Leading off today: The NYSPHSAA has approved a preseason practice schedule that will allow football players to work out sooner in pads than in the past and also permit earlier use of some blocking devices.

   State and Section 5 football coordinator Dick Cerone said the changes will go into effect in August.

   Players are limited to non-contact drills in helmets the first two days of practice, instead of three. In a significant change, teams can use cones, ropes, ladders, soft-hand shields and step-over dummies for conditioning and agility drills, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. Photos on the paper's web site showed teams in violation of the state rules in 2008, leading to a series of reprimands to Rochester-area schools.

   The episode led Cerone to discover that coaches around the state had also violated the rules, most of which has existed for 25 years or more.

   Full contact cannot begin until Day 6, and teams and players must have 11 practices before scrimmaging, the paper reported.

   "We've been proposing this for years," Cerone said. "They finally ratified it. This is long overdue."

   Gilbert leaving the bench: Tamarac girls soccer coach Craig Gilbert has decided that 28 years is enough. Already retired from teaching, Gilbert, 63, is giving up coaching responsibilities after a NYSPHSAA-record 478 victories, The Times Union reported.

   "I know the girls less now because I'm not in school every day. My granddaughter is starting to play soccer and she lives in Vermont, so this was the right time to step aside," Gilbert said.    Sinada Bailey, Gilbert's assistant for two years, will take over as coach from Gilbert, who was 478- 76-38 with 12 sectional crowns and a NYSPHSAA championship in 2004. The Bengals were unbeaten in 102 straight games vs. Section 2 opponents from 1991 to '95.

   Milestone: Pitcher Lauren Sputo threw a 13-strikeout, five-inning no-hitter to lead White Plains to a 17-0 softball win over Gorton. It was the school-record 59th career win for Sputo, who went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

   Decision delayed: A story out of Watertown got me thinking. If a school isn't big enough to field sports teams by itself, does that also make it too small to survive as a stand-alone educational institution?

   Norwood-Norfolk has put a proposed hockey merger with Madrid-Waddington on ice until it determines how much (if

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anything) it should charge. The question came about because Norwood-Norfolk will have to pay $201 per student to allow its wrestlers to compete as part of Canton's program. Further complicating the issue is the fact that Massena wasn't interested in accepting N-N wrestlers if it couldn't also merge cross country teams next season. N-N officials said no.

   Potsdam charged $60 per Norwood-Norfolk hockey player in 2008, The Watertown Daily Times reported, and there was a similar arrangement in girls hockey.

   It makes me wonder how often schools around the state are unable to offer honors classes -- Advanced Placement biology and calculus, for instance, because there are not enough students interested to justify the cost.

   Sad anniversary: There was a good read in the New York Daily News this week reminding us that Thursday will mark the 10th anniversary of Malik Sealy's death at the hands of a drunk driver.

   Sealy, the NYSSWA's 1988 large-school player of the year for Tolentine, was an eighth-year pro with the Timberwolves at the time of the tragedy.

   My memory of Sealy is a brief one, having only dealt with him in person at the Federation basketball tournament in his senior year. Tolentine's sophomore guards that year were Brian Reese and Adrian Autry, but the big man was clearly the guy in charge. I still remember the way he was moving from place to place in the postgame celebration to get teammates in place for photos and interviews, just the way you would want a good leader to act even at the end of a long season.