When the Trinity Catholic High School volleyball team traveled to Ridgefield on Wednesday, it was surprised to discover some extra supporters in the stands.
The members of the Stamford High School team.
In this era of selfish, crass behavior in scholastic sports, here is the type of story that should be making headlines.
Stamford and Trinity played each other on Monday, with the Black Knights capturing the city title in four sets. The Crusaders still needed one more win to qualify for the state tournament for the first time since 2005.
The Stamford players asked their coach, Mike Smeriglio, if they could go to Ridgefield to show their support for the Crusaders. Smeriglio, whose team had a bye on Wednesday, cut short practice and the Black Knights took a road trip that was not on their schedule.
Consider this was not a journey across town, but to one of the farthest outposts in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference. And to those cynics out there who might think the Black Knights had an ulterior motive, they did not stand to benefit from the outcome: they had already been eliminated from qualifying for the FCIAC Tournament.
Smeriglio and Trinity coach Craig Pucci have been close for a long time, dating back to when Pucci was the Crusaders’ assistant coach under Al Malizia. Pucci works at Smeriglio’s summer camp.
And the players on the two teams are close. As if often the case when Stamford teams face one another, games are contentious and friendships are put aside for a couple of hours. Afterward, there are hugs, smiles and a return to everyday life.
The Crusaders went out and defeated Ridgefield in five sets to return to postseason play.
But they were hardly the only winners on the night. At a time when only bad news makes the front pages and inspirational stories are relegated to small type, the Black Knights proved themselves to be worthy role models for others to emulate.
Stamford may be 9-8 in the standings, but in the game of life they are a perfect 1.000.
The Black Knights have done their open updating of the dictionary, proving contrary to popular belief, you cannot spell Class without S-H-S.
