The Batavian will continue to cover athletics in Le Roy

We've not reported on the dismissal of Rick Rapone as head coach of the Le Roy boys varsity basketball, a story first reported by Batavia's Best, in part because we wanted to try and get a better idea of what happened.

We checked with sources and couldn't get even a hint of what might have happened and the school never replied to an email seeking comment or even confirmation.

Today, another news outlet threatened to boycott coverage of the Le Roy High School athletic program because reporters and editors there feel the school district hasn't been forthcoming with information and they expect the school to apologize for firing Rapone.

Though some might like us to join such a boycott, we are not going to engage in such theatrics. 

• First, we don't know what happened, and we're never going to know. The school district or the school can't tell us and it's unrealistic to demand such disclosure from administrators;
• Second, while I admire many coaches in our community, and Rick Rapone always treated me well, The Batavian doesn't cover sports to highlight coaches. We cover sports to highlight players. It's about the kids, not the coaches, and I believe that's how Rick Rapone would want it as well.  

So, we will continue to cover Le Roy athletics in the same manner and frequency we always have (which is to make it part of our rotation of coverage of trying to provide some coverage to all the schools with our limited resources).

NOTE: As a matter of transparency, I read the column in question at about 12:30. There's a timestamp on it now that it was last updated at about 1 p.m.,  I posted this just before 4 p.m., but, frankly, did not think at that time to check to see if the column had been altered. The threat to boycott coverage has been removed.