Hey all, I just received an e-mail from Haldane’s Brittany Shields, who said she has accepted a scholarship to play ball at Pace.

Shields, as you all probably know, is a senior for the Blue Devils. She was the MVP of the Section 1 Class C tournament as a freshman and a sophomore and has been on the team since seventh grade. She also played for Hudson Valley in the last two Empire State Games.

I’ll pass along more info on this topic either tomorrow or Wednesday. About the only info I do have, however, is that Brittany chose Pace over LaSalle and the College of St. Rose. Those were her final three choices.

So the weekend of football has come and gone and I’m sitting here in the holidome of a Holiday Inn in Kingston trying to thaw out. It’s not easy…

“Kevin”:http://kickoff.lohudblogs.com and I did go play golf yesterday morning before coming up here and it was actually a lot of fun. The temperature (about 35 or 40 degrees) wasn’t actually bad, but the wind was brutal. It did bad things to your golf ball. Still, we had the course to ourselves and made it through.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this except for the purpose of checking in. I only have a few tidbits, so here goes:

— North Rockland’s Mary Abrams is going to commit to school soon, so I expect to have that news in the coming days.

— Ossining football lost last night, so the basketball team will have two full weeks of practice with Dan Ricci (also the football coach) before playing in the first BIG game of 2007-08, Ossining vs. Briarcliff on Thurs., Nov. 29 at Scarsdale High School. That should provide a great barometer for both teams, although December games aren’t always the best indication of what will happen in February and March.

— I talked to White Plains PG Angelei Aguirre tonight. I told her it’s amazing that she’s finally a senior, and I find it amazing for two very different reasons. 1. She’s always been the little sister on a team filled with veterans, but now she’s the big sister. 2. She has played in SOOO many games already I can’t believe she still has one more year.

Anyway, I did a 60-second profile with Aguirre that will run on page 2C of tomorrow’s paper. You should check it out. She had a great answer to a question I asked about what the biggest perk was of being the daughter of a former NBA player. Meeting Dwayne Wade? Knowing a HOF-er like Isiah Thomas? Nope. She said it’s just being able to talk basketball everyday with a former all-star.

I thought that was pretty sweet.

Here’s our first quick-hit update of the day:

I just heard from coach Dan O’Hare at Carmel. He said the Rams’ leading scorer Meghan Murphy has committed to play ball at Dominican College on scholarship, so congrats to Meghan. She basically has been Carmel’s leader since Meghan Wood left for Loyola and she’s finally a senior. It seems like she’s been on the varsity forever…

I had high expectations for Carmel this season because the Rams return Murphy and Ashley Ruiz, their two leading scorers, plus two other young players who earned a lot of burn last year in sophomores Kim Broccoli and Kristen Knolker. The one reason to temper those expectations a bit, however, is that 6-foot-2 freshman Brittany Horne has transferred to Lourdes. Carmel will miss her…she is still raw but she may’ve been the Rams’ best rebounder and shot-blocker as an eighth grader. Apparently Horne has a serious knee injury and I don’t think she’ll play this season.

More later folks…

A quick post today, inspired by “Mount Vernon’s Kevin Jones,”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071114/SPORTS02/711140412 who committed to West Virginia today.

I was told today by someone who knows a lot about local talent that Holy Child’s Sophia Aleksandravicius may be one of the most sought-after recruits to ever come from the area. My reaction to that was: “Wow!” Here’s someone I had never heard of a year ago, now she’s making a name for herself all summer swatting shots and grabbing rebounds like crazy. It just goes to show you how much a player or a team can develop.

Just like I said Monday, there may be a White Plains-type dynasty looming somewhere around Section 1.

Who knows? There may be another Sophia out there, too, just waiting to develop into the type of player who makes D-I coaches swoon…

Here I am, it’s past 2 a.m. and I’ve yet to leave the office. Ugh…

Truthfully, I’m not a guy who goes to bed early, never was. It’s not so much that I’m a night owl…more so that I think I may be allergic to the morning unless golf is involved (as it will be on Friday, thank you very much).

I had a ton of work to take care of today, between the continuation of football season, my work on our boys all-star section (don’t ask), and my efforts to start the basketball preview section, which I promise you will turn out terrific this year.

Since my computer screen is starting to look at me funny, I think it’s time to go home to the lady, who is a teacher and thus will not be awake when I get home anyway. First, here’s a few tidbits I learned today through the email and telephone grapevines…

1. John McNamara left the sideline at Byram Hills to become an assistant at Western Connecticut State. Kim Adams (no, not that Kim Adams) will take over the Bobcats. My take: Section 1 will miss John, who was always one of my favorite coaches to deal with. Just a great guy…

2. Lakeland has just one senior but will be very tall yet again across the front line. Steve Fallo’s team can go 6-3, 6-0, 6-0, with Tori Jarosz and Kerry Johnson leading the way. My take: Jarosz and Johnson will make scoring inside pure hell. Check out the photo…

3. Mount Vernon hasn’t quite decided its point-guard shuffle yet and that will be interesting. Taylor Palmer is a good scoring point, so MV will probably try little Sade King there first, with Palmer at the 2. My take: True story, I saw Sade King, an eighth grader, in street clothes last year shooting around before an MV game. She must’ve weighed 80 or 90 pounds at the most, but she can handle the ball and shoot like someone twice her size. It was almost like that Michael Vick commercial for Powerade, playing tricks on my eyes. … I don’t know if Sade is ready, but she will be someday. Right now I’d bet her and Taylor Palmer split duties.

4. If you were Stephon Marbuy and a team wanted to pay you roughly $40 million to NOT play basketball, then you could sign elsewhere and make EVEN MORE money, wouldn’t you be up for that? I would.

Til’ tomorrow…

Happy 2007-08 basketball season folks!

It seems hard to believe, but practice kicked off today, giving us our first dose of high school basketball since Lakeland finished up in the state Federation tournament last March. I can tell you that a lot has happened since then, namely a little bit of wedding planning at Sixth Man headquarters.

I’m still busy with football season but I started working on our preview today. (If you’re a coach, you probably found an e-mail from me in your inbox.)

As always, our preview will include a couple stories, power rankings, a preview on every team, and the unveiling of our annual preseason stars…the Super 7, plus the Next 5. Anyone want to name their top 12???

A lot has happened since last season. Players emerged this summer as stars. Some even changed addresses (at least school addresses). And there are a bunch of new coaches as always, “including Kenny Haskins taking over at Haldane,”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071112/SPORTS02/711120330 which I wrote about today.

I’ll be checking in throughout the next couple of weeks with tidbits I learn through interviews and/or visits with coaches and players. I can tell you that Dan Ricci will work double-duty this week — and maybe even next — as his football team plays deeper and deeper into the Class A state playoffs. Ossining goes for its first trip to the Carrier Dome this Friday night at bitter cold Dietz Stadium in Kingston.

I can’t tell you how intriguing I expect to find this season. I can’t remember a time where there are no clear-cut favorites. Who do you like in Class AA? Mount Vernon, which lost its PG? Ursuline, which lost its starting PF and PG? North Rockland, which lost its best player? Or Ossining, a team that needs to prove it can play at the highest level? And what about White Plains, the three-time defending champ???

And, yeah, don’t forget about Lourdes.

Class A champion Lakeland didn’t just lose its starting five, it lost its soul. That group will be tough to replace so quickly. Pearl River will need time to recover as well. So is this Beacon’s year?

In Class B, Briarcliff looked like the strong favorite. Alaina Walker’s transfer to Albertus Magnus changes all that. Briarcliff — or Irvington or Nanuet, etc. — could all win, but the defending champs will stand in the way.

Class C cannot be calculated. All signs point to Haldane, which still has Brittany Shields, but the Blue Devils have their own adjustments to make. Defending champ Blind Brook lost its two top players, but will a strong supporting cast be enough? Or is Hamilton’s Shereen Lightbourne good enough to lead the Red Raiders to a title?

Just a great — and dramatic — season is sure to lie ahead. I’ve heard rumblings that Section 1 is down and I can see where the idea comes from. Just remember: Three falls ago, White Plains had a young team coming off a .500 season. Four months later they were a basket from winning a state championship.

You just never know what lies ahead…

The new coach of Haldane — as some of you have indicated the last few days — is Peekskill JV boys basketball coach Kenny Haskins.

Haskins coached the JV for the last two seasons. He was approved for the Haldane gig by the board on Tuesday night.

Haskins played under Peekskill’s legendary coach Lou Panzanaro in the 80’s, and graduated from Peekskill in 1987. He still lives there and is a business teacher and dean of students at Peekskill High School.

Now, to answer your first question: No, he has never coached girls before. But Haskins thinks he’s been well-prepared to coach as a Panzanaro protege.

“He’s the one who prepared me for this,” Haskins said.

Haskins will be the fourth Haldane coach in the last five seasons. There was Bill O’Neill in 2003-04, Andy Cameron in 2004-05, 2005-06, and Rich Desiderio in 2006-07. But he expects to be in for the long haul.

“I plan to be there for a while,” Haskins said. “If I didn’t plan to be there, I would’ve stayed where I was.”

I’ll have more after I get the full story.

After a little leg work, here are the league alignments for Section 1 this season:

League I-A —
Mamaroneck
Mount Vernon
New Rochelle
Scarsdale
Ursuline
White Plains

League I-B —
Clarkstown North
Clarkstown South
North Rockland
Ramapo
Suffern

League I-C —
Arlington
Carmel
John Jay-East Fishkill
Ketcham
Mahopac
Our Lady of Lourdes

League I-D —
Gorton
Lincoln
Roosevelt
Saunders
Ursuline B
Yonkers

League II-North —
Beacon
Hen Hud
Ossining
Panas
Peekskill
Poughkeepsie

League II-Central —
Brewster
Horace Greeley
John Jay
Lakeland
Somers
Yorktown

League II-South —
Harrison
Nyack
Port Chester
Spring Valley
Tappan Zee

League III-A —
Briarcliff
Byram Hills
Croton-Harmon
Kennedy
Pleasantville
Putnam Valley
Westlake

League III-B —
Ardsley
Eastchester
Edgemont
Pelham
Rye
Woodlands

League III-C —
Albertus Magnus
Hastings
Irvington
Nanuet
Pearl River
Sleepy Hollow

League IV-North —
Dover
Haldane
North Salem
Pawling

League IV-Central —
Blind Brook
Bronxville
Keio
Rye Neck
Valhalla

League IV-South —
Dobbs Ferry
Hamilton
Leake & Watts
Solomon Schechter
Tuckahoe

Notes:
1. Fox Lane will play a non-league schedule
2. MLK and Hawthorne Cedar Knolls are not on the schedule

Haldane apparently is close to getting its new girls hoops coach, but I have it on good authority from two people who would know that there is no one in place yet. I wish I could tell you something more “official,” but I can’t get the AD to return my phone calls. So there.

In other news, the season starts in less than three weeks…