all, 40 of 69 schools will qualify, meaning that teams with 3-4 records — and possibly 2-5 — will advance.
That diminishes the importance of regular-season games, although it does align football more closely with the sectional participation rates of many other sports. Chuck Funke, Section 6 football chairman, told the paper there wasn’t any opposition to the new format.
"Our coaches said to their chairmen that, 'We want more people in the playoffs, for more people to have that kind of postseason experience,'" Funke said.
McShea also touched upon another sort of watering down: League all-star teams have become somewhat comical with Section 6's two six-team Class AA divisions selecting 30 and 29 players, respectively, to their first teams, with co-players of the year on both offense and defense in each division. It's no surprise, then, that these same coaches would favor more playoff teams even though it would almost certainly lead to a bunch of 42-7 and 35-6 mismatches in the quarterfinals.
And there's one more major drawback: With one less slot in the schedule for non-league games, the public schools have another excuse to duck Monsignor Martin Association opponents — not that they weren't already doing a stellar job of not answering the phone when ADs from the Catholic schools called to inquire about playing.
Molloy names new coach: Archbishop Molloy has its third girls basketball coach in four months with the announcement that Tom Catalanotto will replace interim coach Dom Cecala.
The announcement came one day after The Daily News named Cecala its girls basketball coach of the year. Molloy went 11-3 and won the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens title under Cecala after John McGlynn stepped down in January.
Cecala has decided he will not accept reappointment to his previous position as the JV coach.
Catalanotto most recently served as the assistant coach at Mary Louis.
Boeheim mentor Blackwell dies: Longtime Lyons boys basketball coach and AD Dick Blackwell died Tuesday in Mt. Dora, Fla., at the age of 85, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
Blackwell coached Lyons in the 1950s and 1960s, including teams on which current Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim starred. In 15 seasons at Lyons, Blackwell's teams won seven Wayne/Finger Lakes Conference championships with the Lions' trademark scrappy defense. The 1962 Section 5 championship game against East Rochester, played before a capacity crowd at the Rochester War Memorial, resulted in a double-OT ER win that is regarded as one of the most memorable games in area history in any sport.
