Eden setter Heather Feldman has been selected Gatorade's New York Player of the Year in girls volleyball.
Feldman
signed a letter of intent last month with Gardner-Webb University. The
5-foot-9 senior has racked up numerous honors during her career at Eden.
She'll be joining a program that is expected to return all 15 members
of its 2010 squad next fall.
Feldman is the ninth Section VI
player to win the New York honor since the award program for volleyball
began in 1995. Eden's Ashley DoEpp was the recipient in both 2001 and
'02.
Feldman was selected the tournament MVP last month as Eden
won its second straight New York State Public High School Athletic
Association Class B championship in Glens Falls by downing Hendrick
Hudson in the final. It marked coach Stephen Pierce's eighth state title
in 17 seasons.
SOCCER ALL-AMERICANS ANNOUNCEDRye
senior striker Lia Bellizzi has been selected an All-American by the
National Soccer Coaches Association of America for the third time, and
teammate Tatiana Saunders, a goalkeeper, was honored for the second
time.
Other New York girls selected were junior midfielders
Jacqueline Firenze of Baker (Baldwinsville) and Cari Roccaro of
East Islip (Islip Terrace) and
senior forward Kristina Maksuti of
Bethlehem Central (Delmar).
Among the six New
York boys selected were
Half Hollow Hills West (Dix Hills) junior forward Donovan
Fraser and five seniors:
Clarence defender Ryan Schroen; midfielders
Ryan Tauss of
Niskayuna and Brian Ward of
Fayetteville-Manlius (Manlius); and
forwards Hiroki Kobayashi of
Scarsdale and Tim Parker of Hicksville.
A LONG WAY FROM HOME, MATESThe boys and girls
basketball teams from Prince Alfred College, a private secondary school
from Adelaide, Australia, have been touring western New York this week,
staying with
Fredonia players, attending classes at Buffalo-area schools
during the day and playing exhibitions at night.
Prince Alfred
is on its fourth Buffalo-area tour since 2000. It began when western New
York native Steven Johnson, now a science teacher at Chautauqua Lake,
spent 12 years in Australia as a teacher.
The teams will spend
several days in New York City and Philadelphia, with more games
scheduled, and then stay over in San Francisco before the flight home.
ODDS AND ENDS* Middle-distance standout Claudia Francis has rejoined the
Cardozo (Oakland Gardens) track team, The New York Post
reported. Francis had left the program after the 2009 cross country
season following a falling out with her coaches and competed off the
regular high-school circuit.
She won the 800 meters at the Nike
Indoor Nationals in March in 2 minutes, 8.06 seconds and the New Balance Outdoor
Nationals in 2:07.30 last June.
Cardozo will have to overcome the
loss of quarter-mile specialist Ahtyana Johnson, who was diagnosed with
aplastic anemia in September.
* The PSAL has instituted a pitch
count for baseball pitchers in New York City. Hurlers throwing the
maximum 105 pitches in a game will be required to get four days of rest
before throwing in another game, and those throwing 76-90 pitches will
need three days of rest. It'll be two mandatory days for 51-75 pitches
and one day for a pitcher throwing 26-50 pitches.
The hole in the
proposed law championed by New York City Councilmen Louis Fidler and
Oliver Koppell is that other leagues might not follow along. The CHSAA
doesn't plan to institute similar restrictions, and the Ivy League (the
largest NYC private-school circuit) hasn't talked about the issue yet.
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.