The 2023 New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Boys Basketball Tournament is returning to Glens Falls! Everything will kick-off Thursday, March 16th, with a press conference at the Cool Insuring Arena beginning at 12:30 PM. Tournament Games start Friday morning. 

The schedule for the 2023 NYSPHSAA BOYS Basketball Championships is as follows: 

“For many, the basketball court at the Cool Insuring Arena has a certain mystique,” stated Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins.  “In fact, some will say our basketball court is ‘sacred.’  From Mullen to Laettner, from Marbury to Huerter, from Jimmer to JG III.” 

“We may be ‘partial’ to a few of our Hometown USA favorites,” continued Collins, “but this list doesn’t even cover some of the legendary coaches or basketball programs that consistently win their Sectional Tournaments and withstand the rigors of the State Tournament to get to this weekend.  It’s why we say ‘The Road to Glens Falls. Where Legends are Made’.” 

“The Boys Basketball Tournament Committee and all the Volunteers make this weekend so special,” says Collins.  “Bill Higgins, Tom Sullivan, and Bill Wetherbee may no longer be with us, but their spirit lives on with how memorable this weekend continues to be.  And everyone who comes to Glens Falls for the Tournament can do so knowing they can check out our many restaurants, coffee shops, and attractions in one of the safest cities in the United States.” 

For more information regarding this weekend’s Boys Basketball Tournament, please check out the NYSPHSAA website. For more information regarding the press conference or any other issue in the City of Glens Falls, please reach out via email at communicationsdirector@cityofglensfalls.com, or tdrawbridge@cityofglensfalls.com. If your issue is urgent or if you’re looking to speak with Mayor Collins regarding a formal comment, please call (518) 920-4884.

Jacy Good and her husband Steve Johnson have spoken at 1,413 events, in 43 states and three countries. The couple recently spoke at Queensbury High School, where Jacy shared her personal story to implore the audience to “Hang Up And Drive”… Jacy lost the use of the left side of her body in a car crash in 2008 that killed both of her parents. Juniors and seniors at Queensbury High School heard the first-hand account of how distracted driving has forever altered her life.

Jacy showed Queensbury High School students how she puts her hair up in a ponytail with only one hand. “Think about the things that you love to do and then you imagine, can you do it with half of what you’ve got? I can’t run. I can’t ride a bike or throw a baseball around. These are my favorite things that I don’t get anymore, because a phone was more important,” she said. Jacy and her husband share their personal story as well as a message about distracted driving with their “Hang Up And Drive” campaign. The couple travels the country and the world, giving their presentation imploring people to stop using their phones while driving.

Jacy Good’s parents were driving her home from her college graduation in May of 2008 when a high school senior talking hands-free on his cell phone ran a red light.  This caused an 18-wheeler to swerve and plow head-on into the Goods’ car. Jacy’s parents both died in the crash. Jacy suffered two broken feet, a broken leg, a shattered pelvis, a broken wrist, a broken collarbone, a lacerated liver, partially collapsed lungs, damaged carotid arteries and a traumatic brain injury. She had a 10% chance of living through the first night. She survived a coma, blood clots, infections, rehabilitation, and physical therapy, and she re-learned to talk and walk. After four months, she was able to go home, but to a home without her parents. Much of the left side of her body still doesn’t work.

She eventually googled the car crash and learned what happened from news articles. Everything she read mentioned the phone. “Anything that’s not driving a car is distracted driving,” Jacy said. “It is a hand off the steering wheel, it is our eyes off the road, it is earbuds in our ears, it is what happened to me, it is our brains off the road. Multitasking is not an option when driving a vehicle. We need our brains to drive thousands of pounds of metal. We need our brains to talk to someone whom we can’t see,” she said. “We try to do them both at once, our brains hop back and forth. We are really good at tricking ourselves. You might not feel it.”

“These days it’s not just texting,” Johnson added, “but according to the surveys, it’s all the other things we’re doing on our smartphones all day long. We’re just doing them while we drive. There’s a lot of social media behind the wheel, people are surfing the web, people are writing emails, we’re changing songs on playlists and choosing podcasts, we’re playing with the GPS, we are taking photos and videos of ourselves and things around us.”

Jacy speaks openly about the loss that she has suffered and the challenges that she faces. Jacy appeared on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” television show when she picked out her wedding dress. “There is no mom to help me pick out that wedding dress because of a cell phone,” she said. “There is no last dance with my dad like I always thought I would get because of a cell phone. It hurts every bit as much today.”

For more information, go to www.hangupanddrive.com.