According to Greenwich football coach Rich Albonizio, the Cardinals might be going national this fall.
Albonizio, whose team has an open date on Nov. 9, said he has been in negotiations with ESPN on playing an out-of-state high school power on national television next year.
Nine FCIAC schools have been scrambling to fill dates since the SWC schools added Nonnewaug to even their schedules. While a few teams have found opponents, apparently nobody in Connecticut wanted anything to do with filling the defending Class LL champion’s open date.
“We were looking all over the country for a game,” Albonizio said. “Somebody at ESPN got wind of it and called to ask if we’d entertain the possibility of being one of their games of the week. I said, sure.
“They asked if we were willing to travel,” Albonizo said. “I told them, sure. Anywhere but the West Coast. I think the West Coast would be tough to do.”
Albonizo said ESPN is now looking around in football-rich states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida or Georgia. And it would have to be a school that isn’t busy playing in a state playoff game.
Albonizio said he didn’t have a deadline to fill the date, but that he was hoping to talk to representatives cable network in the near future.
Archive for April, 2007
Greenwich football on ESPN?
‘Cuse Connection
So from what I’m hearing we’re going to cover more lacrosse at the Connecticut Post this season. Which is great for me.
Though it will probably pull me away from covering my regular baseball beat, I love lacrosse. It was one of the few sports I really liked playing as a kid and I really fell in love with it when I was a cub sportswriter at Syracuse University.
In fact, two of the first people I met when I arrived at SU in August of 1994 were lacrosse players. I vividly remember visiting my friend Ron Masotta from Bethany on the Mount at Day Hall dormitory. Ron lived across the hall from two guys who were twirling their lacrosse sticks, doing little tricks with the ball and dazzled all the young co-ed girls, who practically swooned as they walked past.
My friend Ron introduced me to the two players. “This is John Matthews,” he said. “This is Casey Powell.”
I got to know the two guys pretty well during the next four years. Casey, of course, went on to become one of the greatest lacrosse players to ever wield a stick. I’d end up writing a lot about him and his brothers, Ryan and Mikey, before I left ‘Cuse in 1999.
But I actually got to know John Matthews better. He lived upstairs from me when we were sophomores. His friend Jen lived next door to me, every so often, we’d hang out during those gloomy snowy upstate New York evenings.
John, who was from the area, cracked the starting lineup of the vaunted SU program as a senior midfielder in 1998. By then, I was covering the team full time–on the road and at home. I remember John was the one who, after Syracuse lost to Princeton in the 1998 semifinals, tearfully told me longtime coach Roy Simmons Jr. was retiring, allowing me to pry the information out of Simmons in the press conference (which, ironically, had SI’s Seth Davis in attendance).
I rented an apartment from John’s father when I stayed up in ‘Cuse to cover Donovan McNabb’s final football season in 1998. I saw John, who was starting a job in New York, a few times. Especially when the 1999 lacrosse season started.
That was the last time I saw him…until last Saturday.
Sporting my bright-orange Syracuse track jacket, I was up in the press box at Fairfield University, getting ready to cover Fairfield Prep vs. Wilton, and hanging out with fellow SU alum Phil Soto-Ortiz, when one of Prep’s parents–who was working the clock at the game–overheard us talking. “Do you guys know the Prep assistant coach? He went to Syracuse,” the guy told us.
It turned out to be John, and I was flabbergasted. So, right before the game, I went down to talk to him. It was a quick reunion, but still pretty cool, we got to catch up a bit. John, who still works in New York, got married, moved to Fairfield, and recently welcomed his first child. Since Prep had an opening for an assistant, and it was right around the corner, John decided to help the club–which is going to be pretty good this year.
He had an idea that I was from the area, but didn’t know I worked for the Post (thanks for reading, John)
John learned from the best lacrosse minds in the country. So Prep’s kids are lucky to have him on staff. And, for me, it’ll be nice to see a familiar face whenever we cover Prep lacrosse games.
SPRING PREVIEWS
That’s right. The biggies have been published, we’re just waiting on a few more from our other staff members–like lacrosse–and we’ll be ready to rock for the spring.
Here are the links, I’ll be adding more as they get published.
2007 HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL CAPSULES
By Mike Cardillo
Softball 5-minute guide
By Mike Cardillo
2007 HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL CAPSULES
By Sean Patrick Bowley
Baseball 5-minute guide
By Sean Patrick Bowley
2007 Baseball Feature: Shulick’s return bolsters Bunnell’s staff
(P.S.–Autumn Pinette, our photographer for the Bunnell baseball photo, told me one of the Bunnell players shouted “Wait, you forgot the cheerleaders!!!” during the session. She didn’t know who said it, but my guess is it was a guy by the name of Smith, Mr. Cheerleader himself.
Whoever it was, that got a good laugh in the sports department. Thanks, guys.
