Leading off today: This would have been the week of the 32nd Empire State Games. Instead, the state budget meltdown turned it into a disappointing void on the summer sports schedule for thousands of New York athletes.

   ESG officials formally canceled the event back in early April once it became apparent that the approximate $2.8 million budget necessary to stage it wouldn't be coming from Albany and a half-baked plan to charge participants a $285 registration fee also would not fly either with participants or the organizers in the Hudson Valley region.

   The Buffalo News wrote last week about the effect of the cancellation on athletes, and The Journal News chimed in this morning with a solid package that notes among other things that organizers are considering a small registration fee for future ESGs.

   Following up on Florida: A federal judge canceled Friday's scheduled hearing of a lawsuit in Jacksonville pitting a group of parents against the Florida High School Athletic Association when the sides agreed to negotiate, The News-Press reported.

   Former Olympic swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an attorney for the Florida Parents for Athletic Equity, told the paper there is a July 31 deadline to reach an agreement.

   "(We) still have to resolve this lawsuit — through settlement or through court order," she told the paper in an e-mail. "In particular, we're asking for a 'declaratory judgment' — whereby the judge will rule that the FHSAA's actions violated the law."

   On Wednesday, the FHSAA's board of directors rescinded cuts to the maximum number of contests for all sports except football and cheerleading as a cost-cutting measure. The families of six female athletes began a Title IX challenge, setting the table for Friday's scheduled court date.

   With scheduling decisions put back into the hands of local districts, however, there could still be cuts on the horizon as the state continues to face budget problems. For the moment, all schools will be allowed to schedule 25 games in all sports except football and cheerleading, which have 10 apiece.

   "It's important for folks to know," Pasco County AD Phil Bell told the St. Petersburg Times, "that those (25 games) are maximums."

   Dropping spring football is also on the table, Bell said.

   Paper honors Tundo: Kudos to recent Orchard Park grad Jeff Tundo for saying all the right things after being selected the first winner of the Tom Borrelli Memorial Award as Western New York’s best high school lacrosse player.

   Borrelli was The Buffalo News reported killed in a fall while covering a football game late last season. He had written a story about the Orchard Park senior shortly before the tragedy.

   “I feel as honored as I’ve ever been,” said Tundo. "It’s the best award I’ve ever received, because of how great a

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person he was, and how great a person he was for the sport of lacrosse. It’s a great award to receive because it’s named after him."

   Nanuet drops coach: Nanuet boys lacrosse coach Rick Sorkow was informed last week that he was not being retained despite a 27-5 record in two seasons, The Journal News reported.

   Nanuet AD Frank Mazzuca said he could not discuss a personnel decision.

   Sorkow told the paper that the junior varsity team's impromtu participation in a freshman tournament at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey may have been his undoing.

   The event honored Conner Cornish, a Nanuet resident who was struck and killed by a train in the spring of 2008. Sorkow said the players did not bring equipment, but wore jerseys to show their support. When another team did not show up, organizers asked if the Nanuet players would step in, and supplied the equipment.

   Sorkow was not present at the event. Section 1 rules prohibit a JV team from participate in a freshman tournament,

   While he said he informed several players the rules prevented them from playing, Sorkow admitted he did not notify every player and parent.

   "He thought I knew all along the kids were going to play, which I did not," Sorkow said on Mazzuca. "That is the furthest thing from the truth."

   Extra points: Two more lawsuits were filed against the Wilson Central School District on Friday, bringing to three the number of civil actions stemming from the alleged April 2008 baseball team hazing incidents, The Buffalo News reported. The latest suits, filed on behalf of two JV players and their parents, charge that both boys were sexually assaulted — an allegation originally made by state police investigators. The Niagara County DA office later reduced felony charges to misdemeanors.