Welcome to buffalonews.com's Prep Talk blog, home to news, notes, videos and all sorts of coverage of Western New York high school sports.
This is your starting point for the blog and all things Prep Talk. This post will always appear at the top of our main page -- blogs.buffalonews.com/preptalk. Scroll down for the most recent blog entries.
For much more, including a overall guide to high school sports at buffalonews.com & links to to some of our most sought-after features and archived stories, click on the headline of this post, the link below or here.
For nightly updates and day-by-day schedules, go to our scoreboard page. Games are updated moments after they are reported to us. Also check Twitter and the hashtag #preptalkscores.
All games at 5 p.m. unless noted
SECTION VI PLAYOFFS
CLASS A
Tuesday’s quarterfinals
5-Orchard Park at 4-Lockport
6-Niagara Falls at 3-Clarence
Thursday’s semifinals
OP/Lock at 1-Lancaster
NF/Clar at 2-Frontier
Final: May 29 at All-High Stadium, 3:30 p.m.
By Keith McShea
The News' tribute to the state champions of the winter season continued today with a poster page devoted to the St. Joe's hockey team.
Last Monday there was a poster page of the McKinley boys basketball team.
Next week there will be a poster page devoted to individual-sport state champions from the winter.
You can purchase high-quality versions of the championship pages at buffalonewsstore.com.
For nightly updates and day-by-day schedules, go to our scoreboard page. Games are updated moments after they are reported to us. Also check Twitter and the hashtag #preptalkscores.
SECTION VI
All Section VI playoff games 5 p.m. unless noted.
Higher seed is home team until finals.
CLASS AA
Monday’s prequarterfinals
9-Jamestown at 8-Kenmore West
12-West Seneca West at 5-Niagara Falls
11-North Tonawanda at 6-Niagara-Wheatfield
10-Frontier at 7-Wmsv. North
Wednesday’s quarterfinals
James/Ken West at 1-Clarence
W.S. West/Nia. Falls at 4-Orchard Park
No. Tona/Nia-Wheat. at 3-Lancaster
Frontier/Wmsv. North at 2-Lockport
Semifinals: Friday at better seed
Final: May 30 at TBA
For nightly updates and day-by-day schedules, go to our scoreboard page. Games are updated moments after they are reported to us. Also check Twitter and the hashtag #preptalkscores.
SECTION VI
All Section VI playoff games 5 p.m. unless noted.
CLASS A
Tuesday’s quarterfinal
5-Lockport at 4-Lancaster
Thursday’s semifinals
Lock/Lanc at 1-Orchard Park
3-Frontier at 2-Lancaster
Final: May 28 at All High, 8 p.m.
For nightly updates and day-by-day schedules, go to our scoreboard page. Also check Twitter and the hashtag #preptalkscores.
SECTION VI PLAYOFFS
Note: This schedule was published Saturday, May 18, the first day of competition.
All games at 4:45 p.m. unless noted. Higher seed is home team until finals.
CLASS AA
Tuesday’s prequarterfinals
12-North Tonawanda at 5-Kenmore West
11-Frontier at 6-Wmsv. North
10-West Seneca West at 7-Lockport
9-Jamestown at 8-Orchard Park
Quarterfinals -- Fri. May 24
9-James/8-OP at 1-Clarence
12-NT/5-KW at. 4-Niagara-Wheatfield
10-WSW/7-Lock at 2-Niagara Falls
11-Fron/6-WN at 3-Lancaster
Semifinals: May 28 at higher seed
Final: June 1 at Sunshine Park, 4 p.m.
By Keith McShea
The fifth Tom Borrelli Memorial Award Golf Tournament presented by the Buffalo Bandits will be held Monday, July 1 at Holland Hills.
It is not only our annual major fundraiser for the Borrelli Scholarship Fund but it is also the forum for the presentation of this year's awards.
The Borrelli Award will be presented to the top senior boys player and top senior girls player in Western New York. Last year's award went to Josh Babcock of Hambug. Previous boys winners have been: Jeff Tundo (Orchard Park), Chris Kane (Bishop Timon-St. Jude) and Brian Sullivan (Bishop Timon-St. Jude).
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It is the third year for the girls award. Spring Sanders of Nichols won last year, following Julia Suriani of West Seneca East.
Last year, the "Ox" Awards were added -- again, one to a boy player and one to a girl player. The "Ox" Awards go to a player that displays the talent, versatility, hard work, dedication and toughness displayed by Tom Borrelli -- whose nickname was "Ox" -- in his work as a reporter and editor at The Buffalo News. Last year's first recipients were Nate Gowen (Amherst) and Amanda Obenshain (Hamburg).
Coaches and lacrosse fans: Your nominations for the top senior players as well as for the "Ox" Awards should be sent to kmcshea@buffnews.com. Nominations can be sent in now; the latest we will accept them is Monday, June 10 (the first Monday after the end of the high school lacrosse season).
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The awards are our way of honoring our late coworker and friend Tom Borrelli, who was a fan of all high school sports, particularly lacrosse. He was an award-winning reporter as he covered the Bandits of the National Lacrosse League; the league gives out a media award named after Borrelli.
By Keith McShea
The News' tribute to the state champions of the winter season began today with a poster page devoted to the McKinley boys basketball team.
Next Monday there will be a poster page of the St. Joe's hockey team.
You can purchase high-quality versions of the championship pages at buffalonewsstore.com.
There will also be a page, to be published at a yet-to-be-determined date, devoted to individual state champions from the winter.
By Keith McShea and Lauren Mariacher
Today's Prep Talk feature story takes a look at outstanding Cheektowaga wrestler Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer and the move known as the "Flying Squirrel" that he pulled off to win a National High School Coaches Association wrestling championship last month at Virginia Beach.
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Below, watch Rodriguez-Spencer's match-winning move against Alfred Bannister of Maryland, who entered the match the country's fifth-ranked junior at 138 pounds. Rodriguez-Spencer, who moved up from his state championship weight of 132, was trailing before the forward-flip move with 10 seconds left helped him to a 4-3 victory.
The move earned him a national Junior Class (11th graders) title as well as the Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the juniors' meet.
Check it out here in video uploaded by allsportswny:
By Keith McShea
Brad Zaffram, a first-team All-Western New York football player for Sweet Home as a sophomore this past season, will transfer to Canisius next year.
Zaffram tweeted the news this afternoon and confirmed his transfer to The News via Twitter direct message a few minutes ago. A Canisius football source has confirmed the transfer as well.
The tweet, from his protected @BradZaffram account, read: "On my way to canisius to finalize it with a signature".
Sweet Home has won six straight Section VI Class A titles and advanced to the state championship game this year. Canisius won the Monsignor Martin Association title during an undefeated season and was the No. 1 large school in The News final poll.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Zaffram had a tremendous season for the Panthers, especially during the postseason. He delivered hit after hit from his linebacker spot while he was an offensive weapon as well.
By Keith McShea
I'm heading out to catch some boys lacrosse action as I gather info for a Scholastic Spotlight story next week. Two great matchups today: Perennial power Orchard Park travels to Silver Creek at 5 while Canisius plays at Bishop Timon-St. Jude's Fitzpatrick Field on Tifft St. at 7 p.m. I'm going to try and hit at least part of both.
No matter what sport you are watching, be sure to tweet updates with the hashtag #preptalkscores. Those tweets will automatically appear in the live blog below. I've also piped in @OrchParkSports for OP-Silver Creek updates:
