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   Ford opens its Brooklyn/Queens Division I schedule today against Nazareth, which raced to a 19-0 lead and beat Bronx JFK 55-39 at the Rucker Invitational.

   Nazareth, comprised of players from St. Michael Academy after that school closed in the spring, got 13 points from Darius Faulk and 11 by Bra’Shey Ali.

   After the Bishop Ford game, Nazareth has a game against defending Federation Class AA champ Christ The King next week. “It’s going to be a war,” Nazareth coach Apache Paschall predicted. “Friendships will be after the last second runs off the clock.”

   Coaching news: Mark Dwyer, who completely turned around the Chatham program, announced his resignation last week after 14 years as head coach and 21 in the program. Dwyer's teams went 0-15 from 1999-2000, but he leaves with four straight league titles.

   This year's squad went 9-1, losing in the Section 2 Class C final to Hoosick Falls 61-28 and finishing with a No. 11 state ranking. Chatham reached the semifinals eight straight seasons.

   "In January of 2001 we had a meeting with the kids, the parents and the athletic director and basically drew a line," he told the Register-Star. "We said we need to get better and from that point forward we did. The kids took the challenge well. The first few years are always tough. We had to figure out what type of offense would fit and what type of defense we could run with the type of kids that we have.”

   Dwyer will continue to teach freshman math at Chatham.

   Change at SU: The departure of a college football assistant coach seldom attracts much attention, particularly at a middle-of-the-pack (or still slightly lower) program such as Syracuse. After all, Paul Pasqualoni ran guys on and off his staff in the 1990s as if it was the substitution box on a lacrosse sideline.

   But last week's change at Syracuse was jolting. Firstly, it happened during the season. Secondly, the coach in question was Bob Casullo.

   Casullo was in his second tour at SU, having previously worked for Dick MacPherson and Pasqualoni. Something most definitely happened between Casullo and head coach Doug Marrone, but no one is saying what transpired. Marrone knew Casullo from his playing days at Syracuse when Casullo was an assistant, so certainly he knew the special teams/tight ends coach has a bit of a temper. Considering that we've seen fits of rage from Marrone from time to time it's unlikely that was the issue.

   But what happens now, particularly with respect to upstate recruiting? I'm hardly endorsing the ways of the previous head coach, but Greg Robinson's final recruiting class from New York consisted exclusively of upstate kids, six to be exact.

   Counting some inroads made by the Robinson staff before the regime change, the past two classes have included just three upstaters, including one who settled for a partial ride. Six others have come from Long Island or New York City. That's not a bad strategy considering the level of talent down there has been underrated for awhile and most major rust-belt colleges don't spend enough time there.

   But Casullo was one of the rare guys on the staff who knew the differences between Lockport and Brockport or Schenectady and Troy. It was bad enough when the likes of David Fluellen (Lockport) and Jordan Thomas (Union-Endicott) joined the long list of New Yorkers to opt for out-of-state schools (and I admit there could have been any number of circumstances involved) last February, but I just don't see it getting better without Casullo around.

   A Fairport giant dies: Dave Martens, a figurative and literal giant in the Fairport school district for many years

even after his retirement in 1991, died Friday after battling cancer for many years. He was 75.

   Martens began his career as a teacher, basketball coach and AD at Rushford from 1958-64. He held similar

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responsibilities at Brockport for the next nine years and took over as the Fairport AD in 1973.

   Martens was an early proponent of Operation Offense, a program to discourage the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. He served on numerous sectional, state and national committees for athletic administrators.

   Stories about Martens are numerous and legendary in the Rochester area. He ran flawless game-day operations for varsity football and basketball games, communicating with staff via walkie-talkies long before that became commonplace.

   Martens was also staunchly conservative in many respects, right down to his high regard for the 2nd Amendment. If some of the stories I've heard over the years are accurate, let's just say wherever Martens was standing most days was the safest place in Monroe County with the possible exception of a police precinct.

   Quick learner: The Herkimer Telegram did a nice story last week on Gary Bynon, a West Canada grad who has gone on to have an unexpected and successful career as the girls volleyball coach at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.

   He took the volleyball job in 1988 as a last-minute solution to a vacancy even though he'd never played the sport. "They told me I begin volleyball in two weeks,” Bynon recalled.

   Twenty-three years later, he has gone over 500 victories. His teams regularly win sectionals (16 times to be precise) and advance to NYSPHSAA final fours. His Spartans own three state titles this decade.

   The Spartans have not lost a match in the Suburban Council since October of 1990, a span of 297 contests.

   “Coaches are teachers,” he said. “You’re teaching (athletes) about life, about their sport.”

   Health scare: Benjamin Cardozo track star Ahtyana Johnson was diagnosed in September with aplastic anemia, a condition in which the body

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stops producing sufficient blood cells, leading to fatigue and increased risk of infections, The New York Post reported.

   The senior knew something was amiss when she started training for the cross country season. She experienced dizziness and unexplained fatigue and was treated in a hospital for five days. She's on medication now and hasn't been cleared yet, meaning she might face the prospect of a bone marrow transplant.

   Johnson helped Cardozo to PSAL indoor and outdoor city titles and was the second leg of their national championship 1,600-meter relay, which also triumphed at the Millrose Games. She ran the state’s No. 2 time in the 400 both indoors and outdoors with marks of :55.02 and :54.17, respectively.