Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012: Remsen star goes over 50-goal mark for season

   Leading off today: Erin O'Connor scored six goals to help Remsen clinch a tie for the Center State Conference with Poland with a 11-0 girls soccer victory over Old Forge on Friday.

   O'Connor also added an assist. Her goals gave O'Connor a school-record 53 for the season for Remsen (14-2).

   According to the NYSPHSAA, Nicole Roberts of Tamarac holds the single-season record of 65 goals in 1991.

   Benched: Over 20 Marcus Whitman student-athletes are facing suspension from playing after officials of the Section 5 school say they attended a party last weekend where they believe alcohol was served.

   The school district and the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the party at the home of a Marcus Whitman student, Superintendent Mike Chirco told The Daily Messenger.

   Chirco said the district is contacting students and parents. AD Gil Jackson said 21 athletes violated the district’s athletic code. The football team had its scheduled pool-play game against University Preparatory Charter School canceled.

   Busted: A Christ the King assistant girls basketball coach was arrested this month in a drug bust at his Queens apartment, costing him his coaching job, The New York Daily News reported Friday.

   Joe DeLuca, 26, a former basketball player at Christ the King who guided the girls junior varsity team last season and assisted Bob Mackey with the nationally respected varsity team, was one of four men arrested on drug and weapons charges at a home in which DeLuca was living, the paper reported.

   Police reportedly seized 30 grams of cocaine, ecstasy pills and marijuana. A shotgun was also recovered. The men were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree; criminal use of drug paraphernalia; endangering the welfare of the 13-year-old daughter of one of the other defendants; knowingly possessing or selling gelatin capsules, glassine envelopes, or other materials suitable for packaging; possessing scales and balances used for the purpose of weighing or measuring controlled substances and criminal possession of more than 25 grams of marijuana.

   A source told the paper DeLuca coaching contract at the school will not be renewed. DeLuca also coaches the NYC Lady Warriors travel team, according to the team’s website.

   DeLuca couldn't be reached for comment, the paper said. Mackey and Christ the King principal Peter Mannarino did not return calls seeking comment.

   Football tidbits: Rome Free Academy has officially recorded its first winless season since 1900, dropping a 31-9 decision to Cicero-North Syracuse in a Section 3 crossover on Thursday. The Black Knights, 9-24 in their last four seasons had gone 0-4-1 in 1900.

   When Chester's Saxon Smith scored 49 TDs last fall, he became the only New York player not named Mike Hart ever to hit paydirt that many times in a season. Now, Tyler Rouse is making a run at him. The Baldwinsville senior scored five more on Friday to increase his season total to 39. MaxPreps had Rouse leading the country in TDs and points entering the weekend. (See the New York single-season list here.)

   Left over from Clyde-Savannah's 55-34 win last weekend against Watervliet: The Golden Eagles' Joe Faniel scored TDs in five different ways -- receiving, kickoff return, punt return, interception return and fumble return.

   Firming up the details: Cheerleading has long been a tough topic in the world of high school athletics, particularly since much of the sideline show transitioned from "rah-rah" and pom-poms to highly demanding

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

Many reporters use Twitter to deliver remote updates. We track those tweets from a variety of venues 24/7. Visit the page to see what's going on.

acrobatics and gymnastics-inspired stunts over the last 20 years.

   At the same time that some fought to have it recognized as a sport, others have been reluctant. In no small part it's been about instituting the proper sets of rules to make sure the same rigorous safety standards enforced in collision sports such as football, ice hockey and lacrosse are in place to protect the participants from injuries and the schools against liability.

   Though the activity vs. sport debate lingers to some extent with regards to managing and overseeing the teams, cheerleading has moved on. There are league and sectional championships everywhere, as well as a proliferation of regional and out-of-state competitions that label themselves "national championships."

   Now, New York has its own championships of sorts, branded as the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Cheerleading Invitational. The competition, actually two regional meets on different dates, was officially announced earlier this year. The NYSPHSAA followed up by spelling out rules and procedures in great detail last week.

   The invitationals will be held Jan. 26 at Arlington High School in Section 1 and March 9 at Rochester Institute of Technology in Section 5.

   Some quick thoughts:

   (1) These events will be a license to print money. I've seen the crowds at sectionals locally and can tell you that the gyms will be packed no matter how much is charged at the door.

   (2) It's not done in any official capacity of course, but choosing March 9 as one of the competition dates announces (in case you have missed the obvious in recent years) that cheerleading has ceased to be a complementary part of boys basketball. It's a safe bet that a good many girls (and boys, to be accurate) who would normally be leading cheers at NYSPHSAA basketball quarterfinals that day will not be present.

   I've already seen that happen at several schools in the Rochester area over the years during sectionals and the state tournaments. So my question is this: With tacit approval being given to breaking the link between basketball and cheerleading -- you can't be in two places at once -- which districts will be the first to drop cheerleading altogether?

   You're kidding yourself if you think superintendents and principals aren't already discussing it amongst themselves.