Prep Talk

Check out the online standings

This was asked about in last night's chat, and we're glad to have an answer one night later.

Our standings page -- which is also available through a link on the high school home page under the Scholastic Spotlight heading -- is updated with spring sports.

First of all, our apologies on the delay of having the page up. It's been part of a huge overhaul in how we take scores, a process which began with basketball for the winter and then moved on to all sports for the spring.

The standings for most team sports are included, along with all scores that have been reported to us. The standings are based off of those scores.

If any standings are incomplete and/or there are scores missing, it's most likely due to the same reason: That the scores weren't reported to us (we certainly may have goofed on some things, but the vast majority of missed games are due to them never being called in by coaches -- which is an unfortunate circumstance that just shouldn't happen).  

We also realize the one page is a lot to digest. We plan on upgrading the page with links that will take you directly to certain sports (like the ones on our scoreboard page -- which can be used to view the scores and future scheduled games through its clickable calendar).

Ultimately we hope to have separate pages for each sport. We have a lot more planned beyond that and will be working on a lot of things that we'll add for the 2011 fall season. 

If you have any suggestions for improvements or upgrades, please comment on this post, e-mail me (linked below), or use the Twitter or facebook links below. Thanks very much for your patience as we continue to improve buffalonews.com's high school coverage.  

---Keith McShea
(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Buffalo City Schools have proud, early history in Section VI

Inspired by the showing of Section VI at the New York State Track and Field Championships in June, I decided to do a little microfilm research. For fun, let's try and find the results of every Section VI track meet starting from the beginning. But where is the beginning?

That would require finding out when Section VI was formed. And that would require cashing in a favor. An e-mail to Walt Eaton yielded a jackpot. The retired Assistant Executive Director of NYSPHSAA just happens to be working on a book on the NYSPHSAA.

"I am in the editing stages now for the entire history of the NYSPHSAA and hope to get a rough draft published in the next few months ahead," said Eaton.

Here's part of his e-mail replay. Check out what a major player the Buffalo City Schools were during those early years.

Thanks Walt! We'll look for your book here in Section VI, and I owe you a favor.

TIMELINE INTO THE CREATION OF SECTION VI

1921-22: Eight sections were created to form the NYS Public High School Association of Basketball Leagues - the Buffalo area was one of these Sections.

1923: The NYSPHSAA was formed to sponsor other sports - track and field, skating, swimming, tennis, etc.

Note: The Buffalo City Schools team won the first track and field State Championship held on May 30, 1923 at Union College, Schenectady.

1924: The NYSPHS Assoc. of Basketball Leagues merged with the NYSPHSAA. Lafayette High School won the first NYSPHSAA Basketball State Championship held at Syracuse University.

1925: The Buffalo-area team won the first Swimming State Championship held at RPI in Troy.

Oct. 1925: The doubles team from Hutchinson High School of Buffalo won the first State Championship in tennis held at Hamilton College in Clinton.

1928-29: Eight Sections were formed with the same boundaries for all sports. Section VI as we know it today was called Section VI.

---Mary Jo Monnin

Wildly busy Wednesday

Off the top of my head, I can't remember a Wednesday that had this much meaningful high school action going on, especially for the spring.

Check out our high school scoreboard, which has results on the All High and Monsignor Martin track championships, the Section VI boys tennis championships, the Monsignor Martin softball and girls lacrosse championships, and a ton of other action in other sports including some top-ranked teams going at it in baseball and softball.

Whew. We'll have stories on the track meets in Thursday's paper along with some additional coverage here on the blog. There will also be a meaty-portioned High School Extra with the big events.

And if you saw any of Wednesday's action, let us know.

---Keith McShea

What is the best WNY boys tennis top three of all-time?

Longtime Section VI chairman and 35-year Orchard Park coach Terry McMahon consulted with coaches past and present -- as well as the record book -- to come up with the most top-heavy boys tennis teams of all-time in Western New York.

The discussion began after the success of this season's top three singles players for Hamburg.

While Hamburg doesn't have the complete depth of some other all-time teams, its top three certainly "put them in the conversation," said McMahon.

Talk about a fun conversation. Here's only a first serve:

1975 Sweet Home: Dave Loder, Todd Miller, Craig Pegrum
1975 Amherst: Peter Braun, Ray La Port, Brian Fitzpatrick
1977 Nichols: Seth Bowen, Alex Gaeta
1978 Orchard Park: Bill Schillings, Bill Beneke , Rico Wooliver
1983 East Aurora: Scott Sadegian, Jeff Markello, Jeff Ensminger
1985 Williamsville East: Dave Russell, Trey Sausen, Gui Kahn
1988 Amherst: Mark Monkarsh, Neil Simon, Dave Monkarsh, Peter Gasparinni
1994 Clarence: Jon Moog, Jamie Lucas, B.J. Brinkerhoff
1999 Williamsville East: Randy Roccio, Will Lewis, Kevin Rycyna, Hishan Krish
2006 Orchard Park: Joe Schafer, Matt Manzella, Matt Nelson, Clark Driscoll (18-0 and won 87 individual matches out of a possible 90 including team championships).

Some great names on that list. So where does the 2009 trio of Matt Kane, David Yovanoff and Tim Kane fit in?

Serve up your comments below.

---Keith McShea