The month of May is traditionally fairly busy for news about coaches. With budget matters usually wrapped up by late April and awaiting voter approval in May, school administrators turn their attention to evaluations of winter coaches and finishing up coaching appointments for the following fall.
That’s been the case once again with a slew of hirings, retirements and other changes.
Still, no announcement was more jaw-dropping last week than the announcement that a highly popular local sports figure is battling for his life. Second-year Spencerport hockey coach Craig Charron, 42, disclosed that he has been diagnosed as having an advanced case of stomach cancer.
Charron, a local hero after a stellar career playing for the AHL's Rochester Americans, started experiencing flu-like symptoms in November and was diagnosed in February, by which time surgery or radiation were not options. He began his second round of chemotherapy this week at Strong Memorial Hospital.
"I'm ready to fight this, I'm ready to fight this every step of the way," Charron told the Democrat and Chronicle. "I want to be one of those (beat-the-odds) statistics."
Still, the father of four is being honest with himself. "Chemo can't cure it," he said. "It can prolong or extend life for five or 10 years, so this will be my course of action for years to come."
Charron has a 12-year professional career, playing five of his final eight seasons in Rochester. He was the Americans’ leading scorer in 1995-96 with 43 goals and 95 points as the club won the Calder Cup. He retired in 2002, remained in the Rochester area and has been enshrined in the team’s hall of fame.
Coaching changes
* Anthony Finochio, 28, who spent the last three seasons as a Washingtonville assistant, is the new football coach at O'Neill (Highland Falls). He replaces Tim Hendershot, who became an assistant at Newburgh Free Academy. O'Neill went 7-4 last fall and won the Section IX Class B championship; the school will drop down to Class C in 2010.
* George Iacobaccio is the new Rondout Valley (Accord) football coach, replacing Jim Malak, who was not rehired after the school could not field a team last fall.
* Grover Cleveland (Buffalo) boys basketball coach Earl Schunk has retired but says he’d like to return to coaching if the right opportunity comes up. After a 5-36 start at the school, he finished 170-98 to go with 44 wins at West Seneca West before changing schools.
* Apache Paschall is moving from St. Michael Academy in Manhattan to Nazareth in Brooklyn – and taking his players with him. SMA is closing this summer due to shrinking enrollment, and Paschall worked with the players and their parents to find a suitable school. Nazareth has not fielded a girls team in several seasons but could now jump straight into the Brook-Queens Division of the CHSAA alongside Christ the King and Mary Louis Academy.
At one point in Paschall’s search, there was speculation that he and the program’s 14 players could end up at Bishop Loughlin as the replacement for Rocco Romano, who was informed last month that he isn't being retained following an 0-16 mark in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I league. Varsity assistant Kasim Alston has since been tabbed to run the program.
* Erik Lazerus could end up staying on as a teacher and baseball coach at Nyack (Upper Nyack) following the school board's sharply divided decision Tuesday to rescind his resignation. The board voted 4-3 to throw out its earlier decision to accept the resignation (effective after the end of the school year) that Lazerus submitted last month after he was denied tenure. The vote means Superintendent Valencia Douglas can reconsider a tenure offer. Nyack is 13-3 and averaging more than nine runs a game this season under Lazerus, the varsity program's third coach in five years.
Double duty for Niagara-Wheatfield star
Senior Alex Buerger is having a busy spring. Besides playing No. 1 singles on the Niagara-Wheatfield boys tennis team, he's been keeping his golf game in shape to compete in the Section VI championship Monday at Diamond Hawk.
Golf's regular season is played in the fall in the Buffalo area, but sectionals are held in the spring to conform to the rest of state. So Buerger plays tennis on weekdays and golf on weekends. Buerger made the varsity as a freshman and has played first singles since he was a sophomore. In golf, he's a six-year varsity veteran and a two-time Niagara Frontier League medalist.
"I'm expected to win at both, so I do feel the pressure," Buerger told The Buffalo News. "I've learned to accept and try and get past it. Sometimes I question if maybe I have to choose one or the other. I balance them well. It doesn't get too crazy. I enjoy them both, so I try to give them equal time."
He has signed a letter of intent to play golf at Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.), a Division II program.
Changes likely ahead for Corning schools
Corning's East and West high schools continue to head down a path of a fully merged sports program following concerns about proposed private funding of separate teams in most sports.
Corning-Painted Post Superintendent Mike Ginalski said this week that timing may stop school board candidates Mike McCaig, Jim Sonner and Pierce Baker from forming a foundation that would raise $280,000. The men already have a line of credit in place and propose to raise the corresponding amount of money through donations and fundraisers.
Though East and West have already combined teams in a handful of sports, the budget proposal approved by the board last month combines all teams, including football, basketball and lacrosse, to help close a deficit. Both Ginalski and school board president Tom Tammaro said the board won’t accept the money from the foundation until all the legal questions are examined by the district's lawyers.
District voters cast ballots on the budget May 18, and Ginalski said he hopes to have the attorney’s preliminary decision by the following day. The foundation proposal calls for its own board to have financial oversight power, which may be a deal-breaker.
"You could end up with little groups that are fighting to keep the chorus going or keep the band going and all of a sudden it isn’t fair," Tammaro told The Leader. "We have PTAs we’re already having issues with, where you have one PTA that raises $50,000 and another that’s trying to scrape together $2,000."
Recruiting notebook
* Rice senior forward Kadeem Jack is having second thoughts about attending prep school in Connecticut. The first-team all-state player may wind up enrolling this fall at North Carolina, which ramped up interest last week after role-player 6-10 twins Travis and David Wear announced they will transfer out of Chapel Hill.
* Quentin Gause of Bishop Kearney in Rochester, a first-team all-state football player in Class C, is expected to give a verbal commitment on Monday. The linebacker has several Division I offers in hand, but not the one he craves, from Miami, so the word circulating is that he might declare for Rutgers for now.
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.