News, news, news and more news. Some good, some bad, some just terrible.
…And we’ve only just started high school football practices.
Here’s the quick rundown on what’s been going on the last day or so.
Cover your eyes if you must. Good stuff is at the bottom.
Derby's Jake Tomczak, right, catches a ball for a touchdown during vs, Ansonia on October 29, 2010. He's reportedly out for the year with a torn ACL.
1. Derby’s Jake Tomczak out for the year? – The sterling WR/DB and keystone to Derby’s 2011 season was apparently lost for the season with a torn ACL, according to a report from Mike Pucci of NHR.
Beginning with a Tweet from @CTFootballLive (otherwise known as “Bay” in this space), rumors of a Tomczak injury had been floating around for almost a week.
Finally, the grim prognosis was confirmed by coach George French to Pooch Wednesday night.
Out for the season.
Tough, tough break for the Red Raiders this early.
“We were prepared for it (the bad news),” French told NHR. “It hurts but we have to get it past it.”
Just far, far too many kids are getting ACL injuries. Too many to count last season, now one already in the books after Day 1.
Let’s hope Tomczak, a senior, will make a full recovery and that this is the last we hear of torn ACLs this year.
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2. The NVL ditches insane league tiebreaker rule: First reported by the Republican-American, the NVL has dumped the silly tiebreaker record that caused so much confusion last year over who qualified for the NVL title game.
Thank God.
At first we thought Woodland, which beat Naugatuck head-to-head, would play Ansonia in the final a week before Thanksgiving. Then the athletic directors stepped in and said no, overall record (not head-to-head) was the first tiebreaker. That gave Naugatuck a second shot to clinch. The Greyhounds did and turned their annual Thanksgiving game with Ansonia into the de facto title game.
The original rule made absolutely no sense (what’s the point of divisions then?). Now, thankfully, they’ve restored sanity. Head-to-head is now the first tiebreaker for ties atop the division.
And there was much rejoicing. (yeay…)
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3. Danbury and Norwalk lose family members: Tragedy struck two local teams this week. Danbury lost Jay “Big Jay” Pegues, the father of Danbury senior Jevon Pegues, who served as the team’s bus driver for away games. He died of complications from diabetes, according to coach Dan Donovan.
Danbury’s football team announced the sad news via Twitter Tuesday night.
Norwalk lost former player Alan Nunez, 19, who died while swimming at Candlewood Lake in New Milford.
Nunez graduated this year. The Norwalk Hour posted reaction from former coach Pete Tucci.
New Norwalk coach Sean Ireland posted this message Wednesday.
Thoughts and prayers to both programs and families.
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4. Keeping up with the Drurys: The Record-Journal of Meriden immediately went to work with — what else? — a profile of former Pomperaug football coach Chuck Drury and his son, Michael Drury on their first day coaching together at Southington.
Lots to digest here. There were some nice anecdotes and a couple of poignant quotes detailing their relationship, its effect on Mike’s development as a player and coach and how it’ll work at Southington.
The answer: Mike’s the boss.
Of course.
“It’s amazing,” Mike Drury told the RJ. “I don’t know how someone can be in that position for (30) years and then come in and take a more back-seat role. Day 1 he said, ‘I’ll never overstep a boundary and whatever you say I’ll go with.’”
Said Chuck: “When he asked me to come over here, I told him I’d be a good Indian. I will do my job; I will not interfere with him. If he asks me a question, then I will help him. But I won’t question anything on the field. I’ll be a good assistant; I’ll work very hard for him.”
Also detailed in the story is Chuck Drury’s feelings about leaving Pomperaug.
“It was very hard for me to leave Southbury,” he said. “I left a lot of good people there. They were all in favor of me leaving because I was going to coach with my son.”
But, he added, Pomperaug is in good hands with new coach Dave Roach.
Former Pomperaug defensive coordinator John Pereira has joined the Durys in the CCC. We’re anxious to see how these guys fare in that league. We’ll miss them down here but wish them the best of luck.
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5. Trinity Catholic keeps it in-house: Our own Dave Ruden wrote his first football story of the year. A profile of the alumni coaching staff at Trinity Catholic.
Dave also has a blog post on New Canaan’s brand-spanking-new $80,000 scoreboard.
Yeah.
My question: Will they have instant replay on this thing? Out-of-town highlights?
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6. Hey, who’s that at Nonnewaug? – Why it’s former Derby coach John Oko!
He’s baaaaack.
The Chiefs, who tried varsity in the SWC a few years back, then tried again in the Pequot only to forfeit their 2009 season, have been quietly building a program as a junior varsity outfit since then. The numbers have doubled since then and Oko believes they’re ready for the big time.
More tidbits from the Pequot: 2010 Class M playoff semifinalist Gilbert/Northwestern wants to prove 2010 wasn’t a fluke.
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That’s all for now. Let’s calm down with the news the rest of this week, eh?
The scoreboard will have live feed capabilities, as well as instant replay -
I heard that Shelton lost Junior Mr. Everything RB/DB/QB/WR and Kick Returner Will Karcher for the season with an ACL. Huge loss for Shelton. The kid is a big, lightning fast, physical, pure athlete that made an impact as a Sophomore. I figured that this would be a break out year for him. Karcher and Milone from Masuk where the stars on that Monroe National Championship team a few years back.
That is a crushing loss for Derby. They could have been an NVL/S darkhorse. Without Tomczak I don’t see it happening though.
I also know that Barker from Darien tore his acl during Lacrosse season. I don’t know if he’ll be back for the season.
Pretty sure Barker won’t be playing this year as his main concern is getting healthy for lacrosse season.
Not to bring this up again, but isn’t he off the team anyway?