batavia

A story in the Democrat & Chronicle yesterday features Batavia Notre Dame graduate Tim Sullivan, now one of the country's best basketball shooting coaches. Sullivan, who graduated in 1978, then "walked onto the team at Canisius College in Buffalo," now puts on some 400 shooting clinics across the country each year.

This article, by John Boccacino, is a fun read, and there are more than a few great tips for any amateur basketball enthusiast looking to beef up his or her shot. It's clear that Sullivan knows his stuff.

After every shot attempt Sullivan preached that, as part of their follow through, the participants kiss the shoulder of their shooting side to guarantee a complete, accurate shot.

His wise words were met with confusion. "When he started talking about that, my friend Matt Noto and I looked at each other and said, 'OK, that won't work,'" said Steven Ciotti, 13, a seventh-grader at Greece Athena Middle School who plays for Greece Basketball Association's seventh-grade house team. "But then he started shooting and he just wasn't missing. I think he made almost 95 percent of his 200 shots and we were all amazed."

Jordan M. Hadfield of Batavia was struck by a car -- allegedly on purpose -- in Watertown yesterday.

The Watertown Daily Times reports that Eric W. Walker, 27, of Watertown, is being charged with two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and one count of falsely reporting an incident as well as leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.

Allegedly, Walker struck Hadfield and then drove home, where he called police and said somebody had smashed the windshield of his car while it was parked outside.

No word on the condition of Hadfield, or even if he was taken to the hospital.

Congratulations to Justin Forrester and Malissa Moore, proud parents of the fist baby born in Batavia in 2009.

Newspapers do the "first baby" every year story, but reporter Joanne Beck does a good job with the story of little Jayden Mariah. Click on over a read it.

Quick thinking and the amazing athleticism of a 72-year-old resident of a Bank Street townhouse  may have saved the lives of him and his wife as he single-handily battled a fire, according to a Democrat & Chronicle story.

Something awoke the couple at about 3:40 a.,m. this morning, and the man -- who is not identified -- jumped from his second floor window, grabbed a shovel, smashed a window and extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived using water and a five-gallon bucket.

The couple was treated and released for smoke inhalation at United Memorial Medical Center. The man also sustain some cuts on his feet from broken glass.

The apartment, at 337 Bank Street, suffered enough damage to make it unlivable. It did not have a working smoke detector, according to Chief Tom Dillon.

City of Batavia fire crews responded to a call at 21 Liberty Street, Ficarella's Pizzeria, this morning at 11:15am, according to Captain Craig Williams. Callers reported a smell of smoke inside the building. When firefighters arrived on the scene they saw smoke inside and smelled wood burning.

A fire was quickly located in the attic and extinguished by the personnel on scene. Crews were on scene for about an hour. No injuries were reported.

A malfunctioning neon sign caused the fire. Damage is estimated at $2,500.

The Batavia boys basketball team won the Batavia Lions Club Championship for the fifth consecutive year, and did it in convincing fashion. The Blue Devils thumped Notre Dame 59-33.

Andrew Hoy earned MVP honors, following in his older brother's footsteps, by scoring 43 points in the tournament, which easily made him the highest scorer in the tournament.

After four straight Blue Devil championships, this was a tournament where many area fans figured the Fighting Irish had a serious chance.

And ND came out red hot.

Batavia had a 4-0 lead before Greg Barr scored five consecutive points to put Notre Dame ahead 5-4.

Matt Thompson hit a 3-pointer and then added another bucket and the Fighting Irish had a quick 10-4 lead.

Marcus Hoy hit one of two free throw attempts with an Andrew Hoy 3-pointer tossed in the mix to get Batavia within a point.

Marcus and Adam Pettinella scored back-to-back buckets and the Blue Devils had a 13-10 lead after the opening period of play.

Batavia went on a tear in the second quarter and opened up a huge halftime lead.

Pettinella had five points, Andrew scored six and Rob Hoy pitched in five as the Blue Devils were up 34-17 at intermission.

Joe Schlossel had eight quick points in the third quarter and Andrew Hoy added eight points in the third quarter to give Batavia a 52-26 third quarter lead.

Notre Dame coach Mike Rapone received his first technical foul in three years near the end of the third period when he asked an official "How do you play 24 minutes against Batavia and not get a foul shot?". It was his first technical foul call since he received one against Prattsburgh a few years back.

Batavia did attempt just two free throw attempts over the first three quarters.

But in the end, it was the effort of Andrew Hoy and a ton of support from his supporting cast that gave the Blue Devils the trophy.

Schlossel finished with eight points and eight rebounds with Marcus Hoy getting eight points with five dimes. Pettinella had seven points.

Batavia's defense did an excellent job of limiting Notre Dame star Kevin Francis, who scored nine points and did make the all-tournament team. Vinny Zambito was held to three points, but made the all-tournament squad based on his 18-point opening round performance.

Thompson had eight points.

Rob Hoy made the all-tournament team with five points and Marcus made it for his scoring and passing efforts. Andrew, of course, was the MVP after making the all-tournament team as a freshman last season.

 Albion defeated Perry 53-39 in the consolation game, with Russell Craft leading the way with 19 points. He made the all-tournament team.

Notre Dame won the jayvee tournament, beating Batavia 62-43 in the finals. Perry beat Albion in the consolation game 61-49.

Two adults, whose names have not been released, were treated for smoke inhalation early this morning after a fire broke out inside their apartment at Walden Estates at 337 Bank Street in the city of Batavia.

City fire crews report that the fire was contained to the first-floor dining room of the two-story frame house around 3:36 am. Firefighters were on scene for just under two hours battling the fire which caused heavy smoke damage to the first and second floors.

No one else was reported injured. Details of the cause of the fire are under investigation.

 It never really wound up being much of a game.

The defending Lions Club Champion Batavia Blue Devils dominated Albion 76-40 in the opening round, with Andrew Hoy having a fantastic game. The sophomore - who was on the all-tournament team last year - kicked off this year's tournament with a 24-point, seven rebound performance. Hoy nailed five 3-pointers.

Each year when Batavia wins the Lions Tournament, it always seems that a single player has a huge game.  We've seen players like Phil Santiago, Michael Chmielowiec and Mike Hoy all have huge games to win MVP in recent years, and Andrew is well on his way.

The Blue Devils were on a tear early, going on a 13-0 run near the end of the first quarter and early in the second. But the Purple Eagles got four straight points from Matt Monacelli with a few minutes left in the half and closed the gap.

Mike Lee hit a shot for Batavia at the buzzer to make it 33-18.

Eight different Blue Devils scored in the third quarter to open up a 62-32 advantage after three periods of play and there was no coming back from that.

Dakota Irvin scored 11 points, and point guard Marcus Hoy scored seven points and dished out 13 assists. Lee had nine rebounds.

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Also: Batavia's jayvee team beat Albion 59-42 and Notre Dame downed Perry 61-51. The two Batavia squads will be in tomorrow's final.

It started actually Saturday as temperatures were rising in the upper 30's climbing to low 50's overnight.  We had received about 2+ feet of snow just in the last week and now it was melting very rapidly.  Today's high was in the upper 50's and the tonawanda creek was above flood stage of 9 feet and peaked around 11.4 feet according to the weather channel this morning.  It's now at a little over 12 feet and hopefully cresting soon.  Also during this time we had very high winds which were approx 35-45mph most of the day.  This morning there were gusts passing through around 50+ mph for about an hour.  As the day went on the city crews were on scene along with tree and power companies to help battle the flooding and tree damage due to high winds.  On every street I saw tree limbs, debris and even uprooting in some areas that had left much damage through the city.

Here are some pictures to share of areas around the city:

A tree fell hitting a house on east avenue and pulled utility wires.

Tree was uprooted on Lincoln Ave. damaging houses and a red SUV due to the 50+ mph winds.

Many side streets had flooding on the south side.  Ganson Ave, Elmwood and pictured here is Jackson Avenue.

Kibbie park or should I say Kibbie lake?  The winds were very high in the afternoon during this time.

The tonawanda creek filled up rapidly due to the fast melting of snow.  Here is a picture showing the River Street bridge with a vehicle coming across.

Look familiar?  Corner of Walnut and Law streets had major flooding.  A trucker was able to pass through heading south on Rt 98.

Let's hope the worst is over and we can recover a bit before heading into the New Year.

The National Weather Service has cancelled the flood warning for Batavia:

The flood warning is cancelled for the Tonawanda Creek at Batavia. At 8am Monday the stage was 8.6 feet and falling. Flood stage is 9.0 feet. Forecast: The river fell below flood stage later this morning and will continue to fall to around 5.7 feet by Tuesday morning. Impact: At 10.0 feet, moderate flood. Minor to moderate flooding along the entire reach from Batavia to Tonawanda. Most focused in Alabama swamps, rapids, and northern Clarence and Amherst, and also in city of Batavia west of Main Street.

 I went around town for a while seeing what damage has been done. Some streets were closed down, trees obviously knocked over and very high flood waters ... some people don't even have back yards right now. There also a lot of homes in parts of town without power.

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)

Good Morning Batavia,

I sit here at my trusty computer this morning mulling over the "new look" Batavian website with nothing but "awe".

To be able to view the events and happenings in my home town is just amazing.  I especially enjoy the video of the basketball games and comments. I can almost see myself, Jon Walton,Bill ,Randy, Gary,Sonny,Charlie, and the rest of the gang on the floor. It's too bad we didn't have the technology back then, it would be nice to see ourselves (then again maybe not!) The gym almost looks the same.

The view around town just astonished me. My congratulations goes out the staff of the Batavian for a job well done. Keep it comin'. I hope the folks in Batavia appreciate what you have done, and if not I sure do.

I look forward to more.

P.S. If there are any folks from the 1974 graduation class still in town, speak up!. Sign my guest book. Love to hear from ya.

Nate...

I live on the west main street by McDonald's and I have to walk when the snow starts to fly. I am a little upset that the sidewalks have not been cleared down where I live.  The city cleared the sidewalks from the Sport of Kings to the east into downtown, but not to the west.  I have to and I have seen other people walking on the road, because of the sidewalk being waist deep with snow from the past couple storms.  Last year, they were cleared very quickly after a heavy snowfall.   What is the deal????  Also,  I have noticed that the side street sidewalks haven't been cleared either.   I would think that they should be cleared also even though the kids are not in school for the two weeks. 

Something to think about!!!!!

Ok Then,  I live in the Batavia Madows apartment complex.  So I don't have to clear the sidewalk that is in front.  The City did come down this far last year and cleared the sidewalks all during the winter months.

So, I think the city should do it again!!!!!!!!!

We received the following letter from Batavia City Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian:

(SMSI) shared municipal services

(CGR) center for govermental research

(AIM) Aid Incentives Municipalitys

Our obligation is to our city and our taxes payers. AIM revenues would be approximately $650,000 In the first year and that would reduce the combined property tax levy of the city and town by 15% per year.  Only if the city and town are consolidated. That’s a win-win situation.

The cities growth is down -7% and the towns growth is up + 26.2% giving these figures that the burden is on mostly city taxpayers for Ambulance, police and fire services. The city and town both have recognized boundaries to be shifted for growth. We are faced with fiscal challenges all the time and now is the time to step up and make the necessary changes to be a viable one municipality.

We have been successful with water, city dispatch consolidation and economic efforts. Now is the time to move forward for shared services and consolidation of the ambulance, fire and police departments.  I can foresee other shared services in the future to engage fiscal responsibilities like town and city highway departments  and the animal control officer.

My goal is to create joint shared services with economic growth for a fiscal responsibility for all. Giving the State of the economy we must protect our communities with shared services to create a fordable standard of living.

                            Councilwoman
                            Rose Mary Christian

(shown in the photo is Batavia's Jaycee Shirk (left), Pavilion's Maddy Griep, O-A's Dani Sage and Notre Dame's Brittany Morelli)

The Batavia girls basketball Rotary Club Tournament is set for Jan. 5 and 7 at Genesee Community College.

The annual action-packed tournament features Batavia, Notre Dame, Oakfield-Alabama and Pavilion. 

Batavia opens up with Oakfield-Alabama at 6 p.m. in the opening round with Pavilion and Notre Dame following at about 7:45 p.m. The consolation and finals are at the same time on the 7th.

Batavia captured the title last year after dropping two games the previous season. The Blue Devils toppled O-A in the finals last year, 44-31, as Annie Palermo and Alyssa Tretter were the dominant players on the floor.

But we did see an emergence of current Batavia stars Jaycee Shirk and Brittany Mazurkiewiecz in the tournament, with Mazurkiewiecz scoring nine and Shirk adding eight.

This is the 20th year the Rotary Club Girls Basketball Tournament has been held.

Thirty-five-year-old Batavia resident Angela Rogers teaches at Neil Armstrong Elementary School in Gates. Earlier this week, Rogers was surprised with a teach award from McDonald's Family Restaurants. From the Democrat & Chronicle:

Rogers was awarded a plaque that the fast-food chain gives to honor one teacher locally in the six-county region each week.

At the school gathering, (Principal LeRoy) Greer said Rogers is a valuable teacher who he is happy to have in the district. She received the award in only her second year with the Gates Chili Central School District.

Rogers began her career teaching kindergarten in Buffalo, but eventually moved back to Genesee County "to be closer to family." Check out the complete article for more details, photos and to hear from Rogers about the honor of receiving the award.

Hot Shots Coffee on Harvester Avenue has some great news for live music fans in Genesee County. From the release:

There is new hope for entertainment in Batavia. Other than at bars, there are not many concerts to speak of in our small city. Especially in the winter. On Saturday,January 24th, 6:30pm HOT SHOTS COFFEE at 56 Harvester ave. will be host to an alcohol free concert open to all ages. The Headlining band responsible for setting up the show, is Batavia's own RADIO RELAPSE, a modern rock coverband made up of the cream of Batavia's young talent. By young I mean mid 20's. There will also be an opening act t.b.a. RADIO RELAPSE is in support of seeing the local music scene flourish.  Entertainment is the spice of any city.