Leading off today: Section 5 has started the process of developing a proposal for splitting off private and charter schools from the other members of the NYSPHSAA's largest section for postseason competition.
Sport coordinators received an email this week from the Section 5 Competition Committee asking them to discuss financial and logistical implications of a general preliminary scenario with their respective league representatives.
Earlier this week, the Democrat and Chronicle reported that 18 Monroe County school superintendents sent a letter to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association asking it to consider removing private schools from future postseason competition. The group asked if Section 5 can change the structure of its postseason competition to remove those schools.
The inclusion of charter schools in the Competition Committee's email is a new wrinkle to the week's developments and apparently separate from the superintendents' initiative.
The Competition Committee's email identifies the private and charter schools in each sport -- ranging from just two in girls lacrosse to 15 in boys basketball -- and then breaks them into two classes based upon enrollment. In the scenario being suggested, the one or two private/charter postseason champions would go on to play the corresponding public sectional champions in a qualifier for the right to advance to the NYSPHSAA tournament.
Such a scenario appears relatively simple to implement in some sports but tricky in others. Football's regular-season schedule would seemingly need to be shortened by one week or sectional playoffs trimmed from eight teams per class to four in order to remain in step with the state tournament schedule.
In other sports, there are multiple sectional champions per state class. Will the two public Class D champions in some sports play down to one rep that takes on the public/private champ, or will a system be devised to give one of the public schools a first-round bye?
Winners in the public vs. private/charter matchups would advance either to regional competition (usually against Section 6 representatives) or directly into one-day championships such as in cross country.
The Section 5 Athletic Council has a regularly scheduled meeting next Tuesday. The Competition Committee has asked the sport coordinators to report back by early December with their recommendations.
Tragedy for CHSFL contender: Cardinal Hayes junior defensive tackle Delano Cowan, 16, died last
Saturday night several hours after the team beat Holy Cross to advance in the CHSFL playoffs, The New York Daily News reported.
Police received a call just after 9 p.m. for someone who had fallen off a building and found Cowan unconscious outside a building on E. 152nd Street in the Bronx. He died at Lincoln Hospital, and police said they are still investigating his death.
Cardinal Hayes is scheduled to play St. Anthony's on Saturday in the CHSFL Class AAA semifinals.
Former Finger Lakes coach remembered: Colleagues and former players are mourning the death of Harry Schwarze, who taught 28 years in Waterloo and coached girls volleyball there and at Geneva. He died Nov. 1 at the age of 75.
"He instilled hard work," Christal Kent, a 1996 Waterloo graduate who played volleyball for Schwarze and now coaches the varsity at her alma mater, told the Finger Lakes Times. "He always gave us life lessons and read us quotes. You always played hard for him. You never wanted
