Direct Rays: Section 1’s Awful Decision Making Continues to Boggle Minds
I was going to put Section 1’s latest shenanigans in the rear view mirror and forget it ever happened, seeing how this was an atypical week with Hurricane Sandy and all, but that wouldn’t be fair to the football players at places like Mahopac, Yorktown and Putnam Valley, who were hoping against hope that Section 1’s Executive Committee and its leader Jennifer Simmons might have a rational change of heart. Simmons, the queen bee of Section 1 sports, stung like a swarm of hornets this week when she cancelled all non-playoff football games scheduled for Week 9, including the Bowl games that Class AA Mahopac, Class A Yorktown and Class B Put Valley had earned the right to play in. This is why we play, right?
Considering Mahopac has only played in one sectional championship the last quarter century, and Yorktown’s last title appearance was in 1998, and PV has never had a sniff of a title, these bowl games have significant meaning to the participants Section 1 is supposed to represent.
“It’s horrible; Section 1 was a complete disgrace this year,” said Mahopac senior captain Mike Simone, also a victim of Section 1’s much-maligned abuse of the Piner System to determine playoff seeds, which was butchered by a non-weighted scheme that inexplicably excluded strength of schedule. “Imagine what could have and should have been a great year in Section 1 if they didn’t do such a terrible job all around this season. It’s a complete joke and it ruined the ending for a lot of high school players.”
In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Section 1 cited a bunch of bogus reasons for cancelling the last week of the season, which made very little sense when you factor in the desire these boys had to play; in many cases, the last game of their careers. There is nothing like pinning your ears back and getting after an opponent in your final football game, nothing like that last breakfast with the boys at some greasy spoon dive, nothing like the collective sound of your chucks hitting the pavement as you make your way to the turf for the last time, nothing like the last football party of the year.
Section 1 took that away from a slew of seniors who were willing to hitchhike their way around the four counties in an effort to play one last time. Last Friday, amidst protests from disappointed coaches and players, Section 1’s executive committee reiterated the decision to cancel all non-playoff games for the remainder of the season, wiping out the final week of varsity football for all but the 12 remaining playoff teams and canceling every modified, freshman and junior varsity event for the remainder of the season. I can live with the cancelations from JV on down, but the varsity games should have been postponed, not cancelled.
As one would imagine, the decision was met with a great degree of discouragement, as Section 1’s abysmal administrative record this fall took yet another hit. In an e-mail message to athletic directors last Wednesday, Simmons, the Section 1 Executive Director, cited daylight savings and the availability of facilities and fields for the cancellation of the games.
It seems to me she took the easy way out. Long Island, which was hit much harder than the Hudson Valley region, made a very simple and logical choice by pushing all games back one week. Simmons and her paper-shuffling cronies simply force-fed us an outright cancellation, which has rankled student athletes but good.
“Pissed off is an understatement,” Mahopac senior Brandon Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a joke that we got robbed of our last game. I mean, first getting screwed out of the playoffs and now this. Section 1 has just dropped the ball this year.”
Imagine if they picked it up and rescheduled the Bowl games during the Thanksgiving break and shipped all the proceeds and donations like batteries, food and supplies to devastated places like Rockaway and Staten Island.
Nah, that’s the kind of forward thinking nobody in Section 1 seems capable of.
Ray has 33 years experience covering and photographing local sports in Westchester and Putnam counties, including everything from Little League/Travel Baseball to varsity high school prep sports and collegiate coverage. He has been a sports editor at Examiner Media since its inception in 2007.
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