A spur-of-the-moment decision by junior varsity players apparently was the undoing of the boys varsity lacrosse coach at Nanuet.
It remains to be seen if it will also be the undoing of a program that has become highly competitive recently.
Rick Sorkow was informed this month that he was not being retained despite a 28-7 record in two seasons running the varsity, The Journal News reported.
Sorkow’s influence on the Nanuet program is undeniable. The varsity had won a total of nine games in the four seasons before he took the helm, including an 0-18 mark in 2004. They were 3-13 as recently as 2007.
Frank Mazzuca, the school’s athletic director, said he could not discuss a personnel decision.
According to Sorkow, the junior varsity’s participation in a freshman tournament at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey may have been his undoing. The event was in memory of Conner Cornish, a Nanuet resident who was killed by a train last year. Sorkow said the players did not bring equipment, but wore jerseys to show their support. When another team did not show up, organizers asked if the Nanuet players would step in, and helped them assemble the equipment needed to take the field.
Sorkow was not present at the event. While Sorkow said he informed several players that Section I rules prohibit JV players from participating in a game against freshmen, he admitted he did not notify every player and parent.
"He thought I knew all along the kids were going to play, which I did not," Sorkow said of Mazzuca. "That is the furthest thing from the truth."
More Lacrosse: Schenectady girls coach stepping down
* Brian Melanson resigned as girls lacrosse coach at Schenectady, which is coming off a 12-3 season that was the team's best showing ever by far. Melanson will continue to coach boys swimming but wants to spend more time at home with his three young children.
Schenectady had never won more than seven games in a season before reaching the 2009 Section II quarterfinals. He coached modified and JV lacrosse from 2001-03 and then launched the varsity in 2004.
"I do not know who will be coaching next year, but whoever it is, I’m hoping they can take it to the next level," Melanson told The Daily Gazette.
* There’s a new award that means an awful lot to players in Section VI.
Recent Orchard Park grad Jeff Tundo sounded very grateful after being selected the inaugural recipient of the Tom Borrelli Memorial Award as Western New York’s best high school lacrosse player.
Borrelli was The Buffalo News reporter killed last November in a fall while covering a football game. He had written a story about the Orchard Park senior shortly before the tragedy.
“I feel as honored as I’ve ever been,” Tundo told the paper. "It’s the best award I’ve ever received, because of how great a person he was, and how great a person he was for the sport of lacrosse. It’s a great award to receive because it’s named after him."
Football: Oakfield-Alabama goes with first-year head coach
Oakfield-Alabama's new football coach arrives from a school that doesn't even play the sport, though it’s not like football is foreign to him.
Brian Palone, who graduated from Oakfield-Alabama in 1998, takes over this fall for John Dowd, who was 50-12 over the past six seasons and won two Section V championships.
Palone has taught at Naples for the last six years, coaching varsity baseball for the last three seasons. He was an assistant football coach at Caledonia-Mumford for two seasons, including the Red Raiders' 2003 state title team, then spent four years as an assistant at Wayland-Cohocton. More recently, he's been on the staff at Marcus Whitman.
Hockey: Section VI close to forming girls league
A committee of Buffalo-area ADs recommended that a regional girls ice hockey league be launched in 2010 to create opportunities for some of the more than 900 females ages 18 and under active in the sport in area leagues.
Nichols is the only school in the area that sponsors a girls team. A handful of girls have played on boys teams in recent years.
Representatives from Williamsville, Amherst, Clarence, Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda, Sweet Home, Niagara-Wheatfield, West Seneca, Lancaster, Orchard Park and the Monsignor Martin Association have been meeting since December to study the possible formation of a league.
Williamsville and the Monsignor Martin Association have committed to fielding teams in 2010-11, The Buffalo News reported. The committee says a minimum of five teams would be needed to launch a league. The committee estimates the cost of sponsoring a team to be $24,500 a year.
Williamsville AD James Rusin said cost cutting done last winter by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association in light of the state budget deficit threw a wrinkle into the process, as districts may be reluctant to add teams at a time when they are cutting spending on established programs.
One possibility for getting the league off the ground would be for two or more districts to split the expense and field a combined team for one or two seasons. If that happened, it’s doubtful it could match some school districts from down the Thruway in the department of quirky cooperation.
St. Johnsville from Section II and nearby Oppenheim-Ephratah of Section III will field combined squads in several sports next school year, beginning with soccer. The boys will play home games at O-E and wear St. Johnsville uniforms. The girls will play home games at St. Johnsville, wearing O-E uniforms.
The schools also intend to combine baseball and softball at all levels as well as modified boys and girls basketball.
And then there’s the boys hockey situation in the Albany area, which is definitely going to require bigger uniforms to squeeze all of the school names onto the jersey. With Scotia-Glenville unlikely to continue the existing arrangement by supplying any players this season, the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake program intends to combine resources with Ballston Spa.
Girls Volleyball: Section VII poised to join state tournament
Section VII's Champlain Valley Athletic Conference is likely to switch girls volleyball from the winter to fall beginning in 2010 and take part in the NYSPHSAA tournament. League ADs have approved the change and are awaiting an OK by the Section VII Athletic Council next month.
Sections III, IV and VII have conducted regional playoffs following the winter season in recent years.
A season switch would also open up opportunities for a wider variety of regular-season competition for Section VII schools, currently hampered by long bus trips to Central New York during the winter.
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.