Tonight, our focus is on one game, as it should be.
We'll have a live blog going below from the terrific 7 p.m. matchup of top-ranked large school Canisius at No. 3 St. Joe's.
Tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will automatically show up there. So if you are out at one of tonight's many other good matchups, and you're updating that game via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating the game at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my updating will come in the live blog.
Check out tonight's full schedule on our scoreboard page, and check back throughout the night for updated box scores and highlights.
See you out at the big game, in the chat and on the tweeter. :-)
After Saturday afternoon's Western New York High School Football banquet, I checked out Rochester private school power Aquinas's visit to Canisius.
It was a great matchup, of course, between two teams that are considered by many (including this guy) as the best teams from the Buffalo and Rochester areas. What I saw in Aquinas was a very, very good team that beat Canisius -- but more on that later.
I also figured I'd ask -- since they were in town -- how it was that they ended up in Class AA this year. Aquinas won Class A in Section V (Rochester area) last season, and beat Buffalo's East to advance to the state final four.
Aquinas returns key components from that team -- namely 6-foot-7 senior forward and Canisius College recruit Phil Valenti and senior point guard and Monmouth College recruit Christian White. So they certainly would appear to have the pedigree for Class AA.
But more than one person (again, this guy included), have wondered alound about how convenient it was that this season -- one in which Bishop Kearney (also in Section V's A) will also be a major force (the Knights have already beaten Niagara Falls and Long Island power St. Mary's) -- was the one that Aquinas decided to move up to AA.
Aquinas' response? To paraphrase: "Pffffffft!" :-)
"People saying we're trying to avoid Kearney are wrong," said Aquinas coach Mike Grosodonia.
"They're a very good team, and they almost had to move up, too. They fought to stay down, so you can go both ways with it."
Just for the record: Aquinas has beaten Kearney six times in a row -- which doesn't exactly make them the team the Irish would like to avoid. And they are playing twice in the regular season. But come playoff time, Aquinas will be in AA, Kearney in A.
"Obviously our public school didn't want us there [in AA], let alone even in the section. But we wanted to be in the highest one. For us, we had won A and we had a shot to win states, and we came up short. We just thought we wanted to play the best class, with the best teams, and our kids wanted it. They wanted to play the AA schools. We still play Bishop Kearney twice, we play Canisius, the teams we really want to play to get better. It was more of our kids wanted to go and play in AA and give it a shot there."
Said Valenti: "It's a better challenge for us. We play Bishop Kearney twice this year, we played them three times last year -- it has nothing to do with Kearney. There are better teams in the section [in AA]. It doesn' t matter who we play, there is going to be a great team in the crossover [Section V's AA final]."
Sounds good to me. I hereby apologize for wondering aloud about Aquinas' intentions. The important thing is that arguably the strongest team in the section overall is playing in Class AA, where it should be playing.
Kearney should be there as well, especially with the influx of talent in recent seasons. Kearney might say it is playing "up" in Class A because it has normally been in Class B. False. A private school located in the city the size of Rochester playing in Class B is a joke, but that's where we have seen Kearney show up quite a bit in the Far West Regionals.
When Aquinas' move to AA was announced during the fall, it prompted me to write something I've espoused in live chats and blogs for years: that Aquinas football, which is inarguably one of the best football programs in New York State and has been for about a decade (at least), should be playing in Class AA (it has played in Class A for all of that aforementioned decade).
And now, some of you out there might be thinking: "Isn't this guy a little obsessed with Aquinas?" Not the case. Aquinas is just a lightning rod for something I am certainly obsessed with: Seeing the state tournament be run as fairly and as equitably as it should be. When teams aren't classified correctly, it warps the entire thing.
* * *
And now, back to the game.
Aquinas is talented. And they are mean. I got to the game in the second half, and that's what I saw: a team that wasn't just good but played with a serious edge. It sure sounded like Aquinas used that edge to take control of the game from the start.
"They walked into our building, kind of punched us in the mouth, and it took us unfortunately 10 to 12 minutes to realize that we just got hit and to kind of fight back a little bit," said Canisius coach Kyle Husband. "Toughness and energy -- those things go a long way in this game. They had way more of it than we did. Phil and Christian are just, they're not only really good players, but they're physical and they've got attitude, and those things mean something."
It sure looked that way to me. White runs the team, has a great shot, a great handle and is tenacious on defense. When going upcourt with the ball or driving the lane, he has what seems to be a bull-in-a-china-shop appraoch: he's almost willingly looking for defenders trying to get in his way, initiating contact and using his positioning (including some savvy positioning of his off-arm) to power his way downcourt or to the basket.
Down low, Valenti got rebound after rebound while he also displayed some range. He also plays with great energy and intensity, and sometimes he goes too far. He certainly did in the third quarter, after he followed what was an outstanding follow while being fouled with a clear, full-throat, in-your-face yelling taunt at a defender. He was called for a technical and he should have been. After he nailed a three in the fourth quarter gave Aquinas an 18-point lead, his fired-up celebration, complete with a big smile and what seemed like a laugh, bordered on mocking the opposition. But it's not like that's never been done before.
That's fine. Aquinas is good. They play with an edge. You want to beat these guys? You've got to play smart, physical, intense, team basketball just like the Little Irish.
"That's what we're about," Valenti said after I asked him about how the team plays with an edge. "Being tough, not backing down from anyone."
* * *
And now, for one of the strangest things I've seen at a scorer's table:
In the fourth quarter, a foul was called on (I'm pretty sure) 6-6 junior Jake Cercone. The scoreboard said it was his fifth foul. The Canisius scorekeeper (an adult) said that was wrong, that it was the fourth foul. The students running the table, who had thought it was the fifth and thought it might be time to sound the horn for a disqualification, did not. The Aquinas scorekeeper (an adult) started yelling, the Canisius scorekeeper said it was the fourth foul, the students running the table said the scoreboard was a mistake, and play resumed. Then the Aquinas scorekeeper jumped out of his seat, continued to yell, alerted the Aquinas coaches, and then the officials stopped the game.
An official came over to the scorer's table, asked what was up, they looked to the home scorebook, which is the official book, he had four fouls, and that was that. For the record, Cercone wasn't in the game that much, and I would have been surprised if he had five fouls.
Scorekeepers are supposed to work together in a situation like that -- especially adults. Even if there is an important discrepancy, they are supposed to work together, not jump up and down like the place is on fire. It's just bad form.
And it also encourages something yelled a few moments later from one of the Aquinas adult fans: "Hey, why don't you put 10 minutes back on the clock, too?!?!?!" (Hilarious.). There were quite a few Aquinas fans there -- they travel well, and let's just say that they play with an edge too :-).
* * *
And now, for the classless move of the month:
[I swear I am not picking on Aquinas or its fans. I have the utmost respect for the athletic program and I certainly admit to having problems with where they are classified. But this stuff happened at the game, and I would have written about both of these last two items if they involved a local team.]
At the end of the game, the Canisius student who was doing the PA from the scorer's table, closed out the afternoon of basketball (the teams' freshmen and JV teams also played) by recalling those results and then he added that, in the varsity game, something to the effect of that the Crusaders had lost but it was a "fine effort by Canisius."
And adult male fan from Aquinas, who was making his way out of the bleachers, followed that up right away with, audible to anyone within earshot, an adolescent, mocking retort of: "Well, it wasn't good enough."
And a Merry Christmas to you, too, Mr. Scrooge. :-)
Here's our PrepTalkTV wrapup of Week Three, including a major recap of St. Joe's victory over Canisus and co-starring News Sports Reporter Lauren Mariacher.
Canisius' home opener will have to wait one more week. The Crusaders' 1 p.m. Saturday game against defending Section IV (Binghamton area) Class A champion Maine-Endwell has been canceled; M-E was unable to travel from its flood-ravaged home area for the game.
Canisius will now play on the road against another Section IV school, Elmira, at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Elmira Express is a combined team from Elmira Free Academy and Elmira Southside which plays in Class AA; its scheduled game against another Binghamton-area team, Vestal, was also canceled due to the flooding.
What is Canisius' home opener now? It's Week Three, Saturday, Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. against none other than ... St. Joe's.
If it's the last Saturday of August, it must be Scrimmage Saturday, and we must be on our way to seeing as much football action as we can.
We'll be bopping around Western New York today -- as we have the last two years -- to catch as much football as we can in a limited time.
Disclaimer/explainer: Regular visitors to the blog know how much I love it when fans cite scrimmages as evidence for one team being better than another during the regular season, especially when it comes to the discussion of our polls. Just because I'm interested in all of the scrimmages (and getting to as many as I can), and learning about teams and players, they are still scrimmages. Once the season starts, I don't want to hear about them. :-)
If you're out and about like we are today, we want your reviews and breakdowns of what you saw. Keep it in context -- try and notice which first-team units are out there and what the teams are trying to do. Be sure to comment here our on our Facebook page, tweet us at @KeithMcSheaBN or send an email.
8:34 a.m. We are on our way. I met up with photographer Mark Mulville at One News Plaza and we're headed to Cheektowaga for our kickoff.
Eden, Springville, Tonawanda and West Seneca East are visiting Cheektowaga. We're planning a quick stop before heading nearby to Cleveland Hill.
9:22 a.m. Great start to the day for us -- and for Eden. The Raiders, known for their ground-and-pound-and win formula, threw for two touchdowns against Cheektowaga -- including one on the first play of the scrimmage! -- and added in another touchdown as we were leaving.
We were on hand for some warmups before things got started, with Tonawanda coach Rob Gross asking his team, quite loudly, "What's this half-speed!? Why are we doing anything half speed?!"
After a fairly lenghty prepractice address by the officials, we got started as the head referee said, "Rock and roll, Scott," to Cheektowaga coach Scott Zipp.
And early misstep by Cheektowaga against Eden prompted a "Do your job!" admonition from an assistant coach to a player.
On the other half of the field, West Seneca East scored a TD against Tonawanda.
And let's go to the video:
Above is our first play of our season as West Seneca East got things off and running against Tonawanda.
Talk about a great start for Eden. This is their first play as their offense went against Cheektowaga.
A nice run for Eden.
9:30 a.m. Just about to pull in to Cleveland Hill. (Reminder for any hey-buddy-keep-your-hands-on-the-wheel fans: Mulville is driving).
9:37 a.m. iPhone update from Cleve Hill, where they haven't started due to Silver Creek being late. This may screw up some of our travel plans. We'll see.
9:48 a.m. Official addresses teams: "Next week it starts for real, today's for fun."
10:24 a.m. Back in Mulville's Honda heading north to Lockport. It's a super bummer that Cleve Hill was behind because we're a half hour off the ideal schedule I had set up for the day. That's alright. Every game (and every assignment) isn't going to go as planned and you've got to make those key adjustments, right?
On the bright side, we saw the first-stringers for all four teams at Cleve Hill. The defenses ruled the first round as a fired-up Silver Creek unit bottled up Burgard and the Cleve Hill defense kept Cardinal O'Hara out of the end zone.
Daryl Spencer had a nice sack for a big loss for Cleve Hill on defense, then looked very good with some rollout completions on offense. Zeddie Williams, who should be the feature back after the graduation of older brother Zach, looked solid out of the backfield for Silver Creek. Burgard also had some very solid run stops.
Here are the top videos from Cleve Hill:
10:36 a.m. It's a long trip to Lockport. We're just on to Transit from Millersport & the I-990. Six top programs in action up at Emmet Belknap Intermediate: St. Francis, Sweet Home, North Tonawanda, Williamsville South, Grand Island and the host Lions.
Trying to plot out a backup plan -- a main stop for us is Orchard Park, which is hosting Canisius in a scrimmage that started at 10.
11:02 a.m. Got to Lockport in time to catch the tail end of Jordan Johnson of Sweet Home leading the offense against Will South. Johnson and Sweet Home looked to be moving the ball fairly effectively -- he had a touchdown pass to the far left side of the field called back on a penalty. We didn't see a ton of Sweet Home against Will South but we saw a few more plays against Lockport.
Williamsville South and Grand Island were paired up on the other end and there were some hard hits, including a busted play for South that almost resulted in a hit on coach Kraig Kurzanski, who was in the customary coaches' spot behind the huddle.
St. Francis finished strong on defense against Grand Island and then paired up with North Tonawanda. I caught the second half of that pairing, with NT making some nice stops on defense.
Here's our best video from Lockport:
11:31 a.m. We're on the road again, heading south and hoping to fit in a stop at Riverside but that might not be a great decision with OP are key final stop.
11:37 a.m. Just talked to PrepTalkTV partner Lauren Mariacher at Canisius. The first-stringers are done there -- she has video and interviews from there so I might not go down there. I think we'll head to Riverside.
11:40 a.m. Just checked in with Lauren again. Canisius and OP will be on the field for another hour, so Mark and I are going to squeeze in a visit to Riverside, which is hosting McKinley, Bishop Timon-St. Jude and Maple Grove.
Even if we stay just a few moments, we'll be able to get some video, photos and some looks at the teams. Right now we've seen 14 teams in three stops.
With Scrimmage Saturday, it's certainly about quantity, not quality.
11:54 a.m. And JUST when we think we've come up with a great plan, we pull into the Riverside parking lot and pass a kid wearing orange-and-black carrying his shoulder pads out.
"That's not a good sign," says Mark.
It wasn't. The Riverside field was empty.
The kid was from McKinley. Arghhhhhhh.
If I wrote what I'm feeling right now, I'd get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Maybe two.
Off to OP. Arrrrrrgh. Sigh.
1 p.m. We caught the very end of the Canisius scrimmage at Orchard Park, did some interviews and filmed an intro for PrepTalkTV. Lauren Mariacher is working on that and it'll be posted later today.
I'm headed back to One News Plaza to get some more videos and details posted before heading out to evening scrimmages at Iroquois and Amherst.
More updates to come ...
3:02 p.m. Here is the finished PrepTalkTV product (now starring on the buffalonews.com home page):
3:49 p.m. I've posted a bunch of video here, and I'll have more to come from the six-team Lockport scrimmage as well as some from my next two stops -- Iroquois and Amherst.
4:26 p.m. Hello from the awesome back field setting at Iroquois.
5:40 p.m. Note to football coaches and athletic directors. If you want Prep Talk hanging out at your scrimmage for a long time, have it at night :-).
Got a good long look -- along with the Prep Talk blog's "Milt Latimer" -- at Lackawanna, Frontier, Iroquois and Niagara-Wheatfield, seeing all of their first-strings go at in in their second go-round of '1's.
Lackawanna was very impressive with Keith Taggart leading the way not only at running back but on defense. Some big hits there.
Niagara-Wheatfield sure looked the part, sporting uniforms which looked ready for gameday, right down to every player's pulled-up red calf socks with a black Falcon logo on them. Coming off a winless season and with a new coach in Tim Hagerty, the program looks like it has a little spark. The sideline was extremely into the final offensive session against Iroquois in the first go-round.
Iroquois and Frontier both had good spurts in their session against each other, some nice run stuffs and scoring drives. Frontier got a spark on its offensive series after it made a change at quarterback.
It looked like a productive scrimmage for all four teams.
Here are the video highlights, which were included the best stuff I saw all day:
With six stops and 20 teams seen, now I'm off to Amherst for the final stop of the day.
6:25 p.m. Arrived at Amherst, which is hosting West Seneca West, Kenmore East and Hutch-Tech.
7:09 p.m. Saw some nice play at Amherst's Dimp Wagner Alumni Field, where it appeared that the hosts were the top unit -- not too surprising based on last season and the Tigers' returning experienced players, but certainly impressive nonetheless. Amherst is very fast, and they showed it off on both sides of the ball against a West Seneca West unit that made a few unforced errors, including some turnovers on offense. The Tigers had one player sprint from the backside to chase down a run, and also sped to big gains off of short passes.
Hutch-Tech had some nice run stops and moved the ball better than Kenmore East did in their two series.
The highlights:
And check this out -- I call it a day and walk off the field, and as I walk out of the gate, I run into Tonawanda coach Rob Gross. He was the first coach I saw this morning, and the last coach I see as I leave. Can't make this stuff up.
I think that gives us a very strong finish to our Scrimmage Saturday -- looks like we're ready to go for next weekend.
The Buffalo News is scattering across Western New York to bring you complete coverage of the first day of high school football practice.
I'll be making scheduled stops at Iroquois, Canisius and North Tonawanda throughout the day -- three schools with rich football histories and brand new head coaches. Well, somewhat new...at all three, the new coach was promoted from within the program.
Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section, or shoot me a tweet @samkilb.
8:26 a.m. After two false starts (some construction at the school threw me off...that's my story) I've spotted some guys with pads at Iroquois...let's see how they're handling day one.
8:45 a.m. Coach Marshall addressing both teams in the auditorium. He means business. No nonsense, high goals. I'll be speaking with him shortly.
9:00 a.m. Chalk talk in Iroquois, Marshall hands out playbooks...without a single play in them. The players have to draw them in themselves. Not a bad idea. (They have some terminology in them, Coach Marshall wanted to make sure I clarified. "They won't be blank by Friday," he said.)
9:35 a.m. New Iroquois coach Keith Marshall, who was promoted to this job from the school's JV team after previous Coach Payne stepped aside, said he expects the transition to go smoothly.
"It's been a busy, really exciting summer," Marshall, who moved up from junior varsity with about 30 players, said. "Moving up with them has been a bonus, especially in terms of familiarity with the offense, with the system, with the things that I expect on and off the field."
Marshall said there would be plenty of similarities in how he runs the program and how it was run before. "I learned an awful lot from Coach Payne, I worked with him for ten years and I have a termendous amount of respect for what he taught me," he said. "I'm about similar things in coaching. I'm about keeping the kids safe, being successful and having fun. And we're going to accomplish those three goals this year."
Marshall is going into his 11th year coaching at Iroquois, and as a result, he feels the transition has gone well. The players agree.
"He's been with the program for awhile now, and I've had him since modified," senior wide receiver Madison Wesolowski said. "So I know him, he knows the routine of what we do."
Senior lineman Brandon Vernen said the hard work in the summer paid off.
"I think it's going really smoothly," he said. "Both coaches have their similarities and differences. But Coach Marshall, he's very enthusiastic and he knows how to get the job done."
On the field, changes in personnel will lead to different skill set for this years Iroquois team.
"We're going to be a smaller team, but faster," senior lineman Casey Erhardt said. He added that the team could certainly live up to Marshall's goal of being the smartest in the division. "All the juniors coming up really know their stuff...we're young, but we're also smart, and we're active, so it should be good."
Western New York has become a hotbed for Canadian football transfers in the past couple of years.
It recently landed another big (emphasis on big) impact player, and this one hails from a town which takes much more than a hop over a bridge to reach.
Ryan Hunter is a reportedly a 6-foot-3, 319-pound lineman who has excelled in summer camps in Richmond, Va.; Delaware and Oklahoma -- and he'll be part of Canisius' first practice on Monday as he begins his junior year at the Buffalo private school.
Canisius' starting quarterback the last two years was Canadian Travis Eman, who is being replaced by Canadian Chris Jugovich this year. Jugovich will be handing off many times to Canadian Mercer Timmis, one of the top running backs in Western New York football.
Another of WNY's top backs is Akeel Lynch at St. Francis, another Canadian. The Red Raiders have also attracted players from Canada, who, like all others mentioned here, have been attracted to Western New York schools because playing American football in high school can lead to NCAA scholarships playing American football in college. That has been the case for Lynch (Boston College verbal) and Eman (Furman).
A marked difference in Hunter is that while all the previously mentioned players have hailed from the greater Toronto area, he hails from North Bay, Ontario. North Bay is well north -- and I mean welllllll north -- of Toronto. The drive from North Bay to Buffalo is a six-hour one.
* And here's a youtube video of highlights. Get ready to feel sorry for the Canadian kids he's been throwing around:
This latest addition might prompt some moans about recruiting and this and that which we've heard here and there with this recent influx of Canadians.
I think that sort of thing is misguided. The bottom line is that Canisius and St. Francis have attracted students from Canada because they have good football programs. All sorts of private schools attract all sorts of students because those schools may excel in certain areas.
The move makes sense for the Canadians: They are coming to a place where they can better showcase their football skills against better competition and it already has shown that it can help them obtain college scholarships.
The fact that it is making certain teams from Western New York better only increases the level of play in the area, and I think it benefits Western New York football as a whole.
If you follow me on twitter, you've already seen my retweet of Canisius (@CanisiusHSFB) spreading the news that Mercer Timmis was awarded "best linebacker" at the Miami Hurricanes' camp.
Timmis, the standout running back from Canada, was invited to participate in the camp -- and didn't play much LB last year. Certainly an impressive trip for him. I'd have to think that the success of James Gaines down Miami way helped the U learn about Timmis.
Timmis (6-foot-2, 225) and lineman Jack Plunkett (6-5, 290) have both had official visits to Boston College and Pittsburgh while Stanford, Akron, Bowling Green and Syracuse have all been in contact with both -- that's according to Canisius' coaching staff. Timmis is drawing interest from other Big East schools, like Syracuse and West Virginia, along with the University at Buffalo. UConn and Bowling Green have also expressed interest in Plunkett.
Chris Jugovic, the anticipated starting quarterback after sitting behind Travis Eman as a junior, has gone to camps with Yale and Akron and has received interest from Pennsylvania, UB and West Virginia. Receiver Trevor Jachimowicz is also receiving interest from several Division I program.
With the likes of those players -- along with UB verbal commit lineman Corey Madlock -- and highly-touted Chad Kelly (Clemson verbal) at St. Joe's and Akeel Lynch (mulling several offers) at St. Francis, this fall's Monsignor Martin football season has no shortage of hype. Even Bishop Timon-St. Jude has serious buzz with all-time great Charlie Comerford coming as coach.
I had a summer break that started as soon as the 2010-11 season concluded, and now I'm back -- and here to throw some notes out regarding some summer news and notes ...
* Late in the spring season we told you about the BCANY Hoops Festival set for Johnson City from Aug. 5-7. The event seems like a great one, and it's one that came about due to the unfortunate absence of the Empire State Games this summer.
The roster has been selected by the coaching staff of head coach Larry Jones (Depew) and assistants Mike Haskell (retired Pioneer) and Mike Berkun (Medaille):
Reggie Agbeko (St. Joe's), Stan Wier (who has transferred back home to East Aurora), Sterling Taplin (Williamsville North), Ryan Whelpley (Walsh), Matt Hart (Canisius), Aaron Frasier (Seneca), Aaron White (Canisius), Jamaal Carter (City Honors), Adam Weir (Canisius), Jordan Williams (Bishop Timon-St. Jude).
The team will play Long Island on Friday, Aug 5 at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, Aug. 6, the Buffalo team plays New York City at 9 a.m. and Hudson Valley at noon. Saturday's evening session includes a dunk contest and three-point contest at 4:30 p.m.; a parent clinic on recruiting at 5:30 and a player clinic with college coaches at 6:30.
The event concludes on Sunday, Aug. 7 with the seventh-place game (9 a.m.), fifth-place game (10:30 a.m.), consolation (noon) and championship (1:30 p.m.).
While the event is being run by BCANY, there are some expenses that will need to be covered for teams and players (food, lodging, transportation -- costs mostly taken care of by the ESG during the Games). The squad is seeking sponsorships -- if you are interested in helping the team defray some costs, call Jones at (585) 746-8327.
This team deserves some serious commenting -- that squad is a really good one, a much better collection than I expected for what is a startup event this year. Great talent, great depth, great mixture of schools. Excellent job by the basketball community in getting the word out and credit the coaching staff for what must have been some difficult choices after the tryouts.
* Speaking of some good hoops competition, this weekend might be the Taste of Buffalo but fans can get a taste of hoops up in Niagara Falls. Some top programs are in action at the Niagara PAL Team Camp at Niagara Falls. Here's the lineup:
Friday: 5 p.m. -- Main gym, Niagara Falls vs. Canisius; Aux. gym, St. Joe's vs. Niagara-Wheatfield; 6 p.m. -- Batavia vs. Grand Island; Aux. gym, Wilson vs. Holland; 7 p.m. -- Main gym, Jamestown vs. Sweet Home.
Saturday: 9 a.m. -- Main gym, St. Joe's vs. Niagara Falls; Aux. gym, Canisius vs. Jamestown; 10 a.m. -- Main gym, Sweet Home vs. Wilson; Aux. gym, Batavia vs. Niagara-Wheatfield; 11 a.m., Main gym, Grand Island vs. Holland.
Single elimination tournament begins at noon, with championship at 5 p.m.
There is a $2 admission for fans 13 and older.
* I will hopefully hit some summer events of all sorts -- I'll be soon selling raffle tickets to benefit the Tom Borrelli Award and Scholarship Fund. We have some great prizes and it's a great cause as we continue to honor our fallen coworker.
The third Borrelli Award for boys and the inaugural Borrelli Award for girls will be announced later this month and the winners will receive their trophies at the July 27 Tom Borrelli Golf Tournament at Holland Hills. For those interested in golfing ($100 per person) or donating, please email me at kmcshea@buffnews.com.
* By the way, the spring All-WNY teams and all-league teams (for baseball, softball and boys and girls lacrosse), which have been published over the last month, have all been collected at the high school home page.
