Leading off today: Abraham Lincoln advanced to its seventh straight PSAL boys basketball final at Madison Square Garden by beating Thomas Jefferson, 75-60, last night at St. John's University.

   Lincoln will be looking for its third championship in a row when it faces Boys & Girls on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Railsplitters beat the 'Roos by 27 in last year's final.

   Trailing by 11 after the first period, junior Lance Stephenson scored 10 of his 25 points in Lincoln's 19-7 second-quarter run that put the Railsplitters up for good.

   Boys & Girls, which split league games with Lincoln this season, earned its second straight trip to the final with a 68-55 victory against Thomas Edison as Brandon Romain poured in 20 points.

   Section 6 wrestler wins in Europe: Fredonia junior Carlene Slubersky won the 43-kilogram class at the Klippan Ladies Open over the weekend in Klippan, Sweden.

   Sluberski became Section 6's first female overall champion the previous weekend when she won the 96-pound title. She passed up the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament in favor of the event in Sweden.

   She was one of three individual champions from the United States, which finished fourth in the team standings. The event included 130 competitors from 18 countries.

   Sluberski finished 4-1 in the competition with a pair of pins.

   Difficult decision: At least three Bethlehem Central females athletes have been told to choose between attending a week-long church trip or remaining on their spring sports team, The Times Union reported.

   The students were told by varsity softball and girls lacrosse coaches that they could not play if they went to Mississippi to rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina during the spring break in April. The girls passed up the annual missionary trips in the past because they wanted to play. This year, seniors Lindsey Ryan and Kate Halvorsen told their coaches they wanted to travel to Mississippi with a youth group from the Reformed, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches of Delmar. A third student, Amy Halvorsen, chose to play softball instead of joining her sister on the trip.

   Kim Ryan, Lindsey's mother, said the school policy

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establishes the wrong priorities for students. "This is sending the opposite message that we as parents have tried to send since these kids were little," Kim Ryan said. "Kids should not have to make these choices."

   Bethlehem Superintendent Les Loomis said varsity athletes are expected to attend all games and practices. "Students have to make choices as to what comes first," Loomis said. "You can't necessarily have all you want."

   Lindsey Ryan, 18, was told before the season that she would be a co-captain and starting pitcher, her mother said. When Lindsey told her coach, Karen Gentile, after the tryouts that she would definitely travel to Mississippi, Gentile told her she had to choose between the team and the trip.

   Kim Ryan said she questioned the policy and a school official told her that her daughter did not have a good tryout and did not make the team.

   Rosati wrapping up 36-year career: Aquinas girls basketball coach Jack Rosati is retiring after 10 seasons at that school and 36 years overall.

   Rosati, 60, started with seven years of CYO coaching before moving over to high schools, beginning with a stint with JV boys at McQuaid. From there, he landed at Harley Allendale-Columbia, which turned into his first varsity job. Stints at Bishop Kearney and East Rochester followed. Then, 25 years into his coaching career, he tried his hand at girls basketball, first at H-A-C and then at Aquinas.

   A couple of noteworthy nuggets:

• He was the last coach hired by legendary East Rochester AD Don Quinn and the first coach hired at Aquinas by Dick Cerone, who righted the ship there.
• He landed all of his coaching jobs despite not being a teacher. Rosati spend more than 30 years with the Monroe County Children’s Center.

   I dealt with Jack a handful of times over my career and watched more than a few games he coached. I can remember seeing him get excited at times, but never angry.

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