BREAKING NEWS

From the Columbia Police Department via a press release:

Police, with the assistance of the Lancaster County District Attorney's office and its Child Abuse Unit, have charged an 18-year-old Columbia boy with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

The charges stem from an incident in the borough that was reported to police Friday morning around 9 a.m., involving a one-month old baby.

This story continues to evolve and we will post more information on it as it becomes available and have an update in Thursday's edition of the Columbia Ledger.

Thanks

Last night as the Columbia basketball team returned home, Adam Pittman made a comment that I thought was special, saying how much the seniors were going to miss playing in the Columbia gym.

Coach Mark Wisler and Mike Seibert also thanked the fans for their support.

It was definitely a special season, not only for the players, but the fans as well.

Although the site was almost two hours from Columbia, Saturday's game had a "home court" feeling as more than 300 fans made the trek. Strawberry Mansion might have had about 30 fans.

There are a lot of thanks to go around -- first to the players and coaches for giving the fans a great season, one that will go down as one of the best in the history of the school; to the fans, for their loyal support of the team, and for those who arranged for the three fan buses that got many of the fans to the game Satuday. You can all be Columbia proud.

Columbia basketball is certainly back as a major player at the league, district and state level.

Was it the best site?

Last week as I was looking for some information if the PIAA had a policy concerning fan buses, etc., I stumbled on something on Page 73 of the rules and regulation section of the PIAA handbook.

It was a policy section regarding criteria to be utlized in considering selection of sites for district and/or inter-district championship contests.

Before I talk about the policy, I will say this is just the third year that the PIAA has allowed Philadelphia city schools to compete and probably as part of the "bone," they were probably given some guarantees about hosting games.

I've been to Philadelphia enough to know that there ae some other facilities that are a little more equipped to handle games.

I knew about the bleachers only being on ond side and under the baskets; only having one scoreboard, which you really couldn't see from the benches. That was a given. But, I guess I expected something different.

So, here is the PIAA criteria:

• Quality of the competition surface.
• Location of the contest site.
• Accessibility to the contest site.
• Contest site emergency response plan.
• Contest site handicapped parking areas and handicapped accessibility to the facility.
• Contest site parking areas.
• Contest site security.
• Contest site spectator seating.
• Contest site restroom facilities.
• Contest site locker room and athletic training facilities.
* Ability to display the American flag and ability to play the National Anthem prior to the start of each contest.

I would say maybe the best thing was the competition surface and perhaps the spectactor seating. There were so many scoreboard lights out, it was tough to look at and the official scorer and timer (from SP) were real treats as well.

Was told before the game that there was no showers in the locker rooms and they were side-by-side, so each team could each what was going on. Also, you weren't allowed to drink out of the water fountains.

The concession stand, and yes, I was surprised there was one, was poor to say the least. They were under prepared.

Like I said previously, there were probably several places that wee more equipped to handle the game.

Also, the officials yesterday were from District 1 and were very compilmentary toward our team after the game.

Check out this link

Columbia basketball fans may want to check out this link, with some complimentary things to say about our fans and team: www.tedsilary.com

There are also some pictures on the link as well.

Silary writes for the Philadelphia Daily News and covered the game. His story will appear in the Daily News.