Cries of "de-fense" are giving way to sighs of "de-funct" in Western New York these days, as no fewer than three small schools in that region have had to drop varsity football for the upcoming season because of low turnouts.
And a North Country program got a last-minute reprieve when a football-only merger with a nearby district that didn’t even have a team was approved, infusing enough new talent to keep practices going ahead of the scheduled openers Sept. 4-5.
The loss of Hinsdale and Brocton reduces Section VI to 15 Class D teams this fall. Archbishop Walsh, an independent school in Olean, also dropped the sport. Brocton went into the summer with 44 players signed up to play varsity or JV football, but actual turnout for the first day of practice was much lower. Coach Terry Presto was able to improvise under similar circumstances a year ago by utilizing freshmen, but that wasn't viable this fall.
"I couldn't do it this year with a clear conscious,'' Presto told The Post-Journal in Jamestown. "Last year, we were playing more schools our size. It was just too tough to carry a varsity team this year -- especially with Silver Creek, Randolph and Frewsburg in our Division."
Brocton will field a JV team this fall and hope to rebuild. Five Section VI schools with smaller enrollments are fielding teams this season.
With Brocton and Hinsdale gone, the sectional schedule has been revised to fill holes. Class D divisional chairman and Forestville coach Scot Greenough said that where possible, Central Division teams (Forestville, Frewsburg, Pine Valley, Randolph and Silver Creek) were paired with East Division (Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Ellicottville, Franklinville, Portville and West Valley) schools with common open dates.
Additional juggling was done to reduce the number of instances in which two teams would face each other more than once during the regular season.
Meanwhile, a collaboration between Plattsburgh Seton Catholic and Northern Adirondack earned final approval. It's a boost for Seton Catholic, which was facing a shortage of players and was at risk of having to call off the season.
Northern Adirondack does not have a football program but did have approximately a dozen students who expressed interest in playing. That became a reality after boards of both schools approved the idea earlier this month and then Champlain Valley Athletic Conference athletic directors signed off on the move. Section VII gave its OK on Aug. 20, and four NAC students attended practice the next day.
Bath, coming off a trip to the NYSPHSAA Class B semifinals, is a candidate for future uncertainty. More than a dozen athletes who were expected to play for the varsity this fall were no-shows, forcing the Rams to move eight younger players up and cancel the junior-varsity season.
More football: Jim Brown’s scholastic coach dies
Dr. Edward Walsh, who coached LeRoy to an undefeated season in 1943 and mentored all-time NFL great Jim Brown in football at Manhasset, died Aug. 14 in Cooperstown at the age of 96.
Walsh also coached Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Vince "Boomer" Scott at LeRoy, where he abandoned the prevailing wing-formation offense of the era in favor of the "T" formation that helped open up the passing game.
Walsh joined the Navy during World War II and returned to coaching at Manhasset in 1948. Brown averaged 12.4 yards a carry over three seasons as Manhasset went 20-1 in the early 1950s.
* Eastridge, usually a contender in recent years in Section V Class A, will play all of its games on the road due to ongoing renovations at the East Irondequoit high school. The Lancers will play home games at nearby Bishop Kearney and Marina Auto Stadium outside downtown Rochester.
* Yonkers Roosevelt running back Dave Thomas has been granted an extra year of eligibility by Section I. Thomas missed his freshman season with a broken bone in his left hand and did not graduate after rushing for 1,099 yards and 15 TDs in the fall as the Indians went 4-5.
* Jonny McGhee, a two-year starting quarterback, was a receiver when New Rochelle opened practice, The Journal News reported. McGhee missed most of the workouts and did not attend meetings with coaches since the end of his junior season, leading to speculation he did not intend to play at all this fall. McGhee led the Huguenots to their third straight Section I Class AA championship with 1,234 passing yards and 19 TDs. Senior Lewis Edney took over QB responsibilities during spring and summer workouts.
Cross Country: Fayetteville-Manlius star sidelined by surgery
Fayetteville-Manlius distance runner Alex Hatz is recovering from surgery at a downstate hospital and is expected to miss at least the first third of the upcoming season.
The defending state Class AA cross country champion faces several weeks of restricted activity before he can resume a full activity schedule, and F-M coach Bill Aris says training beginning next month will be geared toward getting Hatz back to contender status at the late-season championship meets.
The surgery was done Aug. 21 to correct a gradual narrowing of a vessel serving one of Hatz's kidneys. The procedure was done at NYU Medical Center in Manhattan.
Besides the cross country title, Hatz triumphed in the NYSPHSAA indoor 1,000 meters and captured the outdoors 1,600 in an electrifying 4:06.11 as a junior.
Field Hockey: Big shoes to fill
Linda Michele, who coached East Rochester to three NYSPHSAA Class C championships in the last five seasons, has stepped down. Her 10-season record was 185-28-12 record, including 21-0 last year en route to a fifth straight Section 5 title and the state championship.
She is being replaced by Maddie Watrobski, a spring graduate of Colgate University who inherits a 94-game unbeaten streak against Section 5 opponents.
Boys Basketball: Harris family becoming a full-time story
Rain forced a change of venue, but that couldn't dampen Tobias Harris' performance recently in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 all-star basketball game in Harlem. The 6-foot-8 Half Hollow Hills West senior rose rapidly in the recruiting rankings this summer and showed why with 20 points on 9-for-16 shooting in 22 minutes of action to help his all-star team to a 133-120 victory.
Harris, NYSSWA Class A basketball co-player of the year as a junior, has become a consensus top-20 player in his recruiting class and is drawing raves for his offensive skills in particular.
Harris, who led Long Island Lutheran to the Federation title in March before transferring back to Half Hollow Hills West, is being pursued by just about every major college a fan of the sport can name. He expects to narrow his college list to five this month and announce a final choice in November.
Meanwhile, rising junior Tyler Harris, 15, who also transferred back to HHHW, will reclassify after graduating in June 2011, his father said.
Torrel Harris said Tobias and Tyler both started school a year early, in part to cut the expense of day care. The plan is for Tyler to graduate in June 2011 and then head off to prep school to re-sync with players his age and pick up added experience before entering college.
* Sean Miller didn’t have any commitments yet from players in the Class of 2010 before landing his first scholastic junior this month.
St. Raymond’s standout Sidiki Johnson has verbally committed to Arizona. The 6-7 forward, who averaged 11.3 points as a sophomore, was attracting interest from Kentucky, Virginia Tech and most of the Big East.
Miller, a former Pitt star who most recently coached at Xavier, made solid inroads into New York City in the spring when he landed incoming freshmen Lamont (Momo) Jones and Kevin Parrom.
John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at johnschianosports@gmail.com.