Leading off today: Dominic Murray, a basketball standout at Monsignor McClancy in Queens last year, died after collapsing on the court at Farmingdale State College on Monday. He was 17.

   Murray's cousin, Terrence Howard, a Farmingdale junior, was on the court when Murray collapsed. He said the two started playing basketball at 8 p.m. and were on the court for about half an hour when Murray fell to the floor during a pick-up game.

   Farmingdale coach Erik Smiles attempted CPR before campus police and the East Farmingdale Fire Department arrived. Murray was taken to New Island Hospital in Bethpage, where he was pronounced dead, The New York Post reported.

   The cause of death has not been determined and an autopsy is scheduled.

   "The whole school is numb," McClancy coach Don Kent told the paper. "There's a lot of teary eyes today. He loved Monsignor McClancy High School. I'm proud to say he was my student, a player on my team and, more importantly, a friend."

   Hockey on the horizon: The Ken-Ton School District will field a girls ice hockey team next year if enough local districts make the commitment to do likewise, AD Brett Banker said Tuesday.

   Banker said he is waiting to see if five other districts also agree to launch teams before he inserts $24,500 into the budget proposal for a team, The Buffalo News reported.

   Banker was part of a committee of Buffalo-area ADs that recommended this year that a regional league be launched in the 2010-11 school year. The Williamsville School District and the Monsignor Martin Athletic Association have said they will form teams.

   "In addition to us, there are three or four other districts that seem to be moving in that direction,” Banker said.

   Oklahoma shake-up: The suspension of the head coach at football powerhouse Jenks, Okla., High was extended indefinitely by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association's board of directors due to recruiting violations.

   The board voted unanimously to extend the suspensions of head coach Allan Trimble and assistant David Alexander. Trimble had been suspended from coaching without pay for the semester and Alexander for two games by the district, which determined that Trimble helped arrange for a player to live with a local booster so he could meet residency requirements.

   The OSSAA board said it will review the suspensions in June but otherwise accepted the suburban Tulsa district's self-imposed sanctions, including cancellation of spring practice in 2010. Jenks will also hire a compliance officer.

   Revised schedule: The New York State Public High School Athletic Association has revised the dates for the state football finals next month due to a conflict with the Syracuse University basketball schedule.

   The finals will now be played Saturday, Nov. 28, and Sunday, Nov. 29. The original finals schedule had games being played Nov. 27-28.

   Saturday's games will be for classes D (noon), C (3 p.m.) and A (6 p.m.). On Sunday, the Class AA game is at 1 p.m., followed by the Class B game at 4 p.m.

RoadToSyracuse.com Football Site

   On a personal note: My blog last month about the need for more people to sign up as New York State Sportswriters Association members has netted some results (including a pair of rather large outright contributions), but it's also netted something even better — lengthy conversations with several people I've lost track of in recent years.

   One such conversation was with Webster Thomas boys basketball coach Bill O'Rourke Jr. -- who, by the way, renewed his membership and challenged all fellow coaches to do so. O'Rourke is the son of one of the legendary coaches in Section 5 history in any sport, and has himself been a successful coach and teacher (in every sense of the word) over the years.

   When he retires some day down the road, one story sure to be recalled involves a sectional playoff against Aquinas at the Rochester War Memorial in the early 1980s. Aquinas showed up in the wrong color uniforms and there was no time for the Little Irish to retrieve the proper ones.

   It meant was that O'Rourke's team was entitled to two technical free throws for every Aquinas player who checked into the game with an illegal uniform -- meaning 10 freebies before the opening tip. Being the sportsman that he is, O'Rourke declined. His team went on to lose a close one that night but it was a classy decision on his part.

   The reason I raise that now is because I just watched a stunning video from a weekend football game in Alabama at which, shall we say, sportsmanship was not on display. An ugly incident unfolded after the game, with a referee being attacked by a fan after the game.

   I've seen a lot of emotion-filled contests over the years -- for the record, wrestling is the sport where emotions seem to run highest -- and all I can say is that people need to remember that when all is said and done, it's still only a game. And that gives me a chance to segue into the story of a kid who "gets it."

   Asheville, N.C. High quarterback Brandon Whiteside is reaching into his pocket to donate $1 for every passing yard he accumulates this fall. He was up to $547 through the end of September.

   Whiteside is giving the money to charities which fight cancer, a disease that has touched Whiteside's mother, sister and late grandfather.

   "A lot of people say they want to do something, but I actually want to follow through," Whiteside said. "I just want to be someone who makes a difference."

   Awesome.