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The Staples High School football team finished with a 9-2 record a year ago, a mark that would have brought joy to most of the state’s programs.

But the Wreckers suffered a tough 15-13 loss to Trumbull that cost them a berth in the FCIAC championship game, then had a heartbreaking 7-6 defeat in the CIAC Class LL quarterfinals to Glastonbury on a failed two-point conversion in the closing seconds.

Staples was hit hard by injuries, but when the bar is set so high and success is measured by trophies added to the school showcase, the end result was a feeling of being unfulfilled.

The Wreckers are not lacking for motivation this season, and the feeling is the pieces are in place to make a run at their second league title in three years.

I caught up with team captains Bo Gibson, Jack Gibson and Peter Bonenfant after practice today to discuss the season.

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Silas Redd

When Silas Redd graduated from King two years ago, everyone was impressed by his athletic ability but skeptical about how someone who played in the FAA was going to make the leap to Penn State and major college football.

Redd saw his situation as a benefit, not a handicap.

“It was a motivator for me,” King said in a telephone interview from Penn State on Monday afternoon. “I’d get stuff from people at home about going to a private school and not playing in the FCIAC. I think it helped myself and the FAA a lot. It showed people it doesn’t matter where you play, or who you play against, if you have talent they will find you.”

Redd proved his doubters wrong by getting a lot of playing time as a true freshman last year, finishing second on the team with 77 carries for 437 yards, a 5.7 average.

Now Redd is No. 1 on the Nittany Lions’ depth chart, scheduled to be the starter for their opener on Sept. 3 at home against Indiana State.

“Silas had a good spring and preseason,” said Galen Hall, the Nittany Lions’ offensive coordinator and running backs coach. “He’s looked pretty good. It’s all ahead for him. I think Silas has such a good work ethic. He will do anything he can to make himself better.”

We will have a whole lot more about Redd in a feature story in Sunday’s Stamford Advocate.

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Last season was a tale of two chapters for the Darien High School football team. The Blue Wave rolled through the regular season unbeaten and then defeated Trumbull to win the FCIAC championship.

Then the team was routed by New Canaan in their annual Thanksgiving Day game and was eliminated in the semifinals of the state playoffs.

Darien was hit harder than most teams by graduation losses, but you would never know it by the mood at conditioning practice today. Coach Rob Trifone and his players were upbeat. Trifone said he had 78 sophomores, juniors and seniors out for the team. When he took over in 2007, there were 38.

“We want to repeat and we think we can,” left tackle Brett O’Donnell, a senior co-captain, said.

I caught up with two other co-captains, Patrick McDonald and Corey Eppley, to discuss the season.

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When Dan Sileo learned last week about the accusations leveled against the University of Miami football program, he said he was disgusted.

“I was very disappointed in the fact the administration would allow a scumbag like that walking the hallways,” Sileo said of Nevin Shapiro, the booster who is at the middle of the scandal. “I want to know how he got on the football field. Someone has to fall.”

Sileo played for the Hurricanes during part of their glory years, in the mid-80s, before any of the alleged wrongdoing took place. He was part of a heralded defensive line that included future NFL star Jerome Brown, Danny Stubbs and Bill Hawkins. He was selected in the third round, as the 59th pick, in the 1987 NFL Supplemental Draft by Tampa Bay, played a season with the team, then later got into preseason games with Detroit and Dallas before retiring.

Sileo started his college career at Maryland. Before that, he was a star player at Stamford Catholic, which is now Trinity Catholic, graduating in 1982.

“That was such a great time for me. I got to play high school ball with Tony Brown,” recalled Sileo, referring to his teammate who went on to play at the University of Pittsburgh and for the Buffalo Bills, and lost a long battle with cancer last summer. “I was All-City three times. That’s something I am really proud of.”

Sileo has a forum for expressing what is always a strong opinion about Miami and other sports news: He has a highly-rated morning talk show on WDAE in Tampa, the flagship station for the Buccaneers. He said his alma mater has been the main topic of conversation since the investigation by Yahoo! Sports came out last week. He said he has kept strong ties to the Miami program and claimed that he speaks to its first-year coach, Al Golden, every day.

“This has been massive because obviously everyone knows how close I am with that place,” Sileo said. “People want information on the program and they know they can get it from me. There’s my family, my daughter and wife, and then there’s my football family. The University of Miami has meant everything to me. It really has.”

Sileo has an interesting background, one he does not hide from. He stayed at Maryland for a year, then was thrown out of school for throwing a person out of a one-story window. Sileo has also admitted to using anabolic steroids while in the NFL — he told his story years ago during a special series in the Stamford Advocate.

Sileo went to the University of Cincinnati for a summer to get his grades up, and then had his football career saved by Miami coach Jimmy Johnson.

“If it wasn’t for Jimmy, I don’t know what would have happened,” Sileo said. “He threw me a lifeline.”

Sileo said he won’t get any satisfaction until anyone proved to be involved in wrongdoing at Miami is punished.

And he said Stamford will always remain close to his heart.

“My aunt still lives there and I still come back once a year during the winter time,” Sileo said. “I still go to Bobby Valentine’s restaurant and hang out. I love Stamford.”

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Charlett Stevenson planned to concentrate this summer on honing her skills in anticipation for her senior season as a member of Darien High School’s volleyball and lacrosse teams. Then her friend, Katy Close, told her about a trip she was taking through her church to help build a school in the Dominican Republic.

“She and her sister were going and she invited me,” Stevenson said. “I love doing that kind of stuff.”

From July 27 through Aug. 5, Stevenson was part of a group of 30 students — mostly from Darien — who took part in the mission trip through the Foundation For Peace, a not-for-profit organization that works in impoverished areas of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Kenya to provide educational support, healthcare access and economic opportunity.

“I was nervous at first,” Stevenson said. “Ten days is kind of a long time for me. I didn’t know what to expect.”

What Stevenson discovered was a rewarding experience as she helped construct a school that had three classrooms, an office and a bathroom.

“We would go to the work site and work about eight hours a days,” Stevenson said. “The kids would beg us to play with them, and we did as much as we could. We bought them nail polish — they didn’t know what it was — and painted their nails. We played baseball with them and hung out with them. It was a little hard communicating with them. I know Spanish but I learned a lot more.”

Now Stevenson will turn her attention to volleyball season. She is a co-captain and will be one of the FCIAC’s top hitters. The Blue Wave won the FCIAC championship last year, but lost in straight sets to East Lyme in the CIAC Class L final. Darien had been 15-0 in state championship matches and won nine in a row.

“It is a huge motivation for us,” Stevenson said. “I’m really excited for the season. I love everyone on the team.”

Stevenson will have one big advantage over her Darien classmates: not having to sweat out the college application process. Stevenson committed last year to play her other sport, lacrosse, at Richmond, where her older sister Sam is a junior and two-year starter.

“It’s kind of like a light switch,” Stevenson said of her two sports. “You tune in to volleyball and then you tune into lacrosse.”

Stevenson said her future could also include another trip with the Foundation For Peace next summer.

“I will if my schedule allows me to,” she said. “I loved it. It was awesome. It was a great experience and makes you realize what you have.”

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Because it opted not to conduct spring football, the Stamford High School football team by CIAC guidelines was allowed to begin fall practice five days earlier.

The Black Knights gathered on their beautiful new turf field at 3 p.m. today for their first conditioning drill.

The mood was full of optimism as Stamford looks to improve on last year’s 6-4 mark.

I caught up with linebacker/running back Matt Corcoran and quarterback Bryan Boderick to discuss the upcoming season.

Because it opted not to conduct spring football, the Stamford High School football team by CIAC guidelines was allowed to begin fall practice five days earlier.

The Black Knights gathered on their beautiful new turf field at 3 p.m. today for their first conditioning drill.

The mood was full of optimism as Stamford looks to improve on last year’s 6-4 mark.

I caught up with linebacker/running back Matt Corcoran and quarterback Bryan Boderick to discuss the upcoming season.

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New Canaan football coach Lou Marinelli.

After working on a television piece last year, Drew Thorry had a vision: to go behind the scenes and tell the stories of high school football.

“I want to do something different,” Thorry said. “There are so many traditions involved.”

Thus, the idea to air a documentary series on high school football was hatched, and it is aptly named Traditions. It is an eight-episode series to be broadcast on SNY, and Thorry has selected New Canaan to be one of the featured teams.

Thorry will come to New Canaan to shoot on Sept. 28-30. The first day will be spent interviewing team members, the second day going around town, and on the third day, when the Rams play Fairfield Warde, the focus will be on capturing all game-day activities.

The series will run on Saturday mornings. The New Canaan piece will air on Oct. 22. Each show will run 30 minutes.

Thorry, the executive producer of fivexfive productions, will be handling all aspects of the shows.

“I want to make sure this is done right,” Thorry said. “We’re not there for highlights. We are not ESPN or MSGVarsity. We want to capture all the history of the New Canaan program, all the cool things that they do. Tell some real neat stories.”

Thorry said he will also be airing an episode on Ansonia, and use three teams from New Jersey, two from Long Island and one from New York City.

Thorry wants to try and capture every detail of a team’s history: he is mailing down a camera to former Rams quarterback Charlie Westfal, who is now playing at Washington and Lee, so his roommate can shoot him while Thorry conducts a phone interview.

“I really want this to be different,” Thorry said. “I want to get to the roots of New Canaan football. That’s why I chose them.”

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The new scoreboard at New Canaan's Dunning Field.

While interviewing New Canaan athletic director Jay Egan this afternoon for a story I am working on, he was out by the football field, watching the school’s new $80,000 state-of-the-art scoreboard being installed.

Egan said it should be up by the end of the day and they hope to have the power running by Friday.

“It’s big,” Egan said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Egan said he was told New Canaan is the only school in New England to have this type of scoreboard, which will be able to broadcast live events and show replays.

“I don’t know yet what it all entails,” he said. “There’s going to be a learning curve. We have to investigate the program it runs on. It runs through a computer. If we had graduation, we could use an HD camera and project it through the scoreboard.”

Despite the cost, Egan predicted these type of scoreboards will soon become more commonplace.

“We needed a new scoreboard,” Egan said. “It’s the wave of things to come. It might not be next year, but five years from now, as people need new scoreboards and the price comes down. With the functionality of it, it will be a decision for people to consider.”