My Two Cents

Follow staff writers Chris Elsberry at Fairfield, Rich Elliott and Kevin Duffy at UConn as they provide live updates from Midnight Madness in Connecticut.

On Wednesday morning, I was interviewed by National Public Radio in Hartford regarding the death of former Sacred Heart University men’s basketball player Chauncey Hardy.

Here’s the link to listen …

morning-edition-death-chauncey-hardy

When Nino Mannino was a student at Sacred Heart University in 2010, he made a video as part of a class assignment. He chose to do a feature on Chauncey Hardy. It’s ironic that at the end, Chauncey speaks about continuing his basketball career overseas in Europe.
Here’s the link to the video:

I wrote this six years ago when coach was elected into the Fairfield County Sports Commission’s Hall of Fame. A good read then and still is today … goodbye coach.

McDougall now standard-bearer for most coaches
Connecticut Post
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
STAMFORD — In the shadows of the 38th parallel, a young draftee listened as the techniques of the wing T offense were described on a chalkboard.
Jerry McDougall was fascinated.
Now, Tong du Chon, South Korea, doesn’t seem like quite the place to learn, much less get excited about the Xs and Os of football, but in the spring of 1961, that’s just where McDougall caught the coaching bug.
He was a member of the 7th Division, stationed in Korea as part of the post-war peace-keeping force. With the 7th, McDougall played baseball and basketball and, of course, football. In addition, he worked as an assistant football coach. Playing was one thing — that was fun. But learning about the game, understanding it, teaching it, that was special.
One day, Iowa’s legendary football coach Forest Evashewski, who won Rose Bowls with the Hawkeyes in 1956 and 1958, came to Korea to conduct a three-day football clinic. McDougall drank in everything.
“That was when I decided I wanted to get into coaching,” he said. “So I wrote to my (teaching) superiors in Maryland and requested to be released from their contract (he was elementary physical education in Arbutus, Md., before getting drafted) and then wrote to Monsignor John McGough, who was the superintendent of schools for the Diocese (of Bridgeport) at the time, and asked him for a job.”
He got one, working as an assistant baseball coach at Notre Dame High in Fairfield under another pretty good coach, Vito Montelli. That was in the summer of 1961, after he had fulfilled his Army duties. For the next 37 years in football and 44 in baseball, McDougall went on to coach thousands of kids, win hundreds of games and store a million memories. He is a member of the National High School Coaches Hall of Fame, was honored by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association as their coach of the year in both baseball (2003) and football (1993) and, on Monday night at the Westin Hotel, was inducted into the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame in the J. Walter Kennedy Service Wing along with Sacred Heart University men’s basketball coach Dave Bike.
Calvin Murphy, Kristine Lilly, Steve Young and the late Julius Boros were inducted into the Jackie Robinson Professional Wing, while Dorothy Hamill, Bruce Jenner and Bill Toomey were inducted into the James O’Rourke Amateur Wing.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m in awe of just being with all these great athletes,” McDougall said. “It’s quite a group of honorees.”
Well, when you win 470 games, two state championships and nine FCIAC division titles as a baseball coach, and another 265 games and three CIAC crowns as a football coach, you make yourself part of a pretty exclusive list. “I guess sometimes you don’t stop to smell the roses,” he said. “You just keep your nose to the grindstone. To be included with this group, it’s something that you read about but never think you’d be a part of.”
McDougall was born in Bridgeport and grew up in the South End, at the edge of Marina Village, one of 11 children of Helen and Fred McDougall. The fifth of nine boys, the band of brothers usually played stickball from dawn until dusk. His first taste of organized football came from Art Rua, who worked at the Hall Home Settlement on Atlantic Street and founded a youth team called the South End Tigers. He attended Fairfield Prep, learning football from coach, Al “Zeke” Sullivan (he also played baseball and basketball) before transferring to Bassick, again playing all three sports. McDougall went to Arnold College and played three years of basketball and four years of both baseball and football, being named a captain for his junior and senior years by coach Walt Kondratavich.
Still, playing far outweighed coaching until that day in Korea when Evashewski and his staff came for that teaching clinic.
Then, everything changed.
“I was really, I think, extremely interested in the intricacies of the game during his presentation, ” McDougall said. “We did on-the-field stuff and classroom learning and teachings as well, going through drills and learning techniques and everything that it takes to teach the sport.”
The baseball gig with Montelli lasted until the fall of 1961, when Central Catholic in Norwalk was looking to start a football team and, through the Diocese, McDougall got the job. In 1967, he took over as football coach/athletic director at Trumbull, and in 1971, added the job of baseball coach to his resume. He retired from football in 1998 and was going to retire from baseball in 2001 to spend some quality time with his loving wife, Loretta, but sadly, she died from acute leukemia that July. He stayed with baseball until this season, retiring in May.
During those early years, McDougall spent countless hours talking and learning about coaching with some of the state’s top names, including Paul Lane of Staples, Joe Sikorski of New Canaan, John Hagan of Stamford and John Kuzco, who’s now the executive director of the FCIAC.
“I went to the best and tried to learn from the best,” McDougall said. “I was in awe of those coaches.”
And now, hundreds of coaches are in awe of him. Congratulations, Jerry.

Chris Elsberry is a sports columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at celsberry@ctpost.com

UConn men’s head basketball coach Jim Calhoun was asked (yet again) about the ever-changing face of college athletics and the potiential changes awaiting the Big East (especially in football) and Calhoun continued to call for the university to find the best fit possible, be that the Big East or some other conference.

Here’s an edited version of his long … very long … answer.

“My thing about the Big East is … the Big East gave UConn a chance. When John Toner was asked, way back in 1978, if he wanted to join the Big East and he said ‘yes,’ UConn’s life, as we know it changed. When I came here in 1986, my life, as I knew it, changed. So my love affair with the Big East, that’s never going to change. The thing I continue to say, regardless of what others around us say, is we need to get the best situation, including the Big East, by the way. Whatever is the best situation for Connecticut, that’s where we need to go.
“We could be talking now and by Monday, a lot of things could have changed. I don’t have any preminations, it’s just that everything keeps changing and if we find the place that’s best for UConn, and that’s obviously led by Susan Herbst, our president, by Paul Pendergast, our (athletic director) …my thing is that I will never, ever be anti-Big East. I would hope that things can be worked out in the Big East, but if they can’t be and if we can find a better place for ourselves, then we would do that.

“I hope that through all of this we can stay in the Big East, I hope we do, and we may. And it may work out just fine. If I had my druthers, yes, Big East, but the single, most important point is I have to be loyal to what’s best, Susan has to be loyal to what’s best, Paul has to be loyal to what’s best, the trustees have to be loyal to what’s best, what’s best for the University of Connecticut going forward? For 32 years, to come from a small, New England team to a national team and why would we ever want to give any of that up?

“I think we have a great deal to offer, location-wise and other wise. We play at a national level, our women’s basketball team plays at a national level, our soccer team is number one in the country, we’ve invested over 200 million into our football program, so we’ve made some significant developments. Our school has grown, I just want to be in a place that’s long-term wise, not for Jim Calhoun-wise, but long-term wise what’s best for the University of Connecticut and that’s everything that I’m trying to push for.

“The Big East has been special. Is it the same Big East? Of course not, but basketball-wise, it’s on hell of a basketball league, it’s the best basketball league in the country.”

“From our standpoint, we’re not sprinting anywhere, but we’re looking to see what’s best for us down the line.”

Here are the times for the annual “Husky Run” thanks to the UConn athletic communication department.

Husky Run 2011
1. DeAndre Daniels – 19:32
2. Niels Giffey- 19:45
3. Ethan Waite- 20:01
4. Tyler Olander- 22:24
5. Ryan Boatright- 23:13
6. Jeremy Lamb- 23:54
7. Enosch Wolf- 24:05
8. P.J. Cochrane- 25:31
9. Ben Stewart- 25:32
10. Roscoe Smith- 27:05
11. Alex Oriakhi- 29:32
12. Shabazz Napier- 29:56
13. Andre Drummond- 29:59

UConn (2-4) vs. South Florida (4-1)
Saturday, Oct. 15, 3:30 p.m.
Rentschler Field, East Hartford (TV: SNY, Radio: WTIC-AM)
UConn have lost two straight and four of five.
Huskies are 1-2 at Rentschler Field this season.
Last week, the Huskies lost to West Virginia 43-16. South Florida did not play (bye week).
The Bulls lost their Big East opener to Pitt 44-17 on Sept. 29.
The Huskies secondary has allowed 948 yards passing and nine touchdowns in its last two losses to Western Michigan an West Virginia.
South Florida is averaging 503.6 yards in total offense. (223.2 rushing, 280.4 passing). That leads the Big East.
UConn is ranked 7th (out of 8 teams) in total offense, averaging 331.5 yards a game.
The Huskies were held without an offensive touchdown for the second time this season (West Virginia, Vanderbilt)
The Bulls averaged 49.8 points a game in their opening four wins and have scored 143 of their 199 points in the first half this season.
South Florida’s QB B.J. Daniels is second in the Big East in passing (1,294 yards), averaging 258.8 yards a game.

Pasqualoni quotes on South Florida game:
“Obviously, the game at West Virginia, turnovers really affected us. We had a chance to go ahead and force them to be more careful and it went to other way.”

“We were never able to recover from that 14-point swing (in the third quarter).”

(Bulls QB) “B.J. Daniels is a good thrower and a good runner.”

“They rush the passer really well on defense. This will be the best outside pass rush team we’ll see.”

“These games are all precious. We’ve felt a sense of urgency since the Fordham game. You have to take them one at a time. These are 12 one-week seasons.”

“Blidi is ‘getting better’ but will not play this week against South Florida.”

“West Virginia came with ‘maximium pressure’ and that kind of caught us a little by surprise.” (UConn allowed five sacks)

UConn (2-3) vs, West Virginia (4-1), No. 16 Associated Press/No. 19 USA Today

Milan Puskar Stadium (60,000), Morgantown, W. Va.

Big East opener for both teams

West Virginia leads the all-time series 6-1

The Huskies are coming off a 38-31 loss to Western Michigan

The Mountaineers are coming off a 55-10 over Bowling Green

UConn in Morgantown: 2009 (Loss, 28-24), 2007 (Loss, 66-21), 2005 (Loss, 45-13)

Right tackle Mike Ryan, who moved back to left tackle for the Western Michigan game after Jimmy Bennett was lost with an ACL injury, will start against the Mountaineers. Kevin Friend, who moved from left guard to right tackle for Western Michigan, will make this third start at left tackle. Steve Greene, who made his first start at left guard last week, is No. 1 on the depth chart for West Va.

Cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson (knee) is not listed on the two deep and likely will not play against West Virginia.

Johnny McEntee is officially the No. 1 guy at QB. The “or” is gone from the depth chart.

RB D.J. Shoemate is off the depth chart. redshirt freshman Jonathan Jean-Louis and true freshman Deshon Foxx are listed as Lyle McCombs’ backups. Shoemate (dislocated shoulder) will apply for a medical redshirt.

West Virginia is 31-11 in its last 42 Big East games and 64-18 over its last 82 regular season games.

Paul Pasqualoni on West Virginia
“Looking forward to starting the conference, certainly this will be a big challenge for us. West Virginia is a great football team.”

“These are the most important games.”

“What we’ve learned is we’re getting better, little by little. The other thing we’ve learned is that we’re not playing complementary football, the defense and the offense and the special teams have to work together and have each other’s back. We have to do more of that.”

“I expected to have growing pains but its time for us to get past that.”

“Hopefully this is how the offensive line will remain, unless there are more injuries.”

“J.J. has been waiting for an opportunity, that opportunity has presented itself. I’m anxious to see Martin Hyppolite practice this week, coming back off the injury.”

(On W. Va. QB Geno Smith) “He’s a classic dropback thrower.”

“We’re asking Sio (Moore) to do a lot (at linebacker). He’s got good feet, he’s got the speed. Sio’s clearly capable of playing any coverage.”

“We were disappointed (after Western Michigan). If we get some things cleaned up, we’re capable of being a very good football team.”

“The penalties (UConn was whistled for 10, including four personal fous) were disheartening”

“It’s on us to play better and execute better.”

“We didn’t have to make a ton of more plays (vs. Western Michigan), we just had to make a few more plays.”

“Blidi Wreh-Wilson: “It would be a stretch to say that he’d be ready for South Florida (Oct. 15).”