their loss

I'm sure by now many of you have heard about or read in The Herald the story of the Northwest Conference dissolving in the face of defections to the CCC. Six schools were approved by CCC athletic directors for entry into the behemoth conference starting next fall (Berlin, Middletown, East Catholic, Northwest Catholic, RHAM and Plainville). It is mostly a formality that the principals will finalize the deal soon.
That, along with Farmington's departure this year, will leave two teams in the Northwest Conference from the recent structure, Rocky Hill and St. Paul. Rocky Hill has applied for entry into the NCCC according to sources and St. Paul seems to be completely up in the air. There are very few options for the small Catholic school. Some conferences do not want private schools and it was rumored that East and Northwest might not get accepted into the CCC. Furthermore, St. Paul is now largely geographically isolated from most conferences in the state after its own application was denied.
My reaction to most of this is one of sadness and disappointment. Going back to when Farmington applied to the CCC and was quickly accepted, things unraveled quickly and in my opinion unnecessarily for the Northwest. It seemed that other schools immediately asked the question why Farmington would leave the conference and decided that there must be a reason, and they must act quickly so as not to get left behind themselves. But as far as I can see there was no reason why the Northwest could not have stayed together with eight teams, or more as it added the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy of Hartford, apparently starting this winter.
Perhaps I am wrong, but the actions of Berlin, Plainville, Middletown and the Catholic schools seemed to be totally reactionary. They panicked when Farmington left, and panicked more when they heard rumors that RHAM was unhappy with its admittedly absurd travel distances in the Northwest Conference. So they all immediately looked for ways out of what they perceived to be a collapsing conference. It shouldn't have ended this way.
The sadness for me is that as a writer and reporter I have thoroughly enjoyed the Northwest Conference, and honestly think it was far superior to the CCC, not perhaps in talent level at the top, but in a number of other ways.
Of course the CCC's larger schools could easily defeat the smaller NWC teams in many sports. But the CCC has more than its fair share of competitive imbalance across all sports. In fact, ever since the CCC's divisional realignment, other than football coaches you would have been hard pressed to find a coach in any sport who liked the competition in his or her division.
Meanwhile, the Northwest chugged along, consistently having spectacular balance and amazing races in football, basketball, softball, baseball, and volleyball. Every school in the conference brought something to the table, with only St. Paul struggling to be competitive in a majority of sports. Think about it.
Berlin- strong in just about everything, particularly football, baseball, wrestling and volleyball
Farmington- soccer and basketball power, with occasional championship level teams in other sports
Middletown- very strong in football and basketball, not to mention recent wrestling success
East Catholic- basketball hotbed, and very good in baseball and some "minor" sports
RHAM- strong in wrestling and baseball
Rocky Hill- softball, football, and soccer power, with strong teams at times in basketball
Northwest Catholic- football and basketball frontrunner with good teams in most sports
Plainville- baseball power, strong teams in softball and girls basketball as well
And don't forget St. Paul, which has been a softball power and getting better at basketball despite its noted struggles in some other sports. There wasn't a school here that didn't belong or add to the conference in multiple ways.
Furthermore, there is a different atmosphere around smaller conferences like the Northwest, Shoreline and NCCC as opposed to the giants like the SCC, CCC and FCIAC. In the big conferences, there is not nearly the camaraderie come tournament time that you see in the others. Nobody is prouder when a NWC school wins a state championship (after the team itself, of course) than the other schools in its conference. Coaches, minus the to-be-expected personality conflicts, root for each other. I just don't see that from any division in the CCC, where the lack of competitive balance leaves the league in a perpetual state of the haves vs. the have-nots.
I suppose the irony is that one rumored realignment for the CCC would be to put all seven of the former NWC schools in one division along with a couple others. Great. If that happens, imagine Farmington's consternation after leaving for legitimate reasons (they had no opponents in certain sports like field hockey as it is a much larger school than any in the NWC) or RHAM, who would be thrust back into long travels.
And what if the CCC does what many believe it should and sets up different conferences for different sports to fix competition problems? It will be nearly impossible for fans and schools to remember who they are up against from season to season.
For the time being, soak up the great rivalries in the Northwest for one last year. Maybe they won't know what they had until it's gone.