Leading off today: Hauppauge junior Jennifer Kellner won the NYSPPHSAA girls tennis singles title yesterday by downing top-seeded Olga Khmylev of Williamsville East, 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, at Eastside Racquet Club in Manlius.

   A year earlier, Kellner and Katherine Hanson, now at Stony Brook University, won the doubles title. She's played singles or doubles at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament five consecutive years.

   "It felt like a relief that it was over," the second-seeded Kellner told Newsday. It felt good to know I could be down by a lot, but still hang in there. I didn't think it was over, but I was losing a little motivation. But all of a sudden I hit a good serve, and thought I could serve my way out of it."

   Garden City sisters Kelsey and Jacqueline Raynor won the doubles championship with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Diana Lorentz and Margaret Iliev of North Rockland. The Raynors finished third in 2006 and lost the final to Kellner and Hanson in 2007.

   Whoops: In Georgia over the weekend, the state Region 7-AAAA championship game football championship between Sprayberry and Rome started at 10:15 p.m. because a scheduling mix-up with the Atlanta Peach State Football Officials Association resulted in no officials being assigned.

   Sprayberry eventually defeated Rome, 27-6. Officials were escorted by Cobb County police from the Kennesaw Mountain-Marietta game in Marietta after it ended Friday night in order to play the region title game.

   Rome officials were given the option of playing the game Saturday, but the school had chartered five buses for players and the band as well as spectator buses for the trip and chose to wait out the delay.

   The teams, bands and fans waited out a delay of 2 hours, 45 minutes; the bands performed during the delay rather than at halftime.

   A heavy weekend schedule and a general decline in the number of officials contributed to the mix-up.

   "Those games get swapped around,” said APSFOA vice president Keith Collis. “Some of those might’ve been farmed out to the GFOA (Georgia Football Officials Association) or Atlanta Area [Officials Association]. We had a really heavy schedule this week. There are some weeks where we may have 18 or 19 games, which is way too many, and we’ll get together with the GFOA and even it out. I do know we had [Rome vs. Sprayberry] originally, but it could’ve been swapped out months ago."

   Catching up on RFA: I've been running around quite a bit lately and didn't have a chance to mention that Mike Davis confirmed last week that he is stepping down as the football coach at Rome Free Academy. He told the Rose Sentinel that he made the decision many months ago.

   "My decision was made back in January and it had nothing to do with this season," Davis said. "I sat down and discussed it with my family, and after 35 years, it was time to step down."

   Davis was 43-32 in eight seasons as a head coach, including 6-3 this fall. He had taken over from Tom Hoke, who went 210-41-4 in 27 seasons.

   Davis informed his players and AD Mike Stamboly of his decision two days after a 28-0 loss to Syracuse Henninger in the Section 3 Class AA semifinals. Davis said he will remain as the school’s baseball coach and continue in his position as a phys ed teacher.

   Speaking of changes: This is college news rather than high schools, but Phil Kahler, 75, the winningest coach in NCAA Division III women’s basketball history, is stepping down after 34 seasons at St. John Fisher.

   Kahler’s retirement is effective Friday, and 24-year assistant Marianne O’Connor-Ermi will take over as "interim" coach. It will be a monumental upset if she doesn't get a permanent appointment after the season.

   Kahler leaves with a record of 797-175.

   I attended more than a few practices while covering Fisher as a young reporter, and Kahler always rated high for entertainment value. His humor was sometimes biting, but his insight into the sport was amazing. One of the most interesting strategies I ever heard was Kahler explaining that he always tried to schedule Fisher against the strongest opponent in the first round of tournaments because he didn't want a good coaching staff to be able to scout his Cardinals in the semfinals.

   Hoops sneak peak: Glenn Nelson of ESPN HoopGurlz did a nice piece last week on the girls basketball program at St. Michael Academy.

Fall tournament schedules NYSPHSAA football NYSPHSAA boys soccer brackets NYSPHSAA girls soccer brackets NYSPHSAA field hockey brackets

   Coach Apache Paschall has as many as 11 potential Division I players on the roster and St. Mike will be favored to win everything in sight this season, led by sharp-shooting Shenneika Smith. Besides a series of strong regional opponents, St. Michael has New York powers Christ the King, Murry Bertraum and St. John the Baptist on the schedule.

   According to Nelson, some of St. Michael's biggest challenges go beyond the schedule. Their home court, which is not regulation sized, was rented out through early this month, so the Eagles had to work out at various locations such as Henry Street Housing Settlement, near the Brooklyn Bridge. St. Michael also has not bought new uniforms, Paschall estimates, in about 15 years.

   Rights fees follow-up: I mentioned the issue of rights fees last week in a blog and wanted to both clean up and elaborate on some details.

   Reporter Kevin Gleason passed along some additional info. While I cited a fee scale in the range of $150 to $400 being charged to radio stations wanting to broadcast sectional games, Gleason says he believes that the two stations that elected to pass up games were being asked to pony up between $150 and $200. While that's not an enormous sum, the issue is that it's often an unbudgeted and recurring expense that comes up suddenly when the local school keeps on winning at the end of the season.

   On the same topic, though, I heard from a sports director at a station in the North Country. He makes an interesting case that being charged $150 or more to do state quarterfinal games at Section 2 sites makes minimal sense because the justification cited is that the radio broadcasts cut into live attendance. In light up the fact that some of these road trips are 150 or more miles, often requiring night travel, there's no way anyone but parents and a handful of hardcore fans would have made the trip anyway. While its true that the stations can sell advertising, the broadcasts pre-empt programming that already were generating revenue.

   On top of that, throw in at least one section charging $250 per game during sectionals and you have to wonder if prices are being set by throwing darts at a board, particularly when SUNYAC doesn't charge for college games and the NCAA fee for Division III games, including national championships, is typically under $100 a game.

   The price of victory: The high-tech swimsuits worn by nearly every competitor at the Beijing Olympics are generating an aquatic version of class warfare as college and high school swim seasons get underway, The Washington Post reported.

   The sleek LZR Racer suits made by Speedo can cost more than $500 each and have to be replaced after a few meets. Many coaches and parents of promising young swimmers don't have the budgets for the suits but they fear their kids will be hindered without them.

   "It's pretty clear-cut," Georgetown University coach Steven Cartwright said. "You're going to have a situation of haves and have-nots. You have athletic departments that can afford these suits and athletic departments that can't. That's the reality of it."

   The outfits gained popularity as Michael Phelps and other elite swimmers set 71 world records this year. "The suits, obviously, are fantastic," American University coach Mark Davin said. "It's not really debatable anymore."

   What is up for debate is whether the suits should be allowed at amateur competitions. The paper said critics contend the suits are burdening collegiate programs that already are financially strapped.

   Many top competitors at the recent state high school championships in Arizona wore Speedo's LZR Racer, the model worn by Phelps. Jon Rogers, the aquatics director for Georgetown Prep, speculated that about half of the region's high school swimmers would show up to end-of-season championships wearing some version of the LZR.

   USA Swimming has banned the suits at sanctioned events for athletes 12 years old and younger, citing cost and other concerns, but the National Federation of State High School Associations has taken no action and the NCAA lifted its moratorium on the latest suits in September.

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