NYSSWA: New York State Sportswriters Association

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Leading off today: Steve Bush, who coached West Genesee to its first NYSPHSAA championship last November, has accepted a job with the Miami Dolphins, The Post-Standard reported today.

Bush, a former Syracuse University assistant, met with his players this afternoon to break the news to them.

Bush will join the Dolphins as an offensive assistant coach. He'll work with former Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni, who was named the Dolphins' defensive coordinator this week. Bush was an assistant coach at SU under Pasqualoni from 2000-04. When Pasqualoni was fired in 2005, Bush took over a West Genesee program that was 3-13 in the previous two seasons.

Bush also has worked with Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano at the University of New Haven.

Mercy, mercy me: USA Today reports that you can add Montana to the list of states with a mercy rule in basketball next year. When a lead reaches 40 points in the second half, the clock will run except for injuries and timeouts.

Interestingly, coaches on the wrong end of some nasty sometimes disapprove of the rule.

Percy Gregory, whose Hampton (Va.) Kecoughtan team was defeated by Hampton by 108-8 this month, said this:

"I would say let the girls play. There is some value, some fundamental value, that a team can get out of a loss like that. At some point, you treat it as a practice."

Following up: Former prosecutor Beth Modica, 44, had sex with two underage boys, joined other teens in booze and pot parties and kept it all a secret from her police-chief husband, Rockland County officials said Tuesday.

Modica was indicted on 35 counts alleging statutory rape, criminal sex acts, sex abuse and endangering children. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Rockland County Court and was ordered held on $75,000 bail, The New York Daily News reported.

Rockland DA Thomas Zugibe said Modica had intercourse and oral sex with a 16-year-old boy and oral sex with a 15-year-old boy last summer. He also said that she served and shared alcohol and marijuana with "many" other Suffern High students at her home or in her car.

A spokesman for the DA's office said that earlier reports that the incidents may have involved members of the Suffern hockey team were not accurate.

Ramapo Police Chief Peter Brower said the investigation began Dec. 31, when his department received a complaint in the mail.

Diving lawsuit resolved: A settlement was reached last week during a Niagara County Court trial on a lawsuit filed by the parents of a Niagara-Wheatfield High swimmer who was hurt in 2002, The Buffalo News reported.

The lawsuit seeking $1.5 million in damages was brought by Mary Ann Taglienti of Wheatfield, mother of Samantha Taglienti, now 21, who hit her head on the springboard doing a back flip during a practice. She suffered long-lasting headaches and other ailments, she testified during a pretrial hearing.

The suit claimed Samantha Taglienti was pressured into diving for the team by her coach despite her parents’ prohibition. Attorneys refused to discuss the terms of the deal, which came on the fourth day of a trial.

What was he thinking? A former sheriff's lieutenant in Wisconsin's Dane County is appealing his dismissal for allegedly using his position to try to help his son's football team by getting another school in hot water.

Sheriff David Mahoney fired Shawn Haney, saying that the 21-year veteran of the Dane County Sheriff's Department improperly released police reports on a drinking party by Waunakee High School players.

It seems that Waunakee was to face DeForest High, including Haney's son, in a postseason game. Haney, who was in charge of records for the police agency, complained to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association that Waunakee officials were not doing anything about the party involving team members.

Haney's lawyer said that the release of the records was appropriate and that Haney made the complaint as a concerned parent, not a sheriff's official.

DeForest defeated Waunakee, 27-13, on Nov. 3 but later lost in the state championship game. A teacher's aide and her husband who allegedly posted the drinking party were charged with obstructing police. Three others, including a football player, were charged with disorderly conduct using a dangerous weapon.

Waunakee Superintendent Charles Pursell said players were not disciplined until after the game because the investigation was ongoing.