A couple quick notes here that I will follow up on later in the week:

Angelei Aguirre will transfer to UCSB. The 2008 Journal News player of the year has, indeed, left Cal. She has transferred to Cal-Santa Barbara, where she will play for former Cal assistant Lindsay Gottlieb. Of course, Gottlieb played at Scarsdale, but she also recruited Aguirre to Cal, so there’s a comfort level there. Gottlieb led UCSB to a Big West championship and into the big dance. (Aguirre also used to tell me she preferred good weather. I can tell you firsthand: it doesn’t get better than the weather in Santa Barbara.)

After playing very little as a freshman at Cal, Aguirre will have to sit out the coming season. She will be eligible to play again in 2010-11. (Contrary to popular belief, Aguirre was on scholarship.)

Kim Adams has returned to Penn. Not that she ever left the school, but the 2007 player of the year left the team at Penn last December. She has returned to the program after new coach, Mike McLaughlin, reached out to her. Adams has already begun working with the Quakers this offseason.

I just returned from a weeklong vacation and will have a lot more news to post this week. For now, I wanted to pass along something about former Putnam Valley star Kristi Dini.

As you may have read in our paper back in March, Dini broke school and conference records for 3-pointers made during a successful four-year career at Boston University. After her senior year, she signed a contract to play pro ball in Italy. You can read more about it on BU’s website. She signed a one-year deal with Umana Reyer Venezia.

Dini helped herself with a big senior season that included an NCAA-leading 3.3 3’s made per game. She also finished 41st in the nation in 3-point percentage at a shade below 40 percent. You can see that list here.

Another member of the junior class has given an early commitment. This time it’s Mount Vernon guard Taylor Palmer, who, after a weekend visit to Morgantown, gave her verbal to play for West Virginia.

Palmer, who led Mount Vernon in scoring at 16.2 PPG and helped the Knights win their first Section 1 title in 26 years, said she had five other finalists — BC, Seton Hall, Iona, Providence and Princeton — but she was so floored by WVU that she passed on the other choices.

“I was just going to wait until the end of the summer to make a decision, but I went to West Virginia and it was the perfect fit,” Palmer said.

The Mountaineers first scouted Palmer during the high school season at the Kennedy showcase in the Bronx. They followed her at an AAU tournament in Virginia in April, when she played for the New York Gauchos. Palmer was impressed when the coaching staff told her that she was their No. 1 target. The scholarship offer backed that up, and Palmer accepted.

“I was going to wait, but they told me I was their No. 1 pick,” she said. “And besides basketball, the coach is very interested into his athletes getting a degree. I want to do something more than basketball when I’m done with college. I want to work toward a career in something else. So that was really important to me.”

The coaching staff asked WVU freshman Kevin Jones about Palmer a couple months back. He also met Palmer during her visit. Those two and other members of the men’s and women’s basketball teams toured the campus and town, and Palmer developed a comfort level there.

“They support all the teams there, the football team, the boys basketball team, the girls basketball,” she said. “That made me like it even more. It’s a full college environment.”

I have a big signing to report tomorrow, but I’ll hold off for now.

Here are a few other players who expect to play ball in college:

— Ariel Guzman (above) of Victory will attend Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire. She had a couple other opportunities at Division III schools, UMass-Dartmouth and Utica.

— Imani Floyd, who played center for Class AA finalist Ossining, will attend Purchase.

— Jen McSharar (right), a forward at North Rockland, will attend Manhattanville College.

Any others, please let me know.

I’ve been lax lately with my posts, so I wanted to check in with some good news for two local players: Both Devon Quattrocchi (Smith College) and Tori McGuinn (Cortland) have plans to play ball in college.

Quattrocchi (above) was the starting point guard on Brewster before she tore her ACL midway through the regular season. She is an all-section player who had been a rock for Brewster, particularly the last three seasons. She was also an all-academic pick this year in Section 1. Quattrocchi is obviously still recovery, but she has decided to play ball next winter at Smith, which is in Northampton, Mass.

McGuinn (right) played shooting guard for Valhalla, which earned the top seed in the Class C tournament this season. She led the team in 3-pointers and received both all-section and all-league honors during her career. McGuinn watched Cortland, the SUNYAC champ, play in the D-III NCAA tournament at the University of Scranton this winter.

If anyone else has committed to or expect to play ball in college, please let me know and I will pass along the word.

After a long recovery process from a torn ACL and a few worrisome moments, Shereen Lightbourne has found a college destination — and it is in Division I.

The Hamilton star committed to Rider University in New Jersey. She will sign her letter of intent at some point this week.

You can read the release about it on the Rider website.

“It means a lot,” Lightbourne told me today. “I’ve been through everything possible. My dad and my family were basically the only ones there for me. They helped me through everything. Physical therapy. My dad and my family, they didn’t give up on me like others may have. And I believed in myself.”

As you know, Lightbourne tore her ACL during her junior season. She missed the entire spring and summer tournament circuit with her AAU team, New Heights, before returning for a couple showcase tournaments this fall. It cost her the opportunity to be seen by colleges, and almost sacrificed her chance to land on a Division I roster.

Lightbourne committed to Rider last week after making an offical visit there. She canceled an official visit to St. Peter’s and an unofficial to Manhattan. Rider’s offer of a full scholarship was what she had hoped for.

Some coaches suggested she attend prep school, but Lightbourne viewed that move as a potential step back. She also applied to four schools — Seton Hall, VCU, Hartford and NJIT — in case something opened up there this spring.

I asked Shereen if she’s excited to prove herself in college, knowing she can flourish in the future once she’s 100 percent.

“I’m very excited to play and show the way I can play,” Lightbourne said. “Playing at a small school you don’t get the same exposure. … I really want to prove myself. Not to anyone else, but for my own benefit.”

Mahopac’s Gillian Felix and New Rochelle’s Aysha Williams both signed letters of intent, Felix yesterday and Williams today.

Felix is headed to Caldwell College in New Jersey on a full athletic scholarship. She will immediately be the tallest player on the team, which had just two 6-footers last year, one of whom will graduate. Felix led Mahopac in scoring and rebounding and was a two-time all-section selection.

Williams, a 5-foot-8 guard, signed with St. Thomas Aquinas in Rockland. She signed her letter this afternoon at New Ro. Williams led New Ro in scoring as a senior. She was a three-year starter and won two tournament MVPs as a senior. She was also named team MVP and was all-section honorable mention. Williams will join three other former local players — Natalie Catavero of Maria Regina, Theresa Dowling of Clarkstown North and Kaitlin Page of Pearl River — at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Both Caldwell and St. Thomas Aquinas are Division II programs that give out scholarhips, much like Pace.

Our Westchester/Putnam all-stars and Rockland all-county selections were released today. Porsha Postell (above) of Woodlands was named the player of the year in Westchester/Putnam and Alaina Walker was named the player of the year in Rockland.

Patrice Wallace-Moore (right) of Mount Vernon was named the coach of the year after guiding the young Knights to their first Section 1 title since 1983.

You can read about Postell here. She was joined on the first team by:
Sophia Aleksandravicius, Holy Child
Maggie Blair, Briarcliff
Tori Jarosz, Lakeland
Shanyce Stewart, Mount Vernon

You can find the first-team and coach of the year capsules and the second team and honorable mention selections picks HERE. You can also vote on who you believe should have won the Westchester/Putnam athlete of the season. Ossining wrestler James Brundage won it after winning a state title.

In Rockland, Nanuet’s first-year coach Carlos Fidalgo (right) was named the coach of the year after guiding his team to state and state Federation titles in Class B.

You can read about Walker (left) here. She was joined on the first team by:
K.C. Jentzen, Nanuet
Lauren Kahn, Nanuet
Kristin Schmidt, Suffern
Taylor Wilson, Pearl River

You can find the first-team and coach of the year capsules, and the second team and honorable mention selection picks HERE. It also allows you to vote on who you believed should have won the Rockland athlete of the season. Clarkstown North hockey player Matt Willows won it after breaking the state scoring record and leading his team to the Section 1 quarterfinals.

If anyone has any questions, I’m around to answer them tonight.

Sorry for my absence last week. I was on vacation beginning last Saturday (the 4th), partly for vacation but partly to celebrate our birthdays with my lovely bride. Anyway, I’m back to work today.

Here’s what’s going on…

— The players of the year and all-star/all-county teams (and coaches of the year) will be announced later this week.
— Nanuet did, indeed, meet with Gov. David Patterson last week. What a month it has been for the Golden Knights, who won two state titles, were feted by the town and the county and met the Governor.

— Former Mount Vernon star Kwinnyata Mercer was named first-team Division II junior college all-American. She is believed to be the first first-team all-American from Marshalltown, a school in Iowa.

Here’s a story on the high regard Mercer’s coach hold her in. She finished the season second in her conference in scoring and first in rebounding and did it while shooting 54 percent from the floor. … For comparison’s sake, Marshalltown is Division II NJCAA. Local powerhouse Monroe (the alma mater of Fantasia Goodwin) is Division III.

Nanuet’s celebration went off as planned today, as you can see from the photo above.

You can check out more photos here.