For the third straight week, we have had a split between the voters and our committee, necessitating us to break a tie to select the Overtime Football Team of the Week.
And for the second straight week, we are going to go with the decision of the committee and select Trumbull, which lost a tiebreaker last week, as our newest winner.
The award is sponsored by BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate.
The Eagles will receive a plaque and 60 T-shirts with their team helmet and lettering in school colors.
So why did we break the tie in Trumbull’s favor? First, the vote was the closest we have ever had for any of our awards: Stamford edged Trumbull by just 10 votes out of the 1,293 cast, 640-630 (Bridgeport Central was third with 23). The vote counts 50 percent.
Trumbull was the unanimous choice of our selection committee, which consists of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers; Pat Pickens, the sports editor of the Fairfield Citizen-News; and Tim Parry, who runs the FCIAC Football Blog. That accounts for the other 50 percent.
Since the vote was a virtual tie, the committee went with Trumbull, and given the Eagles improved to 5-0 with a hard-fought win over Greenwich, we felt Trumbull was the most deserving team.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote. The feedback for the award has been most encouraging.
Three more finalists will be selected after this weekend’s game and the voting will begin for our second winner on Sunday, so check back.
Staples’ Brendan Lesch gets past a Norwalk player during a recent game.
Brendan Lesch of the Staples boys soccer team and C.C. Figluizzi-Bingham of the Westhill girls soccer team are this week’s winners of the BlueStreak-Overtime FCIAC Player of the Week awards.
Lesch and Figluizzi-Bingham will receive plaques and T-shirts from BlueStreak.
The Notre Dame-bound Lesch had two goals and an assist to help the Wreckers go 3-0 last week. Most important was his field leadership during a 5-1 rout of previously unbeaten Brookfield, the defending CIAC Class L champion.
Figluizzi-Bingham provided the most dramatic moment last week, a goal with 2.6 seconds left to lift the Vikings to a 2-1 win over Fairfield Warde and help the defending CIAC Class LL champions go 2-0.
Nominations are open now until Tuesday at noon for this week’s winners.
To nominate an athlete, click on the replica of the T-shirt the winners receive on the right-hand side of this blog, below the BlueStreak ad. Then 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.
It appears, given the events of the past 10 days, there are a number of readers out there who need a lesson in civility.
From the category of no-good-deed-goes-unpunished, we started the Overtime Team of the Week award to add to our FCIAC Player of the Week awards as another avenue to recognize high school athletes. It has proved successful; right now we are in talks to extend this to the winter and perhaps the spring seasons, and maybe opening it up to all sports.
We thought — and I still think — we have the best formula possible, giving fans a way to vote and have their say, but to put in a counterbalance so that smaller schools, or those outside our readership area, would have a fair chance of winning. Thus, we formed a committee of three members of the media to vote as well.
The last two weeks we have had ties to break: one went in favor of the voters, and last week’s, when Trumbull won the vote and Warren Harding was the selection of the committee, went in favor of the committee. Trumbull’s win was more important in the standings, but Harding’s had more emotional gravity.
The decision was the source of some contention with readers, which is fine. What isn’t fine is the number of comments that were sent in to be posted. When I started this blog, I was insistent that it would not be the forum for the lowest common denominator we often see on the Internet. Thus, I have to approve every comment and post it. And as long-time followers know, I will post anything as long as it is written in a reasonable manner, including anything critical of me.
What did not get posted this week were a number of comments that included foul and abusive language, that were insulting to schools and their players, that bordered on being racist, and one comment, that did get posted and removed, in which someone pretended to be a Trumbull football player that had negative comments on two of our committee members.
It was upsetting — though unfortunately not surprising — enough that I felt compelled to write this post about it.
Hopefully this blog will continue to be a forum for appropriate discourse, though if some of the events of the past week continue I would be more than happy to do away with the comments altogether.
So to save you some time, if you send in a comment and swear, it will not be posted. If you say something insulting to a high school athlete, it will not be posted. And if what has happened this past week starts to become a trend, nothing will be posted.
The whole idea behind introducing these awards was to recognize the accomplishments of high school athletes. They have been well-received by coaches, administrators and, most importantly, the athletes.
Try to keep that spirit in mind before you start to type.
As the FCIAC reported on its web site last night, the league’s football championship game, as expected, will be returning to Trumbull’s McDougall Stadium.
The contest is scheduled for Friday, November 19 at 7 p.m.
Trumbull hosted last year’s final, when Staples was a 14-10 winner over Bridgeport Central.
The game is again being moved away from Stamford’s Boyle Stadium because of the poor condition of the turf..
John Kuczo, the executive secretary director of the FCIAC, said Bridgeport’s Kennedy Stadium and Wilton High School were the other sites considered.
“The reason is there is equal amounts of seating on both sides, Trumbull did such a good job last year and has experience hosting big events like this,” Kuczo said this morning from his home in Florida.
The decision could produce an unintended controversy: Trumbull is currently 5-0 and in first place in the point standing for one of the two spots in the final. It will be interesting to see the reaction if the Eagles advance to the title game and get to play at home.
The voting is now open to crown the Overtime High School Football Team of the Week, sponsored by BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate.
This week’s finalists are: Trumbull, which improved to 5-0 with an 18-13 win over Greenwich; Stamford, which is now 3-2 following a 21-7 victory over Danbury; and Central, which bounced back from a loss to the Eagles with a 37-6 rout of Westhill.
The winning team, thanks to BlueStreak and Garden Catering, will receive a plaque and 60 T-Shirts with the team helmet and lettering in the front in the primary color of the school.
The voting is open until noon on Wednesday and will count for 50 percent. The other half will come from the decision of a committee made up of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, Pat Pickens, the sports editor of the Fairfield Citizen-News, and Tim Parry, who runs the FCIAC Football Blog.
If the decision of the voters and the majority of the committee differs, the tie will be settled by The Advocate sports department.
So vote below and check back to find out who is the Overtime Football Team of the Week.
I just got back from lunch with Bobby Valentine at his downtown restaurant, and he certainly did not give the impression that, as most seem to think, he is destined to return to managing next year.
“I have an ESPN contract, and it’s embarrassing going to work each day and people thinking I am leaving,” Valentine said. “I am not approaching teams, they are approaching me.”
Valentine confirmed, as has been reported, that he interviewed with the Blue Jays and Mariners, and had a meeting but no interview with the Brewers.
While many people consider the Mariners a frontrunner, a source close to Valentine said, “Seattle isn’t as likely as some people might think.”
I’ll have a complete story in tomorrow’s Advocate.
Hearst Connecticut Newspapers Online Sports Producer Sean Patrick Bowley, the Danbury News-Times’ Kevin Duffy and I will be hosting our weekly high school football chat tonight at 8 p.m.
Come back later to ask a question or follow the discussion.
After Trumbull defeated Bridgeport Central, 34-12, in a battle of unbeaten teams, one of the members of our selection committee sent me a text message Saturday morning saying he was voting for the Eagles as his Overtime Team of the Week because it would be the biggest win of the weekend.
Then, a few hours later, after Harding’s 12-6 decision over Fairfield Ludlowe, the same person texted me back to change his vote.
The Presidents’ first win in nearly two years and first in the FCIAC in almost four years resonated with everyone in the area as the feel-good story of the weekend.
And that is the reason, in the second straight week in which we have had a tiebreaker, Harding is our Overtime Team of the Week.
The award is sponsored by BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate.
The Presidents will receive a plaque and 60 T-shirts with their team helmet and lettering in school colors.
Trumbull, with 328 votes, easily outdistanced Harding (169) and St. Joseph (90) in the voting portion, which counts for 50 percent. Harding was the unanimous choice of our selection committee, which consists of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers; Pat Pickens, the sports editor of the Fairfield Citizen-News; and Tim Parry, who runs the FCIAC Football Blog. That accounts for the other 50 percent.
While Trumbull’s win had the greater impact in the standings, in was hard to discount what the victory meant to Harding in breaking the tie. That was evident by the reaction of the Presidents’ coach, Jim Morris, when I called him this afternoon with the news.
One of the biggest concerns when coming up with a process was to have a situation where the team that won the vote did not win the award, but the fact is certain schools, either by their size or being closer to the Advocate readership area, which is where a great majority of readers of this blog come from, would have an advantage. This seems to be the best way to give all schools a fair opportunity.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote. The feedback for the award has been most encouraging.
Three more finalists will be selected after this weekend’s game and the voting will begin for our second winner on Sunday, so check back.
For the third straight week, we have had a split between the voters and our committee, necessitating us to break a tie to select the Overtime Football Team of the Week.
