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Former New York Giant great, NFL Hall of Famer and life-long Stamford resident Andy Robustelli passed away this morning at the age of 85.

I was fortunate enough to know Andy well. He was perhaps the humblest man I knew. For years I wanted to do a column with his wife, Jeanne, who passed away last month. Between Andy, their seven children and 29 grandchildren, the family estimated that she probably was in the stands for about 8,000 games. She was a treasure trove of stories.

But Andy would not permit me to do a column. He did not want the publicity.

That was Andy.

I am working on a column for tomorrow’s paper, but The Advocate is working on continuing coverage of the story.

To stay updated click on this link.

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Darien's Case Matheis

Danbury's Nyoshee Lowry

Two athletes who excelled in their league championships, Case Matheis of the Darien boys lacrosse team and Nyoshee Lowry of the Danbury girls track team, are this week’s winners of the FCIAC Player of the Week awards.

Matheis and Lowry will each receive plaques and T-shirts from BlueStreak Sports Training.

Matheis came up big in a championship game for the second year in a row, finishing with five goals and two assists to help lead the Blue Wave to a 10-7 win over Ridgefield in the FCIAC final.

Lowry was dominant in contributing to the Hatters’ championship, winning the 200 (25.1), the 100-meter hurdles (14.98) and the 300-meter hurdles (45.1), setting two school records in the process.

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.

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The Darien softball team celebrates its first FCIAC title.

The Greenwich boys tennis team after winning the FCIAC title.

The Wilton girls lacrosse team after winning the FCIAC title.

New Canaan's Courtney Gallagher.

Danbury's Alex Levine.

Who is the best of the best? That is the question we are asking this week as we give you the choice of six league champions — including four of our past winners this spring — as the finalists for the Overtime Spring FCIAC Team of the Week.

Your choices are: The New Canaan girls tennis team, the Danbury boys track team, the Greenwich boys tennis team, the Wilton girls lacrosse team, the Darien softball team or the Staples baseball team?

The winner will get T-shirts in school colors courtesy of BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and the Stamford Advocate.

So which accomplishment do you feel was the most noteworthy:

The Rams defeated Greenwich to remain unbeaten and win their second straight league title.

The Hatters outdistanced second-place Staples by 31.5 points to claim their 11th consecutive league title.

The Cardinals defeated Staples for their ninth FCIAC championship in 10 years.

The Warriors won their second consecutive league crown with a 15-12 victory over Darien.

The Blue Wave scored in the bottom of the 7th inning to defeat Ludlowe, 4-3, for their first-ever conference title.

The Wreckers defeated Danbury, 5-3, to win their third FCIAC title in four seasons.

The voting, because of the holiday weekend, will be open until noon on Thursday and will count for 50 percent. The other 50 percent will come from the decision of a committee made up of Chris McNamee, the Stamford Advocate sports editor; Gary Rogo, the sports editor of the Connecticut Post; and Rich Gregory, the sports editor of the Danbury News-Times.

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 Spring FCIAC Team of the Week.

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The CIAC released the pairings for its postseason tournaments this morning (some will not be posted until this afternoon). Here are the links for each sport:

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

BOYS LACROSSE

GIRLS LACROSSE

BOYS TENNIS

GIRLS TENNIS

TRACK

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

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Darien High School, which is one of the country’s hotbeds for lacrosse, has never won an FCIAC title in softball.

That may all change on Friday afternoon, when the Blue Wave play Fairfield Ludlowe for the championship. Neither school had ever reached the final before today.

Darien advanced with a 6-0 win over Stamford. Jessica DeMaio pitched a five-hit shutout, while Olivia Gozdz contributed three hits to the team’s 12-hit attack.

I caught up with Gozdz and DeMaio afterward to discuss the game.

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The unbeaten Darien High School boys golf team, by virtue of its win in the vote, is this week’s winner of the Overtime Spring FCIAC Team of the Week award.

The Blue Wave will receive T-shirts in school colors courtesy of BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and the Stamford Advocate.

Darien finished with 1,030 votes, or 42 percent of the 2,457 cast. The New Canaan girls lacrosse was next with 727 votes, followed by the Greenwich boys lacrosse team (392 votes), Norwalk baseball team (157) and St. Joseph softball team (151). The vote counts for 50 percent.

Norwalk received three votes and Darien one from our expanded committee this week, which consisted of Chris McNamee, the sports editor of the Stamford Advocate; Gary Rogo, the sports editor of the Connecticut Post; Rich Gregory, the sports editor of the Danbury News-Times; and Dan Woog, the boys soccer coach at Staples. The panel’s vote counts for the other 50 percent.

Given the decisiveness of their win in the popular vote, and the vote they received from the committee, we are breaking the tie in the Blue Wave’s favor.

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

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Norwalk's James Cooksey

James Cooksey of the Norwalk baseball team and Rachel Horton of the Trinity Catholic girls tennis team are this week’s winners of the BlueStreak-Overtime FCIAC Player of the Week awards.

Cooksey and Horton will each receive plaques and T-shirts from BlueStreak Sports Training.

Cooksey started the week by pitching a no-hitter against city rival Brien McMahon, then allowed just one hit over four innings in relief to get the win over Ridgefield. He struck out 11 and walked just one in 11 innings, and went 6-for-9 at the plate, with two doubles and four RBIs.

Horton, the Crusaders’ No. 1 singles player, defeated Warde’s Christie Schneider, 6-1, 6-2, and St. Joseph’s Nicole Keklik, 6-0, 6-0, to remain perfect at 13-0 this season.

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.

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New Canaan's Olivia Hompe (right).

Since people are sending messages from all over, here is the lede for my story in tomorrow’s paper regarding the suspension and reinstatement of nine girls lacrosse players — including four from New Canaan and Staples — by the CIAC.

Nine girls lacrosse players from six different schools — including four from New Canaan and Staples — had their eligibility reinstated by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after they were sanctioned for violating state rules.

The incident stemmed from the players trying out on May 15 in Acton, Mass., for the Underclassmen Games of the Under Armour All Amercian Lacrosse Classic this summer.

The players involved included New Canaan’s Olivia Hompe, Elizabeth O’Sullivan and Wheatley Raabe, and Maeve Flaherty of Staples, along with players from Ridgefield, Avon, New Fairfield and Norwich Free Academy.

A statement released Tuesday afternoon by the CIAC, the governing body for high school sports in Connecticut, read in part: “This participation was in violation of CIAC Student Eligibility rules pertaining to participation on outside teams during the CIAC defined sport season.”

After reviewing documentation provided by the schools involved and Under Armour, the CIAC decided that the teams must forfeit any games the players were involved with between May 15-23. The regular-season losses will affect the school’s seedings in the state tournament, which begins next week.

Both New Canaan and Staples were without the four players for Monday’s FCIAC semifinal games. Both teams were defeated, but league playoff games do not count against state rankings.

“It’s an appropriate punishment for the violation of the rule, as the rule existed,” New Canaan athletic director Jay Egan said. “We just wanted the penalty to be commensurate with the crime.”

Hompe, who was the only player from the state to earn a spot in the Classic, wrote in a text message: “I’m just really excited to be playing again and hopefully we can come out hard in states.”

There will be a more complete story in tomorrow’s edition of The Advocate.

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