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NYSPHSAA Opts To Postpone Winter Sports Championships

Panama girls basketball coach Jeff Angeletti, above, and his players were scheduled to play Elba in Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D Far West Regional at Rush-Henrietta High School, but the NYSPHSAA announced Thursday that all winter sports championships have been postponed because of the virus outbreak. File photo by Debb Bailey

Devastation.

Jeff Angeletti used the term three times during an 8-minute conversation Thursday evening.

It’s hard to think of another word to describe the feelings of dozens of local high school athletes.

The seasons of the Dunkirk and Panama girls basketball teams, the Sherman boys basketball team and a group of local high school bowlers appear to be over.

Coronavirus has seemingly put an end to their dreams.

Sherman’s John Swabik helped the Wildcats to a Section VI Class D title last week at Jamestown Community College. P-J file photo by Cameron Hurst

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association announced Thursday afternoon that winter sports state championship season has been postponed, effective immediately.

“It was my goal to complete the winter championships on schedule,” Dr. Robert Zayas, NYSPHSAA executive director, said in a statement. “It has become increasingly more difficult to host three championship events with the number of challenges that have been presented. I also have concerns as the executive director of NYSPHSAA and a parent, that students will be participating in an event under circumstances that are not conducive to a quality and beneficial experience.”

The Panthers beat Sherman on Saturday for their first Section VI title since 2017. One of this year’s seniors — Natalie Angeletti — was a freshman on the 2017 team.

“We had our conversation and I went right to (athletic director) Chris Payne, who came back with (superintendent) Bert Lictus and that’s when I knew,” Jeff Angeletti said. “We were finishing up stretching and had started some shooting drills. Then we circled the girls up and that was how we found out.

“Not a dry eye,” Angeletti continued, “including our administrators, in the house.”

Senior Kylie Schnars, who wasn’t called up until her sophomore season, and had never advanced past sectionals, is just 49 points away from 1,000 for her career — a milestone she likely would’ve reached with two or three more games.

“I told her mom a few weeks back to prepare for it. She probably would’ve done that during states,” Angeletti said. “Devastation does not even begin to describe how the kids were feeling, as well as us.”

In the past five years under Angeletti, Panama has lost a state semifinal, two state finals and a pair of sectional finals, but in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s decision, their head coach felt they had reached a low point.

“We’ve lost in the state championship game by 2 and by 16 … last year’s sectional championship game against Franklinville,” Angeletti added. “Nothing has ever felt this bad.”

Cory Emory, the boys basketball coach at neighboring Sherman, was also primed for a trip to the Class D regional, which was scheduled for noon Saturday against Section V Avoca at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

He didn’t find out about the postponement until about 4:30 p.m. yesterday while he and his team were in the middle of practice. He read the printed postponement announcement alone in the locker room before bringing his players in to inform them of the news.

“I knew I was going to have heartbroken guys,” Emory said. “Whether the decision was right or wrong, I understand they had to do that, but a lot of those kids are hurting today.

“It’s heartbreaking for all the teams that are left, especially for the seniors, just because they’ll always say, ‘What if?’ They’ll never have any closure.”

The other gut-punch for the program was the knowledge it was playing its best basketball of the season, which included a victory over North Collins in the Section VI championship game last week.

“I’m just so sad for the guys,” Emory said. “They were starting to hit their stride and finally figuring out how to win. … My assistant and I were talking about it today. We’ve had easier conversations after a loss in the playoffs. We’ll never know what would have happened.”

For the the Dunkirk girls, the postponement likely puts an end to their program’s greatest season ever.

“I’m hopeful in the wording of it, but when NCAA tournaments are canceled, it’s pretty hard to play out a high school event,” Dunkirk head coach Ken Ricker said Thursday afternoon shortly after meeting with his team. “We had half of the kids angry and half of them crying. One of the lessons we try to teach is you control what you can control. … This is way above my pay grade and our knowledge.”

It was quite a 24-hour range of emotions for the Marauders, who just Wednesday fell behind Southwestern, 60-40, before finishing the game on a 35-2 run to win the Section VI Class B crossover game at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

“I challenge anybody to find a better ending to a season than us. Nobody can claim that,” Ricker said. “If that is the end, it was incredible. Certainly we are going to celebrate it like no other. There are much bigger things in life. We’ll stand by and see what happens.”

Dunkirk featured a starting lineup of five seniors who may never see a high school floor again. The Marauders also did not have a jayvee team this year, leaving their girls basketball future in doubt.

“They are the ones most upset because it was their senior year. The goal is to end your senior year with a win and that’s what we’ve done,” Ricker said. “I can put myself in their shoes being 17 years old. … What they went through with a 1-20 season three years ago … as adults and leaders, we have to make sure they have perspective. I think they understand.”

Peggy Harris was looking forward to a trip to Syracuse for the state bowling championships at AMF Strike’n Spare in Syracuse. The tournament was supposed to run today through Sunday.

“It’s unfortunate for the athletes,” the Jamestown High School coach said. “They put in a lot of hard work to get the opportunities to get to states. They’re working very hard … for that day. I understand it’s a public safety issue and we do support the decision NYSPHSAA made to postpone it. … All in all, we have to respect the decision.”

The student/athletes affected in that sport were members of the Dunkirk girls team, Jamestown’s Brandon Michael and Falconer’s Matt Gullotti.

“He was bummed,” Harris said of Michael. “I spoke to his father a couple of times. Brandon was disappointed.”

Timm Slade, Section VI executive director, had announced Thursday morning that fans would not be permitted to attend this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association boys basketball Far West Regionals at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

Slade said the decision was made “at the direction of the commissioner of Erie County Department of Health and SUNY.”

School superintendents, principals and athletic directors were going to be allowed on site.

Shortly before the state’s announcement, Section V had announced that the girls regionals at Rush-Henrietta High School were going the same route as the boys and limiting crowds.

But just minutes later, NYSPHSAA took it a step further.

The state organization, at the recommendation of the Erie County Department of Health, just Wednesday made the decision to not allow fans at the state ice hockey championships, being held this weekend at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo.

“This is certainly not the type of championship atmosphere our association strives to provide to our student-athletes and their communities,” Dr. Zayas said at the time. “This decision is being made at the recommendation of the Erie County Department of Health out of an abundance of caution as we address the coronavirus.”

With spring seasons on the horizon, it is unknown at this time how long the virus will affect local high school sports.

— — —

Sports editor Scott Kindberg and sports writer Cameron Hurst contributed to this report.

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