Archive for June, 2012

Former Foran football coach Ken Walker dies

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Milford's Ken Walker, as coach of the Foran baseball team in 2011.


It’s a sad morning in Milford.

Milford sports institution Ken Walker, who coached both football and baseball and taught physical education at Foran High School for decades, died last night of an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old. He died just six days before his 61st birthday on July 4.

Walker was the head coach for the Foran football team from 1990-1995 and won the Class M state championship over Hand in 1994. He served as Foran’s baseball coach in two stints, from 1986-2003 and left when his son, all-state shortstop Garrett Walker, graduated. He returned in 2011 and coached the Lions for the past two seasons.

Walker, a 1969 graduate of Milford High School, coached baseball and football at Milford, Law and Foran for almost 40 years, touching countless lives in and around the Greater Milford area.

“We lost a great teacher, a great coach and a tremendous human being,” said Foran football and softball coach Jeff Bevino, one of Walker’s friends and colleagues. “I’m so touched to have worked side by side with him for six years.”

Calling hours are from 1-5 p.m. Sunday at Cody and White Funeral Home, 107 North Broad Street Milford. The Funeral will be held Monday, 10:30 p.m. at St. Mary Church, 70 Gulf St. Milford.


Newsome picks up UConn, UMass offer

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Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome runs away from the entire Ledyard defense en route to a 95-yard touchdown run in the Chargers' 38-0 Class M title game. Newsome compiled an all-time, state-best 3,763 rushing yards and 62 touchdowns (total) and led the United States in rushing.

And so it begins.

Ansonia’s soon-to-be junior tailback Arkeel Newsome has been offered scholarships by UConn and UMass, according to Ansonia coach Tom Brockett.

As a sophomore, the 5-foot-8 Newsome ran for 3,763 yards and scored 62 total TDs, shattering the Connecticut single-season rushing record last season. He lead Ansonia to an unprecedented 14-0 record and a state championship.

Newsome attended both schools’ football camps over the last week and received offers not long after, Brockett said.

“It’s great for him,” Brockett said. “He’s a good one.”

Ladies and Gentlemen: Your 2012 Football Schedules

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The spring sports are winding down, there’s spring football going on (though, looking at my recent work, you wouldn’t know it here on the football blog), we are T-minus 10 weeks from the start of practices for teams they aren’t practicing now, T-minus 11 weeks for the teams that are and T-minus 14 weeks to the start of the 2012 High School Football Season.

For those of you not entrenched in high school football season already and have been scouring the internet for schedule announcements and leaks, the rest of us slackers can now finally get a look at who’s playing who this year.

The CIAC officially released its 2012 schedules today. We present them here in pop-out window form so you don’t leave the site and forget to comment on your precious local team.

But the most important piece of information has been left out: The actual 2012 playoff classes. We won’t get those until a little while longer.

And, no, this year there won’t be any sneaky revelations — like Ansonia dropping from M to S

Hint: It probably is going back to Class S … UNLESS the Ansonia school district decides to cut all sports from its operating budget. And, by the look of things, it’s well on its way. Middle school and freshman sports are on the block, teachers are being laid off…. It’s a mess.

Anyway, the CIAC this time has taken care to note that these composites are listed for 2011. So don’t read too much into which bracket your team resides, please. We’ll sort that out later.

Anyhoo, here are your precious schedule links.

Quick Notes: We are well aware Xavier is playing Hand this year, SCC fans. …The SWC has rescheduled league-wide. So, for the Masuk people out there, Pomperaug, Bunnell, Brookfield are on the schedule (thank God). …The FCIAC schedule is the same as last year with home-road games reversed (so New Canaan’s schedule remains awful). …Staples’ composite schedule shows eight games, it’s playing Warde in Week 8. …Many FCIAC biggies like Staples and Greenwich, still are looking for a 10th game (and we know how tricky that can be). …Here are the FCIAC Large schools that lucked out and found a 10th game:  Stamford (NFA), Trumbull (Branford!?!),  Danbury (Hamden).

Add: A few SCC non-conference games: Law plays Plainfield, North Haven takes on New London (yipes), and Sheehan plays Whitney Tech. The other open-date teams play each other  (Wlibur Cross-East Haven; Foran-Guilford).

That’s what jumped out at us for now. We’ll come back and examine later. Until then, chime in with your thoughts below.

Dates and times are subject to change from now until August.

Composite schedules***: Class LL | Class L | Class M | Class S

Master Schedule (including scrimmages)

School-by-school schedule links

Week-by-Week schedules:

WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5 | WEEK 6 | WEEK 7 | WEEK 8 | WEEK 9 | WEEK 10 | WEEK 11

*** NOT ORGANIZED IN 2012 CLASSES.

Cheshire solves its head coaching quandary (for now)

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Cheshire High School has, temporarily at least, filled its head coaching vacancy.

And, of course, they’re keeping it in-house.

The school is expected to announce today that wide receivers and junior varsity coach Don Drust is taking over for ousted/resigned coach Mark Ecke on an interim basis.

The story, citing sources, was first reported by Ray Curren in the Twitterverse and the New Haven Register online.

Drust was a player in the late 1990s, while Ecke was coach. Like Ecke before him, Drust doesn’t work in the school system. The Register reported that the staff, including adviser and former associate coach Rich Puliciano, will remain aboard.

It wasn’t immediately clear on how long Drust would remain interim coach, since Cheshire has yet to release details (as of Friday 4:30 p.m.).

However, Curren reported on Twitter that Durst will coach the team for the 2012 season and reevaluated after the season.

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