Leading off today: Rockville Centre South Side seniors Alaina Beyar and Kathleen Starsia are among five New York girls to be selected to the NSCAA/adidas Girls High School All-America Soccer Team.

   Beyar, a forward, and Starsia, a defender, helped South Side to its fourth straight NYSPHSAA championship last month and a No. 1 U.S. ranking by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

   The other New Yorkers named to the 78-player squad are Pittsford Mendon goalie Jesica Dulski, Oyster Bay midfielder Becky Caplan and Rochester Aquinas forward Ashley Grove. All are seniors.

   The honorees will be invited to the NSCAA All-America Luncheon, held Jan. 19 as part of the organization's annual convention in Baltimore, Md.

   Gatorade honors a junior: Junior quarterback Matt Barkley of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., has been named the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year. Barkley is the first non-senior to earn the award.

   Barkley threw for 3,576 yards and 35 touchdowns, completing 214 of 340 attempts with just nine interceptions in 11 games.

   Onondaga running back Latavius Murray was the New York Player of the Year.

   Middle blocker Erin Little of Burnt Hills was selected Gatorade's New York Player of the Year in girls volleyball. Winners in the other fall sports have not yet been announced.

   New digs at Chaminade: Newsday reported this morning on Chaminade's new Activity-Athletic Center, a $20 million facility that takes the place of the school's "The House of Noise."

   "Anybody who knows Chaminade, knows that this has been a long-needed project," the Rev. James C. Williams, the school's president, told the newspaper.

   Chaminade bought land for the project in 2004 and broke ground in April 2005. Besides the main gym, large enough for two full-length basketball courts, the center also has a wrestling room, a 270-seat auditorium, and a 160-meter jogging track.

   Speaking of facilities . . . A number of school districts asked voters to decide on sports-related spending propositions this week. Here's a rundown of some of the results we found:

• Voters in Greene approved a $36.1 million project that includes installing an artificial-surface athletic field at the high school.
• Voters in Fulton approved a $23.7 million plan that includes improvements to athletic facilities.

• East Syracuse-Minoa voters approved a $5.6 million project that includes a new turf field at the high school.
• Nyack residents rejected a $16.5 million proposal that would have included the installation of two artificial-turf fields.

   In addition, Warwick voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have shifted Greenwood Lake's secondary-school students from Tuxedo to Warwick Valley. Greenwood Lake voters supported the idea by a 1,045-338 margin. Warwick voters rejected the idea, 2,710-428.

   Holland Patent voters will decide in May on a proposal for a turf field.

   Canarsie to be converted: Brooklyn's Canarsie High has been placed on a list of underperforming schools and will be shut down this summer. The building will eventually house a number of smaller schools on the same campus.

   Canarsie played in a PSAL football final last month and started the boys basketball season with a No. 19 ranking in Class AA.

   Running the section: The Journal News took a look this week at the nuts and bolts of Section 1, and some of the numbers thrown out there are staggering, starting with the fact that Executive Director Greg Ransom's staff plays a role in overseeing 30,000 events each school year between the varsity. JV and modified levels.

   The 11-person staff includes one administrator who assigns all officials in every sport, which is a task that most other sections delegate to a dozen or more individuals. The projected cost of officials for the entire 2008-09 school year: $3.9 million.

   Reporting on CTK: The Queens Courier did a bunch of reporting on Christ The King girls basketball this week:

• Sophomore guard Cecilia Dixon, younger sister of 2007 Miss New York Basketball honoree Lorin Dixon, transferred to PSAL power Murry Bergtraum over the summer.
• Coach Bob Mackey called guards Bria Smith and Nia Oden up from the junior varsity for a game this week, making them the first freshmen on the varsity since Clare Droesch in 1998.
• Legendary former CTK Coach Vincent Cannizzaro was the organizer behind last weekend's third annual National Recruiting Showcase, a series of seven games pitting metro-area programs against top challengers from around the country.

   "This is like coming to the Garden," Texas A&M Coach Gary Blair said. "I’ve heard about this place all my life, but I’ve never been to Christ The King. . . . You want the national reputation, you come to Christ The King. This is the most well-known program in the country."

HOME | BLOG | RANKINGS | BRACKETS | REFERENCE | KERR CUP | ABOUT US

©2007-19 Abbott Trento Online Media. All rights reserved. Contact us via e-mail.