Friday, Sept. 14, 2012: Shorthanded Sec. 4 team ends football season

   School officials announced the decision Thursday after there were only 11 players available at the previous day's practice, district Superintendent Mary Beth Fiore said. The Spartans will forfeit their remaining games, beginning with Saturday's schedule contest vs. Watkins Glen, and third-year coach Tom Hughes indicated he does not plan to return in 2013.

   Edison's Week 2 game against Spencer-Van Etten was ended in the third quarter amid a number of injuries to Edison players and a series of personal fouls. It was not immediately clear whether the personal fouls played a role in some of the team's 18 players not practicing on Wednesday.

   School officials met after the Spencer-Van Etten game and initially determined Edison could continue its season because coaches expected to have the necessary 16 players for the Watkins Glen game.

   The weekend ahead: Week 3 of the football season shapes up as an attractive one for large-school football, with five games in Class AA matching up teams ranked by the New York State Sportswriters Association. Chief among them is No, 6 Iona Prep vs. No. 7 St. Anthony's in CHSFL action.

   Here's the rundown on the schedule for all this week's ranked teams.

   New weekly feature: The folks at MaxPreps have added a "Games of the Week" feature to their website, highlighting half a dozen games based on combined computer rankings for the teams. Check it out here.

By the way, MaxPreps picked a preseason all-state team last month that you may want to check out. There's a link to it on their New York football home page.

   Following up: Seaford middle school sports for the fall season were saved with the help of a late push by the Save Seaford Sports Committee, which raised $62,000 needed by Monday's deadline to restore football, boys and girls soccer, field hockey and cheerleading.

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

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   Ready to return: Vinny Vespa, a Section 9 finalists and state wrestling meet qualifier at 96 pounds last winter, is on schedule for his comeback.

   The Monroe-Woodbury sophomore has been undergoing treatment for a stage 4 lymphoma discovered in his lungs in May. After four months of chemotherapy and radiation, it Vespa is preparing for a return to the sport.

   Vespa, who lost both his matches Feb. 24 in the NYSPHSAA Division I championships in Albany, weighs 100 pounds and says he's feeling strong. "I'm waiting to get my last scan to make sure everything is gone," Vespa told The Times Herald-Record. "The doctors say that they are pretty confident that everything is gone."

   Vespa will be honored at the third annual Walk for Lymphoma Research on Sept. 29 in Slate Hill.