Leading off today: West Virginia is giving Jason Gwaltney another chance.

   Newsday reports that the former North Babylon running back has returned to Morgantown after a chaotic two-year stretch that had the No. 2 rusher (7,800 yards) in state history bouncing between West Virginia and Long Island.

   According to the paper, new coach Bill Stewart has told Gwaltney he must spend this year in the classroom and on the scout team before he can see the field. He will use a redshirt this season, leaving him with one year of football eligibility for the 2009 season.

   "As long as he goes to class, does what he's supposed to do, as long as he crosses his Ts and dots his Is, he's part of the family," Stewart said.

   Gwaltney ran 45 times for 186 yards and three touchdowns before a knee injury as a freshman in 2005. He ran afoul of then-coach Rich Rodriguez for skipping classes and physical therapy later that fall and left school. He re-enrolled in January 2007 but was stopped by police in the spring for underage consumption of alcohol, speeding and failure to produce an operator's license.

   Gwaltney has since spent time at Nassau Community College to get his transcript in order and resumed classes at WVU over the summer.

   "He's a tremendous football talent. He has a great future ahead of him," Stewart said.

   C-NS awaiting go-ahead: Cicero-North Syracuse athletes hope to have their field back in time to start the fall season.

   The turf field was shut down in April amidst safety concerns after the school board heard districts around the country were testing for lead contamination. A report issued this week by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, based on a sampling of fields across the country, showed that lead levels were in an acceptable range.

   If the board finds that report satisfactory, teams can begin practice there in mid-August.

   More budget issues: Add Pine Plains to the list of schools hit by financial difficulties after voters twice rejected the proposed school budget, forcing the adoption of a contingency budget.

   The district will continue to offer sports, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported, but there will be no scrimmages, tournaments or non-league games for its varsity nd JV teams this year.

   "Our schedule was actually better this year than it was last year," said field hockey coach Dick Meilinger, who has led his team to the state Class B semifinals in two of the last three seasons. "If we don't get these games, it affects a lot of things. I have to prepare my team for the playoffs. Does that mean younger players don't play as much? I hope this works out."

   Meilinger had Arlington, Carle Place, Lakeland and Rye on his non-league schedule to help develop his team's skills. There is only a glimmer of hope those games can be restored o the schedule through fundraising by boosters, but the non-league opponents may make other plans in the interim to fill out their schedules.

   The New York Times took note of the well-documented crisis at Mount Vernon and Wantagh this week, getting inside some of the numbers and the rationale behind some of the tough budgeting decisions those districts faced. The paper also pointed out that some U.S. schools have supplemented budgets by charging students fees that can run to hundreds of dollars, a practice prohibited in New York.

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