Leading off today: Oakfield-Alabama football coach John Dowd has told his players that he is stepping down in order to explore other potential opportunities in the sport, The Daily News in Batavia reported yesterday.

   Dowd, 32, coached the Hornets to a 50-12 mark over six seasons, winning Section 5 Class D championships in 2004 and 2006. O-A was 9-1 last fall, losing to LeRoy in the sectional Class C final.

   "I’ve been looking at some different opportunities and there was a growing possibility that I was not going got be coming back and I felt like it would not be fair to the district to wait any longer,” Dowd told the paper.

   Dowd said he looking at coaching either at the collegiate level or a larger high school. Hs name surfaced in March as a candidate at Canandaigua, which still has not named a replacement for Dave Nieman.

   New Mexico suspends sports: The New Mexico Activities Association has suspended all games and practices for seven days in response to school closures caused by the H1N1 virus, KOAT-TV reported.

   Coaches found conducting practices risk suspensions, a $1,000 fine and probation for one year. With the state baseball tournament still scheduled to begin next week, some coaches that have an athletic class can practice during school hours.

   "Obviously it's big for us because we can get a little bit done in an hour. We get hit every day and our pitchers can still throw their bullpens," said Stan McKeever the baseball coach at La Cueva High.

   Meanwhile, Deer Park became the latest New York high school to be shut down for a week. Deer Park officials decided over the weekend to close all six schools in the district. The closures came after new probable cases of swine flu were found in two students, Newsday reported.

   The CDC said Friday that schools "should consider" closing for up to 14 days if they have one or more cases of the new strain of flu.

   B'ville the new No. 1: Baldwinsville has climbed to No. 1 in the LaxPower.com national girls lacrosse rankings. The Bees defeated Penfield (now No. 12 nationally) yesterday, 17-9.

   "The rankings might change next week but they always can say they were No.1 which is pretty cool," Baldwinsville coach Doug Rowe told The Post-Standard.

   Amherst (10-0), ranked 20th in Class C by the New York State Sportswriters Association, got eight goals from sophomore birthday girl Sophie Niesciur to beat Brockport, 18-9.

   Concussion study: As many as two out of five high school athletes who suffer concussions return to action prematurely and set themselves up for more severe injuries according to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

   The study also suggests that personnel on the sidelines are often unprepared to make accurate diagnoses and informed decisions about sending players back on the field, USA Today reported.

   "We find these numbers about athletes returning to play tremendously alarming," said Dawn Comstock, the study's director of research.

   Concussions account for almost one in 10 sports injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Comstock conservatively estimated that more

than 130,000 concussions occurred among 3.8 million players in nine sports last year, with football and boys and girls soccer leading the way.

   Comstock said 16 percent of football players reported returning to play the same day they lost consciousness — which goes against guidelines created by an international panel of experts in 2004.

   The National Federation of State High School Associations has reviewed the new sudy and is sending a revised concussion pamphlet to member organizations this spring, a spokesman said.

   'Accidental coach' leaving: Tony DiMaggio will retire as girls soccer coach at McKee/Staten Island Tech next month, ending a long run with a squad that hasn't lost to a Staten Island opponent in three years.

   DiMaggio, 67, is the classic example of going from being in the right time at the right place to someone who made his program the place to go. As The Advance explains, he made a huge impact in two decades at MSIT, starting with a rag-tag boys team seemingly made up of everything but soccer players.

   After that first season, AD Bob Steele called DiMaggio into his office.

   "I thought I was getting fired," DiMaggio told the paper.

   Instead, Steele asked DiMaggio to take over the girls' program as well.

   Early on, DiMaggio did something that should serve as a lesson to a lot of coaches: He admitted to himeslf that he wasn't a know-it-all. In 1988, he noticed the father of one of his players quietly giving instructions.

   "I walked over to Rolando (Chirinos) and told him that I couldn't help noticing he knew more about the game than I would ever know," DiMaggio said. "I asked him to help out with the kids, and he's been at my side for the last 18 years."

   J-D standout picks Canisius: Canisius men’s basketball coach Tom Parrotta has landed Jamesville-DeWitt senior guard Alshwan Hymes, a second-team NYSSWA pick in Class B. Hymes averaged 17.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists last season and impressed with his physical style and strong perimeter shooting.

   Double duty: The folks at ESPN RISE came up with an interesting idea recently as they took note of Greg Paulus' attempt to resume his football career. They looked around the country and came up with a list of the best high school combo athletes — football plus basketball — in the country. The result was what they're calling a Grid-Hoop All-American team.

   No New Yorkers made the top 15 list, but picks in the honorable mention section include Maryvale's Brooks Estarfaa, who ran for 2,091 yards and 24 TDs last fall, and Hempstead's Terrell Williams, who rolled up 2,667 all-purpose yards. Granted, Class D is the poor, ugly stepchild of scholastic sports, but I'm pretty sure Chris Secky of Maple Grove belonged on the list.

   Extra points: Upstate's best boys lacrosse game of the season takes place Saturdat at Alfred University as Orchard Park, No. 3 in Class A, meets Class B No. 1 Corning East. . . . Section 1's realignment of hockey divisions will shake things up a bit, with Conference 2 (Mamaroneck, White Plains, Pelham) and Conference 4 (Clarkstown North, Suffern) packing much of the punch. . . . The 2:05.83 by Hempstead senior Charlene Lipsey on Friday in the 800 meters at the St. Anthony Invitational moved her atop the national leaderboard.