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Three teams that produced signature wins are this week’s finalists for the Overtime Winter FCIAC Team of the Week award.

Your choices are: The New Canaan girls basketball team, the Darien wrestling team and the St. Joseph boys hockey team.

The winning team, thanks to sponsors BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate, will receive a plaque and 25 T-Shirts.

After starting the week with a loss to St. Joseph, the Rams bounced back to defeat Staples, and then on Friday, behind a 37-point, 9-assist, 4-steal performance by Sarah Mannelly, handed Ridgefield its first league loss, 67-61. New Canaan is now 10-3.

The Blue Wave posted four wins on Saturday: 63-18 over Vinal Tech, 66-18 over Cheney Tech, 59-17 over Wolcott Tech and 46-27 over Brookfield to improve to 19-3, and break the school record of 16 victories in a season. Darien toppled Brien McMahon earlier in the week, 67-12.

In a battle between two of the three remaining unbeaten teams in conference play, the Cadets routed Wilton on Saturday night, 7-1. Christian Keator scored two goals while five other players also scored. St. Joseph is now 8-2 over all.

The voting is open until noon on Wednesday and will count for 50 percent. The other 50 percent will be based on the decision of a committee made up of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, Chris McNamee, the sports editor of the Stamford Advocate, and Lou Marinelli, the football coach at New Canaan High School.

If the decision of the voters and the majority of the committee differs, I will break the tie.

So vote below and check back to find out who is this week’s Overtime FCIAC Winter Team of the Week.

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Follow Dave Ruden on Twitter.

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Not a game has been played yet, but it has already been an eventful day for news in the FCIAC.

— As was expected, long-time assistant Sean Ireland has been promoted as the head football coach at Norwalk High School. Darien assistant and former McMahon star Idris Price, and former Wilton coach Tim Eagen were finalists for the job.

— Wednesday is national signing day for high school football players, and news of where FCIAC players are headed is starting to roll in. The two biggest signatures — literally and figuratively — will come from the pens of New Canaan’s Conor Hanratty, who is headed to Notre Dame, and Ridgefield’s Tommy Jordan, who will play at Florida. Trinity Catholic’s Shawn Robinson will be playing at Central Connecticut, while Darien’s Jake Weil is headed to Marist and Peter McDonough to Cornell.

— St. Joseph sent out a release today that Bob Studley, citing personal reasons, has stepped down as the school’s baseball coach. Studley won 110 games in nine seasons.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to coach at my alma mater,” said Studley. “No one takes more pride in St. Joe’s baseball, and I hope that rubbed off on the players. The program remains in great shape, the 2011 team will hopefully contend for FCIAC and state titles, and I’ll be rooting for them. I love coaching high school baseball and hope to continue to coach in the future, but, regretfully, not at St. Joe’s this year.”

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It looks right now that the FCIAC Boys Basketball Tournament is going to expand to 12 teams starting next year. If you read my column in today’s paper, I detest the move, which will water down a showcase event and actually punish teams that earn the highest seeds.

While not a wide sampling, I’ve spoken to several girls basketball coaches who have said they would be against such a move.

Because the news of the proposal is just starting to circulate, I have no idea how fans feel about a possible change. Do you like the playoffs as is? Do you like the idea of including four more teams and having an extra round?

Here’s a chance to have your say. I’ve set up a poll that will close at noon on Tuesday.

Let’s see if you agree with the majority of the league coaches, or my view.

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Because of an unexpected scheduling conflict, the FCIAC boys basketball tournament semifinals and final will now be played on consecutive days at the Arena at Harbor Yard, with the Final Four on Monday, Feb. 28, and the final moved up a day to Tuesday, March 1.

The FCIAC was recently contacted by Arena officials that the facility would no longer be available to them on March 2 because of contractual obligations with the MAAC Tournament.

The boys basketball coaches were presented with the choice of keeping the tournament at Harbor Yard and playing back to back, or staying on the original schedule and moving the last two rounds to Fairfield Warde.

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After one of the biggest and closest votes in the history of all awards on this blog, the sponsors and I have decided to name both the Ridgefield boys swim team and the New Canaan girls hockey team co-winners of this week’s Overtime FCIAC Winter Team of the Week award.

Both the Rams and Tigers will receive plaques and 25 T-shirts courtesy of sponsors BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate.

New Canaan finished with 2,750 votes, or 45.45 percent of the 6,051 cast. Ridgefield was right behind with 2,694, while the Greenwich wrestling team finished with 607 votes. At one point this morning just one vote separated the two teams. The vote counts for 50 percent.

Ridgefield, by a 2-1 vote, was the choice of our selection committee, which consists of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers; Chris McNamee, the sports editor of the Stamford Advocate; and Darien lacrosse coach Lisa Lindley, who filled in for Lou Marinelli since a New Canaan team was a finalist. That accounts for the other 50 percent.

Breaking the tie was problematic. The Tigers defeated three-time defending league champion Greenwich for just the second time in two decades, 94-92, winning the meet by capturing the final relay race. It is also hard to tell a team that garnered so many votes, as New Canaan did, that it is not the winner.

So the sponsors and I decided, because of the size of the vote, for this one time we would have co-winners.

We will pick three more teams for this week’s award, with the vote starting Sunday.

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As reported by Dan Woog today on his “06880″ blog, Staples boys volleyball coach Bruce Betts told his players yesterday that he will not be returning this spring.

Betts told Woog, “I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. I went back and forth on it. But when I realized I could no longer make the same commitment I ask the players to make every day of every season, I knew it would be unfair to the players or myself to keep going.”

Boys volleyball has gained greater prominence in the state in large part because of the efforts of people like Betts, who built Staples’ program into the premier one in the state, and served as a role model for his players with his class and dignity, in victory (most often) and defeat.

Here is Woog’s story.

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New Canaan’s Sarah Mannelly drives to the basket during a recent game against Norwalk.

Kevin Keller of the Darien boys track team and Sarah Mannelly of the New Canaan girls basketball team are this week’s winners of the BlueStreak-Overtime FCIAC Player of the Week awards.

Keller and Mannelly will each receive plaques and T-shirts from BlueStreak Sports Training.

Keller won the 300 meters at the Yale Invitational in 35.87 last Friday. He then won the long jump at an FCIAC Developmental meet on Saturday with a mark of 20-8, and anchored the winning 4×240 relay team that set an FCIAC and Staples Field House record of 1:58.5, beating the previous FCIAC mark of 1:58.8 set by Staples in 1986. Keller’s 300 and the 4×240 broke school records. His 300 time is the fastest in the state so far this season.

Mannelly sparked the Rams to a 47-45 win over Trinity Catholic with a great effort. She finished with 28 points, four assists, four rebounds, two steals and one block.

Nominations are open now until Tuesday at noon 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 played Monday through Saturday of each week. Please wait until an athlete is done competing for the week to submit your nomination.

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A team with a historical win, one that defeated its biggest rival and one climbing up the state polls are this week’s three finalists for the Overtime Winter FCIAC Team of the Week award.

Your choices are: the Ridgefield boys swim team, the New Canaan girls hockey team and The Greenwich wrestling team.

The winning team, thanks to sponsors BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate, will receive a plaque and 25 T-Shirts.

In a battle of unbeaten teams, the Tigers defeated three-time defending league champion Greenwich for just the second time in two decades, 94-92, winning the meet by capturing the final relay race.

Behind three goals and three assists from Olivia Hompe, and two goals and two assists by Jana Persky, the Rams improved to 10-1 by defeating Darien, 6-1.

The Cardinals started the week with a 41-27 victory over a strong Westhill squad, then finished second out of 14 schools at the New Milford Tournament, falling only to the Green Wave, which is the No. 1 team in the state.

The voting is open until noon on Wednesday and will count for 50 percent. The other 50 percent will be based on the decision of a committee made up of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, Chris McNamee, the sports editor of the Stamford Advocate, and Lou Marinelli, the football coach at New Canaan High School.

If the decision of the voters and the majority of the committee differs, I will break the tie.

So vote below and check back to find out who is this week’s Overtime FCIAC Winter Team of the Week.

Become a fan of the Overtime Facebook page.

Follow Dave Ruden on Twitter.