Leading off today: Whoa!

   With the fall sports season not even officially in the books yet -- we're still awaiting PSAL football on Tuesday and Foot Locker cross country on Saturday -- we have our first major developments of the CHSAA basketball season.

   Read on for the details.

   Development No. 1: Outstanding Christ The King guard Corey Edwards will be sidelined until at least January as punishment for an in-school slip-up, The New York Daily News reported.

   Edwards, a George Mason recruit who was second-team all-state last season as a junior, did not play yesterday in CTK's 71-67 victory over Thomas Jefferson at the Christ the King Invitational. The paper reported Edwards is being punished for cursing in the school's hallways last month.

Many reporters use Twitter to deliver updates from fall sports contests. We track those tweets from a variety of venues 24/7. Visit the page to see what's going on.

   The Royals, defending Federation champions and ranked sixth nationally by USA Today, got 23 points from Omar Calhoun (12-for-12 on free throws) and 16 by sophomore Isaiah Lewis.

   "He's a junior now," Edwards joked about Lewis. "He just grew up."

   Development No. 2: New name, same rivalry.

   St. Michael Academy closed its doors last spring for financial reasons, and most of the basketball team followed coach Apache Paschall to Nazareth.

   The Lady Kingsmen -- wow, there's a nickname that needs some work -- made their CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I debut last week and yesterday they scored a 51-47 triumph vs. host Christ The King, the reigning Federation champ.

   “Without a doubt this is the toughest league in the county,” Paschall told The New York Post. “For us to get that one is pretty big and gives us something to look forward to for the rest of the season and setting a tone for the rest of these games.”

   Nazareth, ranked 18th by USA Today made 15 of 20 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold off the No. 8 Royals six days after missing 16 free throws during a win over Bishop Ford. Bianca Cuevas scored 16 points and Syracuse recruit Tiffany Jones added 15 to pace the winners. Virginia-bound guard Bria Smith scored 22 points and forward Nia Oden (Illinois) added 15 for Christ The King.

   “Nobody has faith in us, everybody is talking about us saying that Nazareth is not going to take it,” Jones told the paper. “So we have to prove everybody wrong.”

   NXN follow-up: Somewhat lost in the glow of Fayetteville-Manlius' fifth straight national title at the Nike Cross Nationals was the staggering improvement shown by junior Christie Rutledge, who placed second in the Portland, Ore., race to pace the Hornets to a meet-record 27 points.

   Rutledge led for more than half the race before superb Texan Rachel Johnson took over and won in 18:18.6. Rutledge’s 18:21.4 was enough to hold off the rest of the elite field by nearly 200 meters.

   A year ago, Rutledge was F-M’s No. 7 runner -- on the junior varsity.

   “She’s a Cinderella story of monumental proportions,” coach Bill Aris told The Post-Standard. “She worked, she stayed healthy, she put in the time, she improved, and bang, it all paid off.”

   Said Rutledge: “I gave everything I had. I got every bit out of myself that I could.”

   Site notes: A few updates regarding this website and the related sport-specific sites we maintain:

   (1) I'm running behind on freshening up elements on RoadToGlensFalls.com, our boys basketball portal, but the scores and schedules (courtesy of MaxPreps) are for the most part already up and running. I'll be working on updates to the other elements these next few days.

   (2) Our first crack at doing a comparable site for girls basketball will be rolled out right after the boys updates are down. We hope RoadToTroy.com will be the first place readers turn to find their girls hoops info.

   (3) One of the items I look forward to adding to the boys basketball site is a link to The View From Centercourt blog, which is dedicated to following the action in Section 6 and the Monsignor Martin Association.

   Take a look at it. He has very good insight into the Western New York scene, making for a nice complement to the work from The Buffalo News. You Buffalonians are fortunate to have such great resources.

   (4) I've begun including Patch.com reports from Nassau and Suffolk counties on our media headlines page, which provides quick links to the latest high school sports news from about 40 outlets.

   Patch.com is the hyper-local news product being rolled out across the country rather methodically by AOL. The jury's still out on whether it will ultimately succeed, but the Patch.com strategy has included hiring good newsmen (and women)as local editors.

   (5) Tom Doherty has sent along his final fall rankings of Rockland County sports teams. As always, it's entertaining stuff, so check it out.