SPB's High School Football

UPDATE: And a fast-developing story today just gets weirder and weirder.

FCIAC executive secretary John Kuczo just confirmed that the league has voted to move the Turkey Bowl Thanksgiving Day game between Darien and New Canaan to Boyle Stadium in Stamford. “We just made the decision,” he said when I called at 3:30 before our mobile connection was cut off.

A follow-up call was not returned. But at 3:32, the CIAC website confirmed the move, which must be approved by both schools to take effect.

The decision, first reported by the website of the Darien Times this afternoon, apparently has been made amid vehement protests by the New Canaan football program.

Here’s the briefing on Ramfootball.com which was posted as of 2:45 p.m. Monday. It’s a brief that is soaked with hardcore resistance from the New Canaan program and expresses outrage that coach Lou Marinelli was being pressured to change the game — New Canaan’s last home game of the year — to Boyle Stadium.

Anyway, here’s the note that appeared on the New Canaan football site as this story developed.

Game Location Update

(as of 11/24/08 at 2:45pm)
Nov. 24, 2008 – All 4,000 of the “advanced sale” tickets made available have been sold, and Dunning can probably hold another 500 people, especially if additional bleachers are brought in. Coach Marinelli was told that the decision to move the game was entirely his, but that agreement seems to be changing. Darien has petitioned the FCIAC to move the game to Boyle Stadium, and there is very heavy pressure being put on the Rams’ coach to give up his home field so that more tickets can be sold.
It should be noted that New Canaan has only had 4 home games this season – Darien has had 6. New Canaan was sent on the road for 6 straight weeks of away games – Darien was never away from home for more than 1 week.

Update (6:52 p.m.): Then this addendum appeared below the preceding paragraph at 5 p.m.

That said… The Rams are very comfortable on the road… and making us drive to Stamford won’t change the final outcome for Darien.

And here’s the press release from Dave Stewart, who also writes for New Canaan Advertiser and Maxpreps.com:

Due to the overwhelming interest in this week¹s FCIAC championship football
game between New Canaan and Darien, the contest will be moved from New
Canaan to Stamford High School¹s Boyle Stadium. The move was made to
accommodate a greater number of fans from both towns.

Game time is 10:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

Stay tuned please, this could get ugly.

SPB

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This is kind of like saying, “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.”

But because of rampant rumors that just didn’t seem to want to go away, the New Canaan football website, Ramfootball.com felt it necessary to post this notice that the game will STILL be at Dunning Stadium at 10:30 on Thanksgiving Morning.

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Funny, I was just wondering about Bunnell football alum Shannon James just two days ago when flipping through the channels and seeing UMass play somebody on TV.

It was a fleeting thought, followed by another that wondered where James was now and where do most of our players go when they’re done playing ball.

Then I got a couple of emails today. Looks like James isn’t done playing ball after all.

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More unofficial CIAC state playoff clinches, according to Connecticut Post calculations:

Class S: With Wilcox Tech’s loss to Enfield, Plainville’s loss to East Lyme and and Berlin’s loss to Windham…Ansonia has clinched a state playoff berth for the third straight year. Northwest Catholic (Max: 125.0) can now only catch the loser of the Hyde-North Branford game next week.

Class L: Simsbury became the first official clinch in L with its win over Farmington. If Fitch beats RHAM tomorrow night, Masuk will join them.

Class M: Avon completes the field in Class M with its win over Stafford. Ledyard clinched with its victory over New London last night. So it’s Brookfield, Cheney Tech, Ledyard and Avon with only seeding left.

Saturday UPDATES
Class L: Fitch beat RHAM on Saturday, putting Masuk into the state playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

Class S: North Branford clinches a spot with its 6-0 victory over Cromwell today. There’s only one spot remaining, Hyde must beat North Branford to get in. Otherwise, Northwest Catholic will have a chance to clinch by beating Plainville.

SPB

I knew we wouldn’t be able to get through this season without a 50-point game.

ENFIELD 52, WILCOX TECH 0

Enfield coach Jay Gaucher is now on the block. He is suspended for the next game against rival Fermi on Thanksgiving.

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I was close to calling this irrelevant title night, what with two championship rematches that were seemingly decided in the regular season. But now that the games have been played and the trophies given out, I do have a soft spot for these championship games… just not the way they’re determined.

I kinda wish all of Connecticut’s leagues had championship games because there’s something definitive about crowning a league champ. Why else do we have leagues if we can’t crown champs?

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Just so everybody here knows, the NVL championship game between Ansonia (9-1, 4-1 Brass) and Kennedy (5-5, 4-1 Copper) at Municipal Stadium will kick off at 6:30 p.m. and not 7 as originally reported.

I was told 7 p.m. last week. On Tuesday, the New Haven Register had kickoff at 6 p.m. The Waterbury Republican-American, which deals with the NVL more than any of us, listed it correctly at 6:30 in this morning’s paper.

Grrrrr….

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Oh, that crazy, kooky, wacky Matt Fischer over at the CIAC. He’s always thinking.

Fischer is the CIAC’s information guy behind the scenes. He’s brought us up-to-the-microsecond CIAC scores and playoff standings, interactive team-by-team grids, state playoff recaps and playoff archives going back years.

His latest innovation? To give us all (yes, all) of the computer-generated tiebreakers for the CIAC playoff points… in advance!

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