Leading off today: Congratulations to the players, coaches and administrators at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake for their successful defense of the overall championship in the NYSSWA All-Sport Championship.

   The New York State Sportswriters Association announced the results of the second-annual competition this morning. The ASC recognizes class champions based on results in 14 boys and 13 girls tournaments or championships conducted by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.

   (The NYSPHSAA does not administate the All-Sport Championship or in any way participate in it.)

   Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake scored 45.17 points to win the combined boys/girls Class A scoring and fend off Class AA North Rockland for overall bragging rights.

   Another football commitment: Rivals.com reported yesterday that defensive lineman Donnie Simmons of Archbishop Stepinac has committed to play football at Syracuse University in 2011.

   At 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, Simmons is likely destined to line up at outside linebacker early in his college career, perhaps moving inside as his frame fills out. He reportedly had offers from Akron, Fordham and Delaware, with Rutgers and Temple also expressing interest. The recruitment pace picked up after he showed a good combination of size and strength last month at the Penn State Nike Camp.

   Basketball decision: Karin Robinson, a NYSSWA fourth-team all-state point guard last season as a Mary Louis junior, has committed to play basketball at George Mason.

   "They called every week, e-mailed,” the Mary Louis rising senior told The New York Post. "They were one of the few schools that did that. I liked the fact that they actually stayed on top of me, kept interest in me."

   Robinson also had offers from Cincinnati, Memphis, Seton Hall and West Virginia.

   Good reading: The Buffalo News had an interesting profile of Dick Gallagher yesterday.

   Plenty of us know Gallagher, 69, for his work as publisher of Western New York High School Sports magazine for the past 24 years.

NYSSWA All-Sport Championship   MAIN  |  2009-10 top overall schools   Class-by-class boys  |  Class-by-class girls   More about the NYSSWA All-Sport Championship   Last year's ASC Championship site

   Today is his final day as executive director of Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services, the agency that oversees the Kids Escaping Drugs campaign in the Buffalo area. That job became a crusade for Gallagher after he lost his daughter, Christine, to suicide in 1993 at the age of 24. She had battled alcohol problems as a teen.

   "I thank God for giving us Christine for 24 years and knowing that she's in peace and comfort," Gallagher told the paper. "I also thank God for the thousands of people he's allowed me to interact with, to make my life so special."

   "I've never seen anybody do their job as passionately as Dick Gallagher," said JoAnne A. Hudecki, executive director of Kids Escaping Drugs. "I would say he is the face of helping people overcome their addictions, no matter how old they are."

   Extra points: Suffern pitcher Robbie Aviles and Irondequoit shortstop Cito Culver were selected to the second team of the MaxPreps All-American baseball team announced yesterday. . . . Bob Alegre, formerly the baseball coach and AD, has retired from his role as athletic moderator at St. Joseph by-the-Sea after a quarter century at the school and quarduple bypass surgery in April 2009. It was on his watch as AD that the school added football, lacrosse and volleyball and built a fitness center and a football/soccer complex.