Leading off today: A judge has dismissed a felony assault charge against a Wallkill athlete who was charged with punching a Cornwall competitor in the face after a soccer game in Cornwall last fall.

   Jasmine Crespi was charged with a felony only because her team was visiting Cornwall's field. Orange County Court Judge Robert Freehill wrote that "there is no rational distinction between the treatment of an assault committed by a visiting student invited to the school, and an assault committed by an enrolled student." Prosecutors said they'll appeal the decision.

   Crespi, 17, still faces a misdemeanor assault charge, based on injuries she's accused of causing to Cornwall player Ashley Thorpe during post-game handshakes. Thorpe was treated for a broken jaw and facial injuries.

   Rankled by rankings: I'm guessing that relations may be a bit frosty between the folks at USA Today and ESPN.com responsible for high school sports rankings.

   The same man's byline resides on the first set of high school football rankings generated by both entities this week, but the 1-through-25 lists bear minimal resemblance to each other. So either USA Today's editors shook up Christopher Lawlor's rankings after he departed this month or Lawlor changed his mind about a whole bunch of schools upon starting on the ESPN payroll.

   A few examples:

• ESPN rates Miami (Fla.) Northwestern and Southlake (Texas) Carroll first and second, reversing USA Today's order.
• Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei, (No. 3 in ESPN, No. 9 in USA Today), Summerville (S.C.) (8, 13) and Miami (Fla.) Booker T. Washington (9, 16) all fare considerably better in ESPN's rankings.
• South Panola High in Batesvill, Miss., isn't good enough to crack USA Today's regional top 10 but sits sixth nationally according to ESPN.
• Among New York teams, St. Anthony's sits at No. 4 in both outfits' regional rankings. St. A's is 22nd nationally in USA Today but doesn't make ESPN's list of 25.
• Cincinnati Colerain fares five spots better (No. 18) at ESPN than in the newspaper's list. Crosstown rival St. Xavier was fourth in both lists.

   Lawlor, a graduate of McQuaid High in Rochester who compiled the USA Today ratings for seven years, said he completed the 2007 list before leaving for his new job at ESPN.

   "Part of my obligation to USA Today was to launch the (2007) ratings," Lawlor explained to Cincinnati.com before either entity published its lists this week. "What I submitted was that St. X is No. 4 and Colerain is No. 24. If they tinker with it at this point, I would be stunned."

   High-profile girls: HoopGurlz says Deleware phenom Elena Delle Donne is the No. 1 rising senior among girls basketball players, with six New Yorkers also making the top 100.

   New York's leading prospect remains guard Shenise Johnson of Rush-Henrietta, who's ranked 16th. Following her are Tyler Ash (Liverpool, No. 24), Samantha Prahalis (Commack, No. 30), Alexa Roche (St. Michael's, No. 47) and the Murry Bergtraum duo of Shakeya Leary (No. 54) and Krystall Parnell (No. 77).

   Faulty logic alert: The public vs. private schools debate has reared its head again on the Syracuse.com forums, this time on the girls soccer board.

   It didn't take long for one of the silliest and least meaningful arguments in the history of civilization to get trotted out. Let's give a round of applause to the private-school hater posting under the name "wisards32" for this insight:

   "It is not called the New York State PRIVATE High School Athletic Association Championship."

   That mentality was, is and always will be lame. Get over it, folks. "New York State Public High School Athletic Association" is a name. That's all it is, a name. It's not a statement. It's the name of an organization. An organization that has willingly accepted non-public schools as members.

   End of discussion. Now, start putting energy and constructive thought into the genuine issues in the public/private debate. Then come back and post something actually worth reading. Until then, you're wasting perfectly good bandwidth that could be dedicated toward watching YouTube videos of skateboarders maiming themselves while trying to execute impossible stunts.

   Extra points: If you want to get a jump on planning your winter entertainment in New York City, the PSAL has posted its 2007-08 boys basketball schedules, containing league matchups only. . . . LongIslandBasketball.com says Jim Plate has been promoted to boys varsity coach at St. John The Baptist. Plate, inducted into the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, was a scholastic star in the mid-1960s for Seton Hall High School for Frank Layden, then played at St. John's under legendary coach Lou Carnesecca. He must have some hilarious stories to tell.

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