The annual football game between Rome Free Academy and Utica Proctor, already plucked from the scrap heap once this spring, may need another helping hand to get back onto the 2010 schedule. Run for cover, because that helping hand may be attached to a -- yech -- politician.

   The non-league game is back on hold after Section III athletic directors from Syracuse-area Class AA schools questioned the schedule change during a Central New York Counties League meeting, The Observer-Dispatch reported.

   The original schedule was changed recently to include an RFA-Proctor game, a nod to a series that started in 1891, making it the oldest rivalry in the state. But the paper reported other league members object to the change because they feel the proper procedure was not followed.

   “All parties are not on the same page right now. That's all I can say,” Fayetteville-Manlius coach and Section 3 football committee member Paul Muench told the paper, which also reported that state Sen. Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome, has written to Section 3 Executive Director John Rathbun to question the section's policies.

   "I would love to be optimistic, but at this point, (the section) has no respect for the rivalry," RFA head coach Ted Swavely said. "It's all about Syracuse. I watched it as a player and I've watched it as a coach. They draw a line in the sand and say, 'Hey, we're Syracuse.'"

   In his letter to Section 3, Griffo noted "the fact that RFA and Proctor have of late been subject to the will of the rest of the Class AA schools who are clustered on one side of the section is unfortunate."

   "This had nothing to do with Rome or Proctor and the committee not wanting the (RFA-Proctor) game to happen," Liverpool AD George Mangicaro told The Rome Sentinel. "A number of rivalries that this section has had for a very long time are not going to play their games this season. We just try to make the best neutral and unbiased schedule as we can. What this is, is schedule manipulation, and you cannot do that."

   What, fixing the damage done by a blind draw is suddenly a manipulation? Remember, we're talking about ADs and administrators who loaded up the Mayflower van and moved an entire league membership just to get away from one school. That, friends, is manipulation.

   Just spitballing a bit here, but I'm wondering if renting the Carrier Dome for the Section 3 football playoffs might become a tad more expensive if elected officials in Albany decide it should be.

   More than a game: The final score didn't matter much on Thursday when Suffern took on Tappan Zee in baseball.

   Yes, Suffern rolled to a 15-0 victory, but this was more about remembering fallen friends than it was about fielding fly balls. Hundreds were on hand as Vincent Crotty and Christopher Konkowski, the two Suffern baseball players who died in a car accident last week, had their numbers retired. Their fathers threw out the first pitch and their mothers received flowers from the Tappan Zee captains.

   "We were afraid that we were going to have emotions going crazy and stuff," Suffern pitcher Robbie Aviles told The Journal News. "We were all so close to Vinny and Chris. We all loved them so much."

   Aviles will be an ongoing story this spring. The senior righthander is regarded as a major-league prospect, and more than two dozen scouts, many with radar guns, hovered behind home plate while he was on the mound.

RoadToSyracuse.com Football Site

   "The scouts were pretty intimidating seeing them all back there, even by the bullpen," Aviles said. "My main focus has been, all that's great, but Vin and Chris is what's on our mind. The whole season's just for them, nothing else. We don't care what we do."

   Aviles struck out nine in his five innings of work.

   Girls lacrosse notes: Junior Taylor Moore scored five goals Thursday at North Rockland beat Pearl River 13-7. That put the junior over 100 goals for her varsity career.

   Chenango Forks made history Wednesday by beating Johnson City 12-11 for its first varsity triumph. Amber Villecco scored five goals and Mandi Dordell added four for Forks, which never trailed.

   Where are they now? Zara Northover won state championships in the shot put indoors and outdoors for Sewanhaka-New Hyde Park in 2002. Her journey since then, competing for Jamaica in the 2008 Olympics and struggling to stay of track for the 2012 London Games is a fascinating story told recently by Jason Molinet for Long Island Pulse.

   When she moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., in September 2009 to continue her training, the job she had lined up fell through and Northover was slept on a friend’s couch and lived out of her Ford Focus.

   And that's just a tiny bit of her story. Follow the link above to check out the rest and learn how you can help.

   Random thoughts: (1) This morning's Democrat and Chronicle reported that the Rochester City School District could be laying off 150 staffers over budget concerns. A reliable source tells me principals have been given quotas of administrative positions to cut, which means a couple of ADs likely are about to be pink-slipped. Not good.

   (2) It's becoming pretty apparent that Ishaq Williams will be the state's hot football recruit this fall. The 6-foot-5 defensive end at Abraham Lincoln in Brooklyn is on the wish list of all the Division I programs in the Northeast as well as the likes of Miami, Alabama and Oregon.

   (3) The Buffalo News unveiled its All-Western New York boys and girls basketball selections in this morning's newspaper in a spread that consumed seven full pages. Were it not for the fact that I already work for Rupert Murdoch I'd drop everything to work for Warren Buffett.

   (4) Four St. Bonaventure basketball players were arrested this week in connection with a March 21 fight with students from Jamestown Community College but the charges consisted of harassment and disorderly conduct. I hope this means more arrests are pending, because no one deserves to skate on what amounts to violations in criminal court when two stabbings are involved. Hell, you're at risk for more severe punishment than that if you commit a flagrant foul in a game.