NYSSWA blog: Gatorade hands out national awards

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Leading off today: Junior quarterback Matt Barkley and senior middle distance runner Chanelle Price were honored today by Gatorade as national high school athletes of the year.

Barkley, a Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei High student who has committed to attend Southern Cal beginning in September 2009, is the second football player to win since the honor went national in 2003, joining Greg Paulus of Syracuse CBA in 2005.

Price, who recently wrapped up her career at Easton (Pa.) Area High and will attend Tennessee, is the first female track and field winner since world champion sprinter Allyson Felix in 2003.

Matt threw for 3,576 yards and 35 touchdowns as a junior, completing 63 percent of his passes with just nine interceptions for a 9-2 team. He's the first non-senior to win the national Gatorade honor and is rated the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2009 by Rivals.com.

Price ran sixth in the 800 meters against a world-class field at the Prefontaine Classic this month with a time of 2:01.61, second in scholastic history. She is a three-time PIAA Class AAA state champ in the 800.

Besides Paulus, the only other New Yorker to win the national honor since it was established in 2003 was Christ The King basketball star Tina Charles in 2006.

State baseball honors: Four of the five men who guided teams to New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships last month have been selected baseball coaches of the year by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

The honorees are:

   Class AA: Mike Chiapparelli (Mamaroneck-1)
   Class A: Gary Crooks (Maine-Endwell-4)
   Class B: Bob Fletcher (Somers JFK-1)
   Class C: Rocky Pasquale (Keio-1)
   Class D: Joe Melioris Sr. (Rome Catholic-3)

The five winners of Player of the Year honors also announced today are:

   Class AA: Jean Carlos Rodriguez (George Washington-PSAL, sr., pitcher)
   Class A: Brian Ruby (Maine Endwell-4, soph., pitcher and first baseman)
   Class B: Mark Kuzma (Waverly-4, sr., pitcher)
   Class C: Phil Pohl (Cooperstown-3, sr., catcher)
   Class D: Travis Renwick (Chapel Field-9, jr., first baseman and pitcher)

The full list of all-state selections from NYSSCOGS, the sister organization of the New York State Sportswriters Association, can be found here.

Lacrosse star de-commits: Literally hundreds of high school seniors find themselves trapped into commitments each year when coaches leave or are fired from the schools with which the athletes have already signed binding National Letters of Intent to attend the following fall.

Regrdless of the circumstances behind the coaching change, the players are almost always forced to honor their commitments under penalty of having to sit out a minimum of one season (and sometimes two) at a different school.

High school juniors, however, are not bound by the same rules because they cannot sign a Letter of Intent until after their senior year begins.

That took on added significance this week when Somers lacrosse star Joe Marasco changed his mind, de-committed from Ohio State and announced he will attend 2008 NCAA Division I champion Syracuse in a little more than a year.

Marasco's situation changed last month when Buckeyes coach Joe Breschi left to take the coaching job at North Carolina, his alma mater and a higher-profile NCAA program in the sport.

The Journal News reported that Marasco, coming off a 56-goal season, considered following Breschi to North Carolina before opting to switch to Syracuse, his favorite team while growing up. Three fellow All-Americans from the region — John Jay's Kevin Drew and Tyler Granelli and Brewster's Zach Badalucco — will be Syracuse freshmen this fall.

Extra points: Abby Wambach, the former Rochester Mercy star who has scored 99 goals for the U.S. National Women's Soccer Team, may have broken her left leg tonight in an Olympics tune-up against Brazil. Wambach was taken off the field on a stretcher.

Tony Fruscio, who guided Troy to a 27-19 record in five seasons before Jack Burger returned to run the team last fall, has been named football coach at Albany Academy, The Times Union reported. Former coach Paul Gallucci will remain at Albany Academy as the athletic director and also assumes that role this fall at Albany Academy for Girls.

St. John the Baptist rising senior Christine Huber, a Newsday first-team All-Long Island selection, has committed to play basketball at Rutgers. The 6-foot-4 center also considered Illinois, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland and Miami after averaging 17 points, 13.7 rebounds and 5.4 blocked shots as a junior.

Voters in the Hamburg School District gave the OK recently to install an artificial-turf field at the high school as part of a $1.85 million improvement project that includes the installation of lights.

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