It’s @NYSPHSAA Coaches Appreciation Day .. Thank you to all the coaches in Section XI who make a difference!

Congratulations to Center Moriches softball coach Rich Roberts on earning career victory No. 300.

Roberts has led the Red Devils to numerous league, county and Long Island titles. He is also a leader with the Suffolk County Softball Coaches Association.

Congratulations to former Section XI Executive Director Don Webster on being inducted to the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame!

Webster was in charge of Section XI from 2014-2017. He previously served as athletic director in Longwood and Ward Melville.

He joins Homer Ball, Cathy Gallagher, Ed Cinelli and Tom Combs as fellow Executive Directors to gain induction to the Suffolk Hall.

Deadline is May 14 to submit.

Click here for more info.

The following notes are from the NYSPHSAA board meeting this month where they gave a NYSAAA Update …

NYSAAA Past President, Denise Kiernan, developed a statewide initiative for a mentoring program and will be working with the Chapters in implementing the model that she envisions.

The program is designed for new and beginning AD’s in their first or three years of athletic administration.

It also complements the “Aspiring AD Program” initiated by Chapter 11 and Dr. Jim Wright, and now by Greg Warren, CMAA across the state.

The NYSAAA Executive Board has moved along in its plan to develop a five year Strategic Plan over this next year. The final approval is targeted for the 2022 Conference. The overall Chair will be Robert Stulmaker, CAA.

The three subcommittees will be Operations (Dr. Mira Martincich & Nina Van Erk); Finance (TBA); and Programs (Donald Webster, CMAA).

Forty-five AD’s across the state have volunteered and 24 will be assigned to one of the three subcommittees this month. The association has schedule August 15-17, 2021 for a two day retreat at the Desmond in Albany to develop the plan under the leadership of facilitator, Bruce Whitehead, CMAA of Indianapolis, IN.

CLICK for full agenda and notes!

If you’d like to watch spring sport live streams across Section XI, find links from school districts here.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) held its quarterly meeting of the Executive Committee on Wednesday, May 5 at the Embassy Suites in Saratoga Springs. The Committee voted on several key proposals important to the Association’s 787-member schools.

The Committee approved only using a digital ticketing platform for all NYSPHSAA state championship events starting with the 2021-22 school year.  Digital ticket prices were approved to be $10 (+ fees) for all championships.

The Executive Committee approved an adjustment to the boys and girls cross country classification cut-off numbers. The new numbers, which would take effect in fall 2021, can be found on page 88 of the agenda found here.

Additionally, all spring 2020 regional rotations and state tournament rotations were advanced to 2022 for spring team sports, plus boys tennis individual championships which uses a bye to fill the at-large slots. Also pertaining to championships, the Committee approved extending bid terms for all 2021 spring state championships for an additional year as a result of the cancellation of this year’s spring state championships.

The following state championship venues were approved for new terms: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (Flushing) as the host of the 2021-2023 NYSPHSAA Girls Tennis Team Championships and as the host of the 2022-2024 NYSPHSAA Boys Tennis Team Championships; the Edison Club and McGregor Country Club (Wilton/Rexford, NY) as the host of the 2022-2024 NYSPHSAA Girls Golf Championships.

The meeting was called to order by President Julie Bergman at 9:00 am and concluded at 11:40 am. The next meeting of the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee will be in conjunction with the Central Committee meeting on July 27-28, 2021 at the Resort World Catskills in Monticello, NY.