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John Moriello's NYSSWA blog
Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007: Broadalbin-Perth breezes, Section 3 large-school powers sink
   Leading off today: Broadalbin-Perth made a clear and powerful statement Friday, dominating Hudson Falls in a matchup of state-ranked football teams, 48-14.

   Mike Hayes rushed for 360 yards and scored on runs of 3, 68, 69 and 70 yards for Broadalbin-Perth (4-0), ranked 13th in Class B by the New York State Sportswriters Association. Hudson Falls (3-1) entered the game ranked seventh.

   Broadalbin-Perth rolled up 502 yards of offense. The Patriots scored on their first two possessions, surrendered an 81-yard interception return for a TD on a fake punt and then scored again three plays later midway through the second quarter.

   More football: Waverly beat Elmira Notre Dame for the first time in 21 years, 27-6. The Wolverines' last victory in the series when Jason Miller -- now their head coach -- was the QB.

   Quarterback Mark Kuzma ran for 140 yards and three TDs for Waverly (4-0).

  • Senior Rob Roth kicked field goals of 26 and 32 yards and recovered a second-quarter fumble in the end zone for a TD as Utica Proctor (3-1) knocked off West Genesee, ranked 15th in Class AA, 20-15. No. 17 Syracuse CBA and No. 23 Auburn also lost, making it a sweep of ranked Section 3 large schools.
  • Senior Luke Phillips of Mount Markham, No. 8 in Class C, rushed for a school-record 354 yards on 19 carries and scored all six touchdowns to turn back No. 15 Adirondack, 41-35.
  • Union-Endicott, ranked sixth in Class AA, escaped with a 39-35 win at Binghamton after blowing a 19-point lead. Ryan Quinlivan threw for 184 yards and two TDs in a game that included a nasty altercation shortly before halftime.
  • Cleveland St. Ignatius throttled St. Francis, 47-7. The Buffalo-area team, ranked 16th in Class AA, lost to Rochester Aquinas a week earlier.
  • William Floyd, ranked No. 3 in Class AA, toyed with a solid Longwood team, 42-7, for its 34th straight home victory. Brock Jackolski ran for 203 yards and four touchdowns.
  • In Class D, No. 1 Onondaga swamped No. 4 Weedsport, 60-23, as all-everything senior Latavius Murray scored on an 80-yard punt return and rushes of 35, 53, 53 and 59 yards. It was 41-0 at the half.
  • Unatego, 14th in Class C, hung an 80-18 loss on Watkins Glen.
   Our Saviour Lutheran drops coach: Our Saviour Lutheran basketball coach Oswald Cross has been let go by the Bronx school after the administration decided to de-emphasize its powerful boys basketball program, the New York Daily News reported.

   "I like Mr. Cross personally, but I think there was a difference in philosophies," OSL admissions director Rev. Paul Sauer told the newspaper. "He was making the team into a national powerhouse and the school -- we are a very small school -- did not have the resources or abilities to support that."

   Said Cross: "I wish the school had let me know this before we had some kids enroll, pay their tuition before they announced this."

   Safety stats: Spinal-cord injuries in football grab headlines in part because they are very rare and tend to be serious, but The Buffalo News wrote a reminder this morning that concussions are far more common and can also put athletes at risk.

   The 411 on '845': Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill was famously quoted as saying "All politics is local." He was also known for his ability to return to his old neighborhood and recognize people he hadn't seen in years, greeting them by name and attending to them as though they were life-long friends.

   Rep. O'Neill got it. He understood that he needed to be attuned to the lives of his constituents. It's grassroots politicking, and it's how he got re-elected time after time after time, though being a liberal, Irish Democrat in Massachusetts certainly didn't hurt his cause.

  
   I'm not sure yet whether the effort will amount to "too little, too late," but newspapers and other old-school media are going the grassroots route as well these days, focusing their newsgathering and delivery on so-called "hyper-local" approaches. Major newspapers and electronic media that used to have multiple foreign news bureaus are shutting them down to concentrate on national and state coverage. Those that used to maintain a presence in New York and Washington, D.C., have been cutting back to focus oin state and local reporting.

   And mid-sized daily papers are moving their resources back from the statehouse into the local neighborhoods to recapture readership they've been losing for any number of reasons over the last quarter of a century. And the emphasis is on online operations in pursuit of the young folks.

   Translation: This is a swell time to be a web designer or developer with a little flair and imagination. There's a big market for "cool" and "cutting edge" in the online world these days as newspapers court the young readers.

   To that end, The Times Herald-Record in Middletown typlifies the "adapt or die" mentality this fall, having rolled out Varsity845.com. It's a laudable effort that combines old staples -- roundups, game stories, states and standings -- with new strategies such as blogging, video clips, photo galleries and forums.

   It adds up to a place in the top three of must-visit scholastic sports sites in New York, alongside Newsday and LoHud.com.

   What makes the site superior? Start with the name. Playing off the area code for the Catskills/Hudson Valley region the paper serves, it's named so as to put a little distance between the new product and print product. Trust me. I spent 11-plus years at DemocratandChronicle.com in Rochester, so I understand how it's a lot easier to design a snazzy t-shirt with the Varsity 845 logo on it than it is to get creative with the Times Herald-Record name.

   The site's design -- yellow type on a black background -- is attractive and effective, but that's relatively superficial stuff anyway. Where Varsity845.com really succeeds is its content:

  • A simple, useful calendar
  • Standings that are generally up to date and accurate
  • Chat forums
  • Results roundups and game stories
  • Video reports and photo galleries
  • Links to lists of players and coaches of the year in the respective sports as well as Section 9 champions
   Additionally, the staff does the stuff that looks good but involves effort above and beyond what many sites are willing to do. Three bloggers contribute multiple entries each week and three nominees per day are highlighted for their Player of the Day voting.

   Taken in total, it's superior to just about anything out there and positions The Times Herald-Record to defend against MaxPreps, Scout.com and other national players that are trying to make inroads into local markets. Publishers across the state should stop by to see how they should be doing it.

   Remembering Burt: Legendary basketball fanatic Burt Beagle, the long-time NYSSWA correspondent in New York City, was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in a ceremony Thursday at the New York Athletic Club.

   Beagle, who died this year after battling cancer, was enshrined with Walter Berry, Al Bianchi, Bobby Cremins, Mario Elie, Ed Pinckney, Hank Rosenstein, and TV announcer Bob Wolff.

   Beagle is a member of the Baruch College Athletics, Catholic High School Athletic Association and New York State Basketball Hall of Fame classes.

   Extra points: Sophomore Eleni Andromidas scored twice for Garden City in a 5-2 win over Massapequa, extending its winning streak in field hockey to 45 games. Garden City won state championships in Class A in 2005 and 'B' last fall.


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