Leading off today: She's scored every imaginable girls basketball honor already this year, and now Breanna Stewart is squarely in the picture for the biggest accolade of them all.
Cicero-North Syracuse senior Breanna Stewart is one of six finalists for Gatorade National Player of the Year, presented to the nation's best overall female athlete.
As if the UConn recruit's basketball resume isn't impressive enough, Stewart has history on her side. Five of the girls winners in the award's nine-year history have been basketball players, including Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Candace Parker.
The other female finalists are volleyball player Jordan Burgess of Tampa, Fla.; cross country runner Molly Seidel of Hartland, Wis.; soccer player Morgan Andrews of Milford, N.H.; softball player Geri Ann Glasco of Watkinsville, Ga.; and track athlete Shelbi Vaughan of Mansfield, Texas.
Voting will be done July 2-5 by a national panel. On July 10, the 12 male and female finalists will gather in Hollywood at a ceremony the night before the ESPY Awards, where the winners will be announced.
Mandl cleared: Veteran George Washington baseball coach Steve Mandl won his appeal this week when the Department of Education dropped the charges the day before an arbitration hearing was to be held, The New York Post reported.
Mandl, winner of 27 division titles and more than 900 games, had to sit out the 2011 season after being suspended by the PSAL for alleged illegal recruiting. Attorney Ken Ross told the paper his client will have his record expunged and Mandl will receive financial compensation.
“It’s bittersweet,” Mandl told the paper. “I’m glad it finally happened, but I never doubted it because I didn’t do anything wrong. I was jerked around.”
Mandl was suspended for one year after Lehman coach Adam Droz complained Mandl recruited outfielder Fernelys Sanchez, who was drafted in the 16th round this month by the Atlanta Braves, and an investigation backed up the claims, the PSAL said at the time. Mandl appealed through the United Federation of Teachers, and his subsequent lawsuit seeking reinstatement was dismissed and kicked back to the binding arbitration case.
On the move: Oliver Antigua is leaving his job as boys basketball coach at St. Raymond to join the staff at Manhattan College under coach Steve Masiello. St. Ray won three CHSAA Class A city titles in Antigua's 10 seasons in charge.
Antigua spent one season as an assistant at Pittsburgh, his alma mater, before joining St. Raymond in 1999 as an assistant under Gary DeCesare. He was 186-100 with the Ravens.
Accused: Incoming Holland Patent varsity football coach Dale Sexton is accused of stealing money from his cancer-stricken father-in-law, The Rome Sentinel reported Thursday.
The Oneida County District Attorney’s Office alleges Sexton, 43, took more than $3,000 that was to be applied to his father-in-law's medical bills late last year. Sexton’s father-in-law is in recovery and is "doing well," Assistant DA Bernard Hyman said.
