Devey in the form of Guilderland's Roland Graves, who covered 2.7 miles in 14:02 on Saturday to win the Guilderland Invitational. Graves shaved 40 seconds off his time of a year ago in a meet that ex-teammate Rhodes-Devey (now at Texas) had won three straight times.
Debate club: It's never too soon to start the debate, and it's off at running on Long Island courtesy of an article in Newsday late last week.
Who wins a football matchup between St. Anthony's and William Floyd? Making his farewell appearance at the paper after an 11-year run, Jason Molinet asked.
Floyd coach Paul Longo, naturally, sides with his guys. "I think I've gotten our program strong enough that we'd be competitive," Longo told the paper. "I think it would be a great game."
For the record, Longo says he'd love to have the ability to play St.Anthony's in a non-leaguer and participate in the NYSPHSAA playoffs. Neither is an option right now. Floyd is locked into a rigid league schedule and set a Suffolk County public-school mark yesterday by beating Patchogue-Medford, 23-0, for its 23rd straight triumph as Brock Jackolski rushed nine times for 125 yards and three touchdowns.
For what it's worth, Molinet says St. Anthony's, also riding a 23-game winning streak these days, has too much depth -- 100 freshmen players, 70 JVs and 87 on the varsity -- again this year and would handle Floyd. As he noted, lineman Chris Auletta (Penn State) was replaced by Alex Fletcher (Stanford), who was replaced by John-Kevin Dolce (Virginia), who is now succeeded by Rutgers-bound defensive tackle Scott Vallone. That, friends, is depth.
Huge honor for Doherty: Long-time Pearl River girls track and cross country coach Dan Doherty, who's done considerable work assisting the NYSSWA with rankings and stats over the years, will be one of the recipients of the prestigious Frank McGuire Foundation Award.
The foundation honors distinguished tri-state high school coaches in all sports who exemplify integrity, achievement and a continual quest for excellence from themselves and their student athletes. A maximum of five coaches are recognized each year.
Doherty is a two-time national cross country coach of the year and has directed eight state championship teams in the sport. When you add up cross counhtry, indoor track and outdoor track, he has pulled down 66 sectional and 67 league championships.
This year's other award recipients are Tom Pugh, football coach at Holy Cross in Flushing; Chuck Gramnby, boys basketball coach at Campus Magnet; and Nancy Williams, softball and field hockey coach at Shore Regional in New Jersey.
Houskeeping: Catching up on a few items that I should have noted in recent entries . . .
Auburn senior lineman Nick Lepak has coommitted to play football at Syracuse next year. He was first-team all-state on the defensive line as a junior but figures to play on the other side of the ball for the Orange.
When Syracuse Corcoran defeated Auburn, 3-0, in boys soccer on Sept.6, it broke a 47-game losing streak dating to the 2004 season.
Extra points: It's about a month too early to get worked up about the data, but the CalPreps computerized football rankings are starting to take shape now that most upstate teams have three games under their belt.
