Prep Talk

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.

* * *

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: 

By Keith McShea

St. Joe's lacrosse recorded a tremendous victory today. 

But there is a tremendous amount of controversy about the finish. 

St. Joe's beat longtime Monsignor Martin power Bishop Timon-St. Jude, 13-12, in two overtime Monday afternoon at St. Joe's. The loss ended 49-game win streak for Timon in Monsignor Martin regular season games. The Tigers' last loss was to St. Francis on May 19, 2007.

Junior James Bassett scored 59 seconds into the second overtime after Timon thought it had won the game. 

I watched the live video feed via sjci.com. It's available here; the archived broadcast is not available yet but should be within the next 24 hours. I could not tell whether or not Timon's goal was actually a goal. Here's what I saw:

By Keith McShea

Here is the 2013 Section VI football schedule, sent to us by Section VI football chairman Ken Stoldt.

2013 SECTION VI FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Friday games 7 p.m. and Saturday games 2 p.m. unless noted. City host fields: All High Stadium (AH), Riverside (R), Johnnie B. Wiley Stadium (JBW)

WEEK ONE

Friday, Sept. 6
Clarence at Frontier
Niagara Falls at Jamestown
Orchard Park at West Seneca West
Grand Island at Hamburg
Sweet Home at Iroquois
North Tonawanda at Lake Shore, 6:30 p.m.
Kenmore East at East Aurora/Holland, 7:30 p.m.
Williamsville South vs. East (JBW), 6 p.m.
Williamsville North vs. McKinley (R)
Amherst at Medina /Lyndonville (Veterans Park), 7:30 p.m.
Bennett vs. Burgard (AH)
Dunkirk at Alden
Wilson at Akron
Barker/Roy-Hart at Lackawanna (Veterans Stadium)
Cattaraugus/Little Valley at Allegany-Limestone, 7:30 p.m.
Salamanca at Falconer
Fredonia at Silver Creek/Forestville
Southwestern at Gowanda
Sherman at Franklinville
Frewsburg at Pine Valley, 7:30 p.m.
Portville at Maple Grove/Chautauqua Lake (at MG)
Westfield/Brocton at Randolph
Cassadaga Valley at Ellicottville/West Valley, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 7

By Keith McShea

I was unable to cover it this year, but here is the rundown from Thursday night's Niagara PAL/ACE All-Star Classic at Niagara Falls. Both games featured impressive performances by Canisius guards, one graduating (Aaron White), and two seemingly poised to step up as they heads into their junior (LaTerrance Reed) and sophomore (Howard Washington) seasons.

Falls coach Sal Constantino reported that the Freshman/Sophomore game that tipped off the night was "the best game we've had since I have been involved" with the games.

The East beat the West, 95-91, in TRIPLE-overtime. "It was a tough game all the way through, and at the end of regulation and the OTs, kids kept hitting clutch shots," said Constantino.

East High sophomore Percy Bryant (22 points) and Canisius freshman Washington (16) led the winning East side while Canisius sophomore Reed had 30 for the West, including many clutch shots in the late going.

Freshman/Sophomore box score (full rosters here):

By Keith McShea

The rosters for Thursday night's Niagara PAL/ACE All-Star Showcase at Niagara Falls (admission: $5).

Freshman/Sophomore Game — 6 p.m.

East: Percy Bryant-10 (East), Nick Clough-10 (Williamsville East), Howard Washington-9 (Canisius), Chris Miner-10 (Nichols), Zach Panebianco-10 (Jamestown), Jaquoine Fogan-9 (Tapestry), Justin Jones-9 (St. Joe’s), Derek Cheatom-10 (Park), Hunter Anderson-9 (Park), Joe Staton-9 (Middle Early College). Coach: Tony Pulvirenti.

West: Zak Cieski-10 (Cheektowaga), Nehimiah Stone-10 (North Tonawanda), LaTerrance Reed-10 (Canisius), Cam Lewis-10 (Nichols), Matt Cieslak-10 (City Honors), Terrel Ford-9 (Kenmore West), Quinton Lamar-9 (CSAT), Javelle Littlejohn-10 (Riverside), Cort Williams-10 (Williamsville East), Trent White-10 (Kenmore West). Coach: Ryan Hogan.

Junior/Senior Game (following fr./so. game)

By Keith McShea

Here is the entire list of award winners from Monday's second Prep Talk/BCANY Awards banquet at Ilio DiPaolo's.

The event was supported by The Buffalo News, BCANY, ADPRO Sports and UNYTS. Sal Capaccio of WGR and Time Warner Cable Sports donated his time as the emcee.

All-BCANY Large Schools: Johnathan Belton, Amherst-12, Marcus Morris, McKinley-12, Matt MacDonald, Canisius-12 Lovell Smith, McKinley-12, Ryan Funk, Clarence-11, J.J. Wilkins, Niagara Falls-12, Nate Wilkinson, Iroquois-12, Jordan Glover, St, Joe’s-12, Tommy Campion, Jamestown-12, Sterling Taplin, Williamsville North-11

All-BCANY Small Schools: Jordan Parker, Cleveland Hill-12, Ahmad Abdo, Lackawanna-12, Wil Bathurst, Olean-11, Keir Anderson, Middle Early College-12, Sam Eckstrom, Olean-11, Gerald Bibbs, Oracle Charter-12, Paul Rath, St. Mary’s/Lanc.-12, Zed Williams, Silver Creek-12, Tyree Tyson, East-11, Clayton Hess, Tonawanda-12.

BCANY WNY Players of the Year (also earn “Best of BCANY” designation as two of the top 50 players in New York State) Adam Weir, Canisius and Jermaine Crumpton, Niagara Falls

BCANY Coaches Awards

Usually one of the most entertaining chats of the year is scheduled for tonight at 9: You ask, I answer on the All-Western New York basketball team. I'll likely get things started by going over some of the tweets that have been fired off since Saturday. 

In today's Prep Talk column, I wrote something of a preamble on a certain word -- a cop-out of a word -- that people often use when critizing/complaining about the All-WNY teams. 

The complete lists of the teams, including honorable mentions are here: boys and girls. Here are bios of the second, third and fourth teams for boys and girls. And the bios of the first team for boys and girls, except the Players of the Year: Canisius' Adam Weir and Grand Island's Cassie Oursler.

Here's the blog post in which we attempted to list all possible candidates for All-Western New York.

There's also that matter of a tie for the No. 1 large school ranking by McKinley and Canisius: my story, the poll, and my ballot. 

And here's the chat:

 Buffalo's hosting of the 2010 Empire State Games continues to pay dividends with its
annual awarding of the Legacy Fund Scholarship.

  The success of the Buffalo Games generated excess revenue that has been reinvested into the community in the form of scholarships and grants for the purpose of further developing amateur sports in the Buffalo Niagara region.

 Once again this year two $2,500 scholarships are awarded annually to one male and one female who has participated in the Games and has demonstrated academic excellence and leadership in the community. Application deadline for this year is May 17 and the winners will be announced on May 31.