…From newspapers far beyond my reach covering our regional games:
Bullard-Havens hopes to continue revival against Tolland: Writer Matt Bucker lets his readers in on the Bullard-Havens experience.
Digging a little more, here’s more from the J-I staff in a notebook, which features a bit on the state of the NCCC teams playing football in the Pequot Conference. I guess they’re seven strong trying to get one or two more of the regular NCCC teams to play football (Granby, because Enfield plays for the Nutmeg and the Nutmeg is already losing Farmington). That would shake things up a little bit as far as that league goes.
Also, in case anybody didn’t know. Tolland will be hosting its semifinal game at the “Old” Tolland High school, which has lights.
Here’s what’s what on the Cromwell-New London battle in Class S:
The Middletown Press’ Tiffany Ventura: Cromwell battling injuries going into matchup with New London
The Press’ Jim Bransfield on Middletown-New Canaan: MHS prepares for throwing game of New Canaan
New London stuff from Ned Griffen of The Day: NL’s high-powered offense presents all kinds of problems
New London’s Mike DiMauro leads me to believe this is Bill Mignault’s last game at Ledyard: Is this Mignault’s Final Game at Field Bearing His Name?
Since we’re one, big happy family now…
The Greenwich Time’s take on Central-Greenwich part Deux: Men of their word: Greenwich seniors keep pact
The Advocate’s take on New Canaan-Middletown: New Canaan plays tonight vs. Middletown
Also…
In the Hartford Courant today, we had an item on Berlin, and, below it, an item on Nathan Pagan of Newington that bears mentioning.
Pagan, it says, has been overshadowed somewhat by Alex Thomas of Ansonia. OK, that’s easy to do. Thomas has rushed for over 3,000 yards and has set multiple state records already.
But this we didn’t know:
Pagan finished his career as the third runner to surpass 6,000 yards in state history with 6,262 and is fourth in career touchdowns with 86. This season, he gained 1,975 yards and scored 32 TDs, both career highs.
That would make him the state’s second leading rusher. Yet, nobody has said much about Pagan at all this year.
Let’s take a look at why. This is a thought experiment.
Newington doesn’t post their stats on Maxpreps.com which, love it or hate it, has become the ultimate publicity machine for your high school’s football team, especially if you have great players.
Reporters everywhere, especially someone like me (1 guy, 50 schools) are using it to help them find good stories and good notes to report. If your stats are on maxpreps, it’s easier for people like me to see what your team is up to without trying to track down tour coach on a Tuesday night. If I see something that strikes me, I’ll make the phone call.
The same thing that happened to Pagan, almost happened to Chike Madu of Fairfield Warde. While, yes, Madu played on a 4-6 team that didn’t warrant to-the-minute coverage, it was worth knowing that he was the FCIAC’s leading rusher. That was a fact I never realized until somebody sent me Chike’s statistics.
Lo and behold, he was the only FCIAC back with over 1,000 yards. I’m happy to say we got that note into the our special Thanksgiving section.
Another great example is Foran. Jeff Bevino‘s team wasn’t setting the world aflame, but his players had some pretty great nights. He’d call us–win or lose–with the information on his game. And, guess what, his players’ accomplishments always got publicized.
When Jake White set the single-game completion record for Foran, Bevino called me at home on Saturday morning… at 9 a.m. to make sure I knew. At that time, I didn’t. Though I would have eventually noticed, Bevino’s call stuck White’s night into my head.
Though I don’t know, just be reading between the lines, I’m almost positive the Newington people let the Courant know of Pagan’s season only recently, leading to that note in today’s paper.
I guess the message is, no matter if you’re team is 10-0 or 0-10, nobody will know anything about your players or your team unless you tell us. Sure, we’ll find information on our own through interviews and watching games, it’s our job. But I guarantee we won’t know everything. Get the word out so we can.
SPB
Hey Sean, love your blog. I think the coaches that don’t make their players stats available are doing them a great injustice. Im from the old school and i understand the whole “team” concept. Football in not an individual game, no “I” in team, etc. etc. But unfortunatley it’s a different time now. Not posting stats could be the difference in a kid getting a look. Right or wrong many coaches use the internet to look up players they might have heard of from another coach or read about in the paper. And if when they look them up no stats are listed, who knows, that coach may go onto the next kid and not look back. It’s not all that hard to do,so why not call the info in? It can only help your kids.