Leading off today: We're all familiar with basketball's "Midnight Madness" tradition, and I've even been to a high school wrestling team's version of the event.

   And now we have a football component to it.

   But whereas basketball teams start their season-opening practice at 12:01 a.m. as a bit of a publicity stunt, the Fordson High Tractors in Dearborn, Mich., are doing it out of necessity because the opening week of preparations for the upcoming season coincides with Ramadan.

   The school's student body consists almost exclusively of Muslims, so coach Fouad Zaban is scheduling workouts from midnight until about 5 a.m. during the preseason in large part as a healthy and safety measure since those observing the month-long holy period can neither eat nor drink from sunrise to sundown.

   “We’ve always had to practice and do some work while most of the kids were fasting and we’ve done what we can to adjust everyone’s schedule,” Zaban told the Press & Guide. “But this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to really do something about it. School hasn’t started yet and we don’t have a game for three more weeks, so we can change our schedule around and now we won’t have players running around out there when it’s 90 degrees and they can’t get a drink of water."

   Fordson will open the season Aug. 27 at Novi Detroit Catholic Central.

   Remembering Vogts: There was a memorial gathering this morning at Bethpage High School to honor football coach Howie Vogts, who died over the weekend at the age of 80. He was the state's all-time winningest coach in the sport.

   Former Newsday reporter Jason Molinet filed a column this week recalling Vogts and his legacy in the Long Island community.

   A change at Lancaster: Len Jankiewicz is resigning this month as athletic director but will continue to coach football at Lancaster.

   Jankiewicz, 58, has a reputation for being more driven than most. Even after being named AD in 1993 he continued to teach math for several years despite the fact that an administrative job in a district of that size is already more than a 40-hour-a-week job.

   The combination of a sprawling campus, a nicely

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maintained football-only stadium and a 31,500-square foot field house should make for considerable interest from candidates to replace Jankiewicz.

   "You could fill an unabridged dictionary with all the stuff he's done, and virtually without exception, it's for someone else," track coach Kevin Carriero told The Buffalo News. "It's for any kid, a coach, faculty member, alumni. As a measure of the man, he'll tell you he's just a guy doing his job. As coaches we all had it so good for so long. No joking, the world as we've known it will change dramatically for all of us (in the fall)."    Jankiewicz is entering his 25th season as football coach. He has a 136-82-2 record.

   Coleman makes the cut: Jamesville-DeWitt rising junior post player Dajuan Coleman is the only New York player selected for the fifth annual Boost Mobile Elite 24 basketball showcase, which has become one of the better summer all-star events for underclassmen.

   This year's event is scheduled for Aug. 27-28 in Venice Beach, Calif.

   Participants are selected by high school basketball experts from ESPN RISE, ESPN College Basketball Recruiting and other talent evaluators based on their performances at AAU tournaments and camps.