You may have caught the United States' 120-84 rout of Lithuania this morning from Macau on ESPN. There was plenty to see, including Dwyane Wade's 19 points and Dwight Howard's 17 to lead a balanced attack, but it turns out the opposition had a memorable performer as well.

   Nine years after a most controversial cameo at Prattsburgh Central School, Rimantas Kaukenas led Lithuania with 17 points in the Olympic tuneup for both teams.

   Kaukenas had a solid four-year career at Seton Hall beginning in 1996, starting 91 of 119 games, averaging 10.9 points a game, knocking down 141 three-pointers and making 82 percent of his free throws.

   Before that, though, he had what turned out to be a season that never was for Prattsburgh, the third and final exchange student that came to the school from the former Soviet Union.

   Sitting at 18-2 and ranked No. 7 in the state in Class D, the Vikings had their accomplishments erased on the eve of the Section 5 tournament when the Steuben County Athletic Association's executive committee ruled Kaukenas, a 6-foot-4 swingman, was ineligible because he had played on Lithuania's Junior National team the previous summer and was not part of an approved foreign exchange program. Prattsburgh forfeited all of its victories and Kaukenas was banned from sectionals.

   In the previous two seasons, future Syracuse University fixture Marius Janulis carried Prattsburgh to the state tournament and Tomas Kersis helped the '95 team to an 18-3 record.

   Coaching changes: The Jamestown School Board voted to not re-hire Sam Restivo as the head football coach, The Buffalo News reported. He was 13-22 in four seasons as the replacement for Wally Huckno, who retired after 21 seasons

   Brian Fee resigned as Archbishop Stepinac's boys lacrosse coach after 12 seasons, the last nine as the head coach, citing a need to spend more time operating his new business. Fee will serve as an assistant at Iona Prep, where his son Shane will be a freshman in the fall, The Journal News reported.

   Horace Greeley varsity boys lacrosse coach Roy Colsey resigned for personal reasons after one season and an 8-8 record. Colsey said he told AD Steve Young of his decision in March, and last week he applied for the opening at Ridgefield (Conn.), where he lives. Colsey won two state championships as a player at Yorktown and two national championship at Syracuse, where he was the Division I midfielder of the year in 1995.

   Wantagh update: Boosters in Wantagh have turned over a check for $236,888 to the school board, assuring there will be varsity sports for the entire 2008-09 school year, Newsday reported.

   Wantagh had cut most sports funding after voters twice rejected the proposed school budget this spring. The school board agreed to fund fall varsity sports, and the check from Save Our Students will cover the other seasons along with fall JV and and middle school teams, said Mary Hall, the group's chairwoman.

   The donation will also go toward activities such as student councils, the high school yearbook and the middle school newspaper, and Hall says about another $128,000 has been raised but not yet allocated. That would leave about $285,000 needed to cover the expense of other sports and activities.

   Hall said the initial fundraising priority was to salvage fall sports in time to make sure the district could solidify schedules.

©2024 Abbott Trento Online Media.
All rights reserved.
Contact us via e-mail.