Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012: Century-old Geneva DeSales closes its doors

   Leading off today: Geneva's DeSales High School will not re-open next month, officials of the Catholic school announced Wednesday in a press release.

   The board of trustees cited the continuing decline in enrollment at the school, which opened in 1912.

   With its BEDS number far below 100 in recent years, DeSales had been the smallest New York State Public High School Athletic Association school to field a football team.

   With the late announcement, the Saints' 2012 football opponents will be left to scramble to fill openings on the schedule. Beginning with Week 1, the affected schools are: Red Jacket, Mynderse, South Seneca, Dundee, Marcus Whitman, Lyons and Clyde-Savannah.

   The heat is on: Temperatures were into triple digits in parts on Arkansas on Monday for the first day of high school football practice, and USA Today noted that 51 football players, including 40 high school players, have died from heat stroke since 1995. Last summer, two players in Georgia died of heat-related causes just hours apart.

   In April, the National Federation of State High School Associations issued heat acclimatization and illness prevention guidelines -- not actual rules -- advocating shorter, less-intense practices in the summer.

   The New York State Public High School Athletic Association issued standards with hard ceilings a few years ago. Depending upon the measured heat index, practices and games could be adjusted, suspended and postponed.

   Given the warm weather much of the state has experienced this summer, it will be interesting to see how schools deal with football two-a-days when practice for many New York leagues opens Aug. 13.

   Confirmed: We told you back on July 21 that it was likely to happen, and now the NYSPHSAA has confirmed that Robert Zayas has been selected to be to new executive director of the state's largest sanctioning body for high school sports.

   "I am not only excited, but privileged to be considered for the position of Executive Director at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association," Zayas

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said in a statement (read Word Doc here) issued by the NYSPHSAA. "With a decade of work at the New Mexico Activities Association, I look forward to sharing my experiences and having the opportunity to impact the student-athletes of the great State of New York."

   Zayas, who succeeds Nina Van Erk as the association's sixth executive director, will start Sept. 1.

   Extra points: Though the Olympics are getting all the ink at the moment, we're now less than a year away from the revival of the Empire State Games, July 24-28, 2013, in Rochester. ... Deceased Rochester newspaperman Tom Batzold, for sports editor at the Times-Union and Democrat and Chronicle, will be enshrined in the Section 5 Basketball Hall of Fame. ... Cazenovia has appointed Dani LeRoux as girls basketball coach. The Bishop Grimes alum replaces Paul Belodoff, who left after one season at the helm. LeRoux has previous experience coaching girls lacrosse, tennis and field hockey as well as five years of basketball at a Maryland school.