By no means is this a definitive list, and I’m still short on specifics …but here goes.
1. Does New Canaan have enough horses to reload (especially at QB for the fifth-straight time) to win their fifth-straight state championship …in Class L this time? Bringing back 6-4, 305 OL/DL and Notre Dame recruit Conor Hanratty and 6-1 WR Kevin Macari is a good start. Their gunslinger-elect this year is junior Matt Milano. And, no, there’s no word on any exotic transfers… yet. ;)
2. St. Joseph returns a stud in Tyler Matakevich, and the most experienced team in the league. But how will the former Class SS champion Cadets handle their new-found fame (complete with a rather large bull’s eye on their backs), the loss of big WR Jason Mawicke to Staples and much of their defense?
3. Is the winner of Ridgefield-Staples in Week 3 a lock for the FCIAC championship game? Ridgefield – which has a name in Florida recruit DT/OT Tommy Jordan, but many starting spots to fill — or Staples — which is in the same boat, especially on an offense that recently lost back Ryan Burke is out with an ACL injury.) Still, outside of that game both teams have primrose paths to the postseason.
There is, however, a wildcard…
4. Trumbull.
Will Trumbull have anything to say about that half of the FCIAC draw? The Eagles bring back a green squad led by RB/DB Frank Gaines and DB Phil Terio, but lost their QB and have some linemen to replace.
5. Is it rebuild or retool at Greenwich? Lots of new faces in starting places on a team that lost three games by a combined 4 points? (I think this is a softball.)
And, now the non-pressing questions: Where does Darien fit into all of this? The Wave were an opening-day loss to Warde from reaching the playoffs. …Will the Norwalk schools be any good this year? McMahon has a new coach in former Darien defensive coordinator A.J. Albano. …What does Central do without catalyst Christon Gill? Is Shabazz McIntosh going to be enough? …Who’s boss in Fairfield? Lots of new faces at both Warde and Ludlowe. …
Oh… and one more thing: and like many of you, I was caught by completely by surprise when Trinity Catholic receiver Shawn Robinson started showing up on recruiting radars. I think my response was something along the lines of who????
The problem here is A) I rarely get to see Trinity Catholic since it generally hasn’t been a serious force in the FCIAC and B) They run a Wing-T offense. He caught 12 passes for 250 yards last year. It’s tough to shine as a receiver when your playbook is a sheet of paper.
But there the 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior is, narrowing his choices to Rutgers and UConn in recent recruiting stories.
Here’s his recruiting tape:
Comments? Questions? The phone lines are open.
SPB
New Canaan should be ok. Maybe they will air it out less and run it more behind Hanratty. I don’t see a state title in their future this year. St Joes has the horse matakevich and will carry the load on both sides of the ball, they will be good but not repeat style. I know nothing about trumbull, ridgefield but it seems the league could be up for grabs more than ever. Who does Darien return anyone know? I highly doubt its anything other than reload for greenwich with the amount of kids they get coming out on a year to year basis. This should be a telling year for Central to see if they can pick up where they left off. As for the Fairfield’s both seemed much better than they used to be and could make noise based on their schedules. Its a great time of year isn’t it.
Jeez, that was fast. I just posted the story… I’ve added a bit more.
FCIAC this, FCIAC that…
You’ll get yours soon enough…
you can never count out new canaan or greenwich from being right at the top of the heap for an fciac title hunt. staples will once again walk into the championship this year if they can beat ridgefield and its hard to figure out if st. joes will be the team to beat this early in the season only because its hard to put the hopes of an entire team on matakevich’s shoulders. i heard he might be playing at wr this year instead of rb. i think this year we will see ridgefield vs. new canaan for the fciac championship game…at least i hope so..i just want to see hanratty vs jordan for a few hours. dont really care who wins. either way it will be a fun year in the fciac.
No mention of Darien at all? Have they fallen that far off the map?
They’re mentioned … I just don’t know enough about them yet.
Actually, their schedule is incredibly devoid of heavyweights. If they can somehow beat St. Joseph at home in Week 3…
Complete unknowns (to me at least): Wilton, Norwalk, Harding, Bassick, McMahon, Danbury… We’ll get back to you.
Staples and New Canaan will be good again and Trumbull will be better than last year. St. Joes returns a lot of players as well.
shuld be a fun year,greenwich flying under radar a bit,good spot for them,barrett is a beast,central has some size and athletes
Not so sure how good the league will be this year. Lot’s of team lost seniors to graduation.Never count out NC or Staples. Burke is a loss. I think greenwich will be down. What about Stamford HS? They always have good athletes and now a new coach. Ludlowe was surprising last year but lost 3 year starting QB Ferrara. Lost beast in Nagy.
It will be interesting as always!
@theruler I don’t think Greenwich ever flies under the radar. Barrett is good and there are plenty others to worry about this year.
mr b your rite in a sense,but they are coming off back to back 3 loss seasons(with argueably more talent),whens the last time THATS happened in greenwich? will be interesting to see what warde is about this year as well.
Greenwich lost a lot of skill-position starters, but they always reload easily there. The key for them is that they are big and experienced at the line of scrimmage.
Staples will not coast this year (I’m a Staples alum). The talent level is way down. 7-3 will be an accomplishment.
staples lost a lot of the talent they had from last year. greenwich always has great football teams due to the fact they have 5 thousands boys to choose from. st. joes will have a great team but it will really be a test for their QB this year, you cant let matakevich have to do everything. trumbull will have some good players like always but it will be a tough road with a lot of first time starters. new canaan will finally have a real test once they get to states this year by bumping up to a bigger class but they have the best coaching staff in the state so im sure they will figure it out. darien will be much better then lat year and i doubt that they lose to warde to start the year off again. central lost its best player in christon gill so it will be interesting to see if they repeat their fantastic year. i think the team that will surprise alot of people will be warde, dellavolpe has a great pedigree for building winning teams.
Ridgefield won’t be part of any FCIAC equation this year. Jordan had double shoulder surgery so may be very limited. Callahan had the team last year that was loaded but was able to nothing offensively. He does not have the talent this year so nothing makes me think they will be able to score points this year..at least when it counts.
Greenwich will be better on D than last year but the offense is a mystery… St, Joes is loaded!!! Its not just Matakevich… They have all the WR’s from last years team and lets not forget the QB Dellavecchia is not to bad either. Trumbull I dont think will be any better or worse than last year and Darien will be a tough game for anybody especially at home.
Joes will hammer Darien and will beat Greenwich. New Canaan vs. Joes will be the big FCIAC game this year. Ridgefield is way over-rated year in and year out and won’t factor in. I’m hear’in Central has a great runn’in game. If Trumbull had Staple’s schedule, they might compete – but they don’t. Otherwise, there’s not much more to talk about in the FCIAC.
Not buying this Rigdgefield won’t compete argument, just like I’m not buying the St. Joe is a lock argument. Perhaps I’m overlooking Central at this point. Give me a few weeks and I’ll have a better feel for the conference.
Clshmoremike your very wrong about Staples. I’m also a Staples alum and if you have seen the team play this year you’d see that they can potentially be better than last year. In terms of purely talent (players looking at top colleges) they have more than last year. The defense will be better than last years (which is saying something) and the offense will be better than it was at the end of last year when they had the backup QB.
I can’t see Greenwich missing the playoffs or losing 3 games this year. They will be back on top. Central will turn a few heads with their strength and speed. St. Joe’s should be good on O but they lost a lot from an average defense. They will have a solid 8-2 year but no trips to the fciac championship. NC, Darien, and Trumbull should all be in the mix as well.
Hmmm…am I the only who sees St. Joe’s as overrated?
Every year, in all levels of football, the media touts a team on the basis of a few returning “name” (read: skill position) players, and that team flops. Della Vecchia and Matakavich are rightly included in “players to watch” roundups, but that’s it – there’s not much else there.
Remember: this is a team that was not competitive with NC (35-13 late in the fourth) and had zero quality wins last year. Perhaps they are well positioned to win their size classification, but they are, at best, fourth in the FCIAC.
NC St. Joes will be the game of the year but whyat about Trumbull’s line that is very questionable and why did SJ’s reciever transfer to Staples?
Greenwich has issues on offense, QB is new and never took a varsity snap. RB and WR all new. Lines are decent sized and on D they look good. The fciac championship game will be Staples vs GHS/Joes/NC/. Staples and Ridgefield schedules are a joke other than the game against each other. Yes Staples plays GHS on thanksgiving but it doesn’t factor into the FCIAC title game which is ludicrous. Ridgefield could go 9-1 again and this time they will make top 8. when your 9-1 and not in top 4 like last year it tells u their schedule was awful. For a program like GHS/Staples/NC to go 7-3 or 8-2 most people think that is very good. To those 3 schools it’s a failure. That bar is set so high each year. Lastly, TC could be real good but lack of depth kills them in 2nd half of games when they run out of gas. How they have to play Joes/Staples/NC/darien in the same season and Ridgefield doesn’t I will never understand.
The LL,M,S divisions in my opninion really didn’t change much. Those same teams that always made the M-S classes will still be there. the L class really got reshaped with NC having to through Masuk or NDWH to win now. Hand is in their also and other than the last 2 years are always a tough egg to crack.
With all the hoopla about St Joes, I’m looking forward to the Saturday morning scrimmage with the Gaels next week.
i would have to agree with James that St. Joes is being alittle over rated perhaps. I would agree that NC v. Joes will be the game of the year, but really only up until that point. we are pretty sure both temas will come in undefeated at that point and its on MSG that week. But I as a fan first and foremost still think there will be an epic battle between NC and Greenwich is a grudge match after what happened last year…not to mention that game is as on now scheduled to be on ESPN for the northeast region (LIVE). that will be the game of the year with the two winningest programs of the past decaded going at it after a game that the year before was decided by a 2pt conversion with 63 seconds left in regulation.
I’ll have to check-out some of this FCIAC action when Crosby visits St. Joe’s.
Prophet – Where are you hearing that NC-Greenwich will be on ESPN (or ESPNU)? I know that they’ve done New Jersey games in the past, but CT…that’d be pretty big.
Remmy, don’t bother – it’ll be a slaughter. Go the Shelton scrimmage and you’ll get a good taste. You might want to see the Darien/Joe’s game and there should be some fireworks against a traditionally good team.
i was talking to a father of one of the kids at new canaan and he told me that the nc greenwich game was going to be the regional game on espn that week and he told me he got that from marinelli at new canaan himself…yes it will be pretty neat to see a ct game on espn so thats goign to be great
If you look at the schedules of all the Fciac teams it appears that Trinity has four powerful teams on its schedule. Doubt very much if they can recover to qualify for states.
Even though Staples played a very weak schedule last year nobody can take away their tremendous run through the Fciacs and the State tourney.
I think people are giving NC too much early season credit. They lost many of their top players from last year and will have to get by a good St. Joes team and a determined Greenwich team to make the Fciacs. Not to mention an athletic Central team.
All the intercity teams from Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford will not compete. Not counting Central!
frank costanza
im not disagreeing with you that nc is being given alittle to much early credit…but in new canaan’s defense they lose all of their star players at the end of every year so nothing really changes. plus they have the states best wr in kevin macari. they will be good again…its staples that interests me. st. joes is being very over hyped…early season projection: i say they lose to darien
I don’t think SJ is being over hyped. In a year in which the FCIAC overall talent pool might be a bit down, SJ returns a lot of starters. They will lack some depth, especially in the D-line and will need to replace a couple of linebackers but they do have (I think) 8 returning starters on offense. Their o-line returns three very good players but they may have to play d-line as well this year. They do need to shore up their defense and their lack of depth may play a role as well, especially if they have only a couple of injuries. Starter for Starter, I think SJ matches up very well with everybody in the FCIAC but as we know, it is a long season and injuries do occur and that is when a small school like SJ playing in the FCIAC could potentially struggle. Opponents best defense against SJ’s explosive offense just might be the opponents ability to grind it out on O to keep the SJ D on the field for as long as possible.
Sorry Prophet – Joe’s will beat Darien by 20+. I’m not trying to be provocative, but this one won’t be close. 31 is correct on all points – the only thing (besides possibly NC and maybe Greenwich) that beats Joe’s this year is injuries.
FanZant
everyone makes valid points i am just not sold on st. joes…i find that they always find a way to lose the important games. but i suppose only time will tell. i still think that until proven otherwise new canaan is still top dawg in the fciac.
prophet – we can agree. Joe’s needs to win the big ones this year and NC is the always a statewide power.
I am done listening to the folks who say NC is being given too much credit
Marinelli seems to traditionally give the seniors their shot every year. So the turnover is always big at NC
I would love to see them falter for a year, but I am not getting fooled into it anymore
Until they ring up a bad season(let’s say 4 losses), they are not going to be down. There is just too much action from that coaching staff and too many kids to fill in the departures
It will be interesting to see how they do in states. They’re going to have to be loaded in order to compete with some of those teams in L
I honestly have no earthly idea how NC consistently wins (have you seen the penny loafers and pedicures the men sport around that town?), but they do – year in and year out. Marinelli deserves more credit than the already over-abundant accolades he garners.
Then again, there are plenty of soft men in Darien, Wilton, Ridgefield, Westport, and Greenwich. Not exactly going to defeat the Germans with that crowd.
Let’s take some nominations for a new name for the FCIAC. Maybe something in French.
Just out of curiosity…whatever happened to Turner Baty? I thought I read that after he left New Canaan and returned to Florida to finish high school, he decided to walk on at Georgia. He is not on Georgia’s 2010 roster.
Roto – According to NC’s website, he’s opted for a year or two of JUCO.
did anyone hear anything about the darien-central scrimmage? is either team looking any good this early in the season…i did not hear anything about it and i was wondering how central is withoutthe qb from last year.
why is it that stamford high can never field a competitive squad,its not like central doesn’t have the same issues but they win.do we need to move?
mr c same here in danbury of late,both sports need a case of f,f,p-Football First Priority,alot of the kids wanna stick to a sport they know they will be competitive at,even te pop warner programs are down here,
Staples dominated Cheshire and Seymour today on offense and defense.
I’m not knocking the WR from Trinity, but it’s hard to believe that he got D-1 (or FBS or whatever you wanna call it) offers from that highlight tape. I saw at least 5 receivers last year who actually broke a tackle and none of them got offers from UConn or Rutgers. He must have had a phenomenal camp somewhere. Hopefully Trinity will wise up and at least throw him the ball 12 times a game and not 12 times all season!!