Leading off today: Anthony D’Ambra, a college All-American at Division III Brockport State, has been promoted to head wrestling coach at Spencerport.

   D’Ambra, who was the school’s varsity "B" coach last year, replaces Bill Jacoutot, 57, who announced his retirement last month after compiling a 353-28-1 record in 28 seasons. The Rangers won seven state championships under Jacoutot.

   D'Ambra's appointment was approved Tuesday by the school board. He graduated from Caledonia-Mumford and went on to be a captain and All-American for Don Murray at Brockport State.

   Binghamton U. coach on leave: Binghamton University men's basketball coach Kevin Broadus was placed on paid leave of absence this week, the Press & Sun-Bulletin reported today.

   In a memo dated Oct. 12, SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher instructed school officials to preserve all documents that may be relevant to an investigation of the scandal-plagued program. The Executive Committee of SUNY's Board of Trustees has asked Judith S. Kaye, retired chief justice of the State of New York, to conduct the investigation.

   Assistant Mark Macon, the former Temple star, is running the team on an interim basis.

   Milestone volleyball victory: Amanda Houston had seven kills, three blocks and four aces in leading Bethpage to a 25-10, 25-10, 25-4 win over Clarke yesterday in Nassau girls volleyball as coach Anne DePrima picked up her 500th win at Bethpage.

   "It's an amazing feeling to be around that long and get that many victories," DePrima, 500-172 in 39 seasons, told Newsday. "To have the enjoyment from day one after all these years is great. As long as I love it, I'll be here."

   Speaking of milestone wins, The Times Union checked in with a nice profile of Shenendehowa's Mike Campisi, who recently won his 500th game.

   Pete Iorizzo's lead: "Mike Campisi has won 503 soccer games from his lawn chair."

   That made me want to red the rest of the story. You can check it out here.

   Vandalism under investigation: Two large windows in the boys locker room at Rye High School were allegedly smashed by someone from Roosevelt High's football team at halftime of Friday's game, The Journal News reported.

   A custodian discovered the damage shortly after Roosevelt's team had returned to the field, Rye AD Rob Castagna told the paper. Castagna sought out Roosevelt AD John Ventura at the game.

   "He was good about it and he went over and talked to their assistant coach, and the assistant coach said, yes, one of their players did it," Castagna told the paper.

   According to the story, Yonkers district official Jim Rose told Castagna, "Send us the bill; we're going to pay for it." Rose said the district was conducting its own investigation to determine responsibility.

   Kill off state tournaments? Bill Palmer of The Schenectady Gazette made a pretty bold leap this week when he sifted through scheduling problems related to NYSPHSAA-mandated cuts and came up with the idea

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that perhaps state playoffs should be axed in order to restore regular-season contests.

   Whoa, Nellie! Let's slow down a bit and reconsider.

   The discussion starts with soccer regular seasons being trimmed to 16 games as a cost-cutting measure. In some cases, that resulted in leagues having to make accommodations. In Section 2, the Western Athletic Conference that was formed in 2001 is maintaining the double round-robin within its two divisions, but crossovers will not count in league standings because schedules are too short to accommodate a game against every opponent from the other division.

   "If this is what we’re going to do, why don’t we just go back to the Tri-Valley League and the Schoharie County League?" asked one coach. "If you are in a league, you should play everyone in the league."

   That's a definite overreaction in light of the fact that the schedule cuts are likely to remain in place for only this year and next.

   "The NYSPHSAA did athletic directors and schedule makers — and student-athletes — no favors by cutting the number of regular season games," Palmer writes. "If cutting costs was such an issue, how about attacking the problem from the other end?

   "Dare I say it? Eliminate state tournaments."

   From where I sit, that's pretty drastic. Many sections have open sectional tournaments (all teams compete regardless of record) or have some large fields that guarantee even two- and three-win soccer teams a postseason game. So what we're talking about to a large extent is that 19-game seasons have been shortened to 17 games.

   That's unfortunate rather than draconian. And, again, it's hopefully just a two-year inconvenience. To punish successful teams in order to appease the "they try just as hard" crowd doesn't fly at the varsity level.

   Shoot me a line with your thoughts, pro or con. If we get enough interesting responses on the subject I'll follow up with a blog entry early next week.

   By the way, The Times Union had a somewhat related story the other day that noted the effect on booster clubs being squeezed out of the tournament business because schools don't have as many non-league slots available. It's another good read and decent reference material for reporters trying to work up similar stories before fall sectional and state tourneys consume their lives.