their schedules. What are they afraid of? Rochester East boys basketball coach Darrell Barley is one of six former students who will be inducted into the Canisius College sports hall of fame on Jan. 20.    Barley, a 1996 graduate, helped the Griffs make three straight postseason tournament appearances, including the first trip to NCAAs in 39 years. He finished fifth on the Canisius career scoring list and eighth in rebounds. The lineup for the Nike Super Six at Madison Square Garden		on Jan. 14 is a good one, the New York Post reports.    Christ The King, currently 15th in the USA Today national rankings, plays Wings Academy at 1 p.m., followed by South Kent, Conn., Prep vs. Aston, Pa., American Christian, which is directed by former Wings Academy coach Tony Bergeron.    At 5 p.m., CHSAA powerhouse Rice plays No. 15 Chicago Simeon. We have a second charter member of our Shameless Political Pork and Patronage Hall of Fame (SPPPHOF).    The Times Herald-Record in Middletown reported last week that state Sen. Bill Larkin has been busy spending your money on items that school district residents should have been funding (or rejecting in the voting booth).    It seems Larkin has used his share of the state legislature pork barrel to allocate $75,000 to Monroe-Wood-bury for football equipment and $20,000 to Newburgh Free Academy's crew program for a new eight-man shell.    Faithful readers of this blog will recall that I took state Sen. Vincent Leibell to task earlier this year for sliding $150,000 of your money over to the Mahopac athletic budget after voters there twice shot down the school budget.    So that makes the score so far this school year: 2 state senators, 3 projects, $245,000 of your money spent on something that should have come out of school budgets or booster pockets.

Monday, December 18, 2006
The number 300 has a nice ring to it in basketball.    It's a milestone number that means something. When a coach reaches 300, he or she has been around awhile. It also tends to indicate they haven't been dabbling in mediocrity.    Because I've seen plenty of 100-win coaches whose loss totals are also in triple digits. And there are some 200-win men and women with winning percentages that don't blow me away.    But you generally don't get to 300 without putting in 22 or 24 seasons of mostly high-quality work. Lessers get weeded out by then, either by the administration or by deciding on their own that it's time to go.    So it's been nice to see the rash of recent additions to the list. In just the last week or so, girls coaches Bob Turner of Goshen Burke and Stephanie Joannon of Port Washington reached the 300 milestone. So did West Canada Valley boys coach Steve Porter.    A tip of the cap to all three, with a wish for much more success down the road.    Of course, there are less difficult ways to get to 300 these days. It's as easy as grabbing your bowling ball, driving to the nearest bowling center and lacing up the shoes.    Because by my count there have been at least seven perfect games rolled by boys or girls in New York high school leagues already this season. One kid, just a sophomore, did it twice in just over a week.    One explanation, the one that bowling supporters like to spin, is that participation is climbing. And that's true. In the Rochester area alone, there were 49 boys teams and 45 girls squads participating in the Section 5 tournament last winter.    School districts find it a fairly easy sport to add, especially because it doesn't put additional strain on facilities. You don't have to move JV basketball practice to 7 p.m. in order to accommodate bowling practice in the gym.    Another explanation for all this perfection has to do with equipment and technology. The balls are made of space-age materials that provide better balance and true rolls, and grips are engineered to give participants maximum control. Shoes are more comfortable than ever before. Wristbands and elbow supports protect against strains and help prevent bowlers from developing bad habits.    And then there's the ace in the hole: Lane conditions at some centers encourage high scoring. We called this "blocking" in the old days, and it's done intentionally or allowed to happen through neglect or insufficient maintenance.		The short story is that lane dressings have a huge effect on scoring. In the old days, balls would wipe away some of the oil-based finish, creating a fairly consistent track to the pocket.    Newer lane compositions don't wear down in the same fashion, but the dressing still comes into play. Dry outside boards and well-oiled inside boards benefit bowlers by correcting bad shots or at least reducing the damage.    The result is that United States Bowling Congress award scores are up at a rate that's above growth in participation. There's been ongoing consolidation in the number of bowling centers for two decades, yet the number of 298, 299 and 300 games is climbing.    It's up by 39 percent overall from the 1997-98 season to 2004-05 and up by 57 percent for youths. That's a little high in this era of booming internet growth, online gaming, Xbox 360s, etc.    There's no impropriety on the part of the young bowlers, but let's not get too excited about perfect games. They've happened early and often, and they're not as special anymore. Great moments in capitalism: The prep basketball quadrupleheader at Manley Field House yesterday in Syracuse was charging $13 for tickets ($11 for students 18 and under), with just two local teams in the event.    And the locals book-ended the day at the HoopHall Classic, with Syracuse CBA in the noon opener against Rice from the CHSAA and Jamesville-DeWitt in the 5:15 game against Niagara Falls.    That had to make for a long day for pure Section 3 fans who may not have cared much about the other two games, which were showcases for incoming Syracuse University players.    I'm thinking it would have been a little more fan-friendly as a pair of $7 or $8 doubleheaders starting at noon and 4:30 p.m. But I'm apparently in the minority, as 2,564 fans showed up to see the five incoming SU freshmen perform.    In the games featuring Section 3 teams, Rice routed CBA, 72-30, and Niagara Falls topped Jamesville-DeWitt, 81-75.    In between, Towson (Md.) Catholic scored a 70-65 win over Neumann-Goretti of Philadelphia, and Fitchburg, Mass., Notre Dame downed Cananda's Champlain-St. Lambert, 72-60.    SU recruit Jonny Flynn of Niagara Falls scored 33 points to offset 31 from J-D sophomore Brandon Triche. Flynn won the head-to-head battle in the fourth quarter, 17-15.