Leading off today: Freeport football coach Russ Cellan says he gets a lot of community support for his program, but even he had to be surprised at how easy it was for him to cross item No. 1 off his 2009 to-do list.

   Newsday reports that former Red Devils star D'Brickashaw Ferguson, an offensive tackle for the Jets, contacted Cellan and told him he would like to buy jackets for the entire team.

   "You don't find too many guys on the planet as nice as D'Brick," Cellan said. "I'd have to say that we've been blessed with guys who always come back to this program and help out and do what they can to contribute. This is sweet."

   Cellan said the tab for 47 jackets for the Nassau Conference I champions will run about $7,000.

   "We got an excellent deal on the jackets," Cellan said. "He said, 'Tell me what I owe you and I'll write the check.' He didn't care about the cost."

   Ferguson earned the Thorp Award as Nassau's top player in 2001 and helped Freeport to the 2000 Long Island Class I championship. He attended Virginia before the Jets drafted him in the first round in 2006.

   Section 1 waiting game: The Section 1 boys and girls basketball tournaments begin in two weeks with no indication of how many games can be played at the Westchester County Center. Section 1 executive director Jennifer Simmons told The Journal News there was no update on a potential revised plan to restore semifinal games to the White Plains arena, which will remain the site for the finals.

   Section 1 officials had sacked the semifinal games in November as a cost-saving measure, moving the games to the sites of the higher-seeded schools.

   Soon to be co-No. 1: Vernon-Verona-Sherrill boys basketball coach Al Knapp is at 519 wins and counting in his 32 seasons at V-V-S and Brookfield. A victory over visiting New Hartford tomorrow night would tie the late Dave Powers for the Section 3 record.

   His career record is 519-181, with one losing season.

   "You can learn more from losing than winning,” Knapp told The Observer-Dispatch. "Those kids tried their hardest, but that (7-14 season) was a tough year. It wasn’t a good feeling. It left a bad taste in my mouth. It motivated me."

   Knapp was a phys ed teacher for 30 years before retiring in 2007. He was 233-55 with four sectional titles and a 1983 state crown in 13 years at Brookfield. At VVS, he is 286-126 with one Section 3 championship in 1999.

   "Who do you see in the gym more than Al Knapp?” New Hartford coach John Randall asked. "And look at how his kids play. They play hard. They don’t make a lot of mistakes. . . . That’s Al Knapp. They play with the same commitment, the same attention to detail. There’s nothing you can throw at them that Al hasn’t already seen. You’re not going to catch the guy off guard."

   400th win for Kent: Monsignor McClancy boys basketball coach Don Kent picked up his 400th win in 36 seasons on Saturday against Mater Dei from New Jersey. A day later, he made it 401 when the Crusaders defeated Long Island St. Mary’s.

   Kent has coached McClancy since 1982, a year after he was fired by Christ The King when he refused to cross a

Also worth checking out Boys basketball page 2008 all-state football team

picket line during a teachers strike.

   More trouble for Russell: Former Easy Hampton basketball star Michael Russell, sentenced earlier this month after pleading guilty to burglary charges, faces additional criminal charges in New Hampshire, his father told Newsday.

   Russell, 18, a New York State Sportswriters Association Class A all-star in 2008, faces felony charges of aggravated sexual assault and criminal threatening and misdemeanor charges of simple assault and criminal mischief in an indictment brought last month in Keene, N.H., the paper reported.

   According to the indictment, Russell held a knife to the face of a woman and had sex with her without her consent in September.

   Michael Petrie said his son had hopes of playing college ball after serving his jail time in Suffolk County. A Suffolk County sheriff's spokesman said Russell is scheduled to be transported in mid-May to New Hampshire to face criminal charges there.

   The never-ending 100-0 game: The Covenant School's 100-0 defeat of Dallas Academy in Texas girls basketball on Jan. 13 has been the subject of a lot of conversation and has spawned plenty of discussion about sportsmanship.

   Stockton, Calif., St. Mary's, No. 16 in the USA Todayrankings, beat Stockton Stagg by 98-10 last week despite a running clock in the fourth quarter. Stocktown went scoreless the final four minutes.

   "We didn't want to score 100," coach Tom Gonsalves said. "It's hard to tell my kids not to play hard. We are known for shooting 40 three-pointers a game. That's the part of coaching I don't enjoy right now. I'd hate to have my own kids embarrassed, so I understand."

   Also in Texas last week, Houston Westbury Christian beat Houston Lutheran South, 73-6, and Irving Nimitz rolled up a 108-21 win vs. Houston Aldine.

   According to USA Today, sports ethicists (is that a full-time job, by the way?) say it's the winning coach's job to adjust when a game gets out of hand.

   Dan Doyle, executive director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island, says the solution can be subtle. "The line of demarcation was whether the outcome of the game was still in question," he said. "Once you cross that line, the first thing you stop is the full-court press. Particularly if the press involves traps. You're obligated to put your subs in. You don't need to fast break. I never told my players to miss shots or let the other team shoot, but a discerning coach can manage in a way in which no one is wounded."

   At least one losing coach isn't buying into that.

   "Westbury Christian did nothing wrong," Lutheran South coach Gary Himmler said. "We were just outmatched. ... Our tallest player is 5-6, and they have a couple of players over 6 foot and they're fast and athletic. Westbury didn't press us. But they still played an aggressive halfcourt defense, and we didn't get very many shots off. We even jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but we just didn't get many shots off after that."

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