Coaching carousel update: T-Town to name next coach; Nothing doing at Bunnell, Ludlowe

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Torrington is set to name Gaetan Rodriguez as its next football coach, according to a brief in the Register-Citizen today.

The site says Rodriguez is a Torrington graduate and All-NVL player in the 1990s who has a “extensive experience” as an assistant coach, including a stop at New Britain.

His hire is pending approval by the eight-member selection committee, the paper reports, which should come some time next week.

He will replace former coach Dan Dunaj, who resigned in January after five seasons.

The impending hire will bring the number of vacancies to 11, including the still unexplained opening at Notre Dame-Fairfield.

As for the two biggest vacancies in Shangri La:

BUNNELL’s coaching search narrowed to two candidates as of last weekend, according to sources: Doug Cotto, the defensive coordinator at Newtown, and former Stratford assistant T.J. Caveliere.

There’s been nothing to report on the vacancy since. A call to Bunnell athletic director Dave Johnson on Tuesday was not returned.

LUDLOWE is also in a holding pattern, apparently. The search seems to have honed in on Platt Tech coach Vin Camera, but no more news has been forthcoming. A call to Camera last weekend was not returned.

NO VACANCY (15)

VACANCY (11)

  • Abbott Tech
  • Bunnell
  • East Haven
  • Fitch
  • Ludlowe
  • Notre Dame-Fairfield
  • Rockville
  • St. Bernard/Norwich Tech
  • Woodstock Academy
  • Wilby
  • Old Saybrook

‘Shoreline 8′ looks at aligning with SCC in football (updated)

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Ah, so the rumors were true.

Now, get ready for yet another round of Connecticut High School conference realignment.

According to a report by Chris Hunn of New Haven Register the eight football programs (10 schools total) of the former Pequot Sasasscus division are exploring a proposal to be absorbed into the Southern Connecticut Conference’s football fold.

Yes. Conference realignment fever… in high school.

(So what’s it going to take to get this done? Negotiating a deal with ESPN? Creating the SCC Network to compete with CIAC.TV? What’s the FCIAC’s play here? Start absorbing the SWC to rekindle its MSG Varsity deal? Or does the SWC make a move to merge with the NVL to save itself? Who’ll make the NVL network? Cox Cable?)

Anyway, this Shoreline talk is a preemptive move, apparently.

The ‘Shoreline 8′ — North Branford, Hyde Leadership (of Hamden, but a New Haven Public School), Old Saybrook/Westbrook, Morgan, Valley Regional/Old Lyme, Coginchaug, Cromwell and Haddam-Killingworth — want to jump into the comforting arms of the SCC because of increasing concerns that their position in the Pequot Football conference will be compromised by defections.

The former Pequot Sassacus Division recently saw Vinal Tech/East Hampton leave the league for the Constitution State Conference. Coupled with a few other possible moves, it seemed to throw a fright into the ADs over on the Shoreline.

The league realigned into three divisions, North, South and West in order to alleviate the issue. But the Eight are still looking for a lifeboat, even if the SCC doesn’t accept them (but, let’s be honest. Where else would they go? The ECC? The CSC?).

Update: Ned ‘Polecat’ Griffen has chimed in with a source that says the answer to that question is the ECC. Ned also says in his story that Avon, another Pequot school, is looking at the CCC and also mentions that Fermi (CCC) is closing and combining with Enfield (Pequot). Where would a combined Enfield go? We’ll guess it would take Fermi’s spot in the CCC.

As for the Pequot, “It’s viable and strong, but it’s changed a bit,” Morgan athletic director Kevin Rayel said in the NHR story. “It was more of an exploratory meeting to see what the future of Shoreline football is going to be. If other leagues come to speak with us, we’d welcome them too.”

The ‘Shoreline 8′ includes the new ‘Pequot South’ division — North Branford, Valley Regional/Old Lyme, Hyde, Haddam-Killingworth, Old Saybrook/Westbrook, Morgan and Coginchaug, plus Cromwell of the new ‘Pequot North’ division.

If approved, this move wouldn’t take place until 2015 since the SCC is committed to its current schedule for two years. ‘The Commish’ Al Carbone — who’s been dying to add schools to the SCC for years — told Hunn the SCC had no timetable to discuss the potential realignment.

How would this change the SCC?

Not much. The league would boost its membership to 27 teams, creating the possibility of a three-division alignment (Division I, Division II and Division III). And, sure enough, Carbone told Ned the Shoreline would ask for its own division.

Since all of the Shoreline 8 schools reside in Class S, we’re thinking the league automatically would put them in the D3 and add the SCC’s smallest (or weakest) football program.

The smallest school in the SCC is Sheehan with 450 male enrollment based on last year’s figures.. Hillhouse (last year’s Class M champion) is just above Sheehan at 451. East Haven is the third-smallest with a 459 and Foran the fifth-smallest with 474 and Law is sixth smallest with 490. Lyman Hall has 499.

In other words, the SCC makeup probably wouldn’t look all that different except for the one SCC school that gets bumped down to D3, and the configuration of the interdivision (aka: crossover) games.

The Shoreline would basically be its own league plus one. Which makes you wonder: Why switch allegiances at all?

Why become “Shoreline Football league, presented by the SCC?”

Just become the Shoreline Football League.

(It’s gotta be a pending ESPN/SCC TV deal, right?)

New Hall of Fame Classic combine, draft dates set

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The new (and, maybe, improved) Connecticut High School Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame Football Classic announced dates for its tryout combine and draft today.

The all-star game, which will be played exclusively by graduating Connecticut high school football players at Rentschler Field on June 29, will hold its tryouts on March 24 at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.

Offensive tryouts will be held in the morning and defensive tryouts in the afternoon. Prospective players must report between 8 and 9 a.m.

The draft to select players for the two teams will be held on April 3 at Rentschler Field at 6:30 p.m. Selected players and their parents will meet at Southington High School on April 11 at 6:30 p.m.

Windsor’s Robert Fleeting and Ledyard’s Jim Buonocore will be the coaches for the two teams.

For more information, contact John Fontana at (860) 628-4122 or email him at jfontana01@snet.net.

CIAC to move state championships to CCSU’s Arute Field

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Arute Field during a CCSU game day.

The CIAC confirmed Thursday it will move its state championship football games to Central Connecticut’s Arute Field beginning in 2013.

The decision comes just as the CIAC’s contract with Rentschler Field was up for renewal. The organization has held its state championships there for the past three seasons.

Arute Field recently completed a renovation of its facility, adding opposite-field seating to expand its capacity to approximately 5,500.

It also features a synthetic surface as opposed to Rentschler Field’s grass turf, which was typically beat up by UConn’s football season by December’s championship weekend.

The capacity of Arute Field also aligns with the average attendance of the state finals, compared to the 40,000-seat Rentschler Field.

“The CIAC Football Committee is grateful to CCSU for their interest and support in hosting CIAC events,” CIAC Assistant Executive Director Paul Hoey said in a statement.

“CCSU is the perfect size to accommodate our spectators and creates an outstanding championship atmosphere. Their facility is one of the best in the state, and having a turf field available will allow for predictability with scheduling and field conditions.”

While appearance and the synthetic move were factors, the move was mainly for financial reasons. According to several reports in January, Hoey contended that the CIAC lost between $20,000-$38,0000 during the last season’s four state finals. A source confirmed the CIAC lost $9,000 per game at Rentschler Field and added it will lose approximately half of that at Arute Field.

CIAC football committee members toured the facility last month and voted to approve the move at its monthly meeting Wednesday evening.

“Central Connecticut State University is extremely excited to partner with the CIAC in hosting their football championships beginning this fall,” CCSU Director of Athletics Paul Schlickmann said in a statement.  “This is an exceptional opportunity for our institution to showcase our beautiful campus and our premier athletics facilities to upwards of 10,000 parents, student-athletes and high school sports fans from all corners of the state.”

The Class LL championship between Xavier and NFA, played Friday night, drew 4,576 fans, according to game statistics. Significantly less attended the Class S and Class M championship games on Saturday morning and afternoon.

The Class L title game drew the second-best crowd of the weekend. Total attendance for the Saturday games was 5,189, according to figures.

Central Connecticut State hasn’t been used as a site since it hosted the Class M title game between Ledyard vs. Berlin in 2007.

“The Committee believes holding the championship games at Arute Field provides the best experience and atmosphere for our student-athletes and fans and makes the most sense for our organization at this time,” Hoey said in the statement. “Our relationship with Rentschler has been tremendous, and the decision to move to a new venue is not a reflection of any dissatisfaction with the people there or that experience.”

According to the Norwich Bulletin, which first reported the story on Thursday evening, the CIAC will now hold its annual championship week luncheon at the Aqua Turf in Southington.

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No Central decision (yet), but committee members talk open division (gasp!)

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The CIAC football committee met Wednesday to discuss, among other things, the impending move of its championship games to Central Connecticut State.

There was nothing official to report on that matter as of Thursday. But, make no mistake, it’s going to happen. And soon.

Update: It just happened.

We’re told that the football committee wants to move. All that’s left is crossing crossing the ‘Ts’ and dotting the lowercase ‘Js’ on a contract that will free the CIAC from the shackles of the oppressive money pit that is Rentschler Field and send championship weekend to newly refurbished Arute Field in New Britain.

So, once they agree to a deal, we’ll get four games in a confined venue to make the 5,000-plus who show up look like it’s the Super Bowl (satisfying some of the Rent detractors).

There’s plenty of space for the growing media coverage. Plus, if inclement weather finally rears its head in December, Central has a turf field to handle it. Oh, and the CIAC will be satisfied by making a better profit.

But that’s not what’s making waves today. (Update: Not in the morning, at least)

What is officially being bandied about, according to Ned ‘Polecat’ Griffen of The Day, is discussions over tweaking the state playoffs to create a Tech and Co-Op school division or (are you ready for this?), adding an Open Division in hopes of creating a true champion.

Granted, this was all just talk for now. Don’t expect changes anytime soon. The CIAC is committed to the current system until 2015, Ned reports. And these kinds of things need to be discussed, and debated and re-debated and all of the logistics need to be hammered out before it becomes reality.

And, yes, even Hand coach and committee member Steve Filippone conceded that a potential Tech schools division was a more attainable goal in the near future. “I know we’re not going to get both,” he told Ned.

But they’re thinking about it.

Be still your beating hearts, football fans.

The idea is that that a BCS-styled (ugh) rankings system using the polls and computer rankings, would select the top eight programs that year and automatically place them into the open division for the state championship.

Teams could not opt out of playing for the open/overall title.

While an open division is — in theory — an awesome prospect and would settle once and for all the annual No. 1 debate, there are few criticisms.

First, the selection process might be flawed from the start. You can create all the computer and ranking models that you want, but someone’s going to be upset over its methodology. Anyone who followed college football’s BCS rankings will certainly understand.

Second, an open division would render the four other state championships utterly meaningless. Who would care about the Open Division castaways? What would that title mean?

But Filippone addressed those criticisms in Ned’s story:

“The arguments against the proposal is that picking the top eight teams is subjective,” Filippone said. “I don’t know if that’s legitimate.

“The other is it would water down the four divisional championships. My answer to that is a young football player in the state of Connecticut can say that he’s a state champion and is going to feel very proud of that. When he’s getting dressed for that game, he isn’t thinking, ‘Oh, well, Xavier (of Middletown) is playing in the open division, they’re in our division, and we’d get our butts kicked if we played them. He’s not thinking about that. He’s thinking of playing for a state championship.”

Maybe.

But I’d also argue as much as players might believe that, there will be an overwhelming contingent of fans, media folk and peers who’ll say: “Nobody cares, kid. Get lost.”

Another argument working for Filippone is that, in the debate over who’s No. 1, one or two divisions are usually disregarded anyway. What’s one or two more divisions?

Also, consider that winning championships are the end-all, be-all for all high school football coaches. The less titles they win with what they may believe are legitimate teams, the more antsy they get.

In conversations I’ve had, there already has been grumblings among a few coaches that four divisions aren’t enough to satisfy the overwhelming desire to have better odds at winning a tittle — if for nothing else but the sake of their careers. The pressure on some of these guys to win championships is overwhelming.

Now that many of them might annually be stuck an open division, would there be a desire to (ahem) tank a game or relinquish style points to avoid it if they believe their teams don’t have a legit shot at winning an open title?

We allegedly saw signs of such shenanigans when the CIAC created its infamous divisional structure in boys basketball a few years back. That arrangement lasted all of three seasons from 2004-2006. It might be a little harder to swing in football, but don’t rule it out. Besides, it’s not that hard to influence the outcome of a football game.

Yea, so there are some issues to debate. We’re a long way off from figuring this out.

But deep within the monotonous and uneventful offseason (hardly), it’s at least great discussion.

Read Ned’s story and discuss.

Westhill assistant Jamar Green named next Stamford coach

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New Stamford football coach Jamar Greene

In an surprise, Jamar Greene has been named the next head coach at Stamford, our own Dave Ruden reported this morning.

Greene was chosen among a list of finalists that included Staples freshman coach and Stamford teacher Jon Boone and New Canaan assistant Chris Silvestri.

Greene, the first African-American head coach in Stamford football history according to Ruden’s story, is a 1995 Stamford graduate who served as the offensive coordinator for Westhill last season. He was the Stamford freshman coach two year before that.

He will take over for Bryan Hocter, who resigned after two three seasons. Stamford is coming off a 2-8 season.

Westhill had a breakthrough 6-4 2012 season, but forfeited four victories due to the use of an ineligible player.

Read Dave’s story here.

Notre Dame-Fairfield inexplicably fires Dawon Dicks as coach

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Notre Dame Fairfield High School head football coach Dawon Dicks was reportedly relieved of his coaching duties. Photo: Amy Mortensen .

Notre Dame-Fairfield’s Dawon Dicks confirmed a report Tuesday that he is no longer the school’s football coach.

“Please contact (ND athletic director) Rob Bleggi,” Dicks said via text message. “I’m no longer the coach of (ND).”

Bleggi released a statement Tuesday afternoon which simply said “Coach Dicks is no longer the head football coach at Notre Dame-Fairfield. I have no further comment on the matter.”

The report circulated publicly due to a protest hashtag on Twitter, #WeWantCoachD, in which ND students cried for Dicks to be retained.

Notre Dame went 1-9 last year. Dicks, an alumnus of the school, was the program’s fourth coach in five years following a one-year stint by Rico Brogna, two years from Joe Beler and, before him, Jason Hart.

Fairfield-Citizen sports editor Pat Pickens contributed to this report.


Branford to hire John Limone as next coach

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John Limone will likely be named the next head coach at Branford, according to a report in The Day of New London’s Shore Publishing division.

Limone, 29, is a Branford graduate who played quarterback on longtime coach Len Bonn’s final team in 2001. He went on to play at Marist.

He joined the football staff in 2004. Most recently, he served as the team’s defensive coordinator under former coach Mike Tracy, who resigned earlier this year.

From Chris Piccirillo’s article in The Day of New London:

“Branford football is very important to me and I’ve wanted to coach this team since the time I played here so it really is a dream come true. I want to keep pushing this program forward, get more involved with the youth level, and continue having kids do things the right way so we can hopefully keep our tradition going.

His hire will bring the statewide coaching vacancies down to a manageable 12, including Ludlowe, Stamford and Bunnell.

Categories: SCC

Ansonia’s Sean Byrne named next coach at Ellington/Somers; Plus more Pequot stuff

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The Ellington/Somers co-op football team didn’t look far to find its next head coach.

Valley folk should know him pretty well, too.

Ansonia alum and former assistant Sean Byrne took over the Pequot program today after spending the last seven years as an assistant under retired coach Keith Tautkus.

The 1995 Ansonia graduate played at Western Connecticut State and then was an offensive line coach under Jack Hunt from 2001 to 2005. The Chargers won two state titles during his tenure there.

Byrne then headed to Ellington, where he developed the team’s weight room program and served in a variety of assistant coaching roles, but was mainly the team’s offensive coordinator.

The Knights have won 19 games and reached the CIAC state playoffs twice over the last two seasons.

Update: The Courant delved into the subject more on Friday.

Vinal Tech/East Hampton bolts Pequot

Also, Ellington/Somers posted the composite 2013 schedule for the Pequot League. In it, you can see the league has also gone the three-division route for this year. That, in turn, led to this find: East Hampton/Vinal Tech is no longer a part of the league.

Citing a desire to be more competitive (you don’t say…), the football co-op is moving over to the Constitution State Conference alongside Platt Tech, Bullard-Havens and Abbott Tech. Vinal Tech will also pick up the banner of the Co-op, so it’ll now be known as Vinal Tech/East Hampton.

The Middletown Press picked up on the nugget Friday.

Said athletic East Hampton athletic director Shaun Russell:

“Both schools felt we needed a football situation that would present a more competitive and realistic opportunity for on-field game success. We needed a change that would provide both an immediate boost and a long-term path that would meet the individual needs of the two partner schools as well as the combined needs of the football program.”

As for the Pequot’s new structure, the league, which stretches all across Connecticut, has now divvied itself into closer, geographical ties. The Northern schools are grouped together, the Northwest (read: Berkshire League and outliers) are grouped together, and the Shoreline League schools are grouped together. Crossover games appear to be determined by previous records (1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, etc…), making it more likely for games between the northern and southern schools.

The previous two-division configuration left little room for scheduling crossover games, leaving the Pequot to almost function as two separate leagues.

Take a gander.

SPEAKING OF WHICH: As some on here have mentioned, there seems to be some grassroots discussion about the Shoreline Schools (the south division on your graphic), breaking away from the Pequot in the near future.

Jimmy Zanor of Shoreline Sports Tweeted Thursday night that “some” Pequot teams were in talks to join the SCC by 2015.

SCC Commissioner Al Carbone said there were no discussions about such an arrangement, but he didn’t rule it out. The SCC would absolutely love at least one more team to fill out its unbalanced, 19-team football configuration. North Branford is already competing in the league for hockey…

Zanor, who covers the Shoreline, has yet to elaborate on his report. But somebody’s talking down on ye ole Shoreline. And since some of our commentators have discussed it, we have to think there’s something afoot.

Where there’s smoke, there’s a burning league.

Coaching carousel update: Bunnell, Stamford interviews this week; Ludlowe close

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It had been a relatively few quiet weeks since David Brennan was hired as the next coach at Masuk. Then came the snowstorm, basketball tournaments, and somewhere along the line Brian Gordon was hired a Central and Avon hired , kicking the offseason coaching moves back into gear.

Late last week, Kyle Brennan of the Rep-Am (et. al.) reported that Jim Caouette, a former assistant coach at Wolcott, Cheshire and Wilby had been named the next head coach at Avon. This was confirmed by Gerry DeSimas of the Collinsville Press.

So, unless there’s something we’ve missed, we’re down to 13 coaching vacancies around the state.

The three big ones in the area, Bunnell, Stamford and Ludlowe, are getting close.

BUNNELL has come down to five candidates who will interview this week.

Bunnell’s candidates are: Law assistant T.J. Cavaliere, who previously coached with Duane Shirden at Stratford; Newtown defensive coordinator Doug Cotto; Foran assistant and former Notre Dame-Fairfield coach Jason Hart; Bunnell assistant and former quarterback Sean Murray (he led the program to its first state playoff appearance in 2004); and former Westhill coach and Stratford resident Dick Cerone.

STAMFORD will interview its finalists Tuesday and Thursday, according to our own Dave Ruden of The Advocate. There were seven candidates total.

Not all the names have been confirmed there, however. Among the several we’ve heard is Staples freshman coach Jon Boone, a former Florida high school football coach and administrator. He works at Stamford High and figures to be a prime candidate. Also, current Stamford assistant Riis Lane is in the mix. Westhill assistant Jamar Greene will also interview. Darien assistant and former McMahon star Idris Price has pulled out of the race.

Apparently, LUDLOWE still has teaching job details to work out before it names a coach. Sources have said Platt Tech coach Vincent Camera is at the front of the line at the moment.

St. Joseph defensive coordinator Chris Sadler and Staples backs and receivers coach Mac DeVito were two potential candidates, but the lack of a teaching position eliminated them a few weeks back.

Here’s a rundown of the vacancies filled and unfilled:

NO VACANCY (11)

VACANCY (13)

  • Abbott Tech – No news.
  • Branford – We’ve heard through the grapevine former coach Gary Gravina has no interest in returning. Other than that, nothing.
  • Bunnell – See above.
  • East Haven — Considering it was over a month after Greg Volpe resigned before anything was reported or posted, we have to assume things are going well.
  • Ellington/Somers – No clue.
  • Fitch — No clue.
  • Ludlowe – See above.
  • Rockville — No idea.
  • St. Bernard/Norwich Tech — No idea.
  • Stamford – See above.
  • Torrington — No idea.
  • Woodstock Academy – No idea.
  • Wilby – No idea.
  • Old Saybrook
  • No idea.