SPB's High School Football

Now that we’ve got the first look of Connecticut’s top(?) high school football teams out of the way, howabout a look at the state’s top recruits?

Around here, and maybe everywhere, it’s easily Stamford linebacker Khairi Fortt.

LB Khairi Fortt, Stamford's Blue Chip college football recruit (Stamford Advocate)

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior to be has made almost all the offseason high school football headlines (then again, what else is there to write about for high school football in the summer?) in Fairfield County.

Here are just a couple:

Offers come flooding in for Stamford’s Fortt — The Advocate via Stamfordfootball.com

Fortt, Redd earn MVP honors at Top Gun Camp — The Advocate (which also includes a report on another top recruit, Silas Redd from King).

Since he was a sophomore, Fortt has been a name to watch on recruting lists–with locals Boston College, Rutgers and UConn topping the early lists. Now Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State, Tennessee and USC have all climbed aboard.

Why not? Check out the raw stats: 6-foot-3, 230 pounds… a 4.5 40-meter dash. …340 bench max, 485 squat max. He’s ranked as the No. 2 linebacker recruit in the country by Rivals.com and No. 5 at LB by Scout.com.

Yow.

Fortt’s talent is undeniable. He’s also had plenty of guidance and help from his father, Guy, who has done just about everything to help get his boy’s name out there for the last four years. Guy Fortt today forwarded us this impressive piece on his son by the Sporting News (they still exist?): SN 100 linebacker mulls six schools

Here are the big recruiting sites with info on Fortt:
Rivals 100: Khairi Fortt
Scout.com: Khairi Fortt
ESPN College Football Recruiting: Khairi Fortt

Like most recruits, Fortt has his own extensive YouTube recruiting video, which you can check out below:

Hamden's defense swarms Cheshire QB Billy Ragone in last year's Class LL semifinal game. The Dragons have been Ranked No. 1 for the 2009 preseason by MaxPreps.com (Photo by Bill O'Brien, Southern Connecticut Conference)

HAMDEN IS NO. 1

Huh? What? Really? Already?

Most bloggers and certainly every reporter here in the Nutmeg state have yet to stir from their offseason hibernation, yet we already have the first peek at the 2009 football season.

Leave it to MaxPreps to do the job.

The nationwide leader in high school sports, MaxPreps has released its national high school football rankings.

If you actually care about high school rankings outside our fair corner it goes: No. 1 Byrnes (Duncan, SC); No. 2 Skyline (Sammamish, Wash.); No. 3 Longview, Texas; No. 4 Shiloh Christian (Springdale, Ark.); No. 5 Memphis University (Memphis, Tenn.) [huh?]; No. 6 Colerain (Cincinnati, Ohio); No. 7 Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.); No. 8 Allen, TX; No. 9 Cocoa, Fla. No. 10 East St. Louis, Ill.

But what about here? The MaxPreps rankings aren’t in list form (at least as far as I can see), so you have to cycle through the rankings, team by team. These rankings appear to be culled from offseason coaching surveys done by the MaxPreps northeast representatives, and they seem to have missed quite a few coaches. So, their preseason accuracy is always a question. Besides, lots can happen from now until September 16th (that’s a Wednesday, by the way… can we just start the season the week earlier please?)

So forget a grain, take these rankings with a big chunk of brine.

But its still fun what with just a few weeks left before camp opens.

Without further ado, the Connecticut Top 10 is… (drumroll).

No. 1 Hamden — The Green Dragons return nine on offense and seven on defense, off a surprising 9-2 playoff season. Guys like WR Josh Smart are gone, but the Dragons return Jr. RB Jordan Teague and QB Jason Lassiter. Experience and speed are listed at steam strengths.

No. 2 Seymour — An interesting pick for No. 2, since the ‘Cats have a new coach in Tom Lennon (Paul Sponheimer is still listed by MaxPreps) and lost bulldozer Mike Osiecki. But this is still a veteran group returning from last year’s Class SS runner-up (though no returning player info is listed by MaxPreps).

No. 3 Hotchkiss-Salisbury … Um, we’re going to ignore this one.

No. 3 Cheshire – An interesting pick. What’s in store for the Rams without do-everything QB/DB Billy Ragone. He practically carried this team on his back. RB/LB Dan Sweeney and big WR/DB Brian Havlicek return.

No. 4 Glastonbury – The Class LL champion Tomahawks take a 13-game win streak into 2009. I have a hard time believing this ranking. Top RB Jordan Brown is gone. So is TE John Pinone.

No. 5 New London — Now this is a stretch, and a clear indication that the MaxPrep rankings mean bobkus. After winning the Class SS title a year ago, coach Jack Cochran was fired. He subsequently found a new home in Monroe, taking his soon-to-be sophomore QB son with him. Rumors have been rampant this offseason that three other players have been looking at real estate opportunities in Monroe as well. So where would that leave the Whalers and new coach Jeff Larson? Not on this list.

No. 6 Cromwell — The Panthers lose the gears behind their Class S championship over Ansonia. LB/WR Shawn Holley, RB Tyshawn Prude and WR Dominique Carr. That’s plenty to say a No. 6 ranking is a stretch for Sal Morello’s team. They should be good, as always, just not this good.

No. 7 New Canaan — If there’s any team that disproves massive offseason losses means an off-year, it’s New Canaan. The Rams, who finished 13-0 and No. 1 in the state rankings, have now won three straight state championships in spite of annual high turnover. They lose a lot again, QB Nate Quinn, LB Nick DiRubio, LB/RB Chris Sciaretta and, of course, WR/S Kurt Ondash. Write this down: They won’t go 13-0 again. That’s about as far as I’m going to climb onto the limb. I’m sure coach Lou Marinelli will polish that off and tack it on the bulletin board. Anything to get his team’s gears going.

No. 8 Montville — Returns all of its top players, nine on offense, 10 on defense, including RB Tyler Girard-Floyd, LB Ricky Fort, FS Skyler McNair. Hmmm. Sounds good… Sure. OK. Not sure if I’m sold yet, but if you guys say so…

No. 9 Brookfield — Can’t see the Bobcats duplicating last year’s SWC/Class M championship season… unless they have another Treibt brother hiding in woods. This is a well-coached team, but, on paper, doesn’t nearly stack up to my preseason favorite: Masuk.

No. 10 Wilbur Cross — Omar Whittington is gone, Kendall Williamson is gone, Shaquille Marshall is gone… but the top stat guys are back, including leading rusher James Ward, QB Dontay Long and LB Tito Slaughter. Sure, this could be a pretty good team.

After that, the list goes as follows:

No. 11 Hand (This is QB Nick Merullo’s senior year); No. 12 Greenwich (the Cards had their one down year…and were 8-3 Time for a comeback); No. 13 Darien (Wheelock, Kosnik, Dysenchuk, Colandro … all gone); No. 14 Xavier (RB Julian Hayes is back as is a solid front line); No. 15 Masuk (Lost Bacarella, Guerrera, Conte, Baker and, of course, Cosmedy from the Class L champs. …but here come the reinforcements from New London. Will it just be Cochran? Or are all the other rumors true? I’ve been told by some sources no, and others say “absolutely.” Stay tuned. This is one team that’s going to be under an electron microscope this season); No. 16 Crosby (The Bulldogs lost all of their best players.); No. 17 Trumbull (Trumbull? Really? Jeff John, Mike Romano and Jake Sippel return. This group has been one or two plays from being a contender the last few years. Maybe the Eagles are due.); No. 18 West Haven; No. 19 King Low Heywood Thomas Hillhouse; No. 20 St. Joseph.

Ansonia chimes in at No. 21, Norwalk at 23, Staples 24 and Shelton 26.

Whew. What a crazy few months I’ve had, trying to refurbish, revamp and reinvent the online sports pages at the Connecticut Post and our Fairfield County affiliates. We’re making progress, but still so far away from where I’d like to be come football season. And there are going to be plenty of changes in the next few months.

Speaking of football, it’s that time again. Kind of.

Every year, it seems like an interminable wait between the first weekend of December and mid-August. Yes we have basketball season, and that certainly succeeds in diverting my attention. But then we have the relatively tame spring season and a whole summer before we finally hear the tweets of whistles and grinding of pads again.

Thankfully, the hunger is satiated somewhat in the summer. We get the Governor’s Cup Connecticut-Rhode Island all-star game up at Rentschler in late June, then we get the annual Hall of Fame Football Classic, which kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. at Sacred Heart University.

Sure these are only the outgoing seniors and you never quite see the best of the best of the past year’s college-bound talent (they’re safely off at summer school). But at least it’s football. And it sure beats waiting.

Besides, there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes in the nine months between football seasons — you have passing camps, weightlifting camps and the like — so with just a few scant months to go, games like these are a great time catch up with what’s going on in the football world.

Since I’ll be there tonight, taking one of the Connecticut Post’s cameras for a test drive, I figured this was the perfect time to fire up the new blog and get ‘er ready and rolling for August. Between takes, I hope to do a little mingling and find out what’s what. (It was at this game two years ago that I learned of Staples’ new Swedish transfer, Hampus Hellermark. Made for a good preseason column that year).

So, yeah, that’s it. Kind of a boring post, but what do you expect? I’ve been outta circulation for the last few months. I assure you, we’ll be back to our old selves in due time.

BY THE WAY, if you can’t get to Sacred Heart but want to see or keep tabs the game, be sure to check out the live feed from Don Boyle and the Gang at Sportingnewsct.com.

SPB

Ladies and gentlemen, the fall sports schedules have been released for the 2009 season.

Yes, this means football, football, football.

Included is the site for Ansonia football’s opening game with Hillhouse (at Jess Dow Field, Friday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.) and Derby’s inaugural NVL football schedule.

Also, it has the new FCIAC football schedules, including complete slates for the large schools, and the out-of-league slate for the small schools. Plus all of the Derby-less SCC slate. Bunnell opens at Newtown Sept. 18, Masuk opens at Weston, 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Of course, the CIAC also has all the soccer, field hockey and volleyball schedules you need.

See it all here at the CIAC’s sports website: http://www.casciac.org/ciacsports.shtml.

Many of these dates and times are subject to change until each sports’ scheduling deadline sometime before the start of the season.

Lots to talk about, check it out and give us your thoughts.

SPB

While reveling in the glory the day after my beloved Syracuse’s 11-6 victory over Maryland in the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament, I must have misplaced my phone.

Too bad, because I missed quite an important phone call — one I didn’t actually get until I listened to the messages on Monday afternoon.

(more…)

It took a month and change, but questions about my conspicuous absence from the sports pages has finally started to reach my ears (and via text message).

No. I haven’t left the Connecticut Post, run off and joined a mountaineering club (as this pic of me atop Sleeping Giant might suggest).

Yes. I am still an employee in the sports department.

Yes. I am no longer in charge of covering high school sports…

…sort of.

I have a new position here as the Sports Producer of Hearst Connecticut Media Group Interactive, which is another way of saying I’m the sports editor of the Connecticut Post and its Fairfield County affiliates owned by the Hearst Corporation.

(more…)

Fairfield Warde will announce Ansonia native and New Canaan assistant Duncan DellaVolpe as its next head coach Thursday during a meeting with sudents.

DellaVolpe was a standout at — where else? — Ansonia in the late 1980s and was a captain on the 1990 squad along with John Picheco, Dennis Tinney and Kevin Sharkey.

He’s spent the last 10 years as an assistant coach under Lou Marinelli at New Canaan. As the team’s offensive coordinator, he was was a big part of the team’s recent switch to a spread offense and developed three different quarterbacks into state champions — Curtis Casali, Charlie Westfal and Nate Quinn.

DellaVolpe, who was rumored to be a top candidate for the job back in the winter, takes over a club that had made modest strides under former coach Tony Catapano. The Mustangs went from a one-win team in 2005, to three wins in 2007 and 2008.

Masuk’s Rachele Fico, who continued her assault on the national high school softball record books by pitching an all-time best 25th perfect game of her career and her 10th straight no-hitter (another national record), got quite a pump from this week’s Sports Illustrated, which hits mailboxes today.

A year ago, she appeared in ‘Faces in the Crowd.’ This time, she is featured prominently in the magazine’s scorecard section, beneath Gameplan: What smart fans should do this week.”

The magazine suggests readers should check out LSU-bound senior, along with the DVD release of ‘The Wrestler’ and this weekend’s PGA’s Players Championship.