Friday, Jan. 31, 2014: Irvington's Maher wins 600th basketball game

   Leading off today: Irvington defeated Rye Neck 58-29 on Friday, giving coach Gina Maher her 600th career girls basketball triumph.

   Maher is the first Section 1 basketball coach -- boys or girls -- to reach the milestone.

   "There are a lot of really, really good coaches out there; some don't coach as long as I do, some don't have as many gifted players as I've had, Maher told The Journal News. "I think the staff I've had ... helped build the program. It's not just one person."

   Sophomore Andie Regan scored a team-high nine points off the bench for the four-time defending NYSPHSAA Class B champions, who pulled their starters after breaking to a 20-8 lead in the first quarter.

   Irvington is ranked No. 1 in the state in Class B.

   Meeting recap: The Executive Committee of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association will develop a proposal to restore regular-season games to the schedule, bringing the issue to a vote at its August meeting.

   That was among the highlights of the Executive Committee meeting held via teleconference Friday.

   Schedules in all sports were trimmed beginning with the 2009-10 school year as the result of a January 2009 action by the NYSPHSAA in the face of financial concerns triggered by the recession.

   A few other noteworthy developments from the teleconference:

    • Middletown was awarded a new three-year contract to continue hosting semifinals and finals in the NYSPHSAA boys soccer tournament. Maine-Endwell was awarded the 2014 field hockey final fours after scheduled host Cicero-North Syracuse bowed out due to a scheduling conflict.

    • The committee approved classification numbers for NYSPHSAA member schools for the 2014-15 season. The numbers are posted on the organization's website.

   Deja vu? I swear this exact same issue came up maybe five years ago, but I can't find what I wrote them. Perhaps someone with a better memory can illuminate me.

   Here's what I'm referring to:

   Section 1 will not permit non-members to compete in Saturday's Westchester County Championships at The Armory, depriving Iona Prep of a chance to defend its boys title, The Journal News reported.

   Section 1 Executive Director Jen Simmons said a deadline was missed for paperwork that would have allowed Iona Prep and other private schools to run their own meet within the Section 1 meet, and a sponsor was

also lacking, both of which would seem to be valid concerns.

   "The group of schools, who are not my schools, did not (a) find a sponsor or (b) hand in anything until I got it Wednesday," Simmons told the paper. "But there's still no sponsor to it. Ursuline said they would be a co-sponsor, but there has to be an organization or group that's going to sponsor the main tournament."

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   Extra points: The Post-Star is reporting "it's next to a sure thing" that Schuylerville and Amsterdam will move to the Foothills Council in Section 2 in September. It would leave just seven Wasaren schools, which may mean more shuffling is on the horizon.

   Senior Alec Ludwig scored 18 points to break Great Neck North's career mark in basketball. Ludwig's 1,165 points in his four-year varsity career broke the 1984 mark of Steve Gibson (1,156).