Leading off today: The Francis Lewis girls basketball team has been replaced in the prestigious Diamond State Classic in Delaware because the school would not confirm that team would be attending, FiveBoroSports.com reported.

   Francis Lewis coach Mike Eisenberg was suspended from teaching and coaching duties last week after allegedly verbally abusing a student in his gym class in September.

   "After Mike left, it seemed like the program was in disarray and I couldn’t get an answer on whether they were coming or not,” tournament director John Gretchen said, adding that he attempted to get in touch with Francis Lewis AD Arnie Rosenbaum “seven or eight times” this week but never received a call back.

   Rosenbaum said he, new coach Stephen Tsai and players parents were still in the process of discussing whether to go until deciding on Thursday to stay home. Rosenbaum said there were not enough parents to drive, players would have to pay for all their own meals and parents were concerned about a lack of female chaperones.

   The Diamond State Classic, scheduled this year for Dec. 27-30, brings in strong fields that routinely attract dozens of major-college coaches. Washington, D.C., Theodore Roosevelt has been added to the field in place of Francis Lewis.

   “It was in the best interest of the Classic to replace them,” Gretchen said. ". . . I don’t think I’ll be extending an invitation to them for awhile."

   In a related development, the Web site said St. Michael Academy coach Apache Paschall briefly considered boycotting Sunday's Francis Lewis Holiday Classic in support of Eisenberg. He reconsidered because opponent Buffalo Nichols had already finalized travel arrangements.

   Five hundred times two: In a bit of Section 5 boys hoops history, two coaches with 500 victories will go head-to-head tonight when Jim Burke's Prattsburgh Vikings play at Mike Rapone's Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Batavia, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

   Rapone has 512 wins and Burke 502. Before the game, Notre Dame will dedicate its court to Rapone and girls volleyball coach Rhonda DiCasolo, who surpassed 500 wins last season. DiCasolo’s 539 career victories place her atop the all-time Section 5 volleyball list, and she has won six sectional championships in 30 seasons.

   Rapone is No. 3 on the sectional wins list and owns seven sectional and two state titles.

   Mardigan honored: Watervliet held a ceremony this week honoring George Mardigan, Section 2's all-time winningest coach, for his 33 years of work in the gym that now bears his name. A placque detailing his records and achievements was unveiled.

   Mardigan played at Watervliet from 1958-61, taught social studies there for more than three decades and continuing to coach for several seasons after his retirement. He went 546-158 with no losing seasons and 14 Section 2 championships.

   "I miss the interaction with the players,” he told The Record. “And believe it or not, even though I tease a lot about the referees, I miss seeing the guys (on game night),

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the opposing coaches, the referees, fans, media people, all of that. High school basketball in upstate New York and Section 2 is a great event. It’s a happening. I was honored to be a part of it for over 30 years and I really miss it.”

   Mardigan isn’t consumed with his legacy.

   “I think I just want to be remembered as someone who gave it everything he had every day and expected nothing less from his players.”

   Careful what you wish for: You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who is happy with the fractured high school football playoff system in New York. Long Island schools play for one championship and the remaining NYSPHSAA sections hold an entirely separate tournament. The PSAL in New York City is a separate entity, as is the CHSFL downstate. And let's not forget that Buffalo's public schools choose to play separate from Section 6 and the area's private schools aren't allowed into Section 6 so they have a tournament, too.

   And then you have California, which has captured many of the most maddening aspects of New York's postseason and has sprinkled in a wrinkle that makes the college Bowl Championship Series look positively brilliant by comparison.

   With too many regional champions crowned to prevent a real tournament unless they shorten the regular season to about four games, California relies on a committee to pick a northern and southern team to play a single championship game, a so-called "open" bowl.

   And now a good many people are upset that Grant High in Sacramento was chosen over Conford De La Salle to take on Long Beach Poly in the open bowl. Grant apparently got the nod because it was undefeated. Never mind that De La Salle's loss was by a 23-21 margin to a very good Don Bosco Prep from New Jersey and its schedule was superior by most accounts. In fairness to the other school, Grant did beat two eventual state champions, from Utah and Idaho.

   Some of the controversy will fade away based on the fact that De La Salle ended up losing to Corona Centennial in the California Interscholastic Federation Division I Championship last night in a game that more than a few people were predicting might be better than the Poly vs. Grant contest.

   Extra points: We mentioned his death in yesterday's blog, and now the Press & Sun-Bulletin has a more extensive story available about former Chenango Forks and Maine-Endwell football coach Dick Russ. . . . LeBrent Walker, a highly regarded freshman basketball player who transferred out of Our Savior New American in Centereach, has been granted his eligibility at Bayside by the PSAL, The Daily News reported. Walker enrolled at OSNA at the start of the school year but left on Nov. 14, saying he was unhappy with the commute from his home in Jamaica.

   Niagara Catholic will switch to a four-day school week beginning in September, with no classes on Mondays. The school day will run from 7:45 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. It's unclear how that will affect sports schedules, but it would seem that afternoon away games might have to be pushed back to later in the day to give the team time to arrive and warm up.

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