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John Moriello's NYSSWA blog
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007: When exactly is enough enough when it comes to lopsided scores?
   Leading off today: I hear that the athletic department at Fort Edward is going to have T-shirts made this week.

   The Flying Forts' logo will be printed on the backs. And, stamped on front will be their new motto: "Doing the right thing since 2008."

   Fort Edward, you'll remember, is the school whose boys coach tried to have the team from Martin Luther King thrown out of the state basketball tournament on the eve of the 2006 semifinals in Glens Falls because he didn't like the idea of having to play an opponent that draws it's students from a wide geographic area. Never mind that MLK is a residential treatment center, which means that it acquires players not by recruiting them, but rather by having them assigned there by family-court judges.

   At the very same time that this was going on, the Fort Edward school board was working diligently to not fully investigate allegations of drinking by some of the school's athletes — including members of the basketball team. There were even photos on the Internet showing a star player standing next to a girl who had a bottle of something stronger than Dr Pepper in her hands.

   The allegations had been floating around for months, but apparently no one wanted to act on them because the inevitable penalties would have ruined the basketball season.

   Now, we have the football team running it up on Bishop Gibbons over the weekend in a sectional quarterfinal. The final score was 78-7. Now, believe it or not, it is possible for a score to be that lopsided without having to speculate about whether the winners were running it up. You can't expect third-string running backs to not try to score, yadda, yadda, yadda.

   But, as James Allen of The Times-Union pointed out, it's hard to interpret going for two-point conversions in the late stages of such a blowout as anything less than intending to embarrass a badly-beaten opponent.

   First, the Flying Forts passed for two off of a fake kick to make it 72-0. Then they tried running for two out of a regular formation -- never mind going through the motions of sending the kicker out there for another fake -- on the

  
conversion after scoring their final TD.

   "I couldn't believe what I was seeing," first-year Gibbons Coach Joe Whipple told Allen. "They ran their off-tackle sweep play."

   For the record, Fort Edward is a tiny school and doesn't have a huge roster. That means it's hard to not have some of their better players on the field at all times. I understand that completely.

   But when you're going for two with a 78-7 lead, you leave yourself open to second-guessing. And third-guessing.

   (As an aside, the comment tool on James Allen's blog is activated. You might be interested in the wide variety of opinions getting posted there.)

   Red card for mom: OK, so Britney Spears isn't the only parent who maybe shouldn't have given birth.

   Nassau County police arrested Alicia Vigil, 33, of East Rockaway, on allegations that she struck a coach with a lawn chair Sunday because she was upset about faulty directions to a game.

   The coach of the youth-league game was not identified, but he suffered facial cuts in the incident at Sewanhaka High.

   Police arrested Vigil at her home yesterday and charged her with second-degree reckless endangerment. She was released on an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 1.

   Extra points: Greg Ross has been named boys basketball coach at Grand Island. Ross had been the JV coach there for two years after 14 seasons as head coach at North Tonawanda. He replaces Pat Monti protege Chris Simpson, who was not rehired. . . . Zagsblog has the 411 on unofficial visits being made by basketball star Lance Stephenson. Trips to USC, Kansas and North Carolina are in the works during Stephenson's junior year. He also plans to visit Georgetown and North Carolina as well and then will have a full slate of official visits available next year.


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