Saratogian sports editor Brien Bouyea won 2nd place for best sports feature on "From Troy to Cooperstown" in the Suburban Newspapers contest.

The rest of the sports staff was pathetically shut out.

This was one of those Coaches for Cancer games where the sideline generals wear sneakers instead of dress shoes. This was good for Saratoga head coach Mitch Snyder who became so infuriated with officials that he sprinted up and down his bench on a number of occasions. Sometimes his shirt came undone. One time his tie came completely off.

That soon took its own seat next to assistant coach Doug Leininger.

Good for Colonie for not giving up. Down by 19 at one point, it would have been easy to fold. Saratoga simply got into foul trouble, turned the ball over a few extra times and took some bad shots.

"I'm excited about the way we played," Snyder said. "We'll focus on sectionals. It was a tremendous effort with the kids tonight."

Something tells me he was sugar coating a bit, don't you think?

— Brendan O'Meara

Aside from the normal sports coverage The Saratogian's Sports Department provides (high school and college basketball, swimming, hockey, etc.), we also take pride in the other wide array of sports we are able to cover in the Spa City.

Which brings me to my next big assignment, the 5th Annual Golden Gloves boxing matches at the Holiday Inn on Broadway, presented by Saratoga Youth Boxing. Now in their 33rd year, SYB has been working extremely hard to promote the sport and its program, and deserves credit for it. Moreso, the SYB deserves our community's support as they help keep youths off the streets while using their energy in a positive way, all while promoting physical fitness.

Next week (Feb. 1 through Feb. 6) I will be writing a series of articles on some of the boxers taking part in the event, the history of SYB and the Golden Gloves event itself, and other important information for all the boxing buffs out there. Keep an eye out for stories on: up-and-coming 12-year-old Nacoda Meredith as he readies for his first amateur bout in the ring; undefeated Shawn Miller (20-0), brother of local boxing icon Shannon Miller, as he looks to keep his record one-sided; and Greenwich native Josh Dulmer, who wowed the crowd at last year's tournament, as he defends the coveted John Morrissey Saratoga Championship Heavyweight Title in the headlining bout.

The 12 brutal boxing matches take place Friday, Feb. 6, at 7:30 p.m. and admission is only $10 in advance ($15 at the door). Advanced tickets can be bought at Mohr's West Avenue Mobil (80 West Av.) and Mohr's Service Center (239 Washington St.). We hope to see you at the Holiday Inn on Friday, but if we don't, check out our coverage of the boxing card in Saturday morning's Saratogian.

— Sam Hollingsworth

Since we haven't officially shown the boss how to log onto the blog, make an entry and do some of the fun stuff yet, I'm posting to give our fearless leader, Brien Bouyea, credit for getting out a breaking story about Saratoga Springs standout Jordan Stevens being named to the McDonald's All-American team.

We knew the snow was coming and I bailed on the day's work, getting my weekly duties done late last night and very early this morning with my compadre, Sam Hollingsworth.

The boss was in the loop about Steven's being named to the squad, but we thought we had time before word got out.

Oh well, a snowstorm and a media blast to the world took care of that.

Brien jumped on it, provided a lot of insight about the past area names that played in the prestigious contest as only a local hoops junkie could.

Here is a link to Brien's story.

All in a days work for the boss, a breaking story, a couple pages to publish with an early deadline and hopefully a safe ride home.

- Stan Hudy

Oh, we've got a bunch coming. I've got three, so I'll tout those.

One: Saratoga senior forward Staci McElroy, who is eighth in Section II in scoring, leading a team that is two games under .500.

Two: Mike and Abbey Hanehan. Mike is Abbey's father and head coach for the Stillwater Warriors. Abbey is fifth in Section II in scoring and has learned to deal with the pressures of her father being her head coach.

Three: Burnt Hills' Georgie Farrow. She's been on the team for four and half years, seen ups and downs, and this year happens to be one of those down years.

More to come.

— Brendan O'Meara

With the exception of the Class C girls basketball squad, Stillwater, Saratoga County was shut out of the Jan. 22 New York State Sportswriters High School Basketball Polls as the Shenendehowa girls squad dropped out of the top 20 and replaced by Bethlehem who entered the poll at No. 19 in the AA poll.

In the Capital District the Albany Academy (13-1) boys squad remains near the top in AA in fourth-place for another week. Bishop Maginn (9-2) moved up from No. 19 to No. 16 and CBA (10-2) remained ranked at No. 22.

In Class A Gloversville (12-1) moved up from No. 12 to No. 10 and Scotia-Glenville (11-2) moved up one spot from No. 18 to No. 17.

Class B saw Hudson Falls (11-2) move up from No. 14 to No. 9 and Fonda-Fultonville (9-1) enters the top 15 at No. 13.

Maple Hill (12-0) remained solid at No. 4 followed by No. 10 Voorheesville (10-2) who moved down to No. 10 and Hoosick Falls (9-2) makes their entry at No. 14.

In the Jan. 22 girls basketball rankings Schenectady (14-1) moved up one spot to No. 12 along with Bethlehem (9-4) entering the weekly rankings at No. 19, replacing Shenendehowa. The Eagles upended the Plainsmen at home earlier this week.

Holy Names (13-0) remained strong in the Class A poll at No. 5 and Mohonasen (11-2) entered the poll at No. 19.

In Class B Johnstown (13-1) moved up two spots to No. 7 and Watervliet (10-4) solidified its position in the poll, moving from a tie for No. 20 to No. 19 alone.

Class C’s highlight for Saratoga County is No. 9 Stillwater (10-2) moving up three spots from last week’s poll. Maple Hill (13-1) still remains near the top at No. 3 for another week. Hoosic Valley (13-1) remained at No. 7 with No. 13 Vooheesville (11-2) moved up four spots to No. 13.

In Class D Germantown (13-0) remained in the No. 2 spot along with No. 17 Argyle (9-4).

Saratoga boys ice hockey (10-2-2) and its freshman coach Mike Ricupero continue to make its mark in the New York State Division I polls at No. 8.

The Division II polls belong to the Northern part of the Capital District with No. 2 Queensbury (11-2-) and Glens Falls at No. 8 (9-5-1).

The Shenendehowa wrestling team (14-0) continues to hold the No. 2 position in the New York State poll, behind No. 1 Spencerport (15-0) from Section V.

Amsterdam (9-2) is ranked No. 12 followed by No. 16 Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (11-2), No. 18 Queensbury (7-1) in the Division I polls.

Hudson Falls (11-1) remains at No. 9 in the Division II poll followed by No. 12 Whitehall (16-3), No. 32 Corinth (11-3) made the cut along with new entry tied at No. 40 Hoosick Falls (7-3).

Colonie, Johnstown, Ballston Spa and Salem were listed as honorable mentions in the poll.

Here are the links to the Jan. 20 boys basketball poll, the girls basketball poll, the Jan. 20 hockey poll, and the Jan. 20 wrestling poll.

- Stan Hudy

From the get go, the Saratoga Springs Blue Streaks were hardly in this contest, a 37-23 loss to the Bethlehem Eagles.

The highlight, of course, came when sophomore A.J. Rue notched his 100th career win. Aside from that, it was a struggle for the Streaks.

"That's another tough loss," said Saratoga coach Anthony Bellai. "A.J. got his 100th, so life is good."

Perhaps the most gut-wrenching match was at super heavyweight when Saratoga's Josh Smith took it into overtime against the Eagles' Craig Languish. With just 1.9 seconds left in the final period, Languish scored two points to take the match over a then-sluggish Smith, 8-6.

That made the duel 25-6 in favor of Bethlehem and that, in essence, settled the score then and there.

"We lost a tough one at super heavyweight," Bellai said. "We're a very inexperienced team. We'll keep fighting."

Saratoga won just five matches all night with Rafael Lopez taking the 103-pound match, Tim Schiraldi winning the 135-pound division, 13-2, Jake Glover holding on, 3-1, at 145, Ford Plowman at 189, 4-2, and Rue's 11-3 win at 130.

— Brendan O'Meara

Even before the Saratoga Springs boys varsity squad took to the floor Tuesday night, the junior varsity squad lit up the Blue Streak’s gymnasium with a thrilling 62-59 overtime win over Columbia for their second win of the season.

I admit I wasn’t there for the entire game, but entered with the score knotted at 43-43 and the drama was far from over.

Saratoga’s Mike McElroy sank two free throws to give Saratoga a 47-45 lead, but Columbia’s Christian Brown answered with a three at the other end for a 48-47 Blue Devils lead. Columbia could have put the contest away when Matthew Elliot sank two of his three free throw attempts, but a Blue Devils player was whistled for a technical foul after being called for an over-the-back infraction.

Saratoga knotted the game at 50 apiece courtesy of the second free throw by Jack Morrow on the technical foul and two sunk by freshman Shane Tracy. Morrow dribbled the baseline and scored with 57 seconds left, but Columbia’s Tyler Hart hit a jumper in the lane to tie the game at 52 with 38 seconds left.

McElroy was again money from the charity stripe, hitting a pair with 26.8 seconds left, but Blue Devils sophomore Corey Gibson sent the game into overtime, hitting from underneath with nine seconds left, 54-54.

McElroy opened the four-minute extra session with a jumper, answered by Columbia’s Hart and Saratoga’s Morrow hit his ninth shot from the floor for the 58-56 go-ahead bucket at the three minute mark.

Blue Streak sophomore Dan Keehn made up for his two missed free throws in overtime, driving the baseline with 2:24 left to give Saratoga a 60-57 lead. Columbia’s Brown wouldn’t go away, hitting a jumper with 1:22 left, but sophomore Greg Ronayne and Tracy both hit the front end of two-shot free throws to seal the deal.

Morrow finished with an eye-popping 21 points followed by McElroy and Ronayne with 11 each.

“We’ve lost a lot of games like this one,” Saratoga junior varsity coach David Zeh said. “They guys played hard and made key free throws in the clutch.

“McElroy, (Shane) Tracy and (Jack) Morrow all hit big shots,” Zeh said. “Hitting our free throws made this win possible. The kids played their hearts out.”

- Stan Hudy

It wasn't the prettiest of wins, mired with 19 turnovers, but the Shenendehowa Plainsmen did just enough to beat Bethlehem, 63-51. That should come as no surprise since Shen's record is 12-1. There's something to be said for teams that find a way to win — pretty or not.

It also helps when Shen got eight explosive points off the bench from 6-foot-3 junior forward Manny Hernandez.

The game's coolest/weirdest/comical moment: when Shen's Doug Milvaney went to lay the ball up and it got stuck on the back of the rim and resulted in a jump ball. Possession arrow ... to Bethlehem.

Ha.

- Brendan O'Meara

This is the brain child (insert joke here) of Saratogian sports editor Brien Bouyea as one of his many goals for 2009.

The entire Saratogian staff, Brien, Brendan, Nate, Sam and Stan will be contributing to this blog throughout the weeks and months ahead, adding their thoughts on the games they have covered, the sports news in Saratoga County and of course, their opinions on what is in our daily newspaper.

We hope that Extra Points will be bookmarked by our readers and sports fans adding another source of news and opinions throughout their day.

- Stan Hudy