Wednesday, November 14, 2007

week 10 (the itty bitty week) preview

There's only a handful of high school football games on the slate as most schools take the week off in preparation for Thanksgiving Day games. There are two local games on the schedule and I won't be at either of them. I will be making the long haul to Fairfield to see the Wethersfield soccer team in a state semifinal.
Playoff pictures are pretty clear here, with teams knowing exactly what is at stake for them in these games.
My record is 48-17, 6-3 so far.

Friday:
Weaver at New Britain: New Britain now knows that it's playoff hopes range from slim to completely gone. They must count on a huge upset by another team to reach the field. But they can still play spoiler for Weaver which currently holds a spot in Class M.
I loved the way New Britain played against Southington. It was actually one of their better games of the year despite the loss.
I expect to see a happy bunch of players at Jonathan Law when the Beavers lose. New Britain is my pick.
Hard Hitters, please get out to New Britain to say goodbye to a terrific group of seniors.
East Catholic at Berlin: I must say I have not seen a more lopsided matchup on the schedule all season locally. That should make the Cheney Tech team smile. They lost to Berlin in Week 1 but have proven to be better than their old co-op teammates.
Berlin will win, and with that win will officially clinch its playoff spot.
STATE PICK OF THE WEEK
Avon at Ellington/Somers, Saturday, 1:30 p.m.: Ellington needs at least one win over Avon or Tolland in its final two to have a shot at the postseason. They'll probably need to win both, and those teams have a combined 15 wins.
Meanwhile, Avon still has slim hopes, but could be the unfortunate team that misses the playoffs with a 9-1 record.
Ellington has not played a tough schedule yet. Avon is the first team they will play with a better than .500 record. Tolland will be the second (or third if Stafford goes over the mark this week). That's not something you like to see staring you in the face this late in the season.
I expect Avon to play spoiler, and keep its hope alive.

I'll do these one more week for Thanksgiving.

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unbelievable

This is a link to a story about a high school runner in Ohio finishing her senior state championship race after a multiple fracture of her leg in the final lengths.
I can't really add anything to the story, but check it out.
WARNING: THE VIDEO MAY BE UNSETTLING

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=3111847&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab8pos1

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results are in

I've been scouring the CIAC website for swim results all night, and they're finally all in from the class meets. Sad to say only four locals qualified for the state open meet as individuals (a couple Farmington relays as well). Those would be Taylor Friedmann (Berlin), Megan Sisson (Plainville), Alyssa "Millie" Mills (Plainville) and Monika Drogosz (Farmington). They get to brave the traffic of a Yale-Harvard game on Saturday for the open, also held at Yale in New Haven (Mills will actually compete Friday night in diving).
It was amazing to see just how dominant the Class LL and L schools were in taking the open spots. Until those two meets finished Wednesday night, a number of other locals were in contention for the open. There were also some in the larger classes who did well but were edged out for open spots. Among them in no particular order were Jillian Chudwick, Jen Noyes, Carly Huffman, Melanie Norton, Melly Marrington, Maria Bartolotta, Molly Martin and Kelsey Cronin.
The top individual finishes were Drogosz's second in the Class L 50 freestyle, Sisson's third in the Class S 500 freestyle and Friedmann's second in the Class M 200 freestyle. Drogosz and Friedmann each qualified for the open in two events.
Farmington placed fourth as a team in Class L, but was not terribly close to the top three.
Interestingly, Cheshire, which notably set the national record for consecutive dual meet wins, a streak that extends 21 years, came in second in Class LL to Greenwich for the third straight year. The Rams last won the title in 2004, when the Cardinals were second. Now that's consistent dominance from both programs.

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Monday, November 12, 2007

putting the team on her back

I want to quickly mention the incredible performance of Berlin sophomore Blair Ferry, who has notched seven goals and five assists in three state tournament games.
We in Herald-land have taken to calling such performances "Carmelo-like" in reference to Syracuse's run to the 2003 men's national basketball championship behind then-freshman forward Carmelo Anthony.
Berlin coach Steve Yanosy rightly emphasized that Ferry has been getting a lot of help and good situations from the play of teammates. But nonetheless, she has been spectacular.
We'll be monitoring the situation to see whether Ferry should be wearing orange.

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give them a break

I want to take this time to complain about something that is in my opinion a serious problem with the CIAC. I'm talking about the organization's mandated ticket prices for state tournament games. For those of you who are unaware, the CIAC sets a ticket price of $7 for adults and $5 for students during the later rounds of the playoffs. All money earned from ticket sales goes directly to the CIAC. The schools that work hard to host the games get nothing of that, but can make some money for themselves by selling concessions or raffle tickets as some do.
My problem is not as much with the fact that the schools don't get the money (but believe me, they should get a cut) as that the CIAC has the audacity to charge students so much to attend games. The CIAC should be doing everything within its power to promote athletics in the schools and that includes encouraging the rest of the student body to watch their classmates. I saw good student crowds in Wethersfield and Rocky Hill last week for games that were free (not mandated by the CIAC to charge entrance fees in the early rounds).
Students are naturally excited when their school reaches a state tournament game. They want to go to the games if they can get to the site. But many students don't have a lot of money to spend, and quite honestly are not interested enough to spend five dollars on a high school game. Underclassmen are often not old enough to have jobs, and even those who are can only work part-time, usually for close to minimum wage.
For the record, I feel that seven dollars is a lot to ask adults to pay for games. I understand the CIAC has to make money to pay for some venues as well as officials, but five dollars seems like enough to charge anybody. Let the kids in for free, or at most charge them a nominal fee such as $1 or $2.
Maybe then we can get some more school spirit at these games.

week 9 in review

I DID IT!!! Not that any of you care about my results (nor for that matter is it as important as the games themselves in my mind), but I finally had my first perfect week in picking games. And ironically it was in one of the weeks I felt had several very tough matchups.
I said going into the New Britain-Southington game that I thought the Hurricanes would be much better than a lot of people thought. I was right. They had a very good chance to score late in the game to tie it, with Rafal Garcarz making back-to-back great passes that slipped through receivers' fingers. Alas, the Southington juggernaut is one game away from extending coach Mella's perfect regular-season record into 2008, an incredible achievement.
So Southington is in the playoffs and Berlin needs only a win against East Catholic to clinch it. New Britain will in all likelihood (barring a first win of the season for Harding) be on the outside looking in at the playoffs for a third straight season. Meanwhile, the bell tolled for Wethersfield after a loss to Weaver, so the Eagles will be playing for pride alone on Thanksgiving against Newington. The Indians may be the unlucky losers should they win that game to go to 9-1 and still miss the playoffs by a narrow margin. Again, Newington must root heavily for all of the teams it has beaten, including Bristol Central on Thanksgiving to upset the Eastern Lancers. Rocky Hill remains on life support and may send holiday presents to Plainville should the Devils knock off Northwest Catholic on Turkey Day.
See, I promised you it would all get much clearer this week.
As I expected (like most people) Greenwich took a pretty good beating from Florida power Naples. I did not get to see the webcast of the game, but I'm sure it was exciting to be there for such a rare occasion. We'll see how the Cardinals bounce back against fellow top-five opponent Staples.
My records now: 48-17, 6-3.

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