Sports

 I'm had the chance to interview Ken Babcock many times over the past couple of years, and I can tell you that he is one of the most intelligent high school kids I've ever met.

That's why I'm not surprised to see that he is the most recent News 10 NBC Student Athlete of the Week.

“Our season ended in football and I said there is no way that was my last day of football," Babcock tells reporter Robin De Wind.

He's a standout football and basketball player, but football is his true love. He was a dominant tight end and has a shot to play at a big-time school, with Harvard being high on his list.

Byron-Bergen outside hitter Mary Cocking earned first team All-Greater Rochester honors, and it is well deserved.

Cocking had 345 kills this season to bring her career total to 1,061. She also had 315 digs to give her 788 in her career.

The three time Section 5 all-tournament all-star was a member of the three state title teams. She plans on attending Brockport to study nursing and play volleyball.

Again, the local small schools  had no second team selections, but here are the honorable mentions:

Genesee Region: Kayla Konieczy (Byron-Bergen), Krysta Lougheed (Byron-Bergen), Jessica George (Byron-Bergen), Mary McCormick (Byron-Bergen), Katie Boxler (Attica), Jackie Algier (Attica), Stephanie Maurer (Pembroke), Britt Morelli (Batavia Notre Dame), Liz Geandreau (Notre Dame), Courtney Turcer (Alexander), Sam Skyrp (Lyndonville), Megan Fahy (Lyndonville).

The Pembroke girls basketball team had an impressive win over a Livonia team that has had a rough go at the start of the season, earning a 43-36 home victory.

Nicole Sharick had a huge game for the Dragons, scoring 13 of her season-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, while grabbing seven rebounds with three steals.

Laura Moser hit all four free throw attempts in the fourth quarter - and went 8-of-8 in the game - while snagging six steals.

Jackie Dubois added six points for the Dragons (5-2).

Kassie Pope had 16 poins and Jackie Minnnehan added seven for Livonia (1-4).

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Mike Humphrey dropped in 23 points to lead Le Roy to a 66-32 drubbing of Warsaw.  He scored all 15 Oatkan Knight points in the first quarter.

Travis Fenstermaker and Cody Niccloy had eight points apiece for Le Roy (3-2).

Travis White had 12 points for Warsaw (0-6).

The S.C. Genesee Lancers United Women's team is the first local adult soccer team, men's or women's, to play in the Premier Division of the RDSL (Rochester District Soccer League). They qualified for the premier division by having and overall record of 12-1-5 during the 2008 season in the First Division. The Lancers are comprised of 21 players from the GR and Livingston County region, with many players currently playing college or HS soccer. 

Things start in the back with by GK Caitlin Dilal, a graduate of Mercy HS and currently the starting GK for NCAA D-1 Robert Morris University. On Defense, the ladies are led by NCAA 2-time WNYAC and 3-time Livingston Conference 1st teamer Jenna Ferrando. Joining her in the back are 3 year Lancers captain and 5 year starter Pam Barchet, as well as Audrey Rath (Medina HS/Alfred State), and former Canisius and Batavia HS alumni Jen Eick. Jamie Braswell (RIT/Leroy HS), Val Zarcone (SUNY Oswego/Bergen HS), Alesha Amend (GCC/Alexander HS), and Jenn Lonnen (Albion HS/Alleghany College) round out the defense.

The midfield is led by Robin Blaun, a 4-year member of the SUNY Brockport team and has been Lancers United Captain for 5 years. Joining her is Brittany Luckey, who this past year was Livingston Conference player of the year, as well as Section V Class B Sectional MVP, and made the All-Greater Section V second team. Britt will be joining NCAA Junior College powerhouse Monroe Community College in the fall of 2009. Rounding out the midfield are Captain Megan Baker (St. John Fisher/Kendall HS), Katy Mullen (GCC/Bergen HS), Julia Medwid (SUNY Fredonia/Alexander HS), Emilie Rath (Medina HS), Kelsey Fenton (GCC/Pembroke HS), and Emily Starowitz (FLCC/Bergen HS),

The Lancers attackers are strong with plenty of firepower, led by United's all time leading scorer Kate Welch (Naz/Pavilion HS). Joining her up top are the NCJAA Second Team All-American from 2008 Lindsay Wellspeak (FLCC/Alexander HS), Jessie Jaszko (MCC/Batavia HS), and Kasey Welch (Naz/Bergen HS).

The team will compete with some of the best Women's teams in the State in the RDSL Premier Division, as well as the RDSL Cup, which last year they not only became the first local team to qualify for, but won their quarterfinal game, and in the semi's took the #1 Seed Rochester Lazers to double OT and penalty kicks before bowing out.

The Ladies are coached by Chris Chilano, and sponsored by T.F. Brown's, Fenton's Farm Produce,  and S.J. Starowitz, and play for the S.C. Genesee Lancers club, based in Batavia. You can access all their information, including schedules, at www.geneseelancers.com. The ladies look for all your support in 2009!

The Notre Dame girls basketball team is scheduled to play at Wheatland-Chili today. But like every other team in the area, they are getting the day off due to the weather.

Scheduling conflicts are always a pain in the butt this time of year and right now coach Dave Pero's squad is not overly thrilled with missing out on this game.

Pero tried to reschedule the game for Tuesday with Wheatland-Chili coach Todd Grimes, but that wasn't possible.

The two are trying to set something up for Friday at this point and the Fighting Irish really need the game.

"This is awful," said Pero, whose team is just 2-1. "We haven't played two games in a week yet and we have no rhythm. We played Elba and we just weren't ready. We haven't played enough."

The Lancers beat Notre Dame 54-51 last Tuesday, Some area teams have played as many as eight games, but the Fighting Irish have played just three games, and with the Christmas break going on this week the team isn't even getting much practice time.

If the Wheatland-Chili game can't be rescheduled for Friday, that means Notre Dame will not take the court again until Monday, Dec 29 in the opening round of the Byron-Bergen Christmas Tournament. The consolation and finals are on Dec. 30.

The next games are at the Rotary Tournament on Jan. 5 and 7.

"We have the Christmas Tournament and then the Rotary Tournament coming up. I hope we are ready for it," Pero said.

Pero does think that there is some advantage to his team playing so few games so far in the fact that they Fighting Irish will be playing a lot of games late in the season, which will hopefully have them ready for sectionals.

But he is ready for his squad to get into some kind of rhythm right now.

"Somewhere down the road the teams that have played eight games will be having the same lull we are having right now," Pero said. "Our philosophy is that we want to be better at the end of the year. Hopefully that will pay off by us not playing games right now, but we want to get into a flow."

Notre Dame is not the only school that will probably not get to play its athletic contests. The Elba boys are supposed to be playing at Albion, but Elba is closed.

There are plenty of girls games on tap for tonight, including Alexander at Kendall and Medina at Lyndonville. But odds are, they won't be played either and will be made up at a later date.

I am so thrilled with the email I received today about the St. Joseph's basketball team and the fact that our good friends at Mancuso Bowling Center have been posting bowling scores right to the site.

Now is a good time for me to just let everybody out there know that we are interested in all sports in the area. My expertise is high schools, and that is where I spend most of my time. But if you are the coach of a youth basketball team, run a bowling league or have a team that plays indoor soccer; we would love information on your teams.

I can work with you to directly post your results right on The Batavian, or if you are more comfortable, you can just e-mail them to me at brian (at) thebatavian (dot) com and I'd be more than happy to put them up for you.

While most traditional news organizations are going to give you the AP story on how the Buffalo Bills did or the high school scores, that isn't what we do with our sports at The Batavian.

We want to share as much information and as much in-depth type of stuff as possible because you can't get it anywhere else, and it is a lot of fun to see the type of stuff that isn't already on 5 different Web sites and/or newspapers.

So if you are a coach, in a bowling league or have a kid playing on a youth sports team, have somebody get ahold of me so that we can get these kids some recognition for their hard work on The Batavian.

 Channel 13 has an excellent video talking about coaches Jim Burke of Prattsburgh and Mike Rapone of Notre Dame.

The two matched up against each other on Saturday, and we had some pretty solid coverage on The Batavian.

I would recommend checking out the two videos at the end of my post because I have the complete pregame presentation and interviews with both coaches about the great rivalry.

But if you are interested in this topic, make sure you check this story out. 

Another cool angle to this piece is that the anchor is Chuck Wade, who is the son of Batavia girls basketball coach Bill Wade and a Notre Dame grad.

Chris Suozzi sent me an e-mail with some exciting news for the young basketball players in the area.

The St. Joseph's fifth grade team is 5-1 while playing in the Rochester CYO league, a very impressive start to the season when you consider the level of competition those kids are playing.

Suozzi is the head coach and is assisted by Larry Hale and Tony Gallo.

Here are some results from some recent games.

St. Joseph's 44 Nazareth 20

Every scored for St. Joseph's 5th grade team.  CJ Suozzi and Case Midwick had 12 points each,, Tyler Hale and Trevor Sherwood had 6 points each., Anthony Gallo, Connor Logsdon, Jacob Hale, Anthony Sweet and Steven Ognibene each had a basket to help the team on to victory.


St. Joseph's 37  Peace of Christ Gates 36 OT

Tyler Hale made his first basket of the day count as the 5th grader scored the key bucket in overtime.  Also, scoring for St. Josephs;s was Casey Midwick game high 14, CJ Suozzi 13, Anthony Gallo 6, Trevor Sherwood and Alex Canty 2 pts each.


St. Joseph's 35 Holy Cross 23

Trevor Sherwood lead the way with 8 points, followed by CJ Suozzi with 7 points, Tyler Hale with 6 points, Alex Canty, Jacob Hale and Anthony Gallo with 4 points each, and Casey Midwick 2 points.

St. Josephs 30 vs St. Margeret Mary 29.

This was a Hoosiers story.  St. Margeret Mary had the height and the lead every quarter up until the last 3.2 seconds.
St. Joe's called the "picket fence" play. Alex Canty placed a perfect pick, Casey Midwick placed a perfect pass to CJ Suozzi who came off the pick,  he took a couple of dribbles to free himself, let the shot go from the top of the key, the buzzard sounded and the ball swished through the basket for a bench clearing win!  CJ Suozzi lead St. Joes with 12 points, Tyler Hale 6 points, Cassey Midwick and Trevor Sherwood - 4 points each,  Jacob Hale and Anthony Gallo 2 points each.
 

 The first edition of the New York State Sportswriters rankings are out today and some of our teams are getting some pretty impressive rankings. 

The two Genesee Region League squads with state rankings are really up there. Oakfield-Alabama and its 5-0 record has earned the fourth-seed in Class C. The latest win for the Hornets was an impressive 76-43 win over a very good Pembroke team.

Notre Dame handled Prattsburgh 60-53 on Saturday night and are also ranked fourth, in Class D. The Fighting Irish are 4-0.

Batavia is coming off a loss to Pittsford Sutherland on Wednesday, 69-57, and are ranked 19th in Class A. Sutherland is 13th. Batavia has a 4-1 record.

Batavia junior Angela Jarvela earned All-Greater Rochester honors for cross country. She is a first-team selection for the awards handed out by the Democrat & Chronicle.

Jarvela, a junior, took sixth at the Monroe County championships and went to states for the fourth consecutive season. She finished 23rd in Class B and was second at the Alden Invitational.

Oakfield-Alabama's Kim Mills and Holley's Kristina Martin made the second team.  

No local boys made the All-Greater Rochester team, but we did have several honorable mentions.

 Set your DVR or don't make plans for tomorrow night between 8 and 10 p.m.

Byron-Bergen grad Alyssa D'Errico and her Penn St. volleyball team will be playing in the national championship on ESPN2.

The Nittany Lions won the championship last year in D'Errico's freshman year. 

UPDATE: It looks like Penn St. will be playing Stanford, which just ended its match with Texas. It was a 20-25, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22, 15-13 comeback victory.

Stephanie Lapple ’10, daughter of Dr. William and Angela Lapple of Le Roy did it again!

It would have been very easy for our December “Senior in the Spotlight” to “throw in the towel” and point to his athletic injuries as a reason for feeling sorry for himself. Not so for this month’s spotlighted senior.  A talented runner and swimmer, Sean Zawicki, son of Dr. Joseph and Mrs. Ann Zawicki of Elba injured his ACL during his Sophomore year track season causing him to miss his entire Junior year Cross Country season. After following a rigorous off season rehab schedule, Sean was poised to rejoin our champion Boys Cross Country team for his senior season only to be sidelined once again, this time for stress fractures to both legs! As he had done as a Junior, Sean continued to attend all practices and meets even though he could not participate. It was only fitting that he was finally cleared to run in the final two meets of his senior year –Genesee Region Counties and the Section V Class D meet at Marcus Whitman High School. It was also only poetic justice that Sean’s performance at Sectionals helped us secure our 3^rd consecutive Class D Boys Championship and an opportunity to represent Section V in this year’s NYSPHSAA meet in Long Island where we finished one point short of 2^nd place!

A member in good standing of the Notre Dame Chapter of the National Honor Society since his Sophomore year at ND, Sean has been a four year member of our Fighting Irish Cross Country and Swim teams and served as captain of each squad since his Sophomore year! He has also participated in Track and Golf, as well as being an active member of our Mission Club, Mock Trial Team and Science Club during his career at ND.

Sean received the highest recognition possible for a Notre Dame student to achieve when he was selected to receive Anima Christi recognition in May of his Sophomore year. Anima Christi [Spirit of Christ] recognition is reserved for students who demonstrate unusual acts of kindness, faith, healing, charity, humility, selflessness or service. Sean has been active in his parish at Our Lady of Fatima in Elba as an Altar Server and Eucharistic Minister and in Youth Ministry [Young Christians at Work] in the Diocese of Buffalo where he has volunteered at St. Martin DePorres refuge house painting hallways, St. Vincent DePaul serving as a soup kitchen waiter and at Bissonette House cleaning a halfway house for ex-convicts in Buffalo.

Sean has been a High Honor Roll recipient throughout his high school experience at Notre Dame, as well as having attained New York State Scholar-Athlete recognition [minimum 90% average] during each of the ten Varsity sports seasons in which  he has competed at ND. Additional honors received include the Buffalo Diocesan Spirit Award [2008], the Donna Jean Mooney Memorial Sportsmanship award for Boys Swimming [2008] and induction into the Order of the Arrow Boy Scout Honor Society.

Sean is interested in pursuing a dual major in Mechanical Engineering and Physics and is currently considering the University of Rochester, Clarkson University and Alfred University as possible college choices for next year.

 Tate Westermeier continues to be one of the top guards in the Genesee Region League, and he delivered a huge win for his Attica boys basketball team over their biggest league rival, Alexander.

Westermeier scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the first quarter and added 6 rebounds in the game as the Blue Devils won 42-36.

The win helps Attica improve to 3-0 in the league - keeping them right with Oakfield-Alabama at the top of Division I - and 4-2 overall.

Craig Wolfley added eight points for Attica.

Troy Shulnut led the Trojans (2-4) with eight points, with Kyle Woodruff and Andy Bittner adding six each.

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Pat O'Keefe dropped in 15 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter as Pittsford Sutherland outscored Batavia 25-17 to take home a 69-57 win.

Wayne Dillworth had 12 boards and eight assists to go with his four points and Dylan Sherwood added 20 points for Sutherland (4-0).

Andrew Hoy had 24 points and Josh Budlong added 11 for the Blue Devils, who fall to 4-1.

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The Lancers gave Notre Dame its stiffest test of the season so far, but the Fighting Irish still came away with an impressive 65-41 win on the road.

Kevin Francis had 20 points and Matt Thompson added 12, including three 3-pointers in the second quarter as the Fighting Irish had a 22-11 advantage.

Gregg Barr added 10 points for Notre Dame (3-0).

Phil Ostroski had 12 points and Sonny Giuliano added nine points with eight boards for the Lancers (2-3).

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Brian Mitchell guided his Holley basketball team to its first victory of the season with 24 points and four blocked shots, giving the Hawks a 50-36 victory over Byron-Bergen.

John Wharram and Chad Barhytt did the work on the boards, grabbing 10 rebounds apiece.

Kurtis Fannon had 11 points for the Bees (1-4).

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In what Batavia coach Rick Stewart called the battle for the league title, his Blue Devils fell short.

Brighton beat host Batavia 35-28 in Batavia to knock the Blue Devils out of the ranks of the unbeatens.

Josh Mase, Nick Lazarony, Joe Muoio, Troy Ireland, Anthony D'Aurizio and Ryan Darch had the Batavia wins, but it wasn't enough.