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Girls basketball in the Lower Hudson Valley

New conferences for next season

January
29

Well, the much-rumored realignment for next season passed yesterday, 59-16. That means it’ll be a very strange looking Section 1 beginning this fall.

My diligent colleague Harold Gutmann had a story on all the proposed changes, which are slated to be discussed this week at an executive meeting in Binghamton. It came to be because of cost-cutting measures taking by the section and the NYSPHSAA. Section 1’s two reps at the meeting are executive director Jennifer Simmons and Bronxville AD Karen Peterson.

There are several proposals that would impact competition next school year, so I suggest you check out the story.

I have listed the new conferences below. All the new leagues will be determined from the conferences below on a sport-by-sport basis. Power leagues for sports like hockey and lacrosse are a thing of the past. (The only sport untouched was football.) Simmons said the change will cut transportation costs for the schools and improve the athlete’s quality of life.

Other proposals include: limiting sports with five classes to four and forbidding travel to non-bordering states. So, yes, you would only have four Section 1 and state champions instead of five, and, yes, teams like Ossining and Carmel would no longer be allowed to play at Disney World in the winter.

As far as the new leagues, here, just so you understand what this would mean, is one rumored league I’ve heard floated about for quite some time: Irvington, Dobbs, Sleepy, Solomon Schechter, Hamilton, Woodlands and Hastings. That’s an example of what is to follow.

Conference I
John Jay-East Fishkill, R.C. Ketcham, Arlington, Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Yorktown, Lakeland, Panas, Carmel, Mahopac, Lincoln Hall, Kennedy, North Salem, Dover, Pawling, Brewster, Peekskill, Ossining, Hen Hud, Haldane, Croton-Harmon, Putnam Valley, Our Lady of Lourdes

Conference II
Yonkers, Gorton, Lincoln, Saunders, Roosevelt, White Plains, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, Ursuline, Irvington, Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Woodlands, Sleepy Hollow, Solomon Schechter, Pelham, Bronxville, Tuckahoe, Eastchester, Edgemont, Leake & Watts, Palisades, Riverside, Greenburgh, MLK, Children’s Village, Clark Academy

Conference III
Greeley, Fox Lane, John Jay, Somers, Byram Hills, Port CHester, Blind Brook, Rye, Harrison, Keio, Rye Neck, Briarcliff, Valhalla, Westlake, Pleasantville, Hamilton, Hawthorne Cedar Knolls

Conference IV
Albertus, Clarkstown North, Clarkstown South, Nanuet, Nyack, North Rockland, Pearl River, Ramapo, Spring Valley, Suffern, Tappan Zee

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 10:53 pm by Josh Thomson. Print | Email

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14 Responses to “New conferences for next season”

  1. MHoops

    Will Lourdes be in Conference I?

  2. Josh Thomson

    sorry, yes it will.

  3. draftboy

    How can anyone tell schools that they cannot travel? If a school raises the money who is NYSPHSAA or Section 1 to tell these athletes they cannot play outside the tri-state area? Ridiculous!

  4. Mike Hoops

    Josh,

    I think its like this in Conf 2

    Dobbs Ferry
    Hastings
    Irvington
    Ardsley
    Sleepy
    Woodlands
    Schechter

    The 5 Yonkers Schools in a league
    Yonkers
    Saunders
    Gorton
    Roosevelt
    Lincoln

    Then,
    Pelham
    Bxville
    Tuckahoe
    Eastchester
    Edgemont

    And
    WP
    Mamaroneck
    Ursuline
    Scarsdale
    New Rochelle
    MV

  5. update

    I don’t care much about how they did the conferences, but the leagues are ridiculous. They say they are going according to geography but Lakeland and Panas are not in the same league as Putnam Valley which used to send their kids to LP and Somers is not in the same league as JFK and Lincoln Hall and I can throw a ball from one school to another. If they want to go according to geography that’s fine, but then DO IT. Having PV going to Ossining and not to Lakeland or Panas makes no sense. You can’t make it equitable as far as competitive for all sports because the schools are not good in everything or poor in everything, but then either do it by geography totally or by geography and school size. The leagues I saw just don’t make any sense.

  6. BUCKETBOY

    I agree with update.
    Somers is in a conference with Hamilton, Keio,Portchester,Rye
    Could they be any farther away
    I think it is a case of people trying to make us think they are trying to doing something to make things better.
    They are NOT!

  7. mike hoops

    Bucketboy

    What conference your in doesnt really mattter.

    Somers will not be in a league with Keio, PC, or Rye

    League—-Greeley, Fox Lane, John Jay, Somers, Byram Hills

    League—-Port CHester, Blind Brook, Rye, Harrison, Keio, Rye Neck

    League——Briarcliff, Valhalla, Westlake, Pleasantville, Hamilton, Hawthorne Cedar Knolls

  8. laxfanatic

    It really does not matter that much because you can still assemble some good games etc…But hopefully they will leave some room for games between conferences and counties…Also how can you tell a team they can’t travel to Disney…If they raise their own money….how does this cost Section 1 any out of pocet expenses?

  9. BB Fan

    Looking forward to realignment will this increase the amount of non-competitive games based on talent levels? If so, how will coaches deal with one sided scores and further does this limit a team from improving by not playing better competition? Section 1 lords, AD’s, press, parents,and coaches better get ready for some heat if the reformation of confernces due to budget cuts create big double digit victories by certain teams. Also on a different subject, when will the section 1 lords address the student athlete transfer rules and eligiblity to make them consistent between public and private schools. It is unfair for a public school to lose a player to a private school and be eligible to play, but are not as fortunate if the situation is reversed.

  10. mike hoops

    BB Fan

    you can leave a private and play at your Public school if you transfer. You don’t have t o sit out

  11. laxfanatic

    BB Fan this realingment does not mean that you cannot put schedules together to accomodate competitve games…ie…Lax is doing it….They are setting up the leagues based on geography and talent level…
    please note school size does not matter for league play cause you will move to your school class for sectional play..

  12. update

    they may be doing their own thing in football and lax but the rest of the sports including basketball will be forced to follow these leagues as they have been set up and they are not setting up the leagues based on geography or talent level….or Somers would be in the same league as JFK and Lincoln Hall as pointed out earlier as to geography…. and Croton would not be in the same league as Ossining if we were going according to talent…school size does have some bearing because now you have to face teams twice in league play that may be 3 class sizes above and the seeding will be skewed….and while there are several very good, consistent programs amongst the small schools, the big schools obviously have a larger talent pool to choose from and thus have an advantage…Croton will have difficulty matching up with Ossining twice a year

    yes, you can make sure the non-league schedule is appropriate but you will now be tied into 10-12 games that may be inappropriate competition one way or another and with the total games cut back to 18 that doesn’t leave a lot of room to make the schedule the appropriate difficulty level for that school’s talent

    it just seems to me that someone with some common sense could see that the way it is being done is not going to work and from my figures the 5 schools that I checked out would average a savings in league travel of 15 total miles compared to this season…how much money did all this save?

  13. rockland

    conference IV is basically the same as it is this year right? pearl river, albertus, nanuet, and tz already play each other regularly so its not really changing much there

  14. Mountie Hoops

    as well as the rest of Rockland-Suffern,NR,Cl South,Cl North,Ramapo…assume that Confernce 4(Rockland ) will have 2 leagues..one for Nyack/TZ/Pearl River/Albertus/Nanuet…then one for NR-South-North-Ramapo-Suffern…figure Spring Valley would be with Nyack ????right

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Josh Thomson covers girls hoops in the Lower Hudson Valley from the preseason to the state championships.
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About the author
Josh Thomson Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting, Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University, where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in history. READ MORE
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