Prep Talk

Hooping by halves

Part of today's busy basketball tournament schedule has Williamsville South hosting the Williamsville Jolly Boys Tournament -- which not only features a fine field but a slightly different kind of game.

The tournament games will be played in halves, not quarters. It's part of an experiment by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York. The halves will be played in 16 minutes rather than eight-minute quarters; it will be more like a college basketball game, which also goes by halves. 

The 16-minute halves experiment is being done to gather information and input from coaches to see if it is something that the sport should try and change to in the future.

What do people think out there? Advantages to seeing/coaching/playing a game in halves rather than quarters?

The action at South starts at 6 p.m. with a cool matchup with St. Joe's and Williamsville North. Then it's Newfane against the host Billies at 7:30. Four quality programs with quality coaches -- it'll be interesting to see what they think of the experiment.

---Keith McShea

Holiday tournaments give many gifts

High school basketball fans receive some gifts with the nice matchups at holiday hoop tournaments, but a few do some other giving.

** At Maryvale, the Coaches vs. Cancer Holiday Tournament is part of a day-long Maryvale basketball celebration which aims at raising money for the American Cancer Society. Flyer alum and current assistant Chris Kensy, son of coach Mark Kensy, organized a four-team Maryvale alumni tournament last year, and along with raffles and auctions, the event raised more than $6,500. 

This year the alumni games will by held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The all-day event continues with junior varsity games prior to the varsity action: Hamburg plays North Tonawanda at 4:30, followed by Cleveland Hill at Maryvale at 6.

Mark's younger brother, Garrett, has battled cancer over the last two years -- this past football season he quarterbacked Mercyhurst to its first winning record since 1997.

"Garrett's battle with cancer did have a large part in our basketball program organizing the event," Chris Kensy wrote in an e-mail, "however, we also thought about how many people are faced with friends and relatives who have also had the battle with cancer. It was amazing to see the community come together in the fight and attend the event. It was also a great way for the present Maryvale community (players and families) to get to know the past."

The finals of the tournament are at 6:45 p.m. Monday, following the 5 p.m. consolation.

** The Pendleton Lions Club is sponsoring Starpoint's tournament, which benefits the Lions' Campaign SightFirst II.

The tournament features a nice foursome as Lockport meets Alden (5 p.m.) and Maritime Charter is at Starpoint (6:30) for the first round on Monday. The consolation-championship doubleheader is Tuesday.

Know of any other tournaments that are raising funds for charity? How about the matchups? Which ones are you looking forward to the most? (Check our master schedule). And of course, once you've seen a game, let us know what you thought of the action.

---Keith McShea

Merry Christmas

The touching story of Lindsay Matthews' inspiration to the Orchard Park football team is one that struck a special note with many of you in your comments in a previous post about the top high school stories of the year.

Here is the photo that was mentioned. It was taken by The News' Mark Mulville and was part of a gallery of photos from the Quakers' come-from-behind victory in the Class AA state championship game.

News columnist Bucky Gleason wrote a great column about Matthews in mid-November. Here is her obituary.

Here is a note written by Orchard Park senior class president Kevin Prise to Gleason, who forwarded it to me:

"I wanted to let you know something cool about our state championship game on Sunday. Lindsay's parents gave the team one of her shirts to take with them to Syracuse for good luck and inspiration, and in the hustle and bustle before the game, the shirt was left in the locker room for the first half, where we were outscored 17-0.

"Before the second half, the team remembered the shirt, and it was brought to the sideline for the second half, where we came back to win our first championship. Coach Tundo waved the shirt in the air in celebration at the end of the game, and we are sure that Lindsay was with us in the second half."

Happy Holidays to everyone.

---Keith McShea

What's on your Christmas list?

Nearly every year in a Prep Talk column (or two) I ask Santa to bring me more nonleague games between Western New York's best football teams.

What's on your list?

I thought of a few more:

** Another request that's as familiar to Santa as cookies and milk: It sure would be nice to have programs available at the Section VI boys basketball tournament for ALL games and not just two of the six days of action.

** That all coaches would call The News as soon as possible, and with all the key details (and for both teams!). Those phone calls are the lifeblood of our day-to-day coverage and it can make an incredibly huge difference in what we're able to provide our readers (whether you're reading a screen or a paper). That's 849-4461 all you coaches out there. Help us help you. 

** We could also use a little more good tidings and a lot less coal-in-the-stocking-worthy posts here on the blog. There are understandably going to be critiques, particularly of coaches for their decisions during games or concerning their programs in general. However, remember to be respectful of not only the student-athletes, but coaches, schools and other members of our little online community here. 

** Santa came early in a couple of ways for this reporter in 2008. Having a wireless broadband card has enabled me to report live from, or to file my stories to the newspaper, from high school events I would never have been able to do so before. Also, in a Black Friday online purchase which has already paid off big-time, I finally upgraded to a digital audio recorder. As soon as I figure out the ABCs of these USBs, I might be able to provide some download-able snippets from interviews.

** Another wish granted: I'm on vacation until well into the New Year. It's a relatively quiet time in high school sports the next two weeks, so the time frame is a good fit. Through the magic of the Internet, I've written posts ahead of time (like this one) so there will be a few additions to the blog while I'm out of town. I'll certainly be scanning the scores and being a fan just like the rest of you -- so anyone who gets to any good high school contest during the break - I expect a report on here!

The next "live" post by me on here will be "How The News Voted" concerning the Jan. 6 poll, although it might be delayed a bit. Happy Holidays to everyone and thanks for what has been an eventful and exciting first calendar year for the Prep Talk blog.

So what's on the Christmas list of Prep Talk Nation? 

---Keith McShea

How The News voted: Last shot of '08

Throughout the boys basketball season, 10 voters will rate Western New York's best teams from 1 to 10 in the large and small school polls. The News has one vote in each poll.

The polls are part of the Sidelines published in Tuesday's Scholastic Spotlight. Here's how we filled out our ballot in Week Two.

Here's how we voted in the first poll. (Note -- the poll takes a break next week; the next rankings will be published Jan. 6, 2009).

Large schools

1. Niagara Falls (4-0) [1] -- Tonight's trip to Jamestown -- the toughest road game the Wolverines have played since ... ? Toughest ever? Falls has played plenty of top opponents since the program began in 2000-01, but usually at neutral sites of some sort. When it comes to venturing in an actual school's gym, this might be it. They have another tough one next week when Falls plays defending AA champ Bishop Maginn at Albany's College of St. Rose.

2. Nichols (4-1) [2] -- Love their schedule: at Niagara Falls, then at Orchard Park Next up, at Maryland this weekend. I'll be vacationing in Maryland for part of this weekend, but not in the same neighborhood.

3. Grover Cleveland (3-1) [3] -- The way the Presidents have reloaded, and are playing at such a high level so quickly, probably makes their reload more impressive than the Falls'. There's something about Canisius-Grover that brings on the snow, huh? Two years in a row their matchup at the Keenan has been postponed. 

4. Jamestown (3-0) [4] -- Biggest home game since ... ? Biggest regular-season home game since ... ? Biggest ever?

5. East (2-0) [6] -- Moved up a spot on my ballot by not playing. Some wins in Rochester could give them a strong case to move up. They play Dec. 29-30 at the Rush-Henrietta Tournament, where the opener is East-vs.-East (Rochester's version lost to Falls in the regionals last year).

6. Williamsville South (3-2) [7] -- We liked their composure vs. Nichols.

7. Depew (6-1) [8] -- The smallest large school can play with big boys.

8. Williamsville North (5-1) [NR] -- Nice win over Frontier. The ECIC I guys are sure going to slug it out this year.

9. Frontier (4-2) [5] -- Still top 10 material.

10. McKinley (5-1) [10] -- Seems like the Jamestown loss got their attention. For now we'll keep them here, boxing out Sweet Home.

They got next (in no particular order) ... This bubble is getting bigger -- full-blown league play can't come soon enough (and is sure going to be fun): Sweet Home, Middle College, Canisius, Grand Island, Lockport, Lew-Port, Orchard Park, Maryvale, Bishop Timon-St. Jude, St. Joe's, St. Francis, Kenmore East, Kenmore West, Lake Shore, Pioneer, Hutch-Tech, Riverside ...

Small schools

1. Lackawanna (2-3) [1] -- Still under .500. Small schools still a muddled bunch -- a good, muddled bunch -- up top.

2. Maple Grove (5-2) [2] -- We'll keep the state champs here -- there's that muddled-ness again.

3. Allegany-Limestone (6-0) [NR] -- Did we say muddled? Call this a shoutout to CCAA I, the recent dominance of Olean, and the Gators' thorough victory over them. For now these guys belong in the middle of the muddle.

4. St. Mary's (5-1) [3] -- Fans have to wait for the big-school measuring stick after St. Joe's at St. Mary's got plowed last Friday.

5. Wilson (4-1) [4] -- We see the Lakemen as the N-O team to vote for, ever so slightly ...

6. Akron (3-1) [5] -- ... over these guys. I'm not arguing with those first-place votes, by the way. All of the these top six have a case for No. 1.   

7. Alden (5-1) [6] -- Loss at St. Mary's makes them the only school ineligible for a first-place vote -- but that's just for now.

8. East Aurora (3-4) [8] -- Treat the record like Lackawanna's -- losses to Depew and St. Francis last week.

9. Frewsburg (5-1) [NR] -- Earned a split with Southwestern with a road win last week.

10. Olean (2-3) [7] -- We keep 'em in for now. How can you not? But the rest of CCAA I wants to get to do what the Gators did.

They got next: Randolph, Southwestern, Medina, Newfane, Gowanda, Maritime Charter, City Honors.

Don't like what you're reading here, or in the overall poll? The comments section is below.

---Keith McShea

More on the 08-09 wrestling season

We've only got so much space in the paper, but we've got plenty of room out here in cyberspace. Here are some details about a sampling of Western New York wrestling programs.

Thanks to those coaches who took the time to respond to a mass email I sent out. A lot of the information below was culled from those emails.

In addition to Matt Johnson and Irv Buck, Niagara Falls also boasts Kenny Hamiton at 189, where "if Angelo [Malvestuto] goes to 171, he has as good a shot as anyone," said Falls coach Israel Martinez.

Some more Lancaster names we should be hearing all the way through sectionals are: Bill Ellis (140), Keith Stoerr (160), Justin Michel (125) and Adam Bertucci (171) as well as Bryan Hauser (145), Chris Giza (135), Dan Kubiak (189) and Sean Woods (152-160).

Eden graduated six seniors from its ECIC III title team but returns sectional place-winners Ross Abram (119) and Eddie Sarcione (145). Other Raiders to watch include: Tom Page (96), Alex Smythe (103), Jeremy Lilga (125) and Derek Zittel (140).

Frontier and third-year coach Dan Uhteg, a Clarence, NCCC and Ithaca College grad, had a big win over Hamburg (54-16) last week.

The Falcons returner is 100-win man Donny Heppner at 130 although he may drop to 125.  The young, underclassmen-dominated squad includes sophomore Collin Gleason (103), junior Marc Stanton (135), sophomore Mitchell Jamieson (140) and brothers Nick (145-pound sophomore) and Greg Bannister (152-pound junior). 

Depew sophomore Ryan Baer, who was a Class AA runner-up last year, will build on his 87 career wins once he returns from a football injury in January. Coach C.J. Barth, a 2000 grad of Depew, is in his second year of coaching after taking over for his coach, Greg Witman. His team captains are three of his six seniors: Brad Barth (160), Steve Garbutt (171) and Andrew Jaskowiak (189).

Jan. 30-31 is a big weeked for the Wildcats as they host major meets on back-to-back nights. Depew hosts Springville at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30 in the program's alumni/senior night. The following day is the Wildcat Wrestling Invitiation, which includes programs from Section V.

Sweet Home has a strong junior class, including Daiquann Burney (fourth at 103 in Division I last year) as well as captains Zach Fumerelle and Gage Bateman, both of whom started 9-0. Henry Fumerelle, who coached the last eight years at Williamsville East, has joined coach Jeffrey Hess as an assistant.

At Williamsville South, former Canisius and Wilson coach Chris Heximer is in his first season and he's been pleased by increased roster numbers (27 wrestlers) and two sophomores in particular: Luke Falzone (125) started notched his 50th win during a 9-0 start while Spencer Biondo is also 9-0 after not letting any of his matches go beyond the first period. Eighth-grader Anthony Liberatore (130) is getting valuable experience while sophomore Curtis Byers has made some nice contributions at 189 and 215.

Williamsville North might be able to crack the top 10 after doing well against Clarence and beating Niagara Falls.

Lockport's top returning lettermen include junior Ivan Cruz (103), freshman Mike Feeney (130) and senior Chris Fuerschbach (145), all of whom qualified for last years sectional championships. The Lions impact newcomers include juniors C.J. Ralyea (160) and Zach Nuhn (171).

The Lions host the annual Lockport Wrestling Boosters/Sunrise Optimist Club Tournament on Jan. 16-17. The tournament features 23 teams, including some from Section V and the Monsignor Martin Association. This year's tournament will feature over 25 wrestlers who placed in the top four in last year's Section VI, Section V or state championships.

A balanced St. Joe's squad not only includes Mark Emerson but senior Paul Incorvaia at 145 (sixth at Catholic states), junior Tyler Beresford at 189 (sixth at Catholic states and off to a 9-2 start) and senior R.J. Harper (last year's state Catholic runnerup at 215).

Fifth-year head coach Pete Kennedy has started a youth program for boys attending first grade through eighth grade in an effort to bolster its program.

Canisius had back-to-back wins over Akron and Wilson last week -- freshman Andrew Berg's second-period pin gave the Crusaders a 39-36 win over Wilson. Coach Scott Gruenauer's top returner is Justin Ranallo, who was second at the Catholic states last year.

Former Sweet Home coach Ron Tatar is at Gow as an assistant.

Ripley's little team that always can includes top returners Logan Miller (96), Emory Rowe (119), Justin Hunt (130), Sajen Hunt (160 -- he needs nine wins to reach 100) and Ron Swan (171). The new faces who could make an impact are Dylan Mueller (112), Markus Meredith (125) and Dylan Enterline (285).

Top returning wrestlers for Pine Valley are junior Kyle Reynolds (119), who placed third in the Section VI Division II Tournament at that class, and sophomore Kristopher Schimek (145), who was fourth in Class A at 125.

I think it's a great move by Section VI to make it a championship weekend by splitting up its large- and small-school tournaments up, and to host them both at Niagara County Community College.

Having everyone in the same venue for the weekend makes it simple to promote and I would think wrestling fans would enjoy being able to watch more wrestling -- a four-ring circus is a lot easier to keep track of than an eight-ring, two-tournament situation.

From a selfish perspective, it certainly helps the media as well. One place, one day to spotlight each group of wrestlers. That works both ways, though -- it's better for us, but the coverage will be better for wrestling (it'll basically be doubled). That weekend I would think that we at The News would have a story and photos from NCCC on both days.

Contrast that to the past few years, where, like fans, the media was in a position where it was trying to digest two meets, a total of 30 champions, at one site, in one night. Not the easiest thing in the world to keep track of, and with only so much space (or on-air time) allowed, all those champions didn't really get the kind of coverage they deserved. 

The large school tournament is being held Friday because only one team will have to travel a major distance on a school day, and that's Jamestown -- no stranger to road trips as a member of ECIC I. On Saturday, many small schools will travel a ways from the Southern Tier, but NCCC is a WNY treasure of a wrestling school and venue which local wrestlers and fans should be interested to visit.

NCCC coach Eric Knuutila recently won his 356th dual meet of his 36-plus-year career, tying him for 15th on the all-time collegiate win list and moving him past 15-time NCAA champion Dan Gable of Iowa. Knuutila started the wrestling program at NCCC in 1973 and has produced 13 regional titles and four national champions.

Just a reminder that we have the season schedule of tournaments posted on the high school home page high school home page.

Any blog on wrestling would be incomplete without a mention of armdrag.com, matburn.com, nywrestling.com and newyorkwrestlingonline. Also, the state sportswriters have their first team rankings out. Feel free to add your favorite site below. 

---Keith McShea

All-WNY soccer teams published

The snow wiped out most of the schedule, but there is plenty for high school fans in Tuesday's paper.

Regular Tuesday feature Scholastic Spotlight includes stories on boys swimming and wrestling and a ton of info, including the first girls basketball polls of the season and the first individual wrestling rankings from the Wrestling Review of Western New York.

There's also an entire page devoted to 2008 boys soccer, including the All-Western New York team, all of the all-league teams and a wrapup story. For a peek at some of the data I used to write the wrapup, check out this information I dug up from our own record books. If you go year by year on that list, you'll see that 2008 was a special year for Section VI soccer.

The girls soccer All-WNY and season wrapup package were published Thursday.

---Keith McShea

Fall All-WNY scholar-athlete team published

The fall season's All-Western New York scholar-athlete team is out in today's News.

Like the information in the football state championship poster pages, this isn't something that translates well to the Web. All of the individual pictures -- and the names of the students on the team -- are available online, but you can't match them up because of the cool design of the page in the actual newspaper.

So get out to a newsstand or store while we have a break between snowstorms :-)

---Keith McShea

What were the best high school sports stories of 2008?

Here are a couple of questions to ponder (during snow-shoveling breaks): We in the sports department are gathering input on the best stories of the year -- check out the "Top 10 sports stories" post the Sports, Ink blog to make your vote or add you own candidate.

But what about high school sports in 2008?

The history-making four state titles in football have to head the list. But what's next?

Two state titles in boys hoops isn't bad either. Olean and Maple Grove both won championships, the first time that happened in boys basketball since two now-extinct schools -- LaSalle of Niagara Falls and Buffalo Traditional -- in 1996. Overall it was an excellent year for Section VI boys hoops as it won four of five games at the Far West Regionals -- Niagara Falls and East both also advanced to the state final four.

Probably the best story of the spring was the Lancaster girls lacrosse team making history by becoming the first Section VI team to beat a Section V (Rochester area) champion to earn a trip to the state final four. The Redskin girls passed up their prom night to head to states, but then had their own prom thrown by KISS 98.5 (after a certain newspaper put the girls -- with their dresses hanging from their lacrosse sticks -- on the front page :-) ).

The Hamburg boys lacrosse team made history by making the state semifinals, where they were part of what had to be the most stunning defeat of the year as Carthage scored twice in the final minute.

In the big picture, football went to a shorter regular season (seven weeks) and an expanded playoff format (three weeks).

There were plenty of excellent team and individual performances -- Marissa Dressel of Kenmore West made a splash at the swim states a few weekends ago, eighth-grader Kala Allen of Williamsville East made a figurative splash on the track in the spring, and Joelle Connolly of Pioneer (and now of Hofstra) completed her career as Western New York girls basketball's all-time leading scorer. Joe Whelan of Hamburg cross country fought off past injuries to run all the way to the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego.

East Aurora cross country continued to run away from most fields. Clarence, Kenmore East and East Aurora advanced to the state final four in what was Section VI boys soccer's best postseason in the 30 years of the state tournament. 

This entry was off the top of my head -- I've certainly got to be overlooking some very worthy and notable teams and athletes.

What else should make the list? When it comes to Western New York high school sports in 2008, what was the best team? Best game? Best sport? 

---Keith McShea

STWOA tournament pushed back to Saturday, and other reschedulings ...

The general rule, of course, is if there's no school, there's no afterschool.

Here are some rescheduling matters that have reached my e-mailbox:

** The Southern Tier Wrestling Officials Association Tournament at Jamestown Savings Bank Arena is canceled today and pushed back to 10 a.m. Saturday;

** Both indoor track meets (today and Saturday at Buffalo State) have been canceled (thanks section6runs.com); 

** From Jamestown -- boys basketball at Frontier will be rescheduled; boys swmming home vs. Williamsville North will be rescheduled;

** From Barker -- the Barker at Newfane boys basketball game scheduled for tonight has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 23 at 3 p.m.; the Newfane at Barker girls basketball game scheduled for tonight has also been rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 23 at 3 p.m.

If you know of any reschedulings, feel free to post them in the comments section or e-mail them to sports@buffnews.com.

---Keith McShea