Thursday, March 5, 2015

Local sports this 'n' that

The Glens Falls Civic Center won't be hosting the New York State Section II Class A boys' basketball semi-finals & finals, or anything else, for that matter, for a while.

A portion of the building's roof collapsed on Tuesday, forcing Section II to scramble to find alternate sites for the remaining games in classes other than AA. With Albany's Times Union Center unavailable due to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament this weekend, the A semi-finals will be played at Guilderland tonight, with the finals shifting to Hudson Valley Community College on Sunday, since the women's finals are there on Saturday.

For Troy High, this could be a good omen. The Flying Horses' women's team will play Averill Park on Saturday for the A title, with Troy looking for its 2nd crown in 3 years. The two schools' men's teams play at Guilderland tonight, with the winner advancing to likely face defending champion Scotia on Sunday. With this late development, Troy High would like nothing better than to win both A titles on what amounted to a de facto home court for the men last Sunday (they'll be the visitors on Sunday if they get there). Not only did the women win the sectional title in 2013, so did the men, who at the time were in AA. This time, they're both in Class A. This is their only season as an independent, and it'd be a sweet story come Monday if they do sweep.

Update, 3/6: Section II will have the boys A finals at Guilderland on Saturday, as HVCC is tied up on Sunday with other commitments. This ensures a "neutral" court, as if the game were played in Troy, there was a chance that Troy High, despite the likely designation as a visiting team, would have a larger partisan interest.

Back in Glens Falls, the AHL Adirondack Flames are now homeless, playing out the string before trading places with their "cousins" in the organizational chain, if ya will, from Stockton, California, next season. There's about a month left in the season, and the Flames have to scramble to find a temporary home to finish the season. Considering that the Flames won't make the playoffs, this gives the city of Glens Falls a little extra time to enable repairs on the aging Civic Center while also allowing the possibility of building a newer, state-of-the-art facility to take its place down the line.

Local radio personality Dalton Castle, who spends his weekends as a wrestler, made his television debut last month for Ring of Honor, taking part in the promotion's annual Top Prospect tournament, but was eliminated in the first round. Undaunted, Castle, who is billed as the "Party Peacock" in the ring, flew to Orlando a couple of weeks back to take part in tapings for future TNA pay-per-view events. Meanwhile, ROH figures to air the conclusion of this year's tournament, perhaps as early as this weekend. Another grappler with ties to the hometown, sort of, is in the finals. Donovan Dijak, who made his area debut in October for Dynasty Pro Wrestling, has impressed in winning his two matches to this point. Pending the outcome of the tournament, it will be interesting to see if Castle and/or Dijak will be back for Dynasty Pro's next show, on Easter weekend.

Dynasty Pro nearly filled the Troy Boys & Girls Club for their last show, headlined by Tommy Dreamer. WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts and former WWE diva Ashley Massaro are scheduled to appear this time. Seeing as how Ashley posed for Playboy while with WWE, should we expect to see her wearing bunny ears in Troy? We'll know for sure in a shade more than a month. Stay tuned.

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