Former Fairport AD honored: Dave Martens will be presented the Award of Merit from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association on Monday in Nashville, Tenn.
Martens, 72, is being recognized for his work at Rushford, Brockport and Fairport high schools, as well as his involvement at the state and national levels.
Besides coaching sectional basketball champions at Rushford and Brockport, Martens was a key organizer of Operation Offense, a drug prevention program that began two decades ago.
Martens is also past president of the NIAAA, which has more than 18,000 members.
Milestone for Fulton coach: Mike Conners collected his 400th career victory as wrestling coach at Fulton, but it certainly was not easy.
Senior Victor Garcia pinned Anthony Maneri of Phoenix in the 130-pound match to pull out a 29-27 victory on Wednesday at Fulton. Phoenix held a 27-15 lead with three bouts to go before Paul Slaver scored a technical fall and Tomas Garcia pulled out an 8-4 decision.
Title IX, a year later: The Times Union checked in on the cheerleading scene this week to report the effects of last year's federal decision that caused school districts to change their policies on when and where cheerleaders performed at basketball games.
As you may recall, the situation began with the mother of a girls basketball player for Johnson City who filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. She contended that the lack of cheerleaders at games made the girls basketball team seem less important than the boys and violated Title IX.
The TU's conclusion? "After a disconcerting start for some, cheerleaders and players are having fun with it. There are a few, however, who worry that cheerleading may suffer."
Here's the paragraph that has me scratching my head:
"The cheerleaders are upset," said Chelsea Daus, a senior who's been a cheerleader since freshman year at Heatly School in Green Island. "We only have one squad and we have to do boys' and girls' modified, junior varsity and varsity games. Some parents are a little concerned, too. I was doing homework on the sidelines the other day."
Is this accurate? One set of cheerleaders is performing at games for as many as six different teams? Please, please, please tell me that either I'm interpreting her words incorrectly or that Daus was not quoted accurately, because that much cheering doesn't leave much time for schoolwork and practice — or eating and sleeping, for that matter.
The article also points out an unintended consequence in at least one school district.
"The end result for us is that we don't have a cheerleading squad anymore," Whitney Point Superintendent Carol Eaton told the paper. "And it has happened at other schools too, we have heard."
The cheerleaders were upset that they wouldn't be able to perform at boys road games, so they quit.
