Alyssa D'Errico has always been a star on the volleyball court. She has won state titles, club titles and two national championships at Penn State.

But one of her favorite volleyball memories is the 2006 Empire State Games when she was chosen to kick off the ceremony by lighting the torch that kicked off the opening ceremony.  

D'Errico has three gold medals in the scholastic competition and picked up a silver in the open division last year.

With the news that athletes may have to pay up to $300 to play in the games, she isn't positive she will be back for another ESG.

"It doesn't really bother me right now because I'm so far removed," D'Errico said. "If I was still in high school, it would bother me. But right now I'm not as big a part of the team and I would be playing open. But as a college student, I don't know if I could play if they charged $300. I think it would make it a lot less fun because I've always looked forward to playing for and representing Western New York."

Alyssa made an excellent point when the idea of having to pay to play in the ESG came up. She believes it is an honor to represent your region, but a player would be better off spending the money to pay to play club volleyball, where she will be noticed by college recruiters.

D'Errico won three state titles at Byron-Bergen while reaching the 1,879 kills and 1,521 digs in her career.

But a big reason why she landed a Division I scholarship to play with Penn State is because of her years with the VolleyFX Magic Club. She helped lead that team to four regional titles and a 17th-place finish in the 2006 nationals.

"For $300, you can go to a camp and get training, rather than just play," D'Errico said. "It was a great experience, but I guess it depends on who (the ESG team) is trying to attract. It is definitely going to deter people from trying out because of the cost."

Alyssa's mother Cindy was a member of the 1977 volleyball national A2 team and is still heavily involved in the sport. She coached the Bees while Alyssa was in high school and still attends all of her home matches at Penn State.

She helps scholastic coach Rob Werkmeister with player selection and runs the masters division, which could be one of the sports eliminated if there are cut-backs.

She thinks a charge would make things very difficult for a lot of players.

"It's going to be tough," Cindy said. "There are going to be families and parents that are going to have to decide if going to Empires is going to benefit their sons or daughters."

Back in 1982, the Batavia Lions Club and Pete Arras decided putting together a basketball tournament would be a good idea to give some good basketball teams a chance to play on the court at Genesee Community College and make it possible for Batavia and Notre Dame to play each other.

Little could anybody have known, here we are in 2008 and the tournament is stronger than ever. It is also probably regarded as one of, if not, the best boys basketball holiday tournament in Section 5. There are typically around 2,000 people that attend the tournament at GCC every year.

That original tournament featured Batavia, Notre Dame, a very good Byron-Bergen squad and Albion. (The photo above is the original photo of the coaches).

With the Fighting Irish and Bees hooking up late in the previous season, so that was a great way to start the tourney. The two squads played in February with B-B winning 51-48. 

The opening round rematch was a stunner, with Byron-Bergen knocking off Notre Dame 54-43. Albion knocked off Batavia 62-45 

The Bees went on to claim the first Batavia Lions Club championship with 35-30 win over Albion, with Bill Ferris claiming the MVP trophy.

Ferris was also the MVP in the second year as the Bees routed ND 47-30 and then Batavia 80-43.

Notre Dame was the favorite when they matched up with B-B in the finals in the tournament's third year, but it was again the Bees claiming the title with a 52-48 victory. Notre Dame's Jim Pursel was actually the MVP of that tournament, mostly because of his 29 point effort in the opening round win over Albion.

History was made in 1985 when Batavia and Notre Dame finally had a chance to play each other in the finals. With ND playing in the Genesee Region League and Batavia in the Monroe County League, these teams never get a shot to go against each other.

Tournament MVP Ron Nenni dropped in 20 points and the Fighting Irish toppled Batavia 65-52.

The tournament has seen many changes in participants over the years, with teams like Oakfield-Alabama, Attica, John Marshall, Nichols, Bishop Timon, Perry, Williamsville North, Akron, Pembroke, Le Roy, Caledonia-Mumford, Iroquois and Alexander all having experienced playing in the classic tournament.

Despite not winning until 1989, Batavia leads the tournament with wins with 13. The Blue Devils have won the last four titles, and seven of eight. Timon knocked Batavia off in overtime in the opening round of the 2003 tournament and then toppled Notre Dame 48-44 in the finals.

Byron-Bergen - which hasn't played in the tournament since 1994 is tied with Notre Dame for  second in tournament titles with five. 

Perry has won two championships and Timon has the other.

There have been some special performances over the years. The most recent was by Batavia's Michael Chmielowiec - a senior at the University of Rochester - who set the single game scoring record with 40 points against Bishop Timon in 2004. He also owns the tournament scoring mark with 64 points.

There have been four other 30-plus point performances: Tom McCulley of Notre Dame dropped in 38 in 1991, Batavia's Phil Santiago scored 35 points in 2002, PJ Leavy of Batavia had 33 in 1995 and Notre Dame's Tim Wascott had 32 in 2002.

Leavy had 57 points in that 95 tournament, Albion's Ernie McDonald had 49 total points in 1983 and Batavia's Rick Lundy had 48 in 1997.

This year's tournament features the same four teams that have been in the last three tournaments. Batavia opens up against Albion at 7 p.m. Monday night, with Notre Dame and Perry following at 8:45 p.m.

The consolation game is at 7 p.m. Tuesday with the finals at 8:45 p.m.

Admission is only $2, includes a program with rosters and money raised helps the Lions Club to provide scholarships to local students.

If you are interested in checking out basically the entire history of the tournament, check out this link on Flickr for over 80 photos and stories from tournaments in the past.

Here is a link to the entire history of the tournament, with the scores for every opening round, consolation and championship game as well as MVP of that year's tournament.

Also, feel free to share past memories if you've played or watched memorable tournaments.

Also, here is the video from this year's team at the Lions Club dinner introducing the teams.

(most clips in the post and flickr gallery are used with permission from The Daily News)

Byron-Bergen outside hitter Mary Cocking earned first team All-Greater Rochester honors, and it is well deserved.

Cocking had 345 kills this season to bring her career total to 1,061. She also had 315 digs to give her 788 in her career.

The three time Section 5 all-tournament all-star was a member of the three state title teams. She plans on attending Brockport to study nursing and play volleyball.

Again, the local small schools  had no second team selections, but here are the honorable mentions:

Genesee Region: Kayla Konieczy (Byron-Bergen), Krysta Lougheed (Byron-Bergen), Jessica George (Byron-Bergen), Mary McCormick (Byron-Bergen), Katie Boxler (Attica), Jackie Algier (Attica), Stephanie Maurer (Pembroke), Britt Morelli (Batavia Notre Dame), Liz Geandreau (Notre Dame), Courtney Turcer (Alexander), Sam Skyrp (Lyndonville), Megan Fahy (Lyndonville).

 Set your DVR or don't make plans for tomorrow night between 8 and 10 p.m.

Byron-Bergen grad Alyssa D'Errico and her Penn St. volleyball team will be playing in the national championship on ESPN2.

The Nittany Lions won the championship last year in D'Errico's freshman year. 

UPDATE: It looks like Penn St. will be playing Stanford, which just ended its match with Texas. It was a 20-25, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22, 15-13 comeback victory.

Byron-Bergen senior Mary Cocking ended her high school volleyball career with an All-state selection.

The outside hitter is a fourth-team selection in Class C and is the only local girl to receive all-state honors.

 Cocking is a four-time Genesee Region League all-star and ended her high school career with 1,061 kills, 788 digs and 309 aces. She was the MVP when the Bees won a sixth consecutive title in 2007 and was a member of the three state champion squads.

 Byron-Bergen grad Mike McInally won all four of his matches at the 2008 Oneonta Red Dragon Invitation this weekend and because of that was named the Empire Conference Wrestler of the Week.

The RIT junior beat Niagara Community College's Jared Lemke in the finals, 6-1, to capture the tournament title.

McInally is 5-0 now on the season and has a career record of 73-17.

His RIT wrestling squad will be hosting the RIT Invitational this weekend. A full day of wrestling starts at 9:30 a.m. at Clark Gym at RIT.

 Pete Loney's Daemen College basketball team is off to a hot start.

The Wildcats have won four of five games so far, and the Byron-Bergen graduate has played in all five games, starting one. He is having a great season so far from beyond the 3-point line. Loney has hit 13-of-21 attempts and is scoring 8.2 points per game.

He is fifth on the team in scoring while playing just over 15 minutes per game.

Loney's career-high of 16 points in a game came against Urbana College last season.

 Byron-Bergen graduate Gillian Taylor has competed in two cross country races this fall and should be primed for a big indoor track & field season at the University at Buffalo.

The sophomore ran a 21:40, for a 37th place finish, at the Tommy Evans Invite and took 63rd with a 22:06 at the UB Stampede Invite.

The Bulls scored 513 points and finished 17th at the 2008 NCAA Northeast Regional Championships at Van Cortlandt Park this past weekend, but Taylor did not compete in the race.

She was a member of UB's distance medley relay team during indoor last season, and finished 15th in the 800 m at the MAC Outdoor Championships last year.

Taylor was one of the most successful runners in area history at Byron-Bergen.

She received 14 varsity letters and was a team captain in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. She was named the teams' most valuable runner 12 times and holds the B-B records in the 1500 (4:50), 800 (2:20), 1000 (3:01) and was on the record holding 1600 relay squad.

She won 10 individual sectional titles and qualified for the state championships in outdoors five times, and indoors once.

I haven't been getting results from Elba/Byron-Bergen's football squad since the Pool Play started, but I did find a story on the semifinals win over Bolivar-Richburg on Saturday.

Elba/B-B did lose in the finals, but had a successful run, winning three games in a row before this.

(Updated to fix my mistake)

Byron-Bergen product Alyssa D'Errico and her Penn St. volleyball squad just keep on winning.

The Nittany Lions have won 52 consecutive matches and are the defending national champions.

D'Errico is featured in a preview of the Ohio St. match, which was won by her squad. While a senior at Byron-Bergen, she received a phone call from coach Russ Rose after the last loss by Penn St. in the Big 10.

"It's kind of devastating to hear because you know the tradition to be the top team in Big Ten and play like you expect to win and play to win," D'Errico said of the phone conversation with Rose back in 2006. "It's kind of a mindset we have that we have to keep the tradition alive of not losing to [Big Ten] teams."

The Nittany Lions have a tough weekend coming up, playing games at No. 17 Illinois and No. 18 Purdue.

Casual Fridays or dress-down days are observed by businesses and organizations throughout the nation. At Byron-Bergen Central School they are a weekly event that has raised thousands of dollars for local organizations and charitable causes. Each fall the Byron-Bergen Faculty Association democratically designates a recipient to present the donations to that were collected through the school year. Through the generous donations of less than 120 members during the 2007-2008 school year, BBFA was able to collect $1600 to present to this years recipient, The Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern. 

 Barker (1-6) at Alexander (4-4)

2:30 p.m. Saturday

The Trojans are looking to end the year on a positive note. They lost to Canisteo-Greenwood in the opening round of the playoffs before beating Red Jacket 31-20 last weekend. Jay Schafer leads the squad with 779 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. The Raiders are led by Greg Brown.

Bolivar-Richburg (3-5) at Elba/Byron-Bergen (3-4)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

The Lancers won for the second consecutive week, beating Warsaw 19-12 in a Pool Play game. Zach Green has been putting up big numbers all year and they've gotten insane in recent weeks. He ran for 205 yards with three touchdowns last week.

The Wheatland-Chili boys soccer team dominated the Genesee Region League, going 9-1, and also finished 16-3 overall and captured the league title.

For that, the Wildcats were rewarded with the Coach of the Year, Player of the Year and three first-team Genesee Region League all-star selections.

Coach of the Year Mike Skivington's squad finished three games ahead of Byron-Bergen in the GR standings.

Senior Garhett Varin easily won the league scoring title with 24 goals, he was tied for tops in assists with 10 and had a combined 58 points. He was an easy choice for the all-star team and Player of the Year.

Keeper Tony Pipitone had a goals against average of just .744 and gave up just 14 goals in 1,525 minutes played

Defender Steve Abbey also is an all-star from Wheatland-Chili.

Byron-Bergen also had three all-stars, led by senior Jordan Kiessling. Kiessling had a goal and an assist as a midfielder.

Junior Casey Longhini led the Bees in scoring with 10 goals and seven helpers for 27 total points.

Junior Dakota Longhini was recognized after scoring twice and dishing out eight assists.

Senior Jason Gaylord had five goals with two assists, for 12 points to lead the contingent of three Kendall players on the all-star squad.

Sophomore Brandon Moore had an assist and makes the team as well as junior Paul Brightly, who scored three goals and dished out three assists.

Lyndonville junior Joe Ianni was fourth in the league in scoring with 12 goals, four assists and 28 points and leads the group of three Tiger all-stars.

Aaron O'Connor had five goals and three helpers with Tyler Silversmith handing out two assists as a defender.

Four Holley players are all-stars.

Sophomore Nick Troup is going to have a great career as he already finished third in the GR in scoring with 11 goals, nine helpers and 31 total points.

Fellow sophomore Brandon Comden had 12 goals, three assists and 27 points with seniors Colton Orbaker scoring four goals with four assists and defender Eric Spychalski scoring once while passing off for three assists.

Senior forward Andy Hagen wound up second in the league in scoring with 16 goals, seven assists and 39 points to lead a pair of Attica players on the squad.

Brandon Reiner - a junior - had eight goals and four assists and is the other Blue Devil.

The second-team selections are:

Lyndonville - Jesse Follman, Aaron O'Connor.

Attica - Joe Wolak, Brandon Storch.

Kendall - Colt Tooley, Joel Mendoza.

Wheatland-Chili - Vince Rubert, Schuyler Johnston, Alex Stryker.

Byron-Bergen - Kody Weinert, Justin Barrett, Tyler Sass, Kevin Rickard.

Holley - Greg Knapp, Eddie Bower, Tim Pratt, Caleb Orbaker.

 The Genesee Region League is typically very strong in volleyball, with Byron-Bergen, Notre Dame and Attica as top squads almost every year.

Those teams, a couple of others in the GR as well as Le Roy and Batavia are all kicking off the playoffs on Wednesday.

Byron-Bergen is 19-1, has won six consecutive sectional championships and will get the top seed in Class C, hosting No. 8 Marion in the first round at 6:30 p.m. 

Le Roy earned the top seed in Class CC with a 9-7 record and will host No 8 Sodus at 5 p.m.

Pembroke is a seventh seed and will be playing Mynderse at Victor at 5.

Batavia is a fourth seed and hosting No. 5 Aquinas at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Class BB with No. 4 Attica will host No. 5 Waterloo at 7 in Class B.

Notre Dame is a third seed - earning a bye - in Class D and is hosting either Houghton or Romulus at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Alexander was a ninth seed in Class DD and was at Perry Tuesday night, but got knocked out in the first round, 20-25, 25-19, 25-19, 26-16.

Chelsea Turcer had seven kills and seven aces for Alexander.

The Elba/Byron-Bergen football won for the second consecutive time, downing Warsaw in a Pool Play game, 19-12.

The Lancers were down 12-0 midway through the third quarter but stormed back with two third quarter scores and another in the fourth.

Zack Green had another monster game with 26 carries for 205 yards and three TDS and Cody Torpey completed 2-of-2 pass attempts for 34 yards. He also made 10 tackles.

Brent Crawford had 14.

Warsaw falls to 0-8 while Elba/Byron-Bergen improves to 3-5.