NYSSWA State Rankings - Week 5

 

The fifth state rankings for the 2022 the season have been released by the NYSSWA.  Below are the WNY teams that made the cut:

 

Class AA

Orchard Park #15

Jamestown #20

 

Class A

Canisius #10

St. Francis #20

 

Class B

Timon #5

Olean #7

Nichols #9

St. Mary's #21

 

Class C

Randolph #9

Salamanca #10

 

Class D

Westfield #5

Clymer #10

Panama #13

 

According to the rankings...

- The number of teams ranked in each class is arbitrary.  Class AA & Class B each have 25 teams ranked, while the other three classes only have 20 schools ranked.  It’s never quite consistent from year to year and often times in the past when the decisions get tough the rankings just get expanded to 30 teams in certain classifications or to 25 if they were at 20.  So for teams that have yet to bust into the rankings, be patient.  You never know when the rankings will magically expand.

 

- There are eight public school teams in the NYS Class AA Top 25 that remain undefeated, including Orchard Park and Victor from Section V.

 

- Canisius sits at #10 in NYS Class A, but still have two teams ahead of them in the CHSAA, meaning they would not be projected to win a state title.  St. Francis is the fifth ranked team in CHSAA Class A .

 

- Despite a most impressive string of wins for Nichols, the state rankings panel remains sold on Timon as not only the best Class B school from WNY, but also project for them to win the Class B state title in CHSAA.

 

- Olean is one of three public schools that remains undefeated in NYS Class B.  Lowville is another of those three schools.  Both teams own double-digit wins over Cardinal O’Hara this season.

- Not much separates the two best Class C teams from our area.  Randolph and Salamanca sit at #9 & #10 respectively in the NYS Class C state rankings.  The two have split a pair of meetings this season, with Randolph holding a slightly better point differential from the two games.  A third matchup between the two in March seems inevitable to me.  Interestingly, there are two teams from Section V ranked ahead of Randolph and Salamanca.  The Section VI Class C champion has advanced past the Section V champion in 7 of the last 10 Far West Regionals.

- Avoca and Prattsburgh combined talent to make one team and are listed with a hyphen (Avoca-Prattsburgh).  South Kortright and Andes did the same, but they use a backslash (South Kortright/Andes).  If they met in the Class D state final, it would be the first championship game in high school hoops that was also a final four...

 

Click HERE for complete NYSSWA State Rankings

 

-centercourt

Comments

[Bill Collmer]

Centercourt42, what are your thoughts on Allegany-Limestone? They merged in 2006.

[Bill Collmer]

They won B2 Sectionals in 2019 and 2020, any issues with that?

[Tracy Presler]

You might want to investigate better. Andes has 83 students total PreK -12. Maybe they could have gotten seven kids to play basketball if they included the Pre K and Kindergarten players. Then again some will complain if kids sit in front of their Xboxes . I would rather they have a chance to play. I guess though it's alright to combine for football but not for all sports. If you don't have enough eight man football is always an option. They combine programs so kids have a chance to play because of low numbers. We combined so kids have that chance and it was all sports not just basketball.

[centercourt]

Bill -

My thoughts on Allegany-Limestone are the same as my thoughts on Niagara Falls, who combined with LaSalle.

All the kids attend school in the same building. They aren't two schools playing as one team that needs 5 players on the floor.

[Bill Collmer]

Avoca wouldn't have a team this year if they hadn't combined with Prattsburgh. So, you would rather kids don't have an opportunity to play then to combine with a Neighboring district? The two schools combined weren't able to field J.V boys or girls Soccer teams this past fall. The two schools combined had 5 boys play Modified Basketball last season. The numbers just aren't there and it's not just there, if you look Andover and Whitesville combined, Friendship and Scio. Dundee and Bradford. Kids should have an opportunity to play sports and if combining is how it has to happen, I'm all for it.

[centercourt]

No, of course I wouldn't rather kids don't have an opportunity to play. If Avoca only had four kids who wanted to play hoops then go join forces with Prattsburgh.

What I'd have rather had is adults taking shots at East when they were classified as a D school in 2018, as if some horrible conspiracy had created that scenario. I want you to trust me that there's zero chance that Larry Jones & Timm Slade sat down to figure out a way to make East a state champion. Had zero to do with the coach at East, the administration at East, and certainly not the players. No conspiracy as it was treated. You just tossed out recently that even the NYSSWA complained about it...who? It's a whole association. I never read any official statements on them regarding the matter, so must have been a specific member of the association. Who was it & what did they say?

And as it all went on that season, I took the approach of humor and confidence in our teams. We had three awesome teams in Class D that season (East, Franklinville, & Ellicottville) and I was beyond confident that whichever team emerged from our section would be compete for the state title. I never guaranteed that it would be East, just that We Had The D's!

Turns out I was right and Section VI won a state title. Even as the game was being played, both at the regional and at states in Binghamton, the kids from East were subjected to whiny adults shaming them for being a Class D school. They did not deserve that!

As I've already mentioned, the approach I took was humor. I had fun with it. That only seemed to infuriate the likes of Tracy Pressler, which made it even more fun.

I haven't guaranteed anything this season in Class D and I haven't cried foul about anything, just used a little back-handed humor to have fun with the situation after all the whining from 2018. Something tells me that if the situations were reversed and Prattsburgh had a supreme team and wasn't combined with Avoca...but Westfield and Clymer linked up, but remained a Class D school that rolled through everybody, Tracy would blow another gasket and you'd be right there with him like 2018.

Try finding the humor in subtle humor and mix in a few breathing exercises.

[Tracy Presler]

I just checked on Bill. His gaskets are fine.