The Suffolk Community College women's soccer coach was arrested yesterday for what police allege was a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

   Komi Afeto, 33, of Ronkonkoma was arrested when he showed up to meet the teen today, police said. They said he had known the girl since she was 10 years old.

   Afeto also coaches junior-high and high school-level club teams in Suffolk County. School board meeting minutes show he was appointed to coach girls soccer in the Connetquot School District's Oakdale-Bohemia Junior High in 2002-03. It was not immediately clear how long he remained with the district.

   His biography was removed from the college's web site by late afternoon.

   New on the site: We placed a poll question on the front page of the site this afternoon as another way of finding out what you're thinking. I expect to serve up a new question each Thursday afternoon, and I welcome suggestions for topics via e-mail.

   Yes, it's decidedly unscientific, and I haven't even determined if the software is completely stable at this point. But we'll play it by ear for now and see where it leads us.

   In response to a question we get from time to time, we have no desire to add message boards or forums to our site now or any time in the near future. I find myself visiting the boards at Syracuse.com and on Dyestat.com a little more frequently these days and remain convinced that too much of what's written is childish and calculated to incite rather than be insightful.

   That's entertainment: I only caught a few minutes of the action of last night's McDonald's All-American Basketball Game in Louisville but it was enough to confirm that the 'D' in 'Mickey D' does not stand for defense.

   The stretch of action I witnessed was mostly a series of coast-to-coast sprints, with the nation's best scholastic seniors needing not fear the repercussions of driving straight to the basket.

   I'm told that Niagara Falls' own Jonny Flynn actually stepped in front of his man and drew a charging call late in the first half. "That’s the first charge in McDonald’s All-American game history,” color commentator Len Elmore joked.

   I'm also told that Flynn, a 6-foot guard bound for Syracuse in the fall, looked like the real thing, scoring nine points and handing out six assists in around 20 minutes of action. The West stars defeated the East, 114-112.

   Gym light bulbs blamed for vision problems: Four suburban Portland, Ore., teachers say their vision was damaged by ultraviolet radiation from a broken high-intensity light bulb of the sort used in gymnasiums, factories, stores and other large spaces across the country, The Associated Press reported.

   At issue are metal halide bulbs, which burn bright white. A glass shield normally prevents the release of UV rays, but metal halide bulbs differ from ordinary household bulbs in that when the glass gets broken the inner quartz tube keeps burning. Exposure under those circumstances can burn the corneas.

   In most cases, the effects go away after brief treatment with over-the-counter drugs. But the four Oregon teachers say the pain and sensitivity have persisted for more than two years since a training session in a Lake Oswego elementary school gym.

   The teachers are pushing for a state law requiring schools to replace the bulbs with a kind that turns off automatically after being damaged.

   More than a few eyebrows are being raised by a lopsided softball score in Washington state a week ago.

   In case you missed it, Woodinville High beat Franklin, 64-0, in a KingCo 4A fast-pitch game. Lest we be tempted to climb all over Woodinville coach Jim Weir, please consider that Franklin's other three games this season were also losses -- by scores of 13-0, 24-0 and 30-0.

   "The last thing I want to do is disrespect any opponent, disrespect the game," Weir told the Seattle Times. "What happened is unfortunate. I have been questioning myself these last four-five days."

   Weir's team won a state championship in 2005 and finished third last year.

   Weir said he was shocked by the final score because

he was concentrating on coaching and not on the score. He stopped calling for the hit and run and tagging up after the score was 7-0. Surely, though, he must have at least had the feeling at some point that the score was a lot to a little.

   League coaches met Tuesday to discuss the blowout and search for solutions. The idea of dropping Franklin down to a JV schedule was vetoed since Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rules prohibit that.

   Coaches then voted to change the mercy rule to stop a game after the lead reaches 15 runs after three or more innings. The previous rule was 10 runs after five innings. There was no indication in wire stories what the Woodinville-Franklin score was after three innings, but the contest was halted after the top of the fifth.

   Gregg Petrocelli is being honored posthumously today as the state Class AA girls basketball coach of the year.

   The announcement came along with the player of the year awards selected by New York State Sportswriters and Coaches Organization for Girls Sports, whose annual picks are recognized by the NYSSWA as the all-state team.

   Petrocelli, 38, was coaching Elmont team in a Section 8 Class AA semifinal game Feb. 27 when he collapsed and lost consciousness. He died later that night from a burst splenal artery. He left behind a wife and two young children.

   The coaches of the year in the other classifications are:

• Class A: Steve Fallo of Lakeland
• Class B: Chris Koselny of East Aurora
• Class C: Phil White of Bloomfield
• Class D: Shawn Dack of Hammond

   Player of the year recognition for the 2006-07 season goes to:

• Class AA: Murry Bergtraum senior Erica Morrow
• Class A: Megan Mahoney of St. Peter's
• Class B: Sarah Soroka of East Aurora
• Class C: Margie McKinery of Elmira Notre Dame
• Class D: Brittany Kenyon of Hammond

   A coach's legacy: Pete Dyer's death last week served as a reminder as to just what kind of an influence a coach can have over the course of a long career.

   Aside from winning 169 high school football games, he also coached at the college level as an assistant and founded the Westchester Football Coaches Association.

   A number of his former players got into teaching and coaching, undoubtedly inspired at least in part by Dyer. One of them was Skip Violante, who later broke Dyer's Section 1 record for wins while directing Dobbs Ferry and Somers. Dyer's son Bill got into the profession and coached 20 years at Irvington, including 14 as head coach.

   Dyer also spoke at numerous clinics, had many articles published and wrote three books about various aspects of football strategies and formations. Contrast that with some of the more recent coaches who treat such information as something akin to state secrets.

   Mission accomplished, for now: The Red Raiders Booster Club, which raised $214,000 for Mechanicville sports programs this school year, announced a few weeks back that they will disband in June and work to help voters understand the importance of school budgets.

   The Red Raiders Booster Club rescued interscholastic sports after voters twice shot down proposed school budgets last spring, forcing the district to enact a contingency budget.

   Keep in mind, too, that Mechanicville's boosters did it the hard way -- by conducting fundraiser after fundraiser. Mahopac's boosters also did a stellar job this year after their district's budget was shot down and shouldn't be held at fault for the inappropriate $150,000 grant of taxpayer funds made by state Sen. Vincent Leibell.

   Don't look to me for solutions, because for one of the few times in my recent life I don't have an opinion. That puts me in the media minority, because several reporters have chimed in recently on the subject of the Federation basketball tournament held last weekend in Glens Falls.

   First up was Rick Carpiniello of LoHud.com, who on Sunday admitted from the start that he isn't a fan of the Federation tourney, which is supposed to bring together the best of the state's four sanctioning bodies.

   He brought the two obvious problems into focus by pointing out that:

   (a) This isn't a tournament of champions by any stretch of the imagination. The JFK girls punched their ticket into the Class A bracket by losing the PSAL large-school final to Murry Bergtraum. JFK's enrollment absolutely dwarfs that of Lakeland, their semifinal opponent.

   (b) The closest thing to a "home-town favorite" last weekend was the Lakeland girls squad, whose school is 159 miles from Glens Falls. A lot of fans who may have made the trip the previous weekend for the NYSPHSAA event weren't going to do it twice in seven days.

   This morning, James Allen of The Times Union in Albany chimed in by noting the lack of atmosphere as fewer than 5,000 fans attended the two-day event. There were 21,117 for three days of ball the previous weekend in the same arena.

   And, finally, Jason Molinet of Newsday flat-out called for the Federation tourney to be moved to New York City or Long Island. He pointed out that 10 participants were from New York City or within 40 miles of the Big Apple.

   At least as significantly, he rightly asked what's up with the schedule.

   Forget the Friday-Saturday format," he wrote. "No one is going to show up at 10 a.m. Friday to see a game, no matter how big. Life's obligations usually win out. So be sensible and go to a Saturday-Sunday schedule. It's not like there's the threat of a rainout."

   Again, I don't know what the answer is. But someone needs to take a crack at fixing the Federation tournament. As currently configured, it just doesn't work.

   Word arrived late tonight that Trent Jackson, arguably the greatest athlete ever to come out of Rochester, died today at the age of 65.

   'TJ' was a standout in football, basketball and track at Franklin High, where he would later return as a teacher and coach. He ran the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds in 1961 to match the national high school record set by Jesse Owens in 1933.

   Jackson, known as the Franklin Flash, earned a football scholarship to Illinois and was on the U.S. Olympic track team in Tokyo in 1964.

   He coached basketball at Frankln for 26 seasons, winning six sectional championships.

   You crack me up, Ed: Ed Grezinsky had this reaction to the news that Lorin Dixon of Christ The King had been named Miss Basketball by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York:

   "It's a disgrace," he told reporters in Glens Falls on

Saturday. "We love Lorin, but Erica (Morrow) is the best player in the city, the best player in the country."

   Two thoughts for the Murry Bergtraum girls basketball coach.

   (1) Don't ever use the word "disgrace" within five sentences of mentioning the name of a player from another team. It's not cool. Even in the context of standing up for your own player, it's insulting to someone else's kid.

   (2) Have you given any thought to apologizing for the Epiphanny Prince 113-point fiasco from last year? The backlash from that game cost Prince any chance she had of beating Tina Charles for the '06 Miss Basketball honor.

   It would be a shame if voters slighted Morrow, who by all accounts is another outstanding player, in any way because of animosity toward the coach. But it wouldn't be unprecedented either.

   A sincere apology would go a long way.

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