Leading off today: Supporters of coach
Al Monaco are expected to be out in force for Tuesday night's school board meeting, the first regularly scheduled meeting since the boys basketball coach at Williamsville South was fired, The Buffalo News reported.
About 75 supporters of Monaco attended a board meeting on Aug. 28 during which public comments were not allowed because the special session was called to select a new a board member. At least one student's parent had come forward with accusations that Monaco had bullied a player.
"We're hoping to have as many or more coaches there, and not just basketball," said Depew coach Larry Jones. "It's not just a basketball issue -- it could be soccer, football, volleyball, it doesn't matter. If not getting playing time is equated to bullying, there are going to be issues at every level."
Still in business: Elmira Heights Edison will attempt to play out its varsity football season despite low roster numbers, AD Mike Bennett told The Star-Gazette.
Bennett and coach Tom Hughes discussed canceling the remainder of the season after injuries left the Spartans with only 12 healthy players by the end of Friday’s shortened loss to Spencer-Van Etten. After assessing the injuries, they were confident Edison (0-2) will have the mandatory 16 players (there are 18 on the roster) needed to line up against Watkins Glen on Saturday.
“The easy decision was to end the season,” Bennett told the paper. “That’s not fair to our athletes, not fair to our community, not fair to our opponents.”
Bennett said contact will be limited at practice to try to avoid injuries.
“Practice plans will change,” he said. “It’s not like we started the season with 30 guys anyway. We’ve been sort of preparing for this since the first day of the season.”
Disappointing development in NYC: Three years ago, The New York Post made a big upgrade to its high school sports coverage in print and (especially) online by buying out FiveBoroSports.com and bringing four of its staffers onto the payroll.
Zach Braziller, Marc Raimondi, Dylan Butler and Joseph Staszewski hit the ground running, broke dozens of stories related to recruiting and controversies and held the PSAL administration accountable on many issues.
The meteoric rise ended Monday with reports from staffers that the paper in effect disbanded its high school department and will cease to cover scholastic sports with any regularity.
Butler had already left for MSG Varsity, Ramondi moved off the high school beat in June and Staszewski tweeted that he will work for the CNG community papers in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Braziller will stay on The Post's staff as a part time reporter/clerk.
It was unclear whether cutting the high school coverage was part of a larger shakeup -- many News Corp. companies have been shaking things up since the summer announcement that the company was exploring a split into two media divisions -- or simply a decision that it
