Columnists

A role model departs

Long-time Buffalo sports journalist served as my role model

Something really stopped me last week. Not the occasion of a birthday, for there’s one of those every year and it always happens to fall during a busy time where there’s little chance to really kick back and enjoy things, not with the deluge of games, tournaments and meets to keep up with.

Raising awareness about autism

It is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that autism has risen to one in every 88 births in the United States. In order to raise awareness about the programs and services available to families affected by autism, the New York State Senate has commemorated April 2013 as Autism Awareness Month.

Just like the rest...but not like the rest

SU basketball reflects best, worst parts of college game

So what is Syracuse University basketball, circa 2013? The Orange’s run to the Final Four in Atlanta has evoked a whole lot of examination of what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong here. It’s also evoked the usual amount of journalistic opportunism - some of it legitimate, some of it not.

No margin for error

Tougher for HS coaches in era of increased scrutiny

When New York Mills boys basketball coach Mike Adey picked up career win no. 500 last Sunday as his Marauders won yet another Section III Class D title at the Carrier Dome, he entered a territory few might ever trod upon again.

March, more mad

College hoops, NCAAs could be crazier than normal

More than 35,000 souls gathered under the Carrier Dome top to fete Carmelo Anthony and the championship team from 10 years ago (10 years already?), and to see the current Syracuse lot battle Georgetown one more time as a Big East rival. Only one other basketball crowd will be bigger this season – the one on the first Saturday and Monday in April, under another dome roof, this one in Atlanta.

A Super ending for the Ravens

Baltimore run to Super Bowl title one full of twists, drama

Look here, as the clock hit zero in New Orleans, and you see John Harbaugh, subdued when greeting his younger brother at midfield, but happier when greeted by his boss and family.

The players are here, too

Super Bowl XLVII has plenty of stories beyond coaching brothers

Harbaugh brothers, and let’s call it Ravens 24, 49ers 21. Or Harbaugh brothers, and let’s say 49ers 27, Ravens 24. There, I’ve spared you a vast majority of the cliché pieces that will spring up in the days leading up to that rather consequential football game they’ll play in New Orleans Sunday night.

A good change, really

Marrone to Bills, Shafer at SU great for both teams

Just as soon as the word got out early Sunday morning that Doug Marrone was trading Syracuse Orange for Buffalo Bills blue, the negativity began. From this corner in Central New York, it was fury at Marrone for having the nerve to leave the program he helped resuscitate. From that corner in Western New York, it was griping about missing the big name and settling for something smaller.

A message to the little ones lost on Dec. 14

Dear Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeline, Jesse, Catherine, Chase, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Avielle, Benjamin and Allison, You were taken too soon, that is true. It is also true that you have experienced an unimaginable, horrifying end to your promising lives. I am so truly sad that this world will not experience you as teenagers, young adults, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers. You didn’t get your chance to fulfill the promise in your shining eyes and wide grins depicted in the photos lovingly treasured and shared by your families.

From the editor: Thanks for all the stories

I’ve had so many experiences over the past two-and-a-half years that I never imagined having — all without venturing too far from my hometown of Cazenovia.

It takes courage

I have always been proud to be a teacher, and I have always been proud of teachers. I have a button that says, “Teachers are my heroes.” It takes courage to teach. Teaching requires conviction. It requires self-confidence and a sense that one is doing the right thing in the right way for the right reasons. It requires people to do the right thing at the right time. It requires the resolve to stand up to the fact that we live in a society that is all too ready to assign blame to teachers when the artificial standards that society sets are not met. We are all too ready to declare that things need to be fixed, that we could do a better job, and that we could solve the problems of education. And now we must mourn the loss of six of our colleagues who died doing not what teachers do, but doing what heroes do.

Newtown, then a new day

Tragedy in Connecticut demands real, meaningful action

Maybe there are adequate words to describe the events of Dec. 14, 2012, a day that, like few others in our nation’s history, evoked a sense of loss and hurt among people of all backgrounds and persuasions. But I haven’t found those words yet.

West Genesee school dietitian: Students help revamp menus

We are excited to roll out our new December Menu for each of our schools in the West Genesee School District.

Difficult act to follow

High school hoops will be fine without Stewart, Coleman

For the high school basketball season, just underway, to be as potent and exciting as it was a season ago, just a few things need to happen. Three teams would have to win state championships. Four others would need to reach the state final four weekend festivities. A pair of megastars must garner McDonald’s All-American status, with one of them the consensus national player of the year.

Abe comes alive again

Spielberg's 'Lincoln' a masterful portrait

Not until the plans were made, and executed, did the meaning of the date sink in. Sure enough, though, I attended a screening of Lincoln on Monday, exactly 149 years to the day after the 16th president, on Nov. 19, 1863, ventured to the dedication of a new cemetery at Gettysburg and delivered the “few appropriate remarks” that became the most famous and meaningful speech in American history.

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