Follow all the Empire State Games coverage on LoHud.com

Update, Fri, 4:51 p.m.: Got word a few minutes ago that the Hudson Valley scholastic team knocked off New York City, 82-80, in a rematch of last year’s gold medal game.

Alby Skrelja of Hasting hit a pair of free throws with 2.8 seconds to play to lift Hudson Valley. Travis Wright of New Rochelle had 29 points and Alex Judge of Croton-Harmon added 23. Jonathan Schofield of Hamilton was tremendous defensively.

Big win for HV, which has a good shot at a medal.

Hudson Valley lost to Central last night, 84-68. Wright had 15 points and Jeff Ward of Ossining had 13.

UPDATE, Thurs., 11:17 p.m.: I’m away this weekend in Boston (get ready for next week’s football camps) and wanted to give a quick update on today’s men’s basketball results from up at the Empire State Games in Binghamton.

In the open division, Hudson Valley beat Central, 97-84. Iona College transfers Kashif Pratt and Jonathan Huffman led the way. Huffman had 23 points and Pratt added 20. Former Mamaroneck standout Jason Holmes added 22. Interestingly, former Panas star Laurence Ekperigin had 20 points… for Central.

No word yet on the scholastic division.

The open team is definitely worth keeping an eye on. They have the talent to win gold and I think Pratt and Huffman showed why tonight. They were huge additions and fit right into a team that brought back point guard Brett Harvey (Clarkstown North/Loyola), forward Desmond Quincy-Jones (Rye/Pace) and Ryan Schneider (Lakeland/Marist).

When I spoke to coach Mike McDonnell this week, he raved about how much Holmes had developed and how much bigger Randy Wilson (Peekskill/Pace) had gotten. Wilson apparently has put on 15 pounds of muscle and figures to be a big factor.

Right before the Games, Hudson Valley lost Ryan Williams, a quality shooting guard who signed a pro contract.

McDonnell, who’ll be taking over Sacred Heart this season, also noted that no other Hudson Valley team has medaled three years in a row.

I got a very interesting email from a blog reader tonight about a documentary film that was recently seen at the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals.

It’s called “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and it was made by Christopher Bell, a former football player at Arlington High School. Chris just graduated from USC Film School.

The film dives into the world of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs and supplements. It reveals how both of Bell’s brothers are on steroids and how much it has impacted them and their family. His brothers are bodybuilders. Chris also once used steroids.

The movie is having a local showing at the Paramount Center for the Arts on Brown Street in Peekskill on July 25 at 8 p.m., July 27 at 7:30 and July 31 at 8.

This YouTube link introduces you to Christopher Bell. It’s definitely worth checking out.

If anyone has seen it, or plans to, I’d love to get a review. Here’s what others have said:

“There’s been a glut of pointless first- person documentaries lately, but newcomer Christopher Bell has a legitimate personal take in his film about Americans who use anabolic steroids”

“It’s a fascinating and unexpectedly profound and melancholy meditation on what we have become as a country and on the misguided obsessions that made us this way.”

“It’ll shake up your beliefs not just about steroids but about competition, hypocrisy, body obsession and American notions of masculinity”

“…manages to be two films at once: One is an informative portrait of a power-hungry society; the other is an intensely gripping narrative of personal growth.”

If you’re one of those people living in the dark about the Mount Vernon sports program, and you’re ignoring the reality that it might actually not compete this season, let the photo above be your awakening.

Here’s a link to the story I wrote for The Journal News, which has some pretty powerful quotes from players Andre Gaynor and Sean Harris.

I’ll admit, initially I couldn’t imagine Mount Vernon would actually have its sports eliminated after the district cut athletics from of the budget this spring. But today it finally hit me. Standing near the off-ramp of the Cross County Parkway in Fleetwood and watching the players approach hundreds of cars and asking for donations really opened my eyes.

Mount Vernon had all of its athletes, not just basketball, deployed around the city to collect donations the last two days. In all, they raised $18,000, which is a nice pull. But it’s only a fraction of the $950,000 the district needs to have sports this school year; they also need $300,000 by Aug. 10 to have fall sports.

Today’s event was part of the T.E.A.M. Mount Vernon “Save Our Sports” initiative, which was launched by Mayor Clinton Young. There was support today from the city’s fire department, thanks to wrestling coach Craig Ramsey, who is a fireman.

Most motorists I saw today contributed a few bucks. Some more. A few drove by and acted like they didn’t see a smiling and uniformed 6-foot-5 Odayne Clarke waving at them. I understand how things are with the economy (especially now that I’m a tax-paying homeowner). Fortunately the players did, too. Overall there was a positive vibe to the whole thing, and there’s still a good sense of confidence the money will be raised.

“We’re Mount Vernon,” Knights sophomore Jabarie Hinds said. “We don’t get beaten easily.”

In some ways, I think this is going to make Mount Vernon sports teams better this season. Assuming there are sports, the only motivation an athlete would need is to think back to today when it was nearly 100 degrees and they were standing on the side of the road asking for change. Andre Gaynor, a football and basketball player, talked about “appreciating” what he has. That’s a great value for these kids to learn. It’s just unfortunate this is how they had to learn it.

Every little bit counts for the Mount Vernon program. If you’re able to donate, please send checks to:

Mount Vernon Educational Foundation Inc.
P.O. Box 476
Fleetwood Station, Mt. Vernon, N.Y. 10552

(please write “sports” in the memo section of the check)

As far as fund-raisers go, here are some other events coming up to raise money:

“Ben Gordon Weekend”
August 14: Concert outside City Hall Plaza
August 15: Ben’s Bowling Bash at Homefield Bowl in Yonkers
August 16: Ben Gordon Family Day at Hartley Park

For information on all the events, email: info@kensworthconsulting.com

Greenburgh native Dante Taylor committed to play basketball at the University of Pittsburgh today.

Who?

Even the most ardent basketball fan in the area has probably never heard of Taylor. Well, you don’t need to look very far down the list of the nation’s top Class of 2009 players to find him. On most lists, you won’t have to go past No. 25.

Taylor is a 6-foot9, 230-pound power forward who’ll be a senior at National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Maryland. He left Woodlands after his freshman season to play at the prestigious prep school, where he became a prized 5-star recruit.

Pittsburgh, UConn, and Maryland were the schools that offered him scholarships, according to Scout.com. Georgetown, Kansas, Indiana, Louisville and just about everyone else showed serious interest.

A guy I met from Greenburgh has been telling me all about Taylor for the last six weeks. Hopefully when Taylor comes home to Westchester later this month I’ll be able to catch up with him and learn more about him.

Here’s what Scout.com, which ranks Taylor 23rd overall and sixth at his position in the 2009 class, has to say about him:

“Sturdy power forward with ability to play with skill or athleticism. Has a chance to be a physically gifted player who gets numbers. Runs, rebounds and prefers to play facing the basket. Top 50 player nationally in his class.”

Strengths
Aggressive scorer
Finisher
Rebounder

Areas to improve
Defensive presence
Perimeter shot
Post play

That last one —  post play — has me scratching my head a little. He is 6-foot-9. But I think kids at the big time prep schools get scrutinized more than those are regular high schools. At a prep school, you’re likely going up against other big-time D-1 players on a daily basis. If you play public, there’s a chance you won’t see an opposing D-1 player all season. Maybe none if you’re a big man.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Taylor throughout the summer. He’s currently playing in the Triple S Harley Davidson Shootout in West Virginia.

One of my fine coworkers at The Journal News, Dan Marra, wrote a good story today about Croton-Harmon quarterback Nick Mainiero, which you can read here.

Mainiero recently competed in the Top Gun Challenge in Richland, N.J., a premier quarterbacks combine that drew some of the best talent in the Northeast. Mainiero had a strong showing at the two-day event.

As you’ll remember, I mentioned Mainiero’s name as a Super 11 nominee last month and had a good chat with Croton coach John Catano. As long as I’ve known him, Catano is never one to tip his hand before the season. But he praised the amount of time Mainiero — a third-year starter — had put in during the offseason and felt that, assuming he continued to work as hard as he had, he’d have a fantastic senior season.

That’s good news for Croton, which went 2-6 last season after Mainiero guided the Tigers to the Class C final the previous season.

Mainiero has a pretty cool YouTube video of a kickoff return touchdown from last season.

(Note: If you have any YouTube or other formatted highlight videos you’d like me to link, feel free to email me them at kdevaney@lohud.com).

I mentioned yesterday that now that the spring all-stars were in The Journal News that football season can finally get underway. Today, we delivered on that promise.

In today’s TJN I had a story on Saunders and new coach Victor Chiappa (pictured right). Chiappa was named Saunders head coach in February and immediately started his plan to turn the program around. The biggest thing was enrolling the team into Clarkstown South’s 1st-and-10 Camp, which Saunders’ teams of the past normally didn’t do.

According to Chiappa, it was a slow start. But he was encouraged by how the team performed during the final day’s scrimmage, and by the steady turnout.

The main reason I wrote the story was because of the unique situation. It’s not only a coach in his first head job (Chiappa was an assistant at South, John Jay and the last two years at Harrison), but because the Saunders program has had very little success in recent years. How did he jump-start the rebuilding process in February in a school where football is very much an afterthought?

Saunders has won four games in four seasons. But it has a nice group of young players, and a quality lineman in Chris Lopes (6-4, 215). Will the Blue Devils reach the playoffs in Class A this season? Probably not. But this is a good chance to see the rebuilding process from its infant stage and, perhaps, against its longest odds.

My television schedule permitting, I hope to be at a football camp later this month every day. TV has inhibited me from being out as much as I was last year, which stinks. Unfortunately, I’m chained to the studio five days a week until I can master the editing/formating processes.

But I fully expect to be at Champions Camp at New Rochelle (July 28-Aug. 1), John Jay Camp (July 29-Aug. 1) and likely Nyack Camp (July 28-31) that week. I plan to have a video camera with me each day and show footage on RNN.

Anywhere else I should stop by?

As you might have seen on lohud.com today, Kennedy boys basketball coach Tom Nelligan has resigned after 13 seasons.

Nelligan said he felt “it was time” to step down.

“You get to a point where you feel like you want to make a change, and I reached that point. This was something that I had been considering for some time.”

Nelligan has no plans to coach anywhere next season but didn’t rule out the possibility of coaching elsewhere when our reporter, Jeff Gold, spoke to him this week.

Some of my best memories from coaching high school basketball in this area involved coach Nelligan. His 2004 team will stand out among the most magical seasons I’ve ever witnessed. We get caught up in the teams that unexpectedly win the section or reach the state final four. That Kennedy team shocked everyone and won Federations. A remarkable accomplishment. Of course, there was the 2005 team that got into the brawl up at New Paltz, which was one of the craziest events I ever covered.

Nelligan’s teams were always well-coached, disciplined and classy. I’ll definitely miss the postgame interviews and especially the post-interview discussions (off the record) he and I would have. He was a brutally honest guy and one I have a great deal of respect for.

Who will replace Nelligan? I’d have to imagine Colin Hanahoe, his top assistant, is a prime candidate. But I also think every free agent candidate — and perhaps a few that already have jobs — will throw their hat into the ring. Kennedy is a big time job considering it’s a private school playing in a public league.

Anybody want to throw any names out there? I’d be interested…

For those of you interested in the spring sports season, the all-star teams selected by The Journal News are available online.

Click here to see the Westchester/Putnam honorees.

Click here to see the Rockland County winners.

This officially puts the spring season to bed. Now we can concentrate on what’s most important — football season.

Don’t scratch Mount Vernon off the football schedules just yet.

I spoke to Knights coach Ric Wright this morning to get an update on the football team. Since I was on vacation for the last nine days (yes, it was a glorious nine days), I had fallen out of touch a little. Wright assured me that the fundraising campaigns are in place for the fall season and that he’s confident the money will come.

No player has approached him about leaving the school. And they’re still working out, although not to the extent of most teams. Just running and lifting.

Basically, the athletic department needs to raise about $500,000 to have fall sports. Or as Wright puts it: “We need 5,000 people to give $100 each.”

Does that sound like much? Probably not. And I’m sure there will be larger checks from outside organizations.

If there is such a thing, Wright is the perfect guy for a situation like this. On the sideline he probably has as good a mettle as any coach I’ve seen. There’s never any panic or fingerpointing or sulking — and there’s probably no better a situation than to do that than this. When I spoke to Wright this morning, I could sense he stressed about the situation. But there certainly no despair.

Wright repeatedly mentioned that he strives to raise money for all fall sports, not just football (which costs about $60K to fund). He also had a sense of understanding to why the taxpayers who voted down the budget twice.

“Any tax increase that gets voted on will get voted down,” he said. “especially with the economy these days.”

As you know, the board of education opted to strike athletics from its austerity budget and balance the rest of the money by laying off school staff.

“I’m certainly upset about it,” Wright added. “But I’ve got no time to sit here and whine.”

Wright is targeting August 10 as the day he hopes to have a sizable portion, if not all, of the money raised. That’s a lot of money in a short amount of time. There will be more information available after Thursday’s press conference at Mount Vernon City Hall.

From a football standpoint, Wright is obviously trying to play catch-up. He’ll spend every second until August 10. Assuming the money is there, then he’ll turn his attention to trivial things like installing a defense, finding a new QB and preparing for a schedule that includes Mahopac, Clarkstown South, White Plains, Gorton… oh, and New Rochelle.

“We’re working under the premise that we don’t have anything,” Wright said. “That will give me 10 days to break down and focus on football.”

Mahopac, by the way, and coach Tom Donahoe reached out to Wright the day after news broke about Mount Vernon’s program potentially crumbling and offered to help in any way. A fine gesture by a school that’s had its budget crisis a few years back.

Again, Mount Vernon players aren’t running out the doors the way some believed they would, at least not to Wright’s knowledge. The vibe at Mount Vernon is good despite what has gone on. And if the players do leave, Wright has a good perspective.

“The bottom line is that we’re a team at Mount Vernon and it’s not about one kid leaving,” he said. “The idea is to galvanize the sports program and then I’ll worry about coaching who’s with me. I’ll coach the kids that I have.

“We don’t intend to lose any kids. And if they do leave, that’s fine with me.”

Today officially started my vacation. But I wanted to come on and pass along the scholastic Empire State Games basketball roster, which coach Bill Thom just emailed me. Here it is:

Jamaal Gill, New Rochelle
Travis Wright, New Rochelle
Taylor Mondshein, Mamaroneck
Jeff Ward, Ossining
Alex Judge, Croton
Lenarris Stokes, Ardsley
Lamont Stokes, Ardsley
Alby Skrelji, Hastings
Jonathan Schofield, Hamilton
Francis Lopez, Albertus Magnus

Obviously the roster is missing some of the big names we were hoping to have back from last season — Andre Pope, Ralph Watts, etc. But I actually like this team a lot. I think it fits together well.

You’ve got a gritty interior player in Wright, an emerging point guard in Gill, a veteran AA-South player in Mondshein, a true big man in Skrelji, a rising prospect in Ward, and a very underrated player in Judge. I’m not too familiar with the Stokes boys or Lopez. They’ll be the difference makers on this year’s team.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please, let’s keep the comments clean.