Leading off today: Dave Litz has resigned after a highly successful career directing the hockey team at Clinton,
The Observer-Dispatch reported last week.
Litz, a 43-year-old Clinton native, compiled a 139-40-11 record in seven seasons with New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships in 2005 and 2006 and three Section 3 titles.
Litz said he wants to devote more time to his family and his job at Clinton Moving & Packaging, where he is a vice president.
"Obviously, I don’t make my living coaching hockey; that’s not how I support my family," Litz told the paper. "It’s not like I can continue to coach and just back away and go half-speed at it."
A change at Somers JFK: Somers JFK boys basketball coach Tom Nelligan, 50, has resigned after going 205-82 in 13 seasons and winning four Section 1 championships.
"I just think it was time," Nelligan said. "You get to a point where you feel like you want to make a change, and I reached that point. This was something that I had been considering for some time."
Nelligan is leaving the door open to a return to coaching, possibly at the youth level in the Brewster school district where he teaches.
ES-M veteran not retained: East Syracuse-Minoa's Milton Valerio, the Section 3 leader in career girls soccer wins, is done after the district's school board declined to renew his contract.
Valerio, 59, was 405-134-38 with six sectional titles in 29 seasons. He had been coaching after retiring as a Spanish teacher in the district; it is unclear if he is being pushed aside because an active teacher in the district applied for the job, a frequent issue in schools across the state.
'Scottie' dies at 97: Bill Scott, the namesake of Ballston Spa's athletic program, died last week at the age of 97.
