Batavia product Missy Thurston is looking to help the Keuka women's basketball team this season as a returning player for the Storm.
Thurston was a star point guard for the Blue Devils and is entering her junior season with Keuka.
She scored 5.9 points per game last season and led the team with 66 steals, while dishing out 33 assists.
Here is a full preview of the Kueka women's basketball team, which went 14-10 last season.
Tim Sullivan was an unlikely Division I basketball player when he graduated from Notre Dame High School back in 1978.
He lacked the size and didn't put up numbers in high school that would make big schools look at an undersized player from Genesee County.
But he did just that, walking on to the Canisius basketball team and playing at that high level. He also played for the Syracuse Shooting Stars and spent a few weeks on the roster of the Buffalo Rapids of the ABA, just a few years back.
I have gotten to know Sullivan over the years as he has helped many area youngsters with the game of basketball and we had a chance to catch up Tuesday afternoon.
It turns out, things are going quite well for the shooting expert.
He recently won a 3-point shooting competition - at the still Hooping 3-on-3 3-point shooting contest - against some pretty hefty competition, namely former NBA stars Glen Rice, Hersey Hawkins and Dale Ellis. He won the contest two years ago and was second last year.
Sullivan is continuing to work as an instructor at camps all across the country.
He puts on about 250 clinics per year and works for ADIDAS Phenom camp in San Diego, California.
Sullivan does one-on-one work with individual D-1 prospects and helps with instruction at many colleges, including Syracuse University, Indiana University and the University of Kentucky.
Sullivan said he has studied the science of shooting and has figured out how anybody can be a 3-point shooting star. Check out this video I found on YouTube, where he does not miss an attempt in almost 3 minutes.
You can also check out his Web site for more information.
There is further proof that being a solid role player for the Batavia High basketball team is a great place to start if you want to get into college coaching.
Last week we reported that Joe Zinni had recently accepted an assistant coaching position with Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball, and now Russ Phillips is moving up the ladder at his college alma-matter, SUNY Cortland. He will be serving as the top assistant to coach Tom Spanbauer this winter.
Phillips led Batavia's team on the floor as a point guard and that knowledge along with the work ethic it takes to play BHS coach Buddy Brasky's high-octane pressure defense has translated well into his coaching career.
Phillips went right from his playing days to coaching when he started working as an assistant coach for the Batavia jayvee program in 2004.
He picked up valuable experience as an assistant with both the jayvee and varsity squads at BHS for two years. During that time he also was the head coach for four different Rochester Area Players AAU teams. He also worked as a member of the Board of Directors for RAP where he was involved in planning AAU tournaments.
Phillips has also been Brasky's assistant coach for the Western Scholastic boys basketball teams at the Empire State Games for the past two summers.
At Cortland, he got his start in college coaching as a team manager during the 2006-2007 season, where he handled film work along with game and practice preparation.
He was promoted to student-assistant coach last year.
His work in assisting Spanbauer, scouting, coordinating practice and game day video along with breaking down statistics earned him the top assistant position.
Phillips appears to be on the fast-track to achieving his career goal of being a head basketball coach for a college team.
When I first met Joe Zinni, he was a tall, skinny basketball player for Batavia High School, that was obviously not a top scoring option.
He knew his role on the court and basically wound up being an assistant coach on the floor for BHS coach Buddy Brasky.
He's turned that attitude into a coaching career.
Zinni will be an assistant women's basketball coach at Saginaw Valley State University this winter and will be responsible for recruiting, tape exchange, scouting, academic progress, strength and will have responsibilities during practices and games.
"I'm very excited for this opportunity, especially at such a young age," Zinni told me Thursday night. "I've worked under great people who have helped me get to where I am. My goal of making it to the Division I level is now realistic, so I will be working harder than ever to try and get there shortly."
Zinni was a forward at BHS, but will be working primarily with the guards at Saginaw Valley.
He landed this coaching job primarily because of his work with Genesee Community College last season.
The Cougars went 24-6 and wound up finishing as one of the top eight schools in the NJCAA Division II Nationals.
After graduation from Batavia, he spent 2002-2007 as an assistant coach at both the junior and varsity levels at his home school, working with the forwards.
Zinni assisted the 2005 Section 5 Class A championship winning team that made the state tournament for the first time ever.
He has worked as an AAU and RAP coach and was an assistant coach for the Western Regional boys basketball team at the Empire State Games the past two years.
Zinni is a 2006 graduate of Buffalo State College and also has an A.S. degree from GCC.
Here at the Batavian, we wish him the best of luck and know he is going to represent Batavia well as a big-time women's basketball coach.
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