Biggs missed the East Aurora team bus to yesterday's ECIC track championships, but he had one of the better reasons ever. While driving to school to catch the team bus, Biggs saw a toddler wandering in the middle of Sweet Road around 7:15 a.m.

   "What? Is that a little boy? I thought I was seeing things,” Biggs told The Buffalo News. "I go, 'Are you lost?,' and he was just crying, walking down the road. I took him by the shoulder and guided him over to the side of the road. Right when I did that, my sprinting coach was coming over the hill, and he probably wouldn’t have seen him."

   Biggs stayed with the toddler until police arrived and went door-to-doot to find the toddler's home. East Aurora police were not able to provide additional details, the paper reported.

   Biggs ended up driving himself to the meet in Cheektowaga, arriving an hour late, and went on to win the 100 meters in 11.34 seconds.

   New development in assault case: A state appeals court on Friday reinstated a felony assault charge against former Wallkill soccer player Jasmin Crespi, The Times Herald-Record reported.

   Cornwall police arrested Crespi on Oct. 31, 2006, after she was accused of punching Cornwall's Ashley Thorpe as the two teams shook hands following a game. Thorpe suffered a broken jaw and lost three teeth. Orange County Court Judge Robert Freehill had dismissed the most serious charge, pegged to a New York school violence law, on constitutional grounds, but now state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will get a chance to defend it.

   Since the game was at Cornwall's field, prosecutors charged Crespi with second-degree assault under the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act, a 2000 law that makes it a felony for a visiting student to attack a student at her home school. They also charged Crespi with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

   Freehill dismissed the felony charge last August, finding that "there is no rational relation to safety or safe schools if an assault upon a visiting student is treated less severely than an assault on an enrolled student."

   In Friday's unanimous ruling, the justices wrote that Freehill should have notified the state attorney general that he was pondering the constitutionality of the law. Michael Sussman, who argued the appeal on Crespi's behalf, contends that the Appellate Division erred because Freehill didn't decide the law's constitutionality. The case will now return to Freehill's courtroom.

   Double fault: A last-minute twist reduced the size of the field in the New York City Mayor's Cup girls tennis tournament over the weekend as The Dalton School and Riverdale Country School abruptly withdrew, The Daily News reported.

   Tournament spokesman Stu Miller said the private schools were informed by their state athletic association, the NYSAISAA, that any girls who competed in the 21st annual event would lose their remaining scholastic eligibility because they would be playing outside the fall season.

   Riverdale coach Jeff Nerenberg and AD Declan Walsch had no comment.

   ESG tryout creates problem: Chapel Field junior Nicole Robertson has been booted from the school's track and soccer teams because she skippeed a meet in order to try out for the Empire State Games, MidHudsonNews.com reported.

   Principal and coach William Spanjer said Robertson broke a rule by missing the track meet and that she can apply to the Christian school's board to be reinstated to play sports in her senior year. Spanjer said the teams are

small and they counted on Robertson.

   "I was hurt because next year I was most likely going to be captain of my soccer team and now if the board doesn’t approve, that’s not happening," Robertson said.

   Setback for football in Holley: The first season of varsity football in Holley could be over before it even starts because of budget problems in the district, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. It stems from the May 20 vote on the proposed $20.1 million budget for 2008-09, which failed by 32 votes.

   Holley's Board of Education adopted a $19.9 million budget proposal on Tuesday to put before voters on June 17. The revision eliminates the funding for football, modifed volleyball, remedial reading and math help for elementary school children and additional Advanced Placement courses.

   "We made all the cuts in programs that would have been new additions next year," board president John Heise told the paper. "We wanted to offer more opportunities for our kids, but as a school board member you have to weigh everything; extracurriculars are important, but when the choice is between that or a social studies or math class, what do you do?"

   Holley's JV football team was undefeated last year, and about 90 boys were expected to play at various levels next fall.

   More on the McKinley mess: Buffalo McKinley High Principal Crystal Barton has asked the state education commissioner to reprimand, suspend or remove Ralph Hernandez from the school board because he forwarded anonymous allegations about the school to the state, The Buffalo News reported.

   A letter from Barton’s attorney to state Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills charged that Hernandez bypassed the board’s internal investigation procedures "with the intent to besmirch Ms. Barton’s reputation."

   "Hernandez’s credibility has been shattered and his motives exposed," wrote attorney Richard D. Furlong. "To put it charitably, board member Hernandez’s actions represent a 'loose cannon' mentality which has and will continue to ill-serve district employees, taxpayers and most importantly, students. It is time to act before Mr. Hernandez does any more damage."

   In a related matter, girls basketball player Jayvonna Kincannon, whose seven-week suspension led to scrutiny of Barton, learned on Friday that she could not attend her senior prom or graduation because of an incident involving a McKinley teacher at a charity basketball game May 21. She will be home-schooled for the final month of the school year. School officials allege she struck a teacher during a scramble for toys that had been thrown onto the gym floor.

   Hernandez suggested that Barton made the request to discipline him because she is upset that a recent report by a special investigator was critical of her role in the earlier suspension of Kincannon. Hernandez had asked Mills to investigate allegations from a former McKinley teacher that the school gave special treatment to athletes, gave students advance notice of an essay question on a Regents exam and provided computers and cameras to local churches. An internal school district investigation cleared McKinley of nine allegations, and the state Education Department ruled unfounded a separate claim that a teacher helped students cheat on the Regents exam.

   "There’s no protocol that says I need to get approval from the board to send a letter to anybody," Hernandez said. "I think this is just their way of creating more turmoil for me."

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