Senior co-captain Bo McCarty running a training drill as Ridgefield High gets its football season underway with its first official conditioning practice of the season Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009
[/caption]On Tuesday night, I received an instant message from pal Steve Kirck, the communications and alumni director at Notre Dame-West Haven. “Football practice starts tomorrow!” was the gist. I didn’t get a chance to IM Steve back, but my first thought — embarrassingly enough — was, “Huh? Is that…uh… legal?”
It only dawned on me Wednesday afternoon, when the News-Times’ writer Dan Farrand filed a report from Brookfield. The 2008 Class M champions had started conditioning.
Ah, right, the new CIAC rules.
Goes something like this: This year, the CIAC football committee agreed to give coaches the option of either running traditional spring practice or run an extra five days of preseason practice in the fall.
So, yeah, while I’m sitting here like a sucker thinking all (ahem, legal) practices were going to start Monday like always, we actually had a bunch of area teams hitting the football fields for the first time yesterday. Fifty-two teams in all eschewed spring practice for extra fall practice. The remaining 96 teams will officially get started Monday.
And, according to the CIAC website, here are the area teams who actually kicked off tryouts on Wednesday.
Abbott Tech, Brookfield, Bulkeley, Canton, Capital Prep, Crosby, Derby/O’Brien Tech, E.O. Smith, East Haven, Ellington/Somers, Enfield, Fairfield Prep, Fermi, Fitch, Foran, Glastonbury, Granby Memorial, Griswold, Guilford, Hartford Public, Immaculate, Killingly, Maloney, Middletown, New Fairfield, New London, Nonnewaug, Northwest Catholic, Norwich Free Academy, Notre Dame-West Haven, Oxford, Prince Tech, Putnam, RHAM/Lyman Memorial, Ridgefield, Rockville, SMSA, Seymour, Simsbury. South Windsor, St. Bernard/Norwich Tech, St. Joseph, Stonington, Torrington, Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech, Waterford, Watertown, Wilcox Tech, Wilton, Windsor Locks/Suffield, Woodstock Academy, Wright Tech/Stamford Academy.
So, uh, yeah. Football season is UNDERWAY!
…not that this changes anything. The Connecticut High School Football season STILL starts on Sept. 16, the last state in the union to actually start the season. Guh.
ANYWAY, to get outsiders in the mood, here are the preseason football stories that we’ve run today.
News-Times: Going camping — Area football teams return to the gridiron
Advocate: Trinity grad ready to coach his alma mater
So, uh, yeah… awright… let’s get ready to rumble, huh?
(Update: BY THE WAY, feel free to follow yours truly on Twitter at spbowley and Connecticut High School Sports at connHSsports and discuss the upcoming season with #cthsfootball.
SPB
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