(1) Many New York schools play the sport at a very high level; (2) Many of those schools aren't afraid of challenging themselves against the best.

   Take the Hamburg boys squad, for example. The Bulldogs have a non-leaguer against defending NYSPHSAA Class B champion Canandaigua on their schedule next month. Today, however, Hamburg has an even bigger challenge when it plays at Georgetown Prep. Whereas Hamburg was ranked eighth in Class B last week in the inaugural 2010 NYSSWA rankings, Georgetown Prep is rated No. 1 in the country in the Laxpower.com computer rankings despite an 11-3 record because the Hoyas play such a demanding schedule.

   On Thursday, Hamburg travels to Warrenton, Va., to play the Highland School, which went 16-4 a year ago en route to a Virginia private school state championship. Hamburg won their game last spring 9-8 in overtime, and Highland is off to an 8-1 start this year.

   "This year our schedule is more challenging than ever," coach Jerry Severino told The Buffalo News, "and we plan to represent Western New York well."

   Speaking of lacrosse matchups, there will be some excellent girls pairings this weekend at West Genesee. On Friday, the Wildcats take on Carthage and Canandiagua meets Good Counsel from Washington D.C. The consy and championship game are the following day.

   Canandaigua, West Genny and Good Counsel are ranked seventh, eighth and 16th in the Laxpower.com national computer ratings.

   Today's bad budget news: The Glens Falls school board today adopted a $38.2 million budget that raises the tax levy 5 percent, despite a $600,000 reduction in spending, The Post-Star reported.

   The budget chops alpine skiing, golf and volleyball, which Stephen Meier, director of business, said have low participation rates relative to the expense required.

   The New York State Sportswriters Association is tracking various budget developments across the state here.

   Best of the best: I tried, but I just couldn't do it. I racked my brain for much of the weekend and came up with about a dozen candidates, but I couldn't settle on a No. 1 candidate from my own neck of the woods or put the other contenders in any reasonable order.

   It's all Jason Molinet's fault.

   Let me explain: Molinet, the former Newsday reporter, does quite a bit of writing these days in other roles, including frequent contributions to Long Island Pulse. Recently he undertook the task of compiling the greatest high school sports dynasties for Nassau and Suffolk

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counties.

   There were some caveats associated with his top-10 list: To be eligible, teams needed to have at least one NYSPHSAA championship on their resume. Obviously that KO'd all football teams and private schools right off the bat since those groups cannot compete for titles. It also wipes out sports such as badminton, swimming, fencing and wrestling because there are no team championships conducted by the NYSPHSAA.

   With those criteria helping narrow the field, Molinet still had an impossibly tough call to make when it came to handing out the top honor: Rockville Centre South Side girls soccer or Ward Melville boys lacrosse. He ended up going with RCSS, and you can see the whole top 10 and his rationale for the picks by following this link.

   When I tried assembling the comparable list for Section 5, I had to toss out two of the elite outfits -- Fairport swimming and Spencerport wrestling -- because of the rule about state championships.

   That still left me with Honeoye Falls-Lima girls (an unprecedented seven straight NYSPHSAA championships) and boys cross country; Webster Schroeder, Aquinas and Cal-Mum football; Pittsford Mendon and Red Creek boys soccer; Byron-Bergen girls volleyball; Aquinas and Pittsford Mendon girls soccer; McQuaid cross country and basketball; East Rochester field hockey; and Rush-Henrietta girls basketball.

   Though that list of multi-time state champs seems manageable, the real fun comes when you try to slot in one- or two-time state titlists such as Fairport and LeRoy football, Aquinas hockey, Penfield boys soccer, etc.

   So here's your invitation: If you want to take a shot at putting together the list for Section 5 or any other region of the state using the same criteria Molinet used, feel free to use the e-mail link below to chime in.

   Extra points: Gow junior Wesley Yau has been named the reserve goaltender for the Hong Kong National Team for this summer's World Lacrosse Games in Manchester, England.