Thursday, January 31, 2013

Section II Wrestling Seeds

Break out the mats and the return of my #ThingsILearnedWhileCoverWrestling hashtag; IT'S WRESTLING SECTIONAL-TIME. We're slowly but surely getting the seedings for each of the divisions and I'm working my way through getting them all up here.

Just for the record, there are five different locations for this weekend's tournament.
Division I, Class 1 (Class A) - Niskayuna
Division I, Class 2 (Class B) - Mohonasen
Division II, Class 1 (Class CC) - Schalmont
Division II, Class 2 (Class C) - Hoosick Falls
Division II, Class 3 (Class D) - Warrensburg

Everything gets underway at 9:30 on Saturday at the respective locations and barring some sort of natural disasters, I should be live-tweeting from the Class C matches at Hoosick Falls, ready with my hashtag.

Check out the seeds under the cut. Because there are a ton. I've typed up the top four in each of the weight classes to try and keep things relatively organized.

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

NYS Girls Basketball Rankings - 01/29/13

We've got the latest girls basketball rankings here, straight off the metaphorical press of the New York State Sportswriters Association. As per usual, the top five teams in each class are listed below, as are all of the Section II squads currently ranked.

If you guys want to see the whole, great big list, just click right here. Enjoy!

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Shaker's Huntington Commits to Maine

    LATHAM – Schuyler Huntington had a pretty good weekend.
    The Shaker High senior, who was named The Record’s all-area defensive player of the year for his performance with the Blue Bison this past football season, officially made a verbal commitment to the University of Maine, cementing his gridiron future for the next four years.
    And he couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

NYS Boy's Basketball Rankings - 01/28/13

The NYSSWA has published their weekly updates of the NYS boy's basketball standings. You guys know the drill, the top five teams in each class are listed below as well as the rankings for all of the Section II teams.

As per usual if you guys want to check out the entire rankings list, go right ahead and click here.  Enjoy the rankings!

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Big Brand-New Techology News

Hey guys,
I have potentially big-time news as far as covering the rest of our basketball season this year. Tomorrow - or Friday - I'm going to make my first attempt to live stream a basketball game that I'm covering.

So what does this mean exactly? Well, it means that in addition to my incredibly entertaining live tweets and eventual game story in the next day's paper, you guys as an audience should be able to view the game I'm covering without necessarily being there. If my technology know-how is at least semi-correct, you should be able to click on a page on The Record's website and see a video of the game I'm at while it's happening, in the same way that you'd be able to click into a live-chat.

I'm going to be covering the Hoosic Valley at Tamarac girls basketball game tomorrow with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. and I'm hoping that I'll be able to stream it online. Keep in mind guys, this is a test run. This not the official launch of streaming all future games or anything like that. I'm looking to see if this is a feasible option for the future and using tomorrow's game as a dry run.

So, check it out and let me know what you think of it. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to view the game and see my tweets at the same time so we can basically have a conversation while the game is happening. At least that's the plan. We'll see how it goes.

- Laura

La Salle to Celebrate Former Teams at Friday's Game

Friday night is a must-win game for both the La Salle and CBA basketball teams, but before the Big 10 rivals can take the court, the Cadets plan to honor a little history first.

La Salle will be recognizing the 1963 Diocesan Championship team and their come-from-behind victory to secure the title game. Players Leon Simon, Angie Bruno, Tom Doody, Rich Hogan, Stan Merola and others will be in attendance for the event, which will also honor the 1986 Section II championship squad as well.

The Varsity game is scheduled to start at 7:30 and, as we are all well aware, parking at the Institute can be a bit of a mess, so if you're planning to attend the game or the event, get there early.

- Laura

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Basketball For a Cause: Coches vs. Cancer at the ARC This Weekend

There's no football this Sunday so you've got no reason to miss the Coaches vs. Cancer High School Challenge at Siena on the 27th.

Doors for the event open at 11 AM at the ARC and the first game is schedule to begin at noon. Tickets are just $5 for the whole day and all money raised goes to the American Cancer Society. As if that weren't enough, it's a pretty awesome slate of hoops.

The schedule is:
Glens Falls vs. South Glens Falls, 12 p.m.
Voorheesville vs. Watervliet, 3 p.m.
Albany Academy vs. Green Tech, 4:30 p.m.
Troy vs. Newburgh, 6 p.m.
Mohonasen vs. Niskayuna, 7:30 p.m.

It's a day for sure, but there's some serious talent lined up in these games. 'Vliet, Academy, Green Tech and Troy are all state-ranked and the other schools are no slouches either. So, unless you've frozen to your desk chair this week because it's so bitterly cold, there's not much excuse to miss some of the matchups.

See you all there!
- Laura

NYS Basketball Rankings - 01/21/13

Hey guys,
I'm a day late on these, something I apologize a ton for, but here they are still; the latest NYS basketball rankings for boys and girls squads.

You guys know the drill, top five teams in each class - boys and girls - as well as the current rankings of all our local teams. If you want to see the entire lists, you can click here for boys and here for girls. Enjoy!

Read more »

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

NYS Basketball Rankings - 01/14/13

Another week, another round of basketball rankings. As per usual, you can find the top five teams in each class under the cut, as well as the rankings of all of our local Section II squads. If you want to check out the entire list, go ahead and click right here. Congrats to our ranked teams and good luck on another awesome few days of basketball this week.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

NYSPHSAA Scholar Athlete Teams: Fall 2012

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association recently released their scholar athlete teams for the fall sport season. Each team made the list with a cumulative average of 90% or higher during the course of the season.

Section II had a handful of teams crack the top-10 in the statewide finishes as well as 343 teams and 4,063 student-athletes qualify as scholar teams.

Under the cut you can check out the teams that made the top in the state as well as the top team in all of the fall sports throughout Section II.
- Laura

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Calling All Section II Athletes

Guys. This is big. Or at least semi-big. And I need your help. That part is legit.

Here's the deal: I'm writing a brand-new long form, semi investigative story, much like the story I did last year on budget cuts in Section II athletic departments. You guys were an incredible amount of help with that story - sending e-mails and tweets on how sports had affected your life and what would change if you weren't able to play sports. So, I'm here again, asking for your help, again.

I'm looking to figure out the world of AAU and travel sports - really focusing on basketball since that's the season we're in now, but if you play travel soccer or baseball or anything else, feel free to chime in too.

Basically, what I want to know from you guys is how the AAU experience has shaped your athletic time in high school. Is it better than playing for your high school team? How's the competition level at AAU? If you guys have played AAU do you feel like it's helped you get more exposure with college schools? Has the travel and money been an issue for you and your family?

On the flip side, if you haven't played AAU, why not? Did you ever try out and not make the team? If you're not on an AAU team do you feel like you're missing out on something?

Ok. So now it's really up to you guys to respond. There's a bunch of ways to do that - you can either email me at lamato@troyrecord.com or you can Tweet me @LauraAmato. As usual, feel free to basically write as much as you want.
There is no word limit here. I want all your information and your entire story when it comes to AAU.

Thanks again guys!
- Laura

Monday, January 7, 2013

NYS Basketball Rankings - 01/07/2013

If you guys aren't all glued to your TVs, watching tonight's BCS championship game, the NYSSWA has released their latest state-wide rankings for boys and girls basketball.

Under the cut you can find the top five teams in each class for boys and girls as well as the placement for all the Section II teams. We've got some pretty good games to look forward to this week, so get excited for tomorrow and Friday night. I'm planning at being at the Shaker at Columbia boy's game but we'll have folks all over the area updating throughout the night.

Good luck to whatever team your rooting for in tonight's championship. Enjoy some football and basketball. See y'all on the sidelines this week.

- Laura

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Friday, January 4, 2013

Section II Response to Watervliet's Out-of-District Player

I reported earlier today that the Watervliet boy's basketball team - previously undefeated in the Colonial Council and currently ranked 8th in NYS among all Class B teams - was being forced to forfeit their five victories this season after it became clear that a player was actually living out-of-district.

I was informed of the situation from Watervliet superintendent Dr. Lori Caplan but I wanted to hear the "offficial" response from Section II. So here it is - straight from the e-mail of boy's basketball chairman Mike Lilac.

When asked if it was normal Section II procedure to have a team forfeit their wins in this situation, Mr. Lilac told me:
"If a team uses an illegal player (ex. - an out of district player) the rule is the team forfeits the games that he plays in."

So since the player has, presumably, been active in all seven of the Cannoneers' games this season, they had to forfeit all of those seven games; including the five victories.

As far as how this will affect Watervliet's seeding when it comes time for sectionals, Mr. Lilac explained that the criteria for that process covers situations such as this. Essentially, it's at the discretion of the seeding committee to decide where the Cannoneers will be seeded in the eventual Class B sectional tournament.

"Precedent has been set in dealing with teams that have had to forfeit games but are still one of the top teams in the classification," Lilac said. "I have a great committee and I know they will do what is fair to all the schools."

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Basketball Rankings - New Year's Edition

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you guys had an excellent weekend/winter break/time away from school...all that jazz.

I'm also officially back from my own winter break and as my first act of being back at work, I bring to you the latest NYS basketball rankings for both girls and boys basketball. This is our fourth round of boys rankings and our first girls rankings of the season.

Now that we're right in the mix of league play in Section II, things are going to get progressively more interesting I can only look forward to what's on the docket for our remaining basketball season. As per usual, I've listed the top five in each class as well as where any of our local teams are ranked. If you want to the full rankings, simply head on over here for girls basketball and here for boys basketball.

See y'all on the sidelines on Friday.
- Laura

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