NYSSWA blog: Vote on proposed wrestling regionals coming up Sept. 22

NYSSWA rankings are updated weekly.
See the latest plus the earlier weeks'
updates on our rankings page.

Leading off today: The sectional wrestling chairmen will be meeting Sept. 22 to decide whether or not to recommend to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Executive Committee that regional tournaments be held each year to determine qualifiers for the state championships.

The proposal has been taking shape over the last year, with its goal being to allocate state berths in a way that more closely reflects the number of schools competing in the sport in each section. The NYSPHSAA and the wrestling committee already took big steps in that direction in recent years with the introduction of wild-card entries to the state tourney.

The current proposal calls for the regional qualifiers (five of them for large schools, four for small schools) to be one-day events. The size of regional brackets would vary, but the state meet would continue to consist of 16-man brackets for each weight class in Division ! and Division 2.

If approved by bth the wrestling committee and the Executive Committee, the format change could take effect in 2010.

The wave of the future: The Poughkeepsie Journal has joined the list of Gannett newspapers making use of HighSchoolSports.net technology to provide schedules, results and other information on its local schools and their sports teams.

Gannett's Southern Tier papers (Ithaca, Elmira and Binghamton) had already made the conversion, while The Journal News' tracking of Westchester/Rockland-area schools continues to be done via MaxPreps and the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester is still utilizing technology developed in-house.

As is the case with the other major national sites, the usefulness of HighSchoolSports.net depends greatly upon the amount of effort put in by ADs and coaches at the respective schools. The more rosters, schedules, statistics and results they type in by using their password-secured account the more robust and useful the site can be.

Among the positives of HighSchoolSports.net is the ability for schools to provide freshman and JV schedules online in the same fashion and to allow users to get e-mail notifications if the AD makes revisions to the schedule for any of the school's teams.

The two big minuses are (1) school employees are being asked to do tasks that newspaper staffers used to handle, and (2) participation by the schools is optional (see Poughkeepsie's story). I can name a whole bunch of teachers who carry full classroom loads and also coach all 10 months of the school year, so they'll either have to find reliable help (and that's the key phrase) to enter the data or some of these national sites will continue to have gaps in their data.

What you'll probably see over the next five years is fierce competition between MaxPreps, HighSchoolSports.net and a handful of other national players to line up participating schools. Somewhere along the line, it will be confirmed that Charlie Darwin knew what he was talking about, and a few of these sites will disappear.

For openers: Courtesy of NYSSWA member Steve Grandin, here are the final 2007 rankings and their opponents this weekend as the New York high school football season commences:

Class AA
1-T  West Genesee-3 at Auburn
1-T  William Floyd-11 DNP
3.   Monroe-Woodbury-9 at #7 (A) Cornwall
4.   Curtis-NYC at Herbert Lehman
5.   East Islip-11 DNP
6.   St. Anthony-CHS at St. Joseph, Pa.
7.   New Rochelle-1 vs. Carmel
8.   Orchard Park-6 vs. Kenmore West
9.   Canandaigua-5 vs. McQuaid
10.  Minisink Valley-9 at Port Jervis
11.  Farmingdale-8 DNP
12.  Troy LaSalle-2 vs. Colonie
13.  Rush-Henrietta-5 vs. Brockport
14.  Gates Chili-5 vs. Webster Thomas
15.  Canarsie-NYC at New Dorp
16.  Union-Endicott-4 vs. #1(A) Aquinas-5
17.  North Rockland-1 at Ramapo
18.  St. Francis-CHS-6 vs. Holy Trinity-CHS
19.  Guilderland-2 at Bethlehem
20.  Cicero-N. Syracuse-3 at Central Square
21.  West Islip-11 DNP
22.  Churchville-Chili-5 vs. Marshall
23.  Ballston Spa-2 vs. Saratoga Springs
24.  Baldwin-8 DNP
25.  Longwood-11 DNP
26.  Freeport-8 DNP
27.  Shenendehowa-2 at Schenectady
28.  Fayetteville-Manlius-3 vs. Binghamton-4
29.  Yorktown-1 at #24 (A) Fox Lane
30.  Troy-2 vs. Queensbury
	
Class A 
1.   Aquinas-5 at #16 (AA) Union-Endicott-4
2.   Lansingburgh-2 vs. Glens Falls
3.   Carthage-3 vs. Horseheads-4
4.   Lawrence-8 DNP
5.   Ossining-1 at Horace Greeley
6.   Buffalo McKinley-6 vs. Grover Cleveland
7.   Cornwall-9 vs. #4 (AA) Monroe-Woodbury
8.   Indian River-10 vs. Beekmantown
9.   Sweet Home-6 at Kenmore East
10.  Burnt Hills-2 at Scotia-Glenville
11.  Eastridge-5 vs. Greece Arcadia
12.  Amsterdam-2 at Bishop Maginn

Also available online

Section-by-section weekly football schedule (PDF)

Enrollments and classes for NYSPHSAA football (PDF)

Partial list of football scrimmages

13.  Islip-11 DNP
14.  Archbishop Stepinac-CHS at Card. Hayes
15.  Bethpage-8 DNP
16.  Garden City-8 DNP
17.  Wantagh-8 DNP
18.  Eastchester-1 at Saunders
19.  Somers-1 at Harrison
20.  Cheektowaga-6 vs. Williamsville South
21.  Iroquois-6 at #18 (B) East Aurora
22.  Amityville-11 DNP
23.  Fulton-3 at Jamesville-DeWitt
24.  Fox Lane-1 vs. #29 (AA) Yorktown
25.  East Syracuse-Minoa-3 vs. Oswego

Class B 
1.   Rye-1 at #15 Pleasantville
2.   Chenango Forks-4 vs. #16 Waverly
3.   Geneva-5 at Waterloo
4.   Peru-7 vs. Malone
5.   Seaford-8 DNP
6.   Cazenovia-3 at Sherburn-Earlville
7.   Cobleskill-R'ville-2 vs. Cairo-Durham
8.   Westhill-3 vs. Bishop Kearney-5
9.   Depew-6 vs. Alden
10.  Sleepy Hollow-1 vs. Spring Valley
11.  Chenango Valley-4 at Corning West
12.  Bath-5 vs. East Rochester/Gananda
13.  Hornell-5 vs. Midlakes
14.  Ravena-2 vs. Hudson Falls
15.  Pleasantville-1 vs. #1 Rye
16.  Waverly-4 at #2 Chenango Forks
17.  Broadalbin-Perth-2 at Hudson
18.  East Aurora-6 vs. #21 (A) Iroquois
19.  Fredonia-6 vs. Pioneer
20-T Solvay-3 vs. Chittenango
20-T Xavier-NYC --
	
Class C 
1.   Bishop Ludden-3 at Cato-Meridian
2.   Dobbs Ferry-1 at Blind Book
3.   Cardinal O'Hara-CHS at Burgard-6
4.   Le Roy-5 at Batavia
5.   Unatego-4 vs. Oneonta
6.   Mount Markham-3 at Sidney-4
7.   Pembroke-5 vs. Batavia Notre Dame
8.   Bronxville-1 vs. Valhalla
9.   Cambridge-2 at Hoosick Falls
10.  Tupper Lake-10 vs. AuSable Valley
11.  Lansing-4 at Dryden
12.  Schuylerville-2 vs. Corinth
13.  Chatham-2 vs. #17 Watervliet
14.  Rye Neck-1 vs. Albertus Magnus
15.  Thousand Islands-3 at Lowville
16.  Rye Country Day-AIS vs. #18 L.I. Luth.
17.  Watervliet-2 at #13 Chatham
18.  L.I. Luth.-AIS at #16 Rye Country Day
19.  St. Mary-6 at Bennett-6
20.  Cleveland Hill-6 at Maryvale
	
Class D 
1.   Walton-4 vs. Tri-Valley-9
2.   Bolivar-Richburg-5 at Wellsville
3.   Ononadaga-3 at Beaver River
4.   Randolph-6 at #12 Portville
5.   Dundee-5 at South Seneca
6.   Maple Grove-6 vs. Catt.-Little Valley
7.   Dolgeville-3 vs. Mohawk
8.   Deposit-4 at Candor
9.   Groton-4 vs. Southern Springs
10.  Ticonderoga-7 at Saranac Lake
11.  Frank.-Schuyler-3 (now C) vs. Canastota
12.  Portville-6 vs. #4 Randolph
13.  Fort Edward-2 at Warrensburg
14.  Canajoharie-2 vs. Saratoga Catholic
15.  Weedsport-3 vs. Morrisville-Eaton

A lengthy look at turf: The Poughkeepsie Journal took a thorough look at artificial turf late last week, covering multiple aspects of the subject.

The most interesting piece was one dealing with the way FieldTurf and comparable surfaces can change the game: Speed is adding to the excitement of several sports -- but it might also be contributing to injuries.

"You'll definitely see more injuries," Chris Campilii, owner of the Center for Physical Therapy in Wappingers Falls, told the paper. "It causes more torque on the joints and the ligaments. Thus, you will see higher-speed injuries with more frequency."

That assessment shouldn't be confused with a belief that there are more overall injuries on turf than on grass fields or older artificial surfaces such as Astroturf. But we're possibly trading in some sprained ankles for twisted knees. "The speed of the game is much quicker," Campilii said. "You make a cut and someone hits you, your foot sticks a little bit better. You'll get much less ligament injuries on natural grass fields."

Nick Pizza opened the Hudson Valley Sportsdome in Milton four years ago and believes its Sportexe surface has saved many athletes from serious injuries.

"So many people hit my turf, and they hit it hard," Pizza said. "They go flying in the air, laying out for a pass. If they were playing outside on grass, they would be injured. No doubt about it."