SPB's High School Football

This is an honor that’s looooong overdue (and so is the mention on this space .

St. Joseph recently announced that it will name its basketball court after veteran boys coach Vito Montelli in a ceremony Friday, Dec. 19 at 6:30 prior to the Cadets’ season-opening game vs. Central.

Montelli, who is beginning his 47th season at St. Joseph, has been the school’s only boys basketball coach. He has coached in 1,106 career games and has a record of 793-­313 (a .717 winning percentage), a career win total that ranks him first in the history of Connecticut high school basketball. His teams have qualified for the state tournament in 40 of the 44 eligible years and have won nine state championships.

It should be a nice ceremony that, once again, long overdue. Longtime friend and rival Charlie Bentley had Harding’s Miska Gymnasium court named after him two seasons ago. And even that was long overdue. But at least Bentley can say he beat Montelli to this punch, right?

As for St. Joseph’s team, which is coming off a much-publicized scrimmage “victory” over Windsor (according to eyewitness reports on here), this will be its season-opener. The Cadets get the FCIAC’s first bye when the 2008-09 season opens on Wednesday. “It’s great because now I’ll get to scout a few teams,” Montelli said earlier last week.

Should be a packed house. See you there.

SPB

Like football, there’s going to be live TV coverage of some SCC basketball games (none from around here, though).

Here’s the truncated announcement from the SCC (and not WTNH, btw):

“The Southern Connecticut Conference will be featured on the WCTX/My TV 9 “High School Basketball Game of the Week” television package this winter.

Seven contests involving nine boys and girls teams from SCC member schools,
including both the league’s boys and girls championship games, will be televised. Games will be streamed live on WTNH.com, and be replayed on Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. on WCTX (otherwise known as MyTV9).

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I got to Harding almost two hours late from the Jamboree’s 5 p.m. tipoff, but it turns out I was just in time.

Harding and Kolbe Cathedral were about to tip off against each other.

It’s a matchup we would love to see in the regular season, but can’t thanks to these overwhelmingly large leagues and a 20-game (no exceptions!) season mandated by the CIAC.

So we’re left with a jamboree.

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Believe it or not, we’re not one week away from the 2008-09 boys basketball season here in Bridgeport (and beyond).

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It give me great pleasure to let the cat out of the New Haven Register‘s double-secret state writers final poll bag…

This comes as no shock: New Canaan is No. 1

For the first time in school history the Rams have been voted the No. 1 team in Connecticut following a 13-0 season, including the school’s first FCIAC championship in eight years, a third-straight Class MM championship and the seventh state championship in school history (all under coach Lou Marinelli – pictured above with quarterback Nate Quinn). The honor was announced on the New Canaan website.

They are the first No. 1 FCIAC team since Darien in 1992 and the 11th in the league’s history, joining, Trumbull (three times), Stamford (twice), Staples, Darien, Rippowam, Stamford Catholic and Roger Ludlowe.

Despite a broken-down bus, whose faulty hydraulics pushed their anticipated rematch with Darien to 4 p.m., New Canaan beat the Blue Wave 26-7 for the second time in 10 days to finish as one of only two unbeaten teams in Connecticut.

New Canaan beats out Glastonbury, which finished 13-0 with a Class LL victory over Cheshire for the top spot.

TuesdayUpset
Team……………………………….. Points….Last
1. New Canaan (13-0) (20)………….656…….1
2. Glastonbury (13-0) (2)……………618……..3
3. Masuk (12-1)……………………….546…….7
4. New London (12-1)………………..478…….8
5. Brookfield (12-1)…………………..461……10
6. Darien (11-2)……………………….432…….5
7. Cromwell (12-1)……………………386……NR
8. Hillhouse (11-1)……………………364…….2
9. Cheshire (10-3)……………………308……..9
10. Ansonia (12-2)……………………295…….4
Dropped out: Seymour (6).
Others receiving votes:
11. Seymour (11-2),
12. 240; Ledyard (10-3), 206;
13. Hamden (9-3), 195;
14. Crosby (9-2), 142;
15. Newington (10-3), 77;
16. Greenwich (8-3), 47;
17. Bunnell (9-2), 40;
18. Ridgefield (8-3), 27;
19. North Branford (10-2), 21;
20. Rocky Hill (10-2), 20;
21. Newtown (9-4), 14;
22. Hand (7-4),
T23. Montville (9-3)
T23. New Britain (8-3), 8;
T24. Shelton (7-4)
T24. Southington (7-4), 7.
The following voted: Bob Barton, New Haven Register; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Don Boyle, SportingNewsCT.com; Bryant Carpenter, Meriden-Record Journal; George DeMaio, WELI; Mike DiMauro, The Day of New London; Matt Doran, Norwalk Hour; Scott Ferrari, Greenwich Citizen; Noah Finz, WTNH-8; Brian Girasoli, Norwich Bulletin; Ned Griffen, The Day of New London; John Holt, WFSB-3; Mark Jaffee, Waterbury Republican-American; Ken Lipshez, The Herald of New Britain; Mike Madera, Elm City Newspapers; Joe Morelli, New Haven Register; Paul Nichols, Middletown Press; Mike Pucci, New Haven Register; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant; Jimmy Zanor, Shore Line Newspapers.

6:30 p.m.

COACHES POLL: New Canaan is No. 1
And here’s coaches poll…. an interesting one. A complete flip-flop between Ansonia and Cromwell. Seymour stays in. Hillhouse sticks around at 10. Not bad, though.

Team (first place) record……………Pts…….Last
1. New Canaan (11) 13-0…………….386………1
2. Glastonbury (2) 13-0……………….360………3
3. Masuk 12-1………………………….328………5
4. New London 12-1…………………..288……..10
5. Cromwell 12-1………………………260……..NR
6. Brookfield 12-1……………………..259……….9
7. Darien 11-2………………………….222……….7
8. Cheshire 10-3……………………….191………8
9. Seymour 11-2………………………183……….6
10. Hillhouse 11-1…………………….180……….2
Dropped out: Ansonia (4).
Also receiving votes:
11. Ansonia (12-2), 160
12. Ledyard (10-3), 123
13. Hamden (9-3), 101
14. Crosby (9-2), 58
15. Bunnell (9-2), 33
16. North Branford (10-2), 32
17. Greenwich (8-3), 24
18. Montville (9-3), 21
19. Newtown (9-4), 19
20. Newington (10-3), 18
21. Weaver (8-4), 17
22. Rocky Hill (10-2), 15;
T23. Simsbury (9-3), 8;
T23. Windsor (9-3), 8
T25 Hyde (9-3), 7
T25.Northwest Catholic (8-2), 7
T25. Southington (7-4), 7.
The following coaches voted: Tom Brockett, Ansonia; Jim Buonocore, Ledyard; Dave Cadelina, Bridgeport Central; John DeCaprio, Notre Dame-West Haven; Chuck Drury, Pomperaug-Southbury; Steve Filippone, Hand-Madison; Tanner Grove, Montville; Jude Kelly, St. Paul-Bristol; Tim King, Valley Regional-Deep River; Bill Mella, Southington; John Murphy, Masuk-Monroe; Marce Petroccio, Staples-Westport; Bob Zito, Maloney-Meriden.

And so football ends after another crazy football day at the CIAC state championships.

Here’s our coverage of the finals:

Class SS: New London 27, Seymour 18 Seymour can’t beat New London in Sponheimer’s final game

Class MM: New Canaan 26, Darien 6: The New Canaan bus breaks down, delays the championship game, but the Rams finish 13-0, unbeaten for the first time in 40 years.

Class L: Masuk 56, Newington 13 Masuk destroys Newington 56-13 to wins its first title since 1998

Class M: Brookfield 16, Ledyard 14 Brookfield’s Scott Nick Cacace kicks the Bobcats to their first title since 1995.

Class S: Cromwell 14, Ansonia 12 Cromwell rallies to upset the two-time defending champion

Class LL: Glastonbury 28, Cheshire 14. Jordan Brown runs for 208 and Glastonbury defeats Cheshire.

Rank your top 10, including your pick for No. 1.

Congratulations to all the winners, especially our locals, New Canaan, Brookfield and, of course, Masuk. Congrats to everyone else on fine seasons.

Let’s take it easy on the gloating. Like New London’s Richie Vitale said, this is great but it’s only high school football.

We’ll have wrap up columns later. For now, lets just exhale and reflect on a pivotal 2008 year.

SPB

Here’s all we have to offer for this year’s championship slate. The Masuk bus incident kinda put a crimp in our plans, but considering the tragic situation there, we can count ourselves fortunate to be playing, coaching, reading and covering high school football games.

Without further ado, here’s the run-down. And, if you’re stuck home, you can listen to all the games online at sportingnewsct.com (Cheshire-Glastonbury, Masuk-Newington, Seymour-New London, Brookfield-Ledyard), WAVZ 1300-AM (Seymour-NL; Ansonia-Cromwell) and at WSTC 1400-AM/WNLK-1350-AM (New Canaan-Darien).

You can also catch live scoring updates (and all of our stories) at Connpost.com/highschoolfootball.

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Bridgeport is now looking for two head football coaches, not just one.
Bassick coach Dennis Wanzie submitted his resignation Friday, a week after Trent Allen announced his intentions to retire.
Jim Denton, the Bridgeport citywide athletic director, said officially collected both letters of resignation Friday.
Wanzie leaves Bassick just two seasons after taking over for George Loughrey. Last year, Wanzie coached the program to a 1-9 record, including a 20-18 win over Harding for its first victory in 63 games. Bassick went 2-9 this year, its first two-win season since 2001, when it was 2-7-1.
Allen leaves five seasons after taking over for Damon Lewis. He was 5-45, including 1-9 this year. The Presidents snapped a 19-game losing streak with a late-season win over Bullard-Havens.
“I’m burned out,” Allen said two weeks ago, echoing the departing statement of his predecessor. “Now I know what Damon meant.”
Denton declined to comment on Wanzie’s reasons for leaving.
Denton did saythe district has already heard from a number of “highly qualified” candidates, although none who are currently head coaches elsewhere.
“I’ve been very impressed with a number of the people who have been in contact with me for these two jobs,” Denton said.