Leading off today: George Mardigan abruptly retired this week as Watervliet's boys basketball coach after 30 seasons and 546 victories, including a 2-0 start this season.
Walter Bowden, a former player under Mardigan and an assistant the past 15 years, ran practice on Tuesday and will coach the remainder of the season according to The Times Union. Mardigan met with his players on Monday to inform them of his decision.
Mardigan is a retired history teacher at Watervliet but had remained as a coach the past few seasons. He was 546-158 with 13 Section 2 championships and the 1991 state and Federation Class C titles. He never had a losing season and was inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame in March.
Fairport coach dies: Fairport baseball coach Pete Granger died this morning at his home following a battle with cancer, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
Granger, 54, coached Fairport to a third consecutive Section 5 championship in June and posted a 171-89 record in 11 seasons. he coached 31 years in the school district and taught at Northside Elementary School.
A tie at the top: West Genesee and William Floyd, convincing winners in their respective playoff finals over the weekend, will finish the season as co-No. 1 football teams in the New York state Sportswriters Association Class AA rankings released this afternoon.
West Genesee (11-2) dominated then-No. 1 Monroe-Woodbury, 42-21, in the NYSPHSAA Class AA final in Syracuse. William Floyd (11-0) extended its winning streak to 33 games by crushing Farmingdale, 42-0, for the Long Island Class I championship.
William Floyd picked up some additional recognition, moving to No. 25 in Sports Illustrated's national ratings.
Lights . . . camera . . . lawsuit: The dispute between Illinois High School Association and newspapers took a turn for the worse last weekend when photographers from five publications were denied access to the field during the state football championships.
It was part of an ongoing fight with the state press association over the right to sell photographs from high school championships. The issue escalated this month
