Leading off today: It's not often that I lead a blog with news that a former state senator has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I promise to explain in a moment why it's relevant, but first here are the nuts and bolts:

   Vincent Leibell, 64, pleaded guilty this morning in White Plains to tax evasion and obstruction of justice, acknowledging in federal court that he tried to influence a grand jury investigating corruption -- some of it his, perhaps? -- in Putnam County. He also admitted failing to report $43,000 on his taxes over four years beginning in 2003.

   Sentencing was scheduled for March 7, and prosecutors said that Leibell is looking at 18 to 24 months in prison, plus restitution to the IRS and possible fines.

   Leibell served 28 years in the state Senate and Assembly before resigning abruptly last week. He was supposed to take office Jan. 1 as Putnam County executive.

   Now, here's the high school sports angle to the story:

   Back in 2006, voters in Mahopac twice rejected the proposed school budget, resulting in school sports funding being cut out altogether. Boosters in the district did an exceptional job of raising the money to save school sports for the year, and extracurricular activities were restored to the regular budget the following year.

   Leibell rolled up his sleeves (in between trips to the cookie jar, I suppose) that year and wrote a check for $150,000 to help the Mahopac boosters. The trouble is, the money didn't come from his checking account. It came from mine. And yours. And yours, too.

   That's right. Voters in Mahopac said twice in effect that they didn't want to pay for certain things in the budget. That should have been end of story, end of discussion.

   But the Republican state senator used the "member items" budget (better known as pork spending) to force taxpayers from all over the state to pay for sports in one particular school district.

   It was the epitome of arrogance by an elected official, stripping his own constituents of their right to the fundamental concept of "one man, one vote" and making us all pay.

   Right now, a bunch of people at the sectional and state level in high school sports are trying to decide whether to extend the reductions that were made in the number of games teams are allowed to play. The original cuts were enacted after the economy tanked in 2008, with school superintendents looking to save money any way they could without having to look like villains. Being ordered by the state to make schedule cuts gave them an easy way to save a few bucks -- a not entirely unreasonable step

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even though the amount saved in the face of a multi-billion state budget gap amounted to deck chairs on the Queen Mary.

   Just ask yourself this, though: How many of Leibell's colleagues in Albany felt the pain the last two years while our kids had to make do with less?

   Yeah, I thought so.

   Soccer selections: Massapequa senior midfielder Amanda Reverberi was selected the Class AA player of the year by the New York State Sportswriters & Coaches Organization For Girls Sports, sister organization of the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   Reverberi and Class D selection Astrid Kempainen, a senior midfielder from Chazy, were the only class players of the year to have led their teams to NYSPHSAA championships last month in Cortland.

   The other award recipients were Rye senior goalkeeper Tatiana Saunders (Class A), Briarcliff senior forward Liana Cornacchio (B) and Schoharie junior forward Mattia Cornell (C).

   The complete all-state team can be viewed here.

   Extra points: Heads up to the folks who've helped me compile the weekly state hockey rankings the last two seasons: I'm going to try launching the 2010-11 rankings this weekend, so I'd appreciate your input by 3 p.m. Sunday.

   In seven of the last eight years, Section 5 has split its largest class in football into AA and AAA, then had those two champs meet to determine the state quarterfinals rep in Class AA. That practice will end next season, with the decision made either to drop Class AAA altogether or to cut the AAA and AA fields to four teams apiece to insure a seven-game regular season.