Leading off today: Tom Tegeler will coach New Paltz tonight against Croton-Harmon in the quarterfinals of the NYSPHSAA Class B football playoffs in Kingston despite his arrest earlier in the week, Times Herald-Record reported today.

   New Paltz superintendent Maria Rice informed the paper of the decision early this afternoon. Tegeler had been running practices this week following his third sectional title in 10 seasons.

   Tegeler was arrested early Sunday after leading New Paltz to a 13-0 win vs. Marlboro in the Section 9 finals. The coach was charged with misdemeanor drunken driving and misdemeanor operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content greater than 0.08 percent. According to Tegeler's lawyer, Joseph O'Connor, police said the coach's blood alcohol content was .09 percent.

   “I'm glad I can be there for the children because that's what it's about,” Tegeler, 37, told the paper. “I want to be there for the student athletes.”

   Rice told The Daily Freeman she received about two dozen calls from residents in support of Tegeler but only two calling for his suspension. "I’m looking at it through two several different lenses and I’m following any legal recourse that I need to follow," Rice told the paper. "This is an operations matter, disciplining and dealing with the staff. I have to look at two things."

   Double duty: Six Remsen girls are competing on both the cross country trails and the soccer field tomorrow in a repeat of what they did last Saturday.

   Lizzy McGough, Maria Roberts, Emily Runninger, Emily DeVenezia, Ashley O’Connor and Erin O’Connor will run in the NYSPHSAA cross country championships Saturday morning in Pawling and then ride nearly four hours back to Section 3 for a state soccer quarterfinal against Milford at 5:30 p.m. at Chittenango.

   “I don’t think it will be a problem,” McGough told The Observer-Dispatch. “I’ll be able to sleep and I’ll have more time to get in the mindset of soccer. I think it will be OK.”

   Last weekend's commute was from the Class D race at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill to SUNY Cortland for the sectional soccer playoffs.

   “You’re always looking at the safety of athletes, but these girls are so well conditioned it’s not going to be a problem,” AD Dale Dening told the paper.

   Shutting down: Lake George is dropping its field hockey program because of declining participation. AD Mark Bleibtrey told The Post-Star a lack of interest by younger players ultimately did in the team. An informal survey of fifth- and sixth-graders in the district turned up only eight girls expressing interest in the sport.

   "The numbers just have not been there, the team has not been able to sustain a feeder program," Bleibtrey said. "Without that program, that is your foundation. And unfortunately, there hasn't been that interest."

   Lake George endured an 0-16 season this fall and had only one sectional appearance after the debut of the girls soccer team in 2002.

   It's not as though athletes will be hurting for opportunities in falls sports at Lake George. The volleyball team played in 22 straight sectional finals before this season; the girls soccer team has won the Adirondack title all four years the league has existed.

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   At least four other Section 2 schools have dropped the sport this decade: Stillwater (2002), Fort Ann (2003), Cambridge (2004) and Hadley-Luzerne (2008).

   Conklin retires: Nanuet's Rich Conklin capped a 40-year football coaching career last weekend with a 20-13 victory vs. Somers JFK.

   With JFK at the Nanuet 1-yard line with nine seconds left, Kyle Hanney made a tackle a foot short of the goal line as time expired.

   "It was everything you wanted it to be," Conklin, 61, told The Journal News. "What a way to end."

   Conklin exits with a record of 218-96-2 is 35 varsity seasons after also winning 202 meets as the head wrestling coach. He coached his four sons in both sports. His son Chris, 35, died suddenly shortly before a 2009 season that ended with a loss in the state Class B final in Syracuse. In January, Conklin and wife Donna lost another son, Ryan, 27.

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   "If you let that be the focal point, it becomes a very depressing situation," the coach said. "So let's look at how those guys lived and what they wanted and what they would want, and know that they're still with us. Definitely not in the same capacity they were, but all of us in the family know what they thought of us, and they know what we thought of them."

   The 1989 season was indisputably a masterpiece. Nanuet's fields were under construction, forcing the Golden Knights had to practice in Haverstraw and they all their games on the road. They went 10-0 and outscored the opposition by 239-0/