end multiple sectional championships will be held in lacrosse and track, and state quarterfinals will be on the schedule for baseball and softball. A year ago, the game was played on the weekend of the finals for boys lacrosse, a sport which features more than a few top-notch football players.
Lacrosse notes: A couple of noteworthy items from yesterday's action:
Shannon Smith, who broke the state girls career goals record Thursday, scored 10 of her 13 goals in the first half for West Babylon (6-1) in a 25-11 win over Wantagh (3-2-1). The 13 goals are No. 2 in state history behind Shari Maslin of Clarkstown North, who scored 15 in 2002.
In boys action, Andrew Ginter scored the deciding goal in the third quarter as Baldwinsville upset West Genesee, 6-5. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter on a muddy field. Baldwinsville goalie Jordon Marra made 14 saves against the six-time defending Section 3 Class A champs.
It's a man's job: The Daily Orange, the student newspaper at Syracuse University, explored gender trends in college coaching and reported that men continue to gobble up coaching positions in women's sports.
According to the paper, women coached more than 90 percent of women's team in 1972, the year Title IX took effect. Women now hold just three of every seven coaching positions, according to the new edition of R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter's annual study "Women in Intercollegiate Sport."
"When you look at the big picture of things, when the statistics show 42 percent," said Celia Slater, executive director of the NCAA Women's Coaches Academy, "that's when it gets your attention."
Since Dr. Daryl Gross arrived at Syracuse as AD in December 2004, there have been nine coaching vacancies on women's teams. He filled seven with men, although only once did a male coach replace a female.
"We want to give our student-athletes the best coaching and teaching available," Gross said via e-mail. " . . . It doesn't matter as long as they are the best we can get."
