to do what is best for my kids. As a friend, (Rich Hurley, the Bishop Maginn coach) said he would support any decision I made. Obviously, I'm torn."
Buie, a 6-foot-2 guard, is averaging 19.1 points for a 13-3 Maginn team and was MVP of the 2008 NYSPHSAA Class AA tournament in Glens Falls.
Allen reports Georgia Tech, Maryland, Notre Dame and Penn State are in the early lead to sign Buie. His brother, Talor Battle, is a sophomore point guard at Penn State.
Talking dollars and sense: Speaking of good gets, the Democrat and Chronicle's John Boccacino did a good interview with Nina Van Erk, executive director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association on a Rochester radio show Saturday.
I was supposed to take part in the segment but had to step out for work-related issues after Sports Illustrated broke the A-Rod story. Boccacino and Van Erk walked through the steps that led the Executive Committee to approve several expense-cutting proposals late last month.
The key news from Van Erk was that the most hotly discussed change approved by the Executive Committee -- paring back the length of the regular-season in all sports -- will save schools across the state's 11 sections $3 million per year just in officials game fees and travel stipends. In a follow-up e-mail to me, she indicated that the total savings after factoring in travel, facilities rentals and other site personnel is expected to be about $10 million.
While that's not going to erase the state's projected $15.4 billion budget deficit, it is a good-faith effort by athletic administrators.
"No one relishes the fact that we're reducing anything," Van Erk said on the radio show. "No one wants to take any opportunity away from any student-athletes. But the feeling was that we needed to make incremental cuts to save all programs.
"My colleague in Texas, a gentleman by the name of Bill Farney, once asked me if I knew the definition of a minor sport. I looked at him and said, 'I don't know.' He said, "A minor sport is the one your child doesn't play.' We wanted to be sure that (for) all students-atheles, whether they were in what would be perceived as a major or a minor sport, no programs were cut and everyone still had the opportunity.
"We have 583,000 participants in our program. It would be my hope and the hope of the Executive Committee that those athletes would still have the same opportunity next year."
