Overtime

After initially being disqualified, we are happy to announce that we are naming the Wilton boys basketball team co-winners of the BlueStreak-Overtime FCIAC Team of the Week award.

The Warriors will receive T-shirts courtesy of BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering, Karl Chevrolet, Innovative Health & Rehabilitation, Chelsea Piers, New Balance of New Canaan and the Stamford Advocate.

Wilton was winning the voting when we closed it down after the discovery that someone had made derogatory comments against other finalists using the name of a student at the school. Initially it was thought that the act was perpetrated by a Wilton basketball player.

After a complete investigation, Wilton athletic director Christy Hayes called today to say that they had caught the person involved and it was not a basketball player.

The Darien gymnastics team, which was in second place at the time and ruled the winner, will remain a co-winner.

We are sorry about this entire incident, especially for the Wilton student whose reputation was hurt.

We also apologize to the Wilton basketball team if are decision cast a negative light on coach Tim Tallcouch and his players.

(Become a fan of the Overtime blog Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this post.)

Bassick's Demetrius Thomas

This has been a ridiculously busy week, so I apologize in advance for being tardy with this week’s edition, and for it being abbreviated. So let’s not waste any time.

The FCIAC is starting to look like the NFL, where perceptions can make 180-degree turns on a weekly basis.

For most of the season, the story has been whether anyone can beat St. Joseph. At 13-0, it is still a valid question.

But the talk this week has made it sound like the Cadets are a weary racehorse that went out too fast and is now looking to hold on at the finish line.

What happened?

For one, the Cadets lost transfer Diamonte Zarba, who reportedly is academically ineligible. Then they barely beat a talented but struggling Norwalk team on Wednesday night.

Demetrius Thomas, who according to league coaches I’ve spoken with the other day has assumed the mythical title of best player in the league — I will finally see him for the first time this year on Tuesday night — has returned from his own academic issues, which turns Bassick from a very good team into a championship contender.

Trinity Catholic is on a roll and now has the second-best record in conference play. Ridgefield is unbeaten against schools not located in Stamford, but has lost two of three games, and there are whispers that we may be witnessing paper Tigers (I’m not a subscriber, though they are also not the steamroller some made them out to be before their loss to Trinity Catholic.)

Speaking of Stamford, the Black Knights were awful on Friday night against Danbury, and then came back with the big win. Though they are two games out right now, one coach told me he thinks they will qualify for the league tournament.

Westhill survived the always tough Danbury road trip and got a breakout performance from center Sam Dorissaint, the player who on a lower volume can have a similar sort of elevatory impact on the Vikings as Thomas makes with Bassick.

Bridgeport Central, Danbury and Greenwich all have four league losses, and I say at least one of them will not qualify for the FCIAC playoffs.

As we near the 3/4 poll, there are a number of big games remaining. If you are a general basketball fan, where do you go Tuesday night: to see Trinity play Bassick or Westhill face St. Joseph? Trinity and Westhill then have to come back and meet three days later for the Stamford city title.

Just as things today look a lot different than they did a week ago, the smart money says the landscape will appear to have a seismic change once the gym floors are mopped up late next Friday night.

The Starting 5

1. ST. JOSEPH (13-0): I’m not jumping off the bandwagon making the Cadets the team to beat, but their depth and defense took a big blow this week.

2. TRINITY CATHOLIC (11-3): Beware the other team in the league everyone likes to root against.

3. BASSICK (11-3): The Lions are the last of the contenders I haven’t seen play. I’m looking forward to it.

4. WESTHILL (9-4): Next week we get a good read on the Vikings’ championship hopes.

5. RIDGEFIELD (11-2): Given how they have fared against Stamford teams, the Tigers might want to build up a little cushion before ending the regular season at Westhill.

(Become a fan of the Overtime blog Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this post. Follow me on Twitter by clicking on the Twitter symbol at the bottom of this post.)

Nicole Kolenberg, a Stamford High School senior and aspiring photographer, saw the recent action on Twitter we created over which school had the best fan section and offered to take pictures of the crowd at Wednesday night’s hockey game between Stamford and Trinity Catholic.

After seeing her work I agreed to run her photo essay. Better yet, Nicole has agreed to become a regular Overtime contributor and shoot some assignments for us. We are excited to have her.

Darien's Katie Southworth

The Darien gymnastics team is this week’s winner of the Overtime FCIAC Team of the Week.

The Blue Wave will receive T-shirts courtesy of BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering, Karl Chevrolet, Innovative Health & Rehabilitation, Chelsea Piers, New Balance of New Canaan and the Stamford Advocate.

The Wilton basketball team, which was leading the contest, was disqualified for inappropriate behavior, posting derogatory comments under the name of a female student at the school. Both Wilton athletic director Christy Hayes and boys basketball coach Tim Tallcouch were in agreement about the decision, and the school is addressing the incident.

Darien was in second place when the vote was halted on Tuesday night.

We are also looking into stricter guidelines for people who want to comment in the future.

We will pick a new set of finalists for this week’s award, with the vote starting Sunday.

(Become a fan of the Overtime blog Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this post.)

Stamford High School's Black Knight Nation

Westhill High School's Purple Pack

First there was Norwalk’s Bear Pack. Then came Ridgefield’s Tigers Lair, Westhill’s Purple Pack and Stamford’s Black Knight Nation, just to name a few. At a time of apathy, students, making use of social mediums like Twitter and Facebook, have created passionate fan sections that have been coming out to support their basketball and hockey teams.

After a Twitter debate on Sunday, I had hoped to create Overtime Fan Week, and have a contest to determine which fans were the best. But schools were worried that crowd control issues would be a problem.

So the only solution, as imperfect as it is, is to create this poll: Which FCIAC school has the best student fan section? The one that comes out on weekday as well as weekend nights? The one that is the loudest? The one that travels to road games?

We are offering you a choice of all 19 teams and you have until Friday at noon to vote.

So, which FCIAC school has the best student fan section?

(Become a fan of the Overtime blog Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this post. Follow me on Twitter by clicking on the Twitter symbol at the bottom of this post.)

Ridgefield's Kurt Steidl

Trinity Catholic's Mackenzie Griffin

Kurt Steidl of the Ridgefield boys basketball team, Emma Oyomba of the Norwalk girls basketball team and Mackenzie Griffin of the Trinity Catholic girls basketball team are this week’s winners of the BlueStreak-Overtime FCIAC Player of the Week awards.

Steidl, Oyomba and Griffin will each receive T-shirts and plaques from BlueStreak Sports Training.

Steidl, after scoring 18 points in a loss to Trinity Catholic, erupted for 42 points and added 12 rebounds in a win against Bridgeport Central.

Oyomba, in perhaps the best performance by an FCIAC player this season, finished with 33 points and 31 rebounds in a win over New Canaan.

Griffin scored 25 points, to go over the 1,000 career point mark, and added 13 rebounds and four steals in a win over McMahon. Griffin also had 26 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in a win against Ridgefield.

Nominations are open now until Tuesday at 10 a.m. for this week’s winners.

To nominate an athlete, click on this link and email in the name of the person you are nominating.

Please include all of the player’s statistics for the week as well as the team results.

The award will be judged on games/matches/meets played Monday through Saturday of each week. Please wait until an athlete is done competing for the week to submit your nomination.

(Become a fan of the Overtime blog Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this post. Follow me on Twitter by clicking on the Twitter symbol at the bottom of this post.)

It has come to my attention tonight that all the comments attributed to Susie Yu, who is a real student at Wilton, were sent in by someone or others besides herself. Apparently this caused her a lot of unrest at school today. I just received an email from her and one from her friend.
As someone who started this award to recognize the accomplishments of high school athletes, I find this troubling to say the least. I feel bad for the people who were offended by the words she did not write, and more so I feel bad for Susie.
At her request, I am removing all the comments with her name on them. I have a call into the Wilton coach and I am going to discuss the possibility of disqualifying the Wilton team, and if so, whether to give the award to the second place team or have no winner this week. I am also suspending the voting for this week as of now.
I am going to see what I can do to prevent something like this from happening again. I must approve all comments to begin with, and will post everything as long as it is appropriate. I am going to talk to our IT people about doing something to prevent people from using fake email addresses. As this proves, it is impossible to safeguard against someone using fakes names, but since starting the blog this is the first time a situation has gone to this extreme.
My apologies to the other finalists this week as well for having to suspend the contest.
It is a pretty sad commentary when an attempt to do something positive for athletes is spoiled by this sort of immature behavior.

Dave

One of the biggest problems affecting high school sports has been the small crowds at games and general apathy. Fortunately, that seems to be changing. There is now the Tigers Lair at Ridgefield, the Purple Pack at Westhill and Black Knight Nation at Stamford High School, to name a few. They are vocal student fan bases, have their own Twitter accounts and are bringing school spirit back into vogue.

It has been perhaps the most positive aspect of the winter sports season, and hopefully this is just the beginning and not a passing trend.

Each group is trying to give its basketball teams a big homecourt advantage. The best homecourt advantage.

This has brought up a question that has become a popular topic the past two weeks: which is the FCIAC’s toughest gymnasium, the one opposing teams really hate to travel to because of distance, the size of the court, the loudness and, yes, the crowd.

After giving it a little thought the other day, five immediately stood out for me. I spoke to a few boys coaches — they get bigger attendance — and, with one or two possible additions that I reasoned out, they were pretty much in agreement. So was the one girls coach I spoke to.

So here are my choices for the five toughest schools to visit: Bassick, Danbury, Ridgefield, St. Joseph and Trinity Catholic. I think each is difficult for different reasons.

And I am going to let you decide. You can vote until noon on Sunday to pick the FCIAC’s toughest gymnasium to play in.

(Become a fan of the Overtime blog Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this post. Follow me on Twitter by clicking on the Twitter symbol at the bottom of this post.)