Two athletes who are members of teams that are finalists for our FCIAC Team of the Week award are this week’s winners of the BlueStreak-Overtime Player of the Week awards.
Timajh Parker of the St. Joseph boys basketball team and Maya Walton of the Danbury girls indoor track team are the newest honorees.
Parker had outstanding back to back performances to help the Cadets defeat two of the league’s best teams, Brien McMahon and Westhill, on consecutive days.
Parker finished with 28 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks against the Senators and 19 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks against the Vikings.
Walton was a big reason the Hatters were able to hold off Darien in a close meet and win the FCIAC girls indoor track championship
Walton won both the high jump (5-2) and the long jump (17-5), and also anchored the Hatters’ 4×200 relay team.
Nominations are open now until Tuesday at noon for this week’s winners.
To nominate an athlete, click on this linkand 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.
Three teams that have been enjoying outstanding success this winter are this week’s finalists for the Overtime Winter FCIAC Team of the Week award.
Your choices are: The St. Joseph boys basketball team, Fairfield Warde wrestling team and Danbury girls indoor track team.
The winning team, thanks to sponsors BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate, will receive a plaque and 25 T-Shirts.
Because of the weather, the Cadets were forced to play two other contenders on the road on consecutive days and came away with a pair of hard-fought victories. After a 58-52 win over Brien McMahon on Thursday, St. Joseph came back on Friday to hold off Westhill, 62-61.
The Warde wrestlers, currently ranked 10th in the state, went 6-0 during the week, including a 37-33 decision over No. 11 Trumbull. The Mustangs also took down Norwalk, Brien McMahon, Middletown, Masuk and Fitch, the latter by a perfect 84-0 score.
In a closely contested meet, the Danbury track team won the FCIAC championship on Thursday with 79 points, just ahead of second-place Darien (75.75). Maya Walton and Nyoshee Lowry each won two events to key the Hatters’ win.
(Note: The plan had been to have both the male and female track champions as finalists. Danbury won both, and unless we are forced into the situation at the very end of the playoffs, we decided not to have teams from the same school as finalists during the same week. Since the other two finalists are male teams, we decided to pick the Danbury girls).
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.
New Canaan’s Kevin Macari, here making a catch in December’s state championship game against Masuk, will be playing at Georgetown next season.
Kevin Macari, one of the best players in New Canaan High School history, signed a letter of intent on Friday with Georgetown.
“I just felt comfortable there,” Macari said. “It is some place I want to be for the next four years.”
Macari was a big reason behind the Rams’ 11-2 record last season and reaching the state championship game for the fifth straight time. The receiver finished with 60 receptions for 1,259 yards and 20 touchdowns.
In the CIAC Class L final loss to Masuk, he helped rally the Rams from an early deficit, ending the game with 10 catches for 195 yards and a pair of scores.
Macari also averaged 22 yards and scored three touchdowns on punt returns, and finished with three interceptions, returning two for scores.
“I think Georgetown is a wonderful school and a place where he has a chance to make an impact right away,” New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli said.
Macari’s signing came two days after his teammate, lineman Conor Hanratty, signed with Notre Dame.
Macari also had offers from several Ivy League schools, and said the University of Connecticut and Miami offered him the chance to be a walk on with preferred status.
“Miami was a dream school since I was a little kid and I was tempted,” Macari said. “In the end I was selfish. I wanted to play right away.”
Marinelli, like many others, was surprised Macari did not attract more attention from Division I schools.
“In all the years I have been coaching I have never seen a kid as talented as him not get as many looks,” said Marinelli, who has been at New Canaan for 30 seasons. “But when you look at the opportunities he had, those are not real shabby options.”
Macari said the Georgetown coaching staff has told him with hard work he will have the chance to contribute immediately to the team.
“I’m very happy,” he said. “It’s definitely nice to have the whole process over with.”
Conor Hanratty, with his father Terry, at today's press conference. Stamford Advocate photo/Kathleen O'Rourke
Having covered Conor Hanratty throughout his career at New Canaan, I get asked a lot of questions about him, more so now than he has signed his letter of intent to play at Notre Dame.
The first inquiry is always “Will he ever play there?” It is impossible to project how a high school player will perform at the next level — especially the highest level — other than I know however Hanratty’s career plays out at Notre Dame, his work ethic will never be questioned. And the Irish, despite Hanratty’s pedigree — his father Terry won a national championship at the school — are not in the habit of just throwing around full scholarships, even to legacies.
The next question is “What kind of kid is he?” This is one I can answer with absolute certainty: he is a better person than he is a player, extremely soft-spoken and humble. It has been hard to get the great quote because he is uncomfortable talking about himself.
My favorite Hanratty story, or at least the one I think best exemplifies his character, took place just over a month ago, the night the Rams lost to Masuk in the state championship game.
Hanratty was walking off the field with a dejected look when I asked if he felt like talking. He politely waved me off. You cover high school sports differently than the college or pros — after a tough defeat you ask the athlete if they feel like talking, and if not you respect that and try to find another one who will.
About an hour later, while I was in the press box writing my column on the game, I heard me cellphone buzz. I had received a text message from Hanratty, who was on the bus coming home.
“I just wanted to apologize for not talking to you,” it read. “I hope you understand. I’m sorry.”
That’s the Conor Hanratty the fans at Notre Dame can look forward to.
This is a big week for Terry Hanratty. He once was part of two Super Bowl champion teams with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and this afternoon is flying to Dallas for Sunday’s game against the Packers.
Hanratty will be accompanied by his son, Conor, who this morning at a ceremony at New Canaan High School committed to play next year at Notre Dame, the school Terry once led to a national championship.
I caught up with Terry after the press conference, where he discussed his pride at the prospect of his son attending his alma mater, and going to see the Steelers attempt to win a record seventh Super Bowl.
In one sense today was anti-climactic for Conor Hanratty, the outstanding tackle at New Canaan High School. He committed to Notre Dame back in the fall and mailed in his official letter of intent to the school yesterday.
Still, the ceremony at New Canaan this morning, which was attended by his parents, Terry and Kelly, as well as school officials and many of his now-former coaches and teammates, was obviously special for the soft-spoken 6-foot-5, 300-pound lineman.
Hanratty will now be attending the same school his father helped lead to a national championship.
I caught up with Conor after today’s press conference, where he discussed his decision, the pressures of following in his father’s footsteps, and how he expects he will redshirt as a freshman.
Due to the unusual number of postponements this winter, the CIAC sent out an email to all schools today announcing that it will allow them to make up games on Sunday.
Here is the text of the email:
The CIAC Board of Control has approved the following plan to address the numerous cancellations of member school athletic events due to the weather.
1. The CIAC will waive the policy prohibiting Sunday play for the remainder of the regular winter season. This waiver applies only to the current winter season. Schools will be allowed to schedule make-ups on Sundays for the remainder of the winter season providing:
* No Sunday athletic event may start prior to 12:30 PM
* Make-up games/meets rescheduled to Sunday must be by mutual agreement
2. No changes will be made to the last dates to count, entry deadlines or competition dates for CIAC winter tournaments. The last day to count and the CIAC Winter tournament schedule will remain as scheduled in all sports.
3. Minimum established game standards necessary to qualify for tournament entry remain.
4. Schools are reminded that CIAC rules prohibit league tournament contests being scheduled or rescheduled in place of regular season contests or make-up games.
Darien and New Canaan have always had a heated sports rivalry, and this week it played out in a battle for the Overtime Winter FCIAC Team of the Week.
In one of the closest votes and greatest comebacks, the Darien wrestling team, which went unbeaten last week to set a program record for wins in a season, is this week’s winner.
The Blue Wave will receive a plaque and T-shirts courtesy of sponsors BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate.
Darien, which fell behind by over 300 votes this morning, came back to finish with 2,245 votes, or 45.67 percent of the 4,916 cast. The New Canaan girls basketball team finished second by just 33 votes, with a total of 2,212. The St. Joseph boys hockey team was third with 459 votes. The voting counts 50 percent.
Darien, 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 Staples boys soccer coach Dan Woog, who filled in for Lou Marinelli and Lisa Lindley since teams from New Canaan and Darien were finalists. The panel’s vote counts for the other 50 percent.
We will pick three more teams for this week’s award, with the vote starting Sunday.
