excitement at Willow Brook

Have you noticed there's a very good team playing on the beautiful turf at Willow Brook Park these days.
No, I don't mean the Hurricanes football team. I'm talking about the boys soccer team coached by Matt Denecour.
For several years Denecour has struggled to find players willing to put in the time and effort to play and also with the skills to compete in one of the toughest soccer conferences in the state. Well, it arrived this year.
With the addition of some key underclassmen and the maturation of several players who have been on the team for a couple years now, Denecour's squad is making even the mightiest sweat it out, most recently forcing top-ranked Glastonbury to overtime before falling 1-0. That would have been one of the biggest upsets of the year in any sport.
Last week the 'Canes tied Simsbury, and ties seem to be their specialty so far this year. That will have to change if they want to get to the postseason. With the difficulty of their schedule (Simsbury, Glastonbury, Southington, East Hartford and Manchester twice each) they will need to get wins against their weaker opponents.
But I have a feeling they will get the job done and could be very battle tested and poised for an upset in the state tournament.
Suffice it to say, this is the most interesting story line I am seeing in the quickly moving season. I'll be following it closely.

welcome back

Summer "vacation" is over and it's back to the blogging world with a lot of things to talk about in the sporting scene, locally and nationally. I'm going to pound out a couple today.
Just like last year, I'll be focusing the blog primarily on high school sports, but occasionally talking about other subjects (as you will soon see). I will be back with my weekly high school football picks to be posted some time on Thursday or Friday afternoon before the games for the week. I also will continue to readily welcome comments and feedback on the blog, so let me know what you think.
Man, it feels good to have some high school sports back. The summer can drag on at times and as much as I love baseball, it gets tiring having one main sport to cover for three months and very little else to keep an eye on.
And unfortunately the rain has already cancelled most of the first day of the season, with only a handful of volleyball games still going on.
As for local teams, I expect our girls soccer teams to be very strong again this year, with a LOT of star power at Farmington, Southington, Berlin and Wethersfield leading the way. The boys teams look to be down a bit, with nobody likely to be as strong as the top teams were last year, but you can never count Farmington out of title contention and a new tougher schedule should make them battle tested come tournament time. It should also make the NWC race really interesting for the first time in a while without them.
As for volleyball, I really like the teams Berlin and Southington will put on the court, and I see positives in Rocky Hill, Farmington and Newington, so the teams should generally be pretty strong.
I must plead early-season ignorance about field hockey, swimming and cross country teams right now, but I'm sure some stars will emerge.
So, in summation. It's great to be back. Please check the blog often. And let me know your thoughts and opinions on anything and everything I write about. The more the merrier.

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.

road to a title?

Every game I see the Wethersfield boys soccer team they play better than the last. I can't say I've seen a team definitively better than this one in the three years I've been covering soccer in the state.
Out of curiosity, I asked the team's two managers their thoughts on who the best player was. After goalie Hami Kara, they had difficulty coming to any kind of concensus between the two of them. They nominated about five or six different players and could not rank them.
That says a lot about a team. When those closest to it can't identify a superior player, and the team has done nothing but win all season long, things are looking up.
Following their latest win, a 5-0 romp of Ledyard in the second round on Thursday, coach Rob Jachym and many of the players planned on attending the Farmington-Glastonbury game at night. They can take it easy for a couple days. Their opponent in the next round won't be decided until Avon and Middletown play on Friday and the quarterfinal game won't be until Monday.
"It’s fun going there, knowing you’re in the quarters for once, and watch the other two teams battle," Jachym said. "I’m just going to relax a little tonight and focus on them."
But Jachym will be back to coaching for a short time Friday afternoon, as well as a light practice Sunday. If the Eagles play the way they did today, they won't be losing.

great soccer action

I just saw a very good boys soccer game between two very good teams. I say "teams" in every sense of the word.
While both Bristol Central and Wethersfield have several very good players, neither seems to have that standout player that leaps out at you. But they play together. One of the game officials commented to me during a long injury timeout late in the game that neither team wasted time on the field complaining to officials or fighting amongst itself. They were there for soccer alone.
Wethersfield coach Rob Jachym was disappointed in the way his team played having just earned the number-one ranking in the state coaches poll. But it is very hard to go undefeated for a full season, and it is better that the loss comes now rather than later.
"I’ll be interested to see how they come back and respond on Friday against E.O. Smith," Jachym said. "They will show what kind of character this team is made of."
I like what the Eagles are made of after seeing them for a second time this year against a much better team (it was Newington the first time around). I also really like Bristol Central, which has won six of its last seven after tying the first three of the year. The team has no losses yet, an accomplishment in itself halfway through the year.
I hope Central forward Rob Eschner didn't hurt himself too badly after a hard collision with Wethersfield defender Gustavo Perez late in the game. But unfortunately, a broken leg looked likely.
I've known Perez for a long time, and I'm sure he feels bad about it. It was just another example of two players fighting for every inch in a crucial game and sometimes injuries happen.
Great job by both teams all around, though.

unsung heros

It's time to mention some of the people who I like to refer to as "the hardest workers in high school sports". I'm not talking about players, coaches, officials, athletic directors or fans.
No, I'm talking about soccer sideline runners.
At just about every high school game you will find a small number (typically either two or four) of sideline runners, whose job it is to follow alongside the play with a spare ball should the game ball go out of play. If that happens these diligent souls must quickly and accurately toss another ball to the player making the throw-in, often with that player in a hurry to catch the defense by surprise. The runner must then chase down the lost ball, which is not always easy, particularly at Berlin's Sage Park where it often rolls either under the stands or over a seven foot high fence along the entrance road.
These runners are very often youth soccer players in town, or younger family members of the players. I remember Brian Webster, who works for the Future Fitness training facility in Rocky Hill and once played for the Terriers, telling me about the first time he was approached by then legendary coach John McVicar to see if he would be a runner for that afternoon's game. Webster, at the time, was a junior high school student and was only too eager to be a part of the big kids' game. I assume it is the same for many of today's runners.
At yesterday's Newington-South Windsor girls game, the ball runners wore youth jerseys bearing the names "Kowalski" and "Johnson". For 80 minutes they ran the sidelines and got the ball to players faster than fans could even see it went out of bounds. They were, as always, not announced over the loudspeaker. When the game ended they received no applause.
This is it.

legitimate beef?

Just heard a rumor today, which I am not sure how to confirm, regarding the recent New England Revolution game at Willow Brook Park in New Britain. Both sides were pretty angry with the officials during the game, and three red cards and a plethora of yellows were issued as small fights began to break out midway through.
I heard today that the middle official in the game was being assessed by his supervising organization during that game, and he actually failed that assessment. I'm not sure what that means for him, but it is interesting to hear.