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Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012: Red Jacket coach stands his ground, gets fired

   Leading off today: Wow. You know it's a newsy day when at least five items could have been the lead to today's New York high school sports roundup.

   Here's what I mean:

   Red Jacket ruckus: It's not often that a No. 8 seed beating a No. 9 in a sectional boys basketball tournament first-round game makes headlines, but that's what happened as Red Jacket downed Harley-Allendale Columbia 69-59 in Shortsville on Tuesday night.

   The Indians won under interim coach George English after a firing of Rich Miles that cannot be described as anything less than stunning ... although "disgraceful" and "reprehensible" certainly deserve consideration.

   Red Jacket players wore T-shirts with “Bring Em Back” in red marker on the front and “Miles” in black ink on the back as they warmed up, and they broke their pre-game huddle at midcourt with a cheer of “1,2,3, Miles!” The Daily Messenger reported.

   Miles was fired over a player disciplinary dispute, the paper reported. The coach kicked a player out of practice Saturday and opted to suspend him for one game to complete the punishment.

   But Miles told the paper that one of the player's parents complained to district Superintendent Robert Leiby, who then told Miles to play the student. Miles said he refused and Leiby asked the coach for his resignation. According to Miles, he refused and was fired.

   Leiby did not return messages seeking comment, the paper reported. Red Jacket AD Rick Yehl said that Miles was let go for “irreconcilable differences” with the administration.

   "I refused to resign, this is something the superintendent shouldn’t even be involved in,” Miles said. “Former coach Tim Munn got run out of town (in 2008, when the school board overruled Leiby on his recommended appointment) ... and unfortunately this is a similar thing.”    Miles was in his fourth season as varsity coach, long enough to know why Red Jacket has a growing reputation as the graveyard of principled coaches.

   “It’s impossible to maintain any sense of order or discipline because the kids know they can go to mommy or dad and they’ll go the district,” Miles said. “Because of the things I believe in, it makes it incredibly difficult to instill any good order and prepare them for the real world. I’ve done my best for four years.”

   My short take on Red Jacket: Given the latest controversy, you might have to be a complete bleeping idiot to want to coach in that district going forward.

   Bellport uproar: Three South Country Central School District board members want to sack their own president and vice president after a preliminary report said Bellport officials inflated a football star's grades, Newsday reported.

   Lisa DiSanto Grossman, Jeannette Mistler and Rob Powell also are seeking to suspend district employees who are found to have played a role in related misconduct. They made their stand in an open letter sent Tuesday to the rest of the nine-member board.

   "In order to restore true leadership to the South Country Central School District, we call upon both the board president and vice president to resign their positions," the letter said. "Both have failed to carry out their elected duties when they failed to reveal the initial allegations about grade changes to the entire board."

   Board President Victor Correa and VP Kevin Kirk could not be reached for comment, Newsday reported.

   Last fall, Kevin O'Connell claimed in a lawsuit that he was fired as principal by Superintendent Joe Cipp Jr., formerly the highly successful football coach, from his position as principal because he would not change grades for Ryan Sloan to help him gain entry into Syracuse University.

   Though the letter cited Correa and Kirk, no district employees were named. It said Correa admitted supplying a "confidential report to the subjects of the investigation prior to the contents being leaked to the press and disclosed to district residents."

   According to Newsday, the independent investigation preliminarily found that Cipp "must have been involved or must have known what was going on," adding that he "created an atmosphere of pressure upon the administration to make sure Ryan Sloan got the NCAA scholarship."

   Cipp has steadfastly maintained he did nothing improper.

   Milestone alert: Aquinas senior Nicole Bini scored a career-high 42 points to pass 2,000 for her career as

  
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Aquinas opened the Section 5 tournament with a 77-54 win over Bath in Class B.

   Bini scored 30 in the first half and now has 2,030 points for her career.

   Hot, hot, hot: St. Raymond, hovering on the fringe of the overall New York City top 10 a mere two weeks ago, is officially the team no one wants to play right about now in boys basketball.

Having beaten Abraham Lincoln 55-51 and Boys & Girls 78-77 in non-leaguers and then opening the CHSAA archdiocesan tourney with a 67-50 win over All Hallows, the Ravens KO'd top-seeded Cardinal Hayes 81-73 on Tuesday.

   The latest stunner avenged an 84-58 loss to Hayes earlier this month. Next up, St. Ray will meet host Mount St. Michael on Saturday for the championship.

   More boys playoff action: Stew Warren scored 19 of his game-high 31 points in the second half and led a late 7-0 run as eighth-seeded Lindenhurst upset No. 1 seed Half Hollow Hills West 67-64 in a Section 11 Class AA quarterfinal.

   Warren -- who also had 20 rebounds -- forced a turnover and went in for a layup that tied the score with 1:20 left. On HHHW's next possession, Warren stole the ball again and passed to Kevin Czopeck for a basket and a 64-62 lead with :47 to go.

   Justin Ringen scored a school-record 40 points for Harborfields in a 95-52 win over Shoreham-Wading River in a Section 11 Class A semi. The senior, who was 16-for-25 from the field (7-for-14 on treys), broke Bret Bearup's 1980 record of 38 points.

   Senior Lucas Woodhouse matched his career high with 20 assists.

   Girls basketball: Tenth-seeded Carmel shocked No. 2 seed Arlington 52-46 in the Section 1 Class AA tournament. A year ago, Carmel was seeded second and lost to No. 18 New Rochelle.

   Cicero-North Syracuse rattled off the game's first 35 points and beat Liverpool 63-19 in the Section 3 Class AA semifinals. The Northstars led 39-2 at halftime, and Breanna Stewart finished with 28 points and eight rebounds in just 19 minutes of action.

   Soccer honor: Sayville's Dakota Edwards was selected New York's boys soccer player of the year by Gatorade. The senior defender had eight goals and 12 assists in leading Sayville to the Section 11 Class A final.

   Edwards will continue his career Maryland.

   Extra points: George Dlugonowski recorded his 500th win as Chaminade's wrestling coach last month, making him the first on Long Island to hit that milestone. With 17 Catholic State titles and 17 CHSAA titles in 39 seasons, "Coach Dugo" is an inductee in the New York State Wrestling Hall of Fame and the New York State CHSAA Hall of Fame in 2008.


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