One more college chip has fallen into place. Briarcliff senior Shelby Coon has committed to play ball at Albany on a full scholarship.

I spoke to Shelby today. She had whittled her list down to seven: Albany, Bucknell, Cornell, Boston University, Hartford, Vermont, and Rider. Obviously, it became harder to take visits because the Bears kept extending their season, but she went on a couple trips in recent weeks and decided she really liked Albany.

Albany finished 13-18 last season but posted a program-best 10-6 mark in conference. Coach Trina Patterson was named America East Conference coach of the year and recently signed a two-year extension.

It seems like a nice fit for Coon, who led Briarcliff in scoring and rebounding and was named MVP of the Section 1 tournament. With state and Federation titles and now this, her senior season went about as well as she could’ve hoped. Congrats to her.

Just wanted to let everyone know Angelei Aguirre expects to decide where she’ll play in college in a couple weeks. The White Plains senior went on an official visit today to Cal, which placed second (behind Stanford) in the Pac-10 last season.

The last I heard, Cal still had a scholarship available at the end of the high school basketball season. They were intrigued enough by Aguirre that a coach flew by redeye to watch White Plains against Kingston in the regional semifinals.

Obviously, when Aguirre decides where she’s headed I’ll post something here.

I had mentioned earlier this month that ESG scholastic coach Dan Ricci sent me info on his team’s tryouts. It’s now around the corner, so here are the details:

Monday, May 5th: at Ossining HS from 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Tuesday, May 6th: at Briarcliff HS from 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Monday, May 12th: at Mahopac HS from 7:00PM – 9:00PM

A difference this year is that interested players (in all sports) must register on the ESG website. You can do that by clicking here.

As I said a couple weeks ago, players are asked to attend all three tryouts. The games will be held from July 23-27 in Binghamton.

For more information contact Dan Ricci at 914-762-5760 ext 329.

More than just basketball players were  honored for their work in the winter.

For all the Westchester/Putnam all-stars, you can click here. It includes athlete of the season, Rye swimmer Ryan Feeley.

For all the Rockland all-county picks, you can click here. It includes the Rockland athlete of the season, Suffern sprinter and long jumper extraordinaire Jen Clayton.

I hope you already ran out to grab the paper, but if not we published our Westchester/Putnam All-Stars and our Rockland All-County teams today.

The players of the year were Angelei Aguirre of White Plains and Alaina Walker of Albertus Magnus. Obviously, it was an impossible choice on the Westchester/Putnam side, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for the coaches on the panel. The award could’ve gone either way, but Aguirre won the vote by a 7-3-1 margin (one coach voted for both Aguirre and Shields). Here’s the story on what made Aguirre’s season special.

The first team in Westchester/Putnam consists of: Aguirre; Brittany Shields, Haldane; Nadia Duncan, Mount Vernon; Bianca Kowgios, Maria Regina; and Porsha Postell, Woodlands. Don Hamlin of Briarcliff was named the coach of the year. … Of note: Aguirre, Shields and Duncan were all unanimous selections to the first team. Postell and Kowgios were the next-highest vote-getters. The five members of the second team were the next-highest vote-getters after the top five.

• Here’s the complete list of first team, second team, honorable mentions and the coaches panel.

Jake will have to fill you in on the details for Rockland. What I do know is the first team All-County consists of: Walker, whose story you can read here; Mary Abrams, North Rockland; Shakiera Dumas, Spring Valley; Kelly Mulligan, Pearl River; and Kristin Schmidt, Suffern. The coach of the year was Pearl River’s Lorraine Moylan.

• Here’s the complete list of first team, second team, honorable mentions and the coaches panel.

I know many of you probably have questions. I’m working today, so I’ll be in and out of action all day. If you have a question, please either leave a comment or send me an e-mail at jthomson@lohud.com. If you have a question about the Rockland teams, please e-mail Jake at jtthomas@lohud.com. I hope you can be patient and wait for our response. Above all, DO NOT use this forum to criticize players and/or coaches.

For those interested: The Westchester/Putnam vote was compiled using a number of coaches who see a wide variety of basketball. They game from various geographical regions (Putnam, Northern, Central and Southern Westchester were all represented) and a number of classifications (Conference 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all represented).

We’ve had a few nasty comments recently so I feel it’s necessary to remind all posters to adhere to our Terms of Service. Here’s the simple version, taken from the comments section of every blog post:

“It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send.”

Specifically the problem has been people making accusatory and mean-spirited statements without substantiation. This is a no-no. Neither Josh nor I have any desire to censor or ban anyone, but we will do both if we feel the Terms of Service are clearly being violated.

Nanuet AD Frank Mazzuca confirmed today that the school board has approved Carlos Fidalgo as the new girls varsity basketball coach. Fidalgo is a social studies teacher in the district and coached JV boys basketball and JV baseball.

Outgoing coach Brian Metcalf vouched for him, calling him a friend and someone who really cares about the student athletes. He’ll have, Metcalf said, “years of success.”

Fidalgo is entering a great situation for a first-year coach. Nanuet was a top 10 team this season despite the presence of one senior. It was probably the best team not to make the County Center, losing in quarters to Irvington. Barring a big upset I don’t see a way it doesn’t make semis this year. Point guard Lauren Kahn and center/forward K.C. Jentzen are stars, and Nikki Sapanaro emerged as a solid third option. And nemesis Albertus Magnus is out of Class B to boot. Fidalgo could look very good very fast.

Hey everyone. Just a quick note to say we’ve added a few features to the right-hand side of the blog.

You can check them out for yourself. Most notably, we’ve added a polling feature. Our first question is one you’ve debated ad infinitum: Who should win the Westchester/Putnam player of the year? I’ll leave it up for a few days so please vote. After that, I’ll pose the same question for Rockland.

Let me know if you like the new look.

ESG scholastic coach Dan Ricci sent me the following info on his team’s tryouts. Obviously, it’s not for a while, but here’s a look at when and where the team will be picked:

Monday, May 5th: at Ossining HS from 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Tuesday, May 6th: at Briarcliff HS from 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Monday, May 12th: at Mahopac HS from 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Interested players are asked to attend all three tryouts. The games will be held from July 23-27 in Binghamton.

For more information contact Dan Ricci at 914-762-5760 ext 329.

As always, I pass along the final state rankings.

A few thoughts:

— Briarcliff (Class B) and Haldane (Class C) finish at No. 1. Naturally, since both are state champs.

— How Mount Vernon is not included in Class AA I simply do not understand. Beacon, Magnus and Blind Brook all made the cut, but the Knights did not. And…no offense to the other runners-up, but MV had the best season…unbeaten vs. Section 1 until losing in the championship by eight points. I just don’t get it. … Of course, I didn’t even mention the complete decimation in the Slam Dunk, one that included a convincing win over Jamestown, which finished the season ranked No. 11 (and ahead of White Plains).

— Magnus finished at No. 15. Funny, because they Falcons were good enough (or really close to it) to win a state championship.

That’s all from me. Your thoughts?