Leading off today: David Pitman, dropped as the football coach at Half Hollow Hills East after going 1-7 in his third season, was the subject of a rally by about 40 players and other supporters yesterday outside the district's administrative office in Dix Hills.
Protesters encouraged passing cars to honk in support of Pitman, and the sound of chanting and beeping horns drowned out conversation, Newsday reported. Students recently made T-shirts and collected about 500 singatures on pro-Pitman petitions.
Citing confidentiality laws, school officials did not say why Pitman was relieved of coaching responsibilities last week. He was 5-20 in three seasons.
"I would never attribute it to his coaching," former captain Jeff Burgazzoli, a freshman at West Virginia, told the paper. "He cares more than any other coach I've ever seen."
Pitman teaches social studies at Half Hollow Hills East.
Leading off today: Victor has been voted into the Monroe County Public School Athletic Association effective this fall, finalizing the growing school's exit from the Finger Lakes League.
The school is on track to become a full member in 2011 after a three-year associate membership. The Blue Devils' enrollment will be the fourth-smallest among the league's 21 schools, but Victor was steadily outgrowing the Finger Lakes League, where only Canandaigua has a larger enrollment.
As an aside, I've heard rumblings that the Monroe County football scheduling process is not going smoothly. Even with Victor's admission, the Class A division will possibly have only six members because Batavia (a Class B school by enrollment) is considering playing an independent schedule. That would leave the Class A teams with two non-league slots on the schedule.
ADs at Canandaigua, Newark and the like can expect calls from counterparts looking to schedule games, because many Monroe County ADs have shown a clear aversion to playing Richester City School District opponents or private schools such as Aquinas and McQuaid. The logical alternative would be inter-divisional contests with Monroe County AA schools, but they can't risk missing sectionals because they earned fewer points by beating smaller schools.
Working overtime: Lance Stephenson (33 points) fouled out with 12 seconds left in the first overtime, but No. 1 Abraham Lincoln still beat No. 13 Boys and Girls in a rematch of the 2007 PSAL title game.
The final was 109-95 in two overtimes.
Future Rutgers guard Pat Jackson finished with 26 points for Boys and Girls.
Eighteen games, three days: Organizers of the South Shore Christmas Classic have announced the schedule for their annual girls basketball event next week, and it's a loaded field.
Current No. 1's Rush-Henrietta (Class AA) and Newark (Class A) are on the schedule for three games apiece, and highly regarded metro-area teams Bronx JFK, Archbishop Molloy, St. Michael's, Mary Louis, Commack and Manhattan Center will also play. Six out-of-state teams complete the field.
Thursday, Dec. 27 schedule:
- JFK vs. A.B. Williams (Mass.), 1:30 p.m.
- Manahttan Center vs. Newark, 3 p.m.
