Leading off today: Time is running out for underclassmen interested in participating in the five New York State High School Football Coaches Association combines being held across the state on Sunday, May 1.

   Players currently in grades 9-11 are eligible to participate. There is a $30 registration fee per player, and the check and registration form are due to local coordinators by April 23. You can download the form for the Rochester-area combine by following this link (Word document) in order to get more details. There were two of these combines held a year ago, and they proved to be somewhat popular, with test results being widely circulated.

   Here is the contact information for all five of the combines:

    • Albany (Stillwater H.S.): Contact Nick Fitzgerald at 518-792-9887, ext. 4 or via e-mail.

    • Binghamton (Union-Endicott): Contact Steve Virkler at 607-687-6241 or via e-mail or Shane Hurd at 607-757-2191 or via e-mail

    • Syracuse (Baldwinsville): Contact Carl Sanfilippo at 315-638-6014 or via e-mail.

    • Rochester (Fairport): Contact Don Santini at 585-223-1274 or via e-mail; or Lyle Dixon at 315-548-6450 or via e-mail; or .

    • Long Island (Half Hollow Hills West): Contact Blue Chip Prospects at 631-676-2530 or via e-mail.

   String of no-hitters: Maxwell High pitcher Steven Perry tied California's state record with his fourth no-hitter in a row Friday in an 18-0 win over Chester, Calif., in the second game of a doubleheader.

   Perry's five-inning no-hitter allowed him to match the mark of Byron Randolph of Winters (1963) and John Kukuruda of East Nicolaus (2010). The senior struck out 13 batters and walked one.

   Perry (7-0) has not allowed a run and has surrendered two hits in 31 innings this spring. He has thrown five consecutive shutouts and has a scoreless inning streak of 34 dating back to last fall.

   Teammater Tyler Wells has thrown three no-hitters this season, including an 11-0 victory in the first game of Friday's doubleheader. It was the second time this season that Perry and Wells tossed no-hitters in the same doubleheader.

   Is this a record? Last Tuesday, Section 1 released its football schedule for the upcoming season. Josh Thomson of The Journal News posted the details on his football blog that evening, and the thread of reder comments tacked onto it is amazing.

   When I checked in on it this morning, there were 316 reader comments, fed in large part by debate over the new divisional formats, playoff qualifying system and very condensed playoff format (squeezing three rounds of sectionals into 11 days).

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   While it's true that there's a huge difference between having 316 comments and 316 people making comments, that's still a huge response to any sort of online content for just about any media content in the country. It may be the unofficial record for New York high school sports content.

   A New Jersey uprising? As much as we complain about idiosyncracies in the world of New York football -- where the NYSPHSAA crowns upstate and Long Island champs to complement the CHSAA (downstate and Monsignor Martin) and PSAL tournaments -- New Jersey has us beat.

   The Garden State crowns a total of 20 state champions each fall, which is just plain stupid no matter how you try to explain it.

   Now, though, it looks as though New Jersey could be on its way to streamlining. On Wednesday, the NJSIAA advisory committee recommended a change to the organization's constitution to allow for more genuine state titles in football. That proposal, which would mean two more weeks of games to trim 16 public champs in four groups to four overall champions, now goes to the executive committee May 4.

   By the way, the feud between NJSIAA officials and Assemblyman John J. Burzichelli is alive and well. The NYSIAA FOI-ed documents that seem to indicate Burzichelli was planning to bring the governing body for sports under the jurisdiction of the school board administration prior to the State Commission of Investigation in September recommending that move.

   The report criticized the NJSIAA for a lack of fiscal discipline and weak oversight. The NJSIAA blames prior Burzichelli legislation that caps ticket prices for state tournaments for a large portion of its ongoing financial problems.