By John Schiano
MaxPreps.com
Sweet Home junior football star Deshanaro Morris has been unable to move his legs since a Dec. 31 traffic accident in Amherst, N.Y., the Buffalo News reported.
Deshanaro, 16, was injured at about 1:20 a.m. when a friend’s SUV spun out of control, hit a telephone pole and slid into a ditch. Deshanaro was riding in the back seat with another teenager.
"He can feel you touching him, but he is not able to move his legs on his own,” his mother, Andrea Morris, told the paper. "Hopefully, if everything goes right and everything heals, he will be able to move his legs on his own.”
Deshanaro underwent back surgery Wednesday and began therapy Monday at Erie County Medical Center, where he is listed in fair condition.
Deshanaro helped Sweet Home to a 13-0 record and its first New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A football title in November at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. He rushed for 1,503 yards, scored 25 TDs and made 127 tackles as a junior. He scored five TDs in the Section 6 Class A final at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
The newspaper reported that senior receiver Noah Nwachukwu, 17, was charged by Amherst police with driving at a speed unsafe for the snowy conditions.
More Football: Player of the Year Awards for Three Titlists
The New York State Sportswriters Association has released its all-New York football teams for classes B, C and D, with star players from three state titlists snaring player of the year honors as well.
The players of the year are Rye senior running back Kyle Ramalho in Class B, Jamestown Southwestern junior quarterback Zack Sopak in Class C and Maple Grove junior quarterback Chris Secky in Class D.
Ramalho rushed 183 times for 933 yards and 21 touchdowns. He ran 24 times for 136 yards in the Garnets’ 16-12 victory over Oneida in the state final.
Sopak was 5-for-7 for 92 yards and two TD throws in a 35-7 victory over Croton-Harmon in the Class C final, also rushing 12 times for 77 yards and a score.
Secky was a terror all season long for Maple Grove, finishing 78-for-118 with 1,810 yards, 23 touchdown passes and just one interception. He was also the NYSSWA Class C basketball player of the year last winter.
Basketball Roundup
Newark boys’ coach Ron Ceravolo cited health concerns this week in announcing that he will retire at the end of the season.
"Everything is OK, but there are some little things that have me concerned," Ceravolo told the Democrat and Chronicle. "It's all the pressure I put on myself. A coach knows when it's time."
The Newark native is 397-109 in 23 seasons as head coach, including an 8-1 start this season. He served six years on the staff of Gary Seager, who was 119-27 in seven seasons before stepping down.
In other noteworthy basketball developments:
* How’s this for a fast start? Will Gates made five 3-pointers and scored 21 of his 35 points in the first quarter to lead Candor past Elmira Heights Edison, 83-51. Candor buried 14 treys for the game.
* John Nielsen scored all 12 of Port Jefferson’s first-quarter points and finished with 32 in a 53-46 triumph against Southampton. He also added five rebounds and three assists.
* Cory Quimby has chipped in with at least 20 points and 12 rebounds in all seven of Minisink Valley’s games this season. The 6-foot-6 senior is averaging 25.7 points and 16.1 rebounds per game.
* Ashley Wallace had 23 points and 15 rebounds as Starpoint downed Williamsville East in two OTs, 60-54, for early possession of the ECIC girls’ Division II lead. Starpoint scored 12 points on free throws in the extra periods.
Officials Discuss Cutting Costs
NYSPHSAA officials from across New York held a conference call this week to brainstorm possible money-saving moves in light of the dire financial conditions created by the economic meltdown. School districts are bracing for less state aid than many had been expecting at the start of the budgeting process, and fuel prices did a number on budgets in 2008 before dropping back to four-year lows.
Section I has already reduced maximum baseball/softball schedules from 24 contests to 20 and knocked two games off the lacrosse schedules, leaving teams with 16. Several individual leagues throughout the state have made similar adjustments.
Some of the ideas on the table include ending the practice of conducting open sectional tournaments in some sports, and instead limiting fields to the top eight teams per class; restructuring state tournaments so that only two teams per class rather than four travel to the finals site, meaning semifinals would be played at regional sites closer to home; and possibly dropping from five state classes to four in certain sports.
Almost certain to be proposed is returning the state wrestling tournament to one division with a maximum field of 16 wrestlers per weight class, a sentiment that has had consistent support from some purists.
One other suggestion mentioned would be to have wrestlers compete in their regular school singlets, rather than in ones that are color-specific for each section. Similarly, cross country and track athletes would not be issued sectional shirts.
That move would be a nightmare for reporters trying to keep track of large contingents of locals at state meets and certainly would not be fan-friendly either, but the fact that it was even suggested drives home just how serious the financial situation is across New York, where the state budget is currently projected to run a deficit of $12 billion to $15 billion next year.
Empire State Games officials have also fired warning flares, saying they’re facing the prospect of dropping some sports and perhaps even charging athletes as much as $300 to participate this summer in Poughkeepsie.
The state provided $1.7 million of the $2.3 million cost of the 2008 Games, featuring approximately 6,000 participants in 28 sports. It’s possible no state funding will be available this summer.
Odds and Ends
* The Doug Marrone era at Syracuse has its first in-state football recruit. Port Richmond RB/DB Torian Phillips committed to the Orange after rushing for 1,486 yards and scoring 34 TDs as a senior.
* Eight players have been dropped from the Shenendehowa hockey team, Section II’s six-time defending champion in Division I, for the remainder of the season, the Times Union reported. Coach Juan de la Rocha caught six players smoking marijuana at the team hotel and six more players were found to be involved at some level during a tournament at SUNY Morrisville late last month.
* Carter Franz recorded six assists and as Cazenovia, top-ranked in the state in Division II, earned a 9-1 boys’ hockey victory against Westmoreland to improve to 9-0-1.
* Irondequoit, long the standard for excellence in Section V boys’ lacrosse, will drop down to Class B for the sectional and state tournaments this spring based on enrollment figures.
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
