The long-rumored shakeup in Section 3 became reality Friday as the Syracuse region's 13 largest schools broke away from the Onondaga High School League to form their own league beginning this fall.

   The formation of the Central New York Counties League will have no effect on sectional tournaments and won't change football at all because alignments are done at the sectional level, but it will shake things up a bit during the regular season in sports such as basketball and soccer.

   Cicero-North Syracuse athletic director Tom Tatham told The Post-Standard that the 42-school OHSL was too big for its own good. Smaller schools had the ability to cast votes on matters that affected primarily the larger schools, which made it difficult to realign divisions to help struggling schools with their scheduling.

   Well, there are only so many places to "hide" a struggling program when the league only has 13 members, but at least the members most affected by those types of issues will be able to make the decisions themselves.

   And, speaking of hiding, the members of the CNYCL have solved another one of their problems by leaving Syracuse CBA and Bishop Ludden behind. Those two private schools, which compete in Class AA in basketball, were not invited to join the new league.

   Officially, neither school met the enrollment criteria -- 950 or more students. Unofficially, private schools (especially successful private schools) are about as welcome in public-school gyms as ants are at a picnic.

   So now the OHSL will probably have to stick CBA and Ludden in a division with the league's largest remaining schools -- in Class A. But CBA and Ludden will still play in the Class AA sectionals unless Section 3 moves them down a notch -- or two . . . or three.

   CNYCL members will be under no obligation to schedule non-leaguers against CBA. Whether it was their intention to do so or not, they may have finally figured out a way of inflicting damage on the private schools. No longer will students at Ludden and CBA be able to enjoy small-school surroundings in the classroom while competing daily against the biggest schools on the field.

   And that is reason No. 33 why the New York State Public High School Athletic Association needs to address the "private-school problem" at the state level rather than letting the respective sections "solve" it on their own.

   Female sports pioneer dies: Ellen Hawver, the first woman

to serve as district AD in any of the state's large cities, died Saturday at the age of 88. She rose to the top of the Rochester school district's athletic program in 1977 and was a major force in launching girls sectional tournaments.

   She told the Democrat and Chronicle in 1977 that her priority was not placing girls sports above boys sports, but participation sports over spectator sports.

   "We've got to give the highest skilled kids a place to play," she said, "but we've got to give other kids a chance to try to be good at something."

   Political meddling resurfaces: State Sen. Tom Libous and Assemblyman Joe Morelle re-introduced the "Fairness in Competition Act," their attempt to screw up the NYSPHSAA wrestling tournament.

   Should it become law, the bill would more or less force state berths to be allocated based on the number of teams in each section. While it sounds fair, it would render several sectional tournaments meaningless as numerous competitors would step on the mat for finals -- or even semifinals -- knowing that they had already clinched state bids.

   The NYSPHSAA took a huge step last March by allowing wildcards into the tournament in Albany so that large sections such as Section 5 could have more berths. Eight of those "second chance" participants from around New York made it to finals, with two of them winning titles.

   That was a reasonable accommodation, and nothing else needs to be done with the possible exception of small modifications from time to time in how wildcards are allocated. It should, however, be noted that recent changes in the name of "fairness" -- splitting the tournament into two divisions and then adding the wildcards -- increased expenses for the NYSPHSAA and local school districts.

   The bill was first introduced in 2005 and passed in the Assembly by an 81-45 margin last session. Thankfully, the Senate adjourned without conducting a vote.

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