Montrose graduate Chris Snee took a pay cut, helping the New York Giants clear room under the National Football League’s salary cap, setting up the Pro Bowl offensive guard to extend his career with the team.

Snee has had surgery on each hip in the past two years, leading to a shortened 2013 season for him and speculation that he might need more repairs in the future.

Prior to the new deal being reached last week, Snee made it clear that he was willing to work with the team, both helping the club and reducing the risk of being released in a cost-cutting move.

 “My role is to take a pay cut so they can bring in other guys who can help the team,” Snee told reporters. “That’s my job. I never complained about the money.

“I’ll do what I have to for the team to get better.”

Before restructuring, Snee was scheduled to make about $7 million in 2014, according to media reports. His new contract is worth about $2 million, depending on incentives.

Snee, the 34th player selected in the 2004 NFL Draft after a career at Boston College, has started all 141 games of his 10-year career. He missed just one game from the 2005 through the 2012 season and played on two Super Bowl champion teams.

WEEK IN REVIEW

District 2 continued an outstanding run through this year’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association basketball tournament.

The Old Forge (Class A), Dunmore (AA) and Holy Redeemer (AAA) girls all advanced to this week’s semifinals along with the Wilkes-Barre Meyers (AA) boys.

District 2 teams are 21-12 so far in this year’s tournament. The only Susquehanna County team, the Montrose girls, was eliminated in the first week of the Class AA tournament but the Lady Meteors put up an impressive fight, leading in the second half against District 4 champion Mount Carmel.

One more win for any of the five remaining teams would put them in Friday and Saturday’s state championships at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Old Forge will face Phil-Mont Christian Wednesday after defeating Marian Catholic, 43-39, and Jenkintown, 46-29.

Dunmore was scheduled to face Neumann-Goretti Tuesday in the semifinals after knocking out long-time nemesis York Catholic, 39-36, and pounding Mount Carmel, 58-21. York Catholic had eliminated Dunmore in the state second round or quarterfinals in four of the past five seasons.

Holy Redeemer faces Archbishop Wood Wednesday after defeating Fleetwood, 54-39, and West Perry, 53-47.

Meyers will face Constitution Wednesday after topping Philadelphia West Catholic, 51-41, and outlasting Delaware Valley Christian, 52-50, in double overtime.

The Holy Cross boys (AA) and Scranton Prep girls (AAA) won in the second round before being elmiminated in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

COLLEGE CORNER

Abby Zdancewicz was the top freestyle distance swimmer at Mansfield University as a freshman.

The Elk Lake graduate swept the 500- and 1000-yard freestyles in meets against Lycoming and Lock Haven.

In the season-ending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships, Zdancewicz swam legs on the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relay teams. The 400 relay team came within .51 seconds of a school record.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Lackawanna League spring sports season gets underway Thursday with boys’ tennis.

Montrose hosts Mid Valley in a Class AA Division opener.

In girls’ basketball, the Lackawanna League Senior All-Star Game will be held Tuesday, March 25 at Forest City.

In boys’ basketball, the Lackawanna League Senior All-Star Game, which will be held at Valley View, is still being arranged. Monday, March 24 is among the possible dates.

In track and field, the Lackawanna Track Conference will open its season Tuesday, March 25. Division 4 boys’ and girls’ openers include Mountain View at Lackawanna Trail, Montrose at Elk Lake and Susquehanna at Blue Ridge.

In boys’ volleyball, the Tuesday, March 25 Lackawanna League openers have Blue Ridge at Susquehanna, Lackawanna Trail at Mountain View, Western Wayne at Elk Lake and Abington Heights at Forest City.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

“COUSIN” CARL IS BACK FLIPPING AGAIN

Carl Edwards, winner of Bristol's Food City 500

BRISTOL, Tenn.—Carl Edwards did his traditional backflip on Bristol’s front straightaway after winning Sunday’s rain-delayed Food City 500.

Edwards was leading and had the race well in hand with less than three laps to go in the 500-mile race, when some, but not all, of the caution lights came on. The field slowed for the caution and while race officials attempted to figure out the reason for the lights coming on, the rain returned.

NASCAR quickly threw the checkered flag and called the race, with Edwards as the leader. It’s his first win of the season and first since last September at Richmond.

The key to winning the race for Edwards was made by his crew chief Jimmy Fennig. A caution came out on lap 422 after Martin Truex cut a tire on his No. 78. Edwards was running second behind Kevin Harvick at the time. Harvick and most of the leaders pitted, but Fennig told Edwards to remain on the track.

It was a wise move, because for the remaining 76 laps, Edwards was unchallenged for the lead.

“The team made the call for me to stay on the track,” said Edwards. “If we had stopped for fresh tires, I don’t know whether we would have won, but I trust Jimmy. I never question his calls. This team is ready for a championship. Everybody better look out.”

Edward’s teammate Ricky Stenhouse finished as runner-up, his best career Sprint finish.

“We were good all weekend,” said Stenhouse. “I don’t know if I could have caught Carl, but it’s good to see that our teams are back.”

Aric Almirola’s third-place finish was also his best. He and Stenhouse battled each other for over 10 laps, but finally Stenhouse was able to pull away, and Almirola had to settle for third.

“It was a good race,” said Almirola. “I kind of slid up one time when Ricky and I were racing each other. I think it might have been some loose rubber on the track. The team gave me a good car, and we learned a lot today.”

Tony Stewart was fourth, followed by Marcos Ambrose, polesitter Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, and Kyle Larson.

The start of the race was delayed by about two hours because of rain. The rain returned during lap 138 and it was stopped for 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Top-10 leaders after 4 of 36: 1. Keselowski-163, 2. Earnhardt-153, 3. Edwards-152, 4. J. Gordon-152, 5. Johnson-148, 6. Logano-141, 7. Hamlin-140, 8. Kenseth-138, 9. Newman-125, 10. Stenhouse-122.

“ROWDY” KYLE BUSCH TAKES BRISTOL

Kyle Busch didn’t lead the most laps or dominate Saturday’s Nationwide race at Bristol, but he was leading when the race ended, and that’s what matters in racing. As the laps wound down in the 300-lap race, Busch had to contend with rookie Kyle Larson, who pressured him at the end.

“The track really changed from practice,” said Busch. “We had to change our entire setup. (Matt) Kenseth was lightning fast, and I was worried about him.”

Kyle Larson was second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Matt Kenseth, Ty Dillon, Brendan Gaughan, Trevor Bayne, Chase Elliott, and Regan Smith.

Top-10 leaders after 4 of 33: 1. Smith-151, 2. Bayne-150, 3. T. Dillon-143, 4. C. Elliott-138, 5. Sadler-135, 6. Gaughan-131, 7. Scott-127, 8. Buescher-117, 9. Kwasnieski-116, 10. Cassill-105.

CAN JUNIOR LIFT NASCAR BACK UP

Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Daytona 500 victory is still the most talked about topic of the young season by fans and reporters. Junior’s win gave his fans just what they had been waiting for.

His visit to victory lane produced nothing but positive vibes for NASCAR and the entire industry. But no matter how bright the sun shines in one spot, somewhere else, rain is falling.

The black cloud hanging over this year’s racing business is the television ratings.

TV ratings have been down for the first three races this season, prompting debate about whether the success of the 11-time most popular driver can spur nationwide interest back towards NASCAR.

“His win impacted the entire industry,” said NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps. “He has a massive following, and his fan base is energized. But trying to measure an impact is difficult, and we look at a number of things. Television ratings are one indicator, but we're not overly concerned about that. It's way too early to tell where that's going to net out, and we think we'll absolutely see some gains.”

Phelps said the TV ratings and track attendance is very important to sponsors. Though there were no sellouts, Phelps said NASCAR was encouraged by this season's crowds, particularly an estimated 25,000 for qualifying at Vegas. Ticket sales for the July 5 race at Daytona also doubled over a year ago on the Monday after the Daytona 500.

For several years in the past, ratings have often slipped for some races, rebounded at others. Overall, the ratings seem to even themselves out at the end of the year.

While the ratings game might appear to be “doom and gloom,” there are other positive indicators within the sport.

NASCAR.com web traffic mushroomed in February for unique visitors (up 55 per cent), page views (68 per cent) and videos (122 per cent) from last year, and Twitter and Facebook volume about the Daytona 500 during the race increased 67 per cent. Earnhardt's Twitter debut hours after taking the checkered flag also helped drive more than 380,000 mentions of the driver.

Even with the poor ratings, Earnhardt has helped rev business. Daytona 500 merchandise sales at NASCAR.com climbed 1,454 per cent in the two days after Daytona with Earnhardt gear up 998 per cent in the same timeframe over Jimmie Johnson (last year's winner). One online retailer Fanatics.com reports Earnhardt merchandise is up nearly 1,000 per cent over the first three races of 2013.

“These are important signs, and in totality, it does tell the story,” Phelps said. “It's a positive to get Junior Nation out there wanting to show their colors; that's great for NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sponsors.”

Weekend Racing: It’s back west to the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA for the Sprint and Nationwide teams. The trucks do not race again until March 29.

Sat., Mar. 22, Nationwide Series race 5 of 33; Starting time: 4:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Sun., Mar. 23, Sprint Cup race 5 of 36; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: Who is Ryan Newman driving for this season?

Last Week’s Question: What is Mark Martin’s racing plans this year? Answer. So far, the only racing Mark has done is test for Tony Stewart.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.