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Thursday morning at the fourth annual Fairfield County Sports Commission charity breakfast in Norwalk, new UConn football coach Paul Pasqualoni was the keynote speaker and he issued a “State of the Union” address on the Huskies after the team completed its recent spring practice schedule.

(Quarterback)
“No matter where you go, the conversation on football usually starts at the quarterback position and that’s where it starts at the University of Connecticut. We have a situation at UConn where we’re going to be inexperienced at that position this year. It’s the most unique position in sports to play, regardless of what level of football you’re at.
“At the end of the day, it’s all based on production. At the quarterback position, everything is based on production. It’s not height, it’s not weight, it’s not any of those things. It’s moving the chains, putting the team on your shoulders and scoring points.
“We’re fortunate in the fact that we have some athletes, we have some guys that are going to be good at the position, it’s just a matter of how fast can they become good? Michael Nebrich was the Player of the Year last year in the state of Virginia. He’s come into spring practice and really done very, very well. He’s a guy that reminds me of Tony Romo, he can beat you with his feet. He can move around, he can keep the play going and when he gets outside the pocket, you don’t know if he’s going to stop and throw it or if he’s going to run down the field. And that right now is probably the most productive style (of quarterback) in the National Football League. Michael’s got a long way to go but he’s a guy we’re excited about.
“Michael Box is a little bit older guy. From California. He’s played a little bit, been in some games but again, a little bit inexperienced. Scottie McCummings is from Massachusetts. He’s a big, strong guy, reminds me of a guy like Major Harris who was at West Virginia years back, for those of us that remember Major Harris. He can beat you with his feet. Very strong arm. Scottie’s got to learn to put some touch on the ball. He’s got to learn that he doesn’t need to throw it as hard as he can throw it every time. That’s an experience thing. And Johnny ‘Trick Shot’ McEntee, can get the ball out pretty quick. He’s pretty accurate with his throws and he’s working hard. So, we’ve got a nice group to work with. The issue is how quickly can we get to the point where we making good decisions on a consistent basis and we’re moving the team.

(Offensive line)
“The offensive line should be a solid group. We’ve got three guys that played who are tough guys. Our left tackle is Mike Ryan, a big guy, a fifth year senior. He’s a guy that in a year, if everything goes right for him and stays healthy, he’ll have a chance to play at the next level. Moe Petrus is our center. Another fifth-year senior that’s played a lot of football for us. It’s always important up the middle, you want to be good up the middle regardless of what the sport is and Moe will give us a chance to be strong at the center position and Adam Masters will be our right tackle. He’s a tough guy. Intense guy. He can block people. Three of the five really give us a chance to have a personality, a toughness up front.

(Tailback)
“The tailback position is another concern. D.J. Shoemate, a transfer from USC, has really had a very productive spring. He’s been a very pleasant surprise. He’s smart, he takes care of the ball, he can block in protection, he knows what he’s doing, so that’s a positive. We’ve got another young guy by the name of Lyle McCombs, who is a quick, smaller guy. You can put him in the slot, you can throw the ball to him out of the backfield, he can make you miss, he’s got some burst and acceleration. We’re excited about Lyle.

(Fullback)
“Ruben Frank … He can be a very good player for us.”

(Tight end)
“We’ve got some experience. Ryan Griffin is a nifty receiver. He can get down the field, get into the seam and that’s the hardest thing to defend. Ryan can make those catches. John Delahunt will be our blocking tight end.

(Wide receiver)
“We’ve got some experience at the wide receiver position. Isaiah Moore is a big guy, he’ll play the X for us. He’s quick, he’ll be in the slot. Michael Smith is coming back. Had a pretty good year last year. And we’ve got some younger guys. Tebucky Jones. Jr., I had a chance to coach his dad at Syracuse. He’s got some speed and can get down the field. We’ve got some talent there. We just have to get it organized.

(Defensively)
“We’re going to be a little bit stronger. The defense, at this point, is clearly ahead of the offense. A pleasant surprise for me is that we have some talent at the corner(back) position. That’s so critical in the game. We’ve got three corners that we feel can play. Blidi Wreh-Wilson is one of our captains, Dwayne Gratz is another one of our corners that’s good and we’ve got another fifth-year senior that hasn’t played much named Gary Wilburn, who I’ve been really impressed with. To have corners that you have confidence in is critically important. And I think we’ve got three and that’s a lot.”

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While it’s not official yet, new Fairfield men’s basketball coach Sydney Johnson has added two members to his coaching staff.
Stags athletic director Gene Doris said Thursday at the Fairfield County Sports Commission breakfast that Tony Newsom has been hired as an assistant coach and that Martin Bahar is the new director of basketball operations. Both men were on Johnson’s staff at Princeton.
With Tyson Wheeler staying from Ed Cooley’s staff as an assistant, that leaves one assistant coaching position left to fill and according to Doris, Johnson is looking to have that spot secured within the next couple of days.

Here’s Bahar’s bio:
Martin Bahar

Here’s Newsom’s bio:
Tony Newsom

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The city of Bridgeport, along with the Lighhouse after school program, celebrated a $50,000 grant from the United States Tennis Association by holding its third annual spring tennis tournament at the Sacred Heart University courts. Over 250 kids from 18 of the city’s schools participated in the event.
Each player received a medal and the winning teams were awarded trophies.

Along with the $50,000 from the USTA, $7,500 was granted from USTA New England and $3,000 will come from USTA Connecticut. The city of Bridgeport will also donate $7,500 for the programs.

Here are some pictures from the event.

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Ken Green got throught his first round Friday in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Tournament in Savannah, Ga. with his partner and good friend Mark Calcavecchia, shooting a 4-under 68.
Here’s what was written in today’s Savannah Morning News:

His round Friday brought out the old competitor in Ken Green.
Unfortunately for Green, he’s physically not his old self.
Green, an amputee below his right knee from a horrific motor home accident in June 2009, partnered with best friend Mark Calcavecchia in the first round of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.
They shot 4-under-par 68 at The Club at Savannah Harbor to tie for 31st place with two rounds remaining.
“I hit a lot of good ones,” Green said of his round. “You’re really happy in one respect and really upset with myself on the other.”
He felt disappointed in his play, which did produce birdies at 10, 11 and 14, with Calcavecchia making birdie at two of those holes. They also birdied Nos. 3, 6, 7 and 13 and bogeyed the par-3 No. 3.
“I really feel like I let Calc down,” said Green, who battles constant pain, whether or not he’s golfing. “Not that I can do a lot, but I gave away three, four holes we should have had. We could have easily been 8 or 9 under without even blinking.”
Green said he was trying too hard, that he was “just too fired up” for proper speed control.
While he’s happy to be playing, he also sees a positive in how upset he feels.
“Part of that’s good, because at least you’re thinking like you used to think,” Green said. “That old habit, that competitive mode kicks in. I know how close we were to being right up there.”

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In Sunday’s Post, I wrote about how it appears the Fairfield-Sacred Heart men’s and women’s basketball series’ are apparently very close to coming to an end because Sacred Heart athletic director, Don Cook, wants a “home and home” series with games at the Webster Bank Arena and games at the Pitt Center.

Here’s the link:
ELSBERRY-Fairfield-SHU-rivalry-appears-to-be-dying-1340302.php

Like I said in the column, I feel it’s the wrong decision.
Apparently, at least on the Fairfield basketball message board, the responders agree – to some extent. While some say that the game is an “event” and want to see it played at the WBA, others say that if SHU won’t budge from its “home game” stance, then bye, bye Pioneers.

Here’s some of the Fairfield board comments:
One poster wrote:

“If Cook doesn’t want to play at the Arena, then so be it. He wants an additional home game? He can have it. I’m sure he will have no trouble getting NJIT to play them at the Pitt Center. That should draw about 237 people and make him enough money to cover the cost of turning on the heat and the lights.”

And another:
“If FU were pushing to hold this game on campus, then I could understand where SHU is coming from. But holding this game in downtown BPT is just as much a “home” game for SHU as it is for FU. AHY is equidistant from each school (if anything, closer to SHU). SHU uses the Arena for some of its hockey games and uses the ballpark for some baseball games. Most of its students live in Bridgeport (their biggest dorm is across from the main campus in BPT and most of their seniors live off campus in the North End). They have a shuttle bus that continually runs from campus to downtown and the train station. What do we have? We play a few more games at AHY and have our logo on the court? The place seats 10K people- anyone who wants a ticket can get one.”
And another:

“First of all, I feel these discussions are about posturing and ego…… but more about posturing at this point. Yes, Don Cook wants a home game, but that is his only real bargaining chip. IMO, he wants more money out of the deal. Money talks. Right now I beleive we give SHU $10,000 play at the WBA. That comes in the form of 1,000 free tickets that he can sell for whatever he wants (average $10).
IMO, He wants more. Why???? Probably, because giving up a home game is a guaranteed game. He could probably get 40K our of UCONN or 75K out of Florida for a guaranteed game. Now, Fairfield is not going to pay him 40K, but I think we could up the ante. I don’t know if we have. Here are some options….. Give SHU:
1,500 free tickets plus $5,000
1,500 free tickets plus share profit from the game (75%-25%)
Play the Fairfield-SHU Women’s game at the Pitt Center.
Where is Don Cook’s community spirit???? Its a great game for Bridgeport. It is ridiculous for him to ask for a home game, if that is his “true” reason. The he should be publicly flogged. I am glad that Elsberry put this on Cook. This game needs to be played. I trust Doris to get this done, and make it a fair and equitable deal on both parts.”

I would love to see how a lot of you Connecticut Post readers and local college basketball fans feel – especially Sacred Heart fans (I’m not sure if the Pioneers have a message board or chat room website). If they do, send me the link. If not, comment here on the blog and we’ll see if the fans agree with Cook or if they say: “Play the game at the Arena every year.”

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Just got this e-mail from UB Sports Information Director Chuck Sadowski … thought I’d pass it along.

On April 29, the University of Bridgeport women’s soccer team will host Fairfield University in the third annual Diana Silonova fundraiser game. Game time is 7 p.m.
Diana is a former player for both Bridgeport and Fairfield, who was involved in a serious car accident in January 2009.
All proceeds from the evening will go to assist Diana and now needs help and support to keep making progress with her rehabilitation.
Tickets are $5 and a $200 club donation will give local soccer team unlimited tickets to the event.
There will also be silent auctions and raffles throughout the evening that will include some impressive soccer memorabilia and other items donated by local businesses.
Again, all monies collected will go toward Silonova’s medical expenses.
For more information on Diana, please visit silonova.com
Prior to the match, the Bridgeport and Fairfield University will also host a college seminar for high school players that will begin at 6 p.m. At the seminar, NCAA eligibility issues that players looking to apply to colleges need to be aware of will be discussed. The cost for the high school seminar is $50 per team and includes admission to the UB/Fairfield game.
For more information on the Diana Silonova fundraiser and the college seminar for high school player, please contact University of Bridgeport head women’s soccer coach Magnus Nilerud at 203-576-4727 or nilerud@bridgeport.edu.

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Here are some comments from Fairfield players Sean Crawford and Jamel Fields on the hiring of Sydney Johnson

Sean Crawford

(How did the meeting with coach Johnson go?)

“We all understood each other. We were sitting there and he walked in and it was like, ‘Hey.’ We were all anticipating our new coach, we just hadn’t met him personally before, we’d heard, but we hadn’t met him, so it was like, ‘Hey coach,’ and the first thing he addressed that he wasn’t coach Cooley but he doesn’t plan on changing our system. He embraces what he do because we can guard, so he’s embracing that and offensively, we can score. All he stressed was defense. He wants to fit
in with us, he doesn’t want to change us. He’s going to bring things from his system, what made his program successful and help take ours to the next level.”

(Were there nerves beforehand?)

“There was always nervousness. What he (Cooley) worked so hard for these last two years, you don’t want everything to change. A new coach could come in and say, ‘It’s a complete new system … I don’t want you here,’ but we all stayed together. Right after coach left, we all sat down and made a pact together that nobody would transfer, that we’d stay together. It’s hard to be coach Cooley but it seems like he’s the next best thing. He fits in. We feel like he’ll get through to us because he’s played before.”

(How important was that ‘pact?’)

“That was the biggest part because you see it with a lot of programs when a coach leaves, players also leave. With our team, we don’t have a superstar. Everyone looks at Derek like a superstar but Derek is a key piece to our puzzle, so without all those pieces to the puzzle we wouldn’t be where we are today. And once everyone was on board with everybody staying.”

Jamel Fields

(Talk about making that pact)

“We preached last year about being a family, so we knew we had to stick together. We just want to play for each other. Coach Johnson seems to be a good fit and we’re going to stay with him and ride this thing and keep it going.”

(What did he talk about?)

“He just told us, ‘You guys have started something special here and I want to be a part of that.’ Right now, we don’t want to change our system. We’ve already got some things established and he understands that. He preached to us last night that we have to play defense and we told him that we have a passion for defense here.”
“We had to go into the meeting with an open mind, see where he was coming from. Cooley’s left, we have a new coach here. Cooley did a great job here and I think that coach Johnson will keep it going. We believe in him and he’s going to believe in us. We’re very excited. I’m ready to get going already. No breaks, we want to play again.”

And here’s some quotes from Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones on Johnson.
“(He’s going to bring) energy and passion. Those are two of his strengths. And he’s very knowledgeable. He was a tremendous player at Princeton, so he’ll bring a great deal of energy. I know that coach Cooley did a wonderful job there and I think that he’s going to add to it.”

“I think the energy that you’ll see in practice will be the way his teams are going to play. I think your players resemble who their coaches are and I think in fact that his leadership will have them showing a lot of energy on the court as they play.”

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