Leading off today: Will this finally be the year in which a school wins a state football championship in November followed by a basketball title in March?

   It's didn't happen in the first 17 years after the New York State Public High School Athletic Association launched its full-fledged football playoffs, but three grid champs from last Thanksgiving weekend at the Carrier Dome are in contention to win in Glens Falls next month.

   Tuckahoe is now the New York State Sportswriters Association's top-ranked basketball team in Class C. Rush-Henrietta (No. 6 in Class AA) and Rochester Aquinas (No. 3 in A) look like favorites to win Section 5 championships next month, though both would still face three tough state tournament games.

   There have been a few close calls since the NYSPHSAA started its full football playoffs in 1993, including one involving Tuckahoe. With the help of largely the same core of players, the Tigers were state runners-up in three straight tournaments -- basketball in March 1993, football in November 1993 and basketball again in March 1994.

   More recently, Maple Grove won a basketball title in March 2008 and a football championship in November 2008 and then made it back to the basketball final four in March 2009 before losing in double overtime to Greenport in the semifinals.

   Other close calls:

   •Clyde-Savannah won the basketball championship in March 1993 and football title in November 1993. The Golden Eagles' 1992 football team went 11-0, including a regional playoff that was used as a stepping stone toward launching a full state tournament the following fall.

   •Syracuse CBA won basketball in March 1997 and finished second in football in November 1997.

   •Amsterdam was a basketball runner-up in March 1995 and won the football title in November 1995.

   One step forward, one step back: Abraham Lincoln's 64-56 victory over South Shore in the Brooklyn borough boys basketball semifinals Thursday may have come at a price, The New York Post reported.

   With three seconds left in the contest, forward Kamari Murphy allegedly threw a punch at South Shore's Kwanique Martin, resulting in an ejection. It will be up to PSAL boys basketball commissioner Mel Goldstein to sort it out, but it would appear the 6-foot-8 Murphy could be suspended two games. That would keep him out of Saturday's borough final vs. Thomas Jefferson at CCNY and then the Railsplitters' city playoff opener.

   Neither coach, Dwayne "Tiny" Morton of Lincoln or Mike Beckles of South Shore said they saw a punch, but Martin said it happened. “It was an intense game,” Beckles told the paper. “We weren’t trying to fight or anything, but they took it past that line.”

   Said Morton: "Nobody saw a punch," Morton said.

   Missing Murphy would hurt vs. Jefferson's 6-9 Edson Avila (a Manhattan College recruit) and 6-6 Shamel Williams.

   Chicago-bound: Christ the King guard Bria Smith is the only New York player to make the final cut and earn a spot in the McDonald's All-American Basketball Games next month.

   Smith, a Virginia recruit, will play for the East team March 30 at the United Center in Chicago.

   Wishbone inventor dies: Emory Bellard, the legendary Texas high school and college football coach who created the wishbone offense, died Thursday morning. He was 83 and was diagnosed last year with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

   Bellard began his coaching career in 1949 as a high school assistant. He moved steadily through the schoolboy ranks in Texas and won three state championships from 1958 to '66. He spent five years as an assistant at the University of Texas, where he installed the high-octane wishbone offense that allowed the Longhorns to win 30 straight games from 1968-70. He was also a successful head coach at Texas A&M and Mississippi State.

Road To Glens Falls boys hoops site

   More MRSA: The infection that landed Hauppauge junior Nick Mauriello Jr. in intensive care fighting for his life this month has understandably created jitters on the wrestling scene.

   The New York State Public High School Athletic Association issued an advisory Wednesday to athletic administrators and wrestling coordinators to remind them of procedures ahead of this weekend's sectional tournaments.

   And Long Island schools in particular have stepped up to become more vigilant.

   Patch.com reported that St. Anthony’s faced MRSA concerns late last month when a recent opponent on the mat reported that a JV wrestler had been diagnosed with MRSA. St. Anthony's staff met and decided to perform a check on every Friars wrestler from the freshman team to the varsity.

   “We did a skin check on every kid,” said Ed Modica, head athletic trainer at the school. “Anyone who had a possible issue we sent to get checked out further. And now we’ll continue to do that on a weekly basis until the season is over.”

   She's back: Hyde Park FDR gymnast Alyssa Zuna qualified for her fifth straight state meet at Wednesday's Section 9 championships. Zuna scored 36.175 in the all-around,

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including a 9.325 for a floor routine she did with the help of a knee brace to protect her ailing right meniscus.

   "Looking forward to one last fun year," Zuna told The Poughkeepsie Journal. "I do gymnastics at a school with all these girls, so I'm excited for one last state meet with them."

   The name game: Though it's for the most part a fine facility (though situated in a dreary neighborhood), there are two horrendous aspects of the soccer/football/lacrosse stadium built just west of downtown Rochester in 2006.

   Firstly, there are no permanent locker rooms on the grounds. Double-wide trailers have been converted into "temporary" changing rooms, but there's no running water in those "buildings." That's disgraceful for a facility that hosts professional soccer and lacrosse, not to mention Section 5 and state football playoffs.

   Secondly, there's the name thing. The place keeps getting named and re-named, which has made both the stadium and the city the butt of jokes among media and sports fans. On Thursday, the facility was recast as Sahlen Stadium after the Buffalo-based meat packer bought naming rights for five years with an option to extend through 2021.

   The stadium was known as PAETEC Park when it was built in 2006, Rhinos Stadium in 2008, and Marina Auto Stadium the past two years after the stadium operator conducted a drawing among sponsors and season-ticket holders of the local pro soccer team.

   It says here that we'll be calling it something other than Sahlen Stadium by 2016.