Last week, the Union Springs boys basketball team became the first ever to win three straight Cayuga County Holiday Tournament championships.

It's a great accomplishment and you tip your cap to the Wolves for doing it. The CCHT has been going for over 30 years and is a tribute to the old small-school Cayuga County League.

But only Weedsport, Port Byron, Union Springs and Southern Cayuga participate. Wouldn't the tournament be even better if the county's most northern and southern schools played?

Bring on the Blue Devils - both of them - in Moravia and Cato-Meridian.

So you may wonder, how do you have a tournament with six teams? Well, I have an idea and it actually makes a little sense.

You would have to expand the tournament by a day, which you would think wouldn't be a problem. Having Moravia's and Cato-Meridian's fans attend would bring in enough money to make it economically feasible.

So here's how you make a six-team peg fit in a four-team hole.

The two teams that made the previous year's championship would get first-round (day) byes.

For example, if this plan was implemented for next December, Union Springs and Weedsport would get byes because they were in the 2004 championship game.

So Port Byron would play Moravia (keeping with the north vs. south concept) and Cato-Meridian would play Southern Cayuga.

Or you could have a battle of the Blue Devils as a cool way of kicking off the new format.

Either way, the winners of those two games would play Weedsport and Union Springs in the semifinals, then those winners play for the championship.

To quote those Guinness guys, "Brilliant!"

You get all six small schools in the tournament, a true Cayuga County championship.

The only drawback is that a team may have to play three straight days, but you could be fair and have an off-day before the championship to rest. You could start the girls tournament that day to keep the action going.

So to the folks who run the CCHT, how about it? Get both Blue Devils in the tournament and watch its popularity continue to expand.

Last month, I wrote and asked local high school coaches to send us their stats for our winter sports zone pages.

Overall, some coaches have been excellent in getting us statistics, detailed and on time. Some have been OK, but at least they're making an effort.

And then there are the ones who haven't sent anything. I'm trying to figure out why. Maybe they don't read The Citizen and know what we're doing? Maybe they don't keep stats?

Whatever the reason, I again ask coaches to either fax (253-6031) or e-mail (citizensports@lee.net) their statistics to us. For basketball, we need the stats by Wednesday at 5 p.m. For all other sports, we need them by Monday at 5 p.m.

If you have any questions as to what we're looking for or how to do it, you can e-mail me at that above address or call me at 253-5311, ext. 258 (weekdays after 3 p.m.).

And if you're a parent of an athlete whose stats aren't listed, politely ask the coach if they're sending them.

Finally, with the start of the Big East schedule, I've been getting phone calls whether certain SU basketball games are going to be on Adelphia Cable, the ones that aren't on ESPN, ESPN2 or CBS.

If you were channel surfing on Wed. night, you may have caught the SU-St. John's game on channel 6.

I called Adelphia's corporate office that day about it, they said they were going to have someone local call me about it, but I never heard back, but that's OK.

So if you live in Adelphia territory, check channel 6 for the game.