New York has a long way to go before its high school football followers can brag about the quantity of talent the Empire State churns out, but the situation is slowly improving.
There were 26 New York seniors among the more than 2,000 student athletes who signed a National Letter of Intent to play for Football Bowl Subdivision schools on Wednesday. It’s possible one or two more signings could materialize in the next few days, particularly at non-BCS schools close in on one- and two-star prospects who fell through the cracks.
That compares to 21 signings in the first week of February last year, 19 in 2008 and just 17 in 2007. The high-water mark in recent years remains the crop of 28 scholarship players in 2004.
Two of the most interesting developments of the process this year took place at opposite ends of the state.
Canisius High linebacker Jimmy Gaines had committed to the University at Buffalo last month only to see Bulls coach Turner Gill exit for the Kansas job. Just as Gill improved his place in the football hierarchy, Gaines has also taken a step up.
Upon re-opening his recruitment, Gaines (who will not turn 17 until next month) attracted the interest of the Miami Hurricanes staff thanks in part to a push by coach Brandon Harris. He traveled to Coral Gables, Fla., last month and accepted a scholarship offer.
Gaines was a jack of all trades during the season, lining up at linebacker, safety, tight end, tailback and wideout for the Monsignor Martin Association champions. He was selected a second-team all-state linebacker by the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Arkansas, Arizona and Oklahoma had also started to express interest, according to Harris.
A year ago, Harris also pushed a bit behind the scenes, resulting in John Urschel getting a scholarship to Penn State after early interest that was only lukewarm.
On Long Island, Riverhead linebacker Malcolm Cater, a first-team all-state pick, changed his mind one final time and opted for Syracuse to end a tug-of-war with Rutgers. Cater had given a non-binding commitment to the Orange in the fall and then changed his mind in favor of Rutgers in December.
"Syracuse is the right place for me," Cater told Newsday. "The coaching staff made me feel very comfortable. And the head coach, Doug Marrone, treated me like family."
Track and field: Duck hunting season
Football always takes center stage on the first Wednesday in February as colleges stock up the two-deeps for two or three years down the road.
But Wednesday was also National Letter of Intent Day for several other sports, and the University of Oregon women’s track and field program certainly made the most of it in downstate New York.
Catherine McAuley half-miler Phyllis Francis and Monroe-Woodbury middle-distance ace Megan Patrignelli picked the Ducks over multiple other suitors, including Villanova. Francis is coming off a third-place finish last weekend in the open women’s 400 meters in 55.82 seconds on the notorious bouncing boards of Madison Square Garden during the Millrose Games.
"I wanted to go to a college that would make me progress in my track career," Francis told The New York Daily News. "Oregon will do that. They have a good coach and all the latest equipment."
Patrignelli won the 1,500-meter run at the NYSPHSAA championships last spring after placing fifth in the indoor 600 meters three months earlier. She ran cross country for the first time in the fall and won the Section IX Class AA meet. She placed 10th at the highly competitive NYSPHSAA championships at Plattsburgh State.
"It feels really good to know I am training on the same track Steve Prefontaine was training on," Patrignelli told The Times Herald-Record. "There is so much history on that track. Everyone runs just amazing there. The crowds are so big."
Two Rochester schools to merge
The announcement in Rochester this week that Aquinas Institute and Nazareth Academy will merge their schools in September probably won't have much of an effect athletically.
The all-girl Nazareth Academy plays in Class B in basketball and Class C in most other sports. The expected enrollment bump after the merger should leave Aquinas in Class A in all sports; its four-time state championship football team has been playing up a class for several years and has quite a bit of room to grow before being required to move into Class AA.
The more dramatic change for Aquinas came in the early 1980s, when the school ended its all-male tradition in order to take in students from St. Agnes after that all-girls school closed its doors. Nazareth has been particularly strong in recent years in softball, a sport is which Aquinas is already strong, and basketball.
"Nazareth and Aquinas have historically enjoyed a natural partnership, brought together by both geographic location and a common Catholic mission," Aquinas President Michael Daley said. "This new venture will provide a faith-based, college preparatory experience rich with the traditions and values shared by nearly 40,000 loyal Aquinas and Nazareth Alumni."
New approach in Section VIII
Nassau County is ending its controversial ability-based divisional alignments after three years.
Beginning with fall sports, Section VIII will return to league configurations based primarily on enrollment data. The Section VIII Athletic Council voted unanimously to make the change.
"It really came to a head with baseball," Athletic Council official Jim Amen Jr. told Newsday. "They were ferociously opposed to it. Questions were being raised about how we did things in Nassau County."
While ability-based leagues may sound logical, they have caused challenges. Teams in the top divisions were guaranteed playoff spots before the season began but sometimes finished with weak regular-season records, and coaches in the more competitive leagues complained that there were too few opportunities to work role players and young reserves into the lineup against lesser opponents.
"We'll look at enrollment as the first criteria for creating schedules, but we're giving latitude to the sports coordinators to incorporate ability," Great Neck's Dave Zawatson, president of the Athletic Council, told the paper. "In sports like basketball, you can schedule nonleague games outside of your classification. Schools can also appeal to move up or down in conference."
Coaching changes
* Kali Watkins, an assistant there the last four seasons, will replace Chris Urban as Webster Schroeder's football coach. Schroeder is coming off a Section 5 Class AA championship season. Watkins was previously an assistant coach for a season at the University of Rochester and for five years at Irondequoit. He teaches in the Rochester City School District.
* Buffalo St. Joe's stayed in-house to replace the winningest football coach in school history. Longtime JV coach and varsity assistant Dennis Gilbert, a 1984 graduate of the school, will replace Bob O'Connor, who retired after the 2009 season with 169 victories in a 29-year career that included 13 league championships.
* Elizabeth Acee has been hired to coach girls lacrosse at Liverpool in Section III. Her father, Tom Acee, coached Syracuse Henninger's boys to 316 victories, including the 1980 state Class A title.
* Waterloo AD Joe Sposato has announced he will retire this summer after 36 years as a coach in baseball and basketball, teacher and administrator.
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.
