Leading off today: The Section 3 football committee has revised schedules for nearly all of its Class D teams in order to give everyone a full slate of games following decisions this month by Hamilton and Bishop Grimes to drop the sport.

   Port Byron and Morrisville-Eaton were the most affected teams with each having three games changed, The Post-Standard reported today. Onondaga, Weedsport, New York Mills, Oriskany and West Canada had two games changed.

   Sectional chairman Jon Rathbun told the paper one of the primary goals was to assure teams of a full regular season without having to depend upon rematches. The committee also sought to preserve home games and avoid unreasonable travel when possible.

   Progress: Our list of football scrimmages now contains entries on approximately 310 New York teams that will do their interscholastic dry runs Aug. 28 through Sept. 4.

   Sections 1 through 6 are all well represented on the list, and I'll continue to add more as information becomes available.

   Coaches cleared: A judge has dismissed charges against two Middletown, Conn., football coaches who were investigated after a player collapsed at an offseason workout July 6 in hot weather.

   Christopher K. Ellis and Joshua Hamilton were cleared Tuesday of misdemeanor reckless endangerment after lawyers presented security-camera video that showed players taking regular water breaks during the workout.

   Both men remain on the coaching staff.

   Injury bug: Iona Prep had its 2009 season ruined by injuries, and the new season isn't going to start much better.

   Standout receiver suffered a torn ACL, a partially torn meniscus and a sprained MCL in his left knee Aug. 5 in a no-contact mishap during 7-on-7 work and will not be able to play this season.

   "He had been working so hard, and in some of our 7-on-7s he was flat-out tremendous," coach Vic Quirolo told The Journal News. "To lose him, it's just hard."

   Alfano, who made 36 grabs for 494 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior, expects to undergo surgery next week.

   Worth a read I: Donnie Webb has covered college football for The Post-Standard for as long as I remember -- he was already on the job when I covered the team during the Dick MacPherson/Paul Pasqualoni transition two decades ago -- and now he's branching out into a different sort of coverage.

   Webb's first installment of a season-long series focusing on Syracuse Fowler ran in Sunday's paper, and did a great job at setting the stage for what should be "must" reading this season.

RoadToSyracuse.com Football Site

   Morning announcements at Fowler are read in English, Spanish and Arabic because the school's 1,200 students speak more than 20 languages. More than 90 percent of students receive free or reduced lunches, principal James A. Palumbo told Webb, and the school’s graduation rates are the lowest in the area.

   Fowler moves up to Class AA this fall. Writes Webb:

   "It is a season of challenges, but they always are at Fowler. The Falcons will not have a single home game this fall. Fowler was already the only city high school without FieldTurf or a renovated stadium, a slight not lost on the student body. What it had was destroyed this year by a $13 million project to repair a sewage line as part of Onondaga County’s ongoing repair to Onondaga Lake. All that remains are a scoreboard and forlorn goal posts that sit among piles of gravel, weeds and construction vehicles."

   “It tears me up,” said sophomore Angelo Bowers, a lineman who lives out of a group home. “It tears me. That was our field.”

   Yeah, I'm guessing Donnie will turn in some outstanding stories this fall.

   Worth a read II: The Journal News reported the touching story of Courtney Burrell this week.

   Burrell, 14, is a developmentally disabled teen with cerebral palsy and will never play a down for North Rockland, but coach Joe Casarella and the programs 124 other players welcomed him onto the team this week. He was already a fixture at practices and games in the past, and now he'll get the chance to experience being in a team atmosphere as a jack-of-all-trades on the practice field and administrative offices.

   Casarella said Burrell's teammates could learn a thing or two from him.

   "A lot of kids don't live up to their potential," Casarella said. "When they see people who work hard just to get up, it sets a good example."