Some Flack About a Plaque

November 17th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

One of the more bizarre scenes of the fall sports season took place this afternoon at Wethersfield High School. The Stamford High field hockey team won its second straight state title after playing Simsbury to a 1-1 tie to produce co-champions.

It was strange enough to have a deadlock that denied both teams the kind of celebration associated with a championship.

Because the CIAC was not prepared for the outcome, it had just one plaque and set of medallions for the winning team. It was decided that Simsbury would take home the plaque and Stamford the medallions.

Though the Black Knights will eventually get a plaque, the players wanted to get a picture on the field with it. So Emily Powers, one of the team’s senior co-captains, went up to Simsbury coach Pamela Hammersmith and asked if she could borrow the plaque. Hammersmith would not relinquish it.

Powers is one of the friendliest and least imposing looking players on the team. Did Hammersmith think Powers was going to take the plaque and make a dash for the bus?

In the end, the Stamford players used the same resourcefulness it took to win their second straight state title. They posed with the runner-up plaque and made sure to cover up the part that said “runner-up.”

Looking to Make History

November 13th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

The Stamford High School field hockey team will hold its final practice of the season tomorrow afternoon. Then it will meet at Bobby Valentine’s for its final team dinner.

Then on Saturday morning the Black Knights will face Simsbury for the state title.

With a victory they would become the first team in school history to ever win consecutive CIAC championships.

“That would mean so much,” said forward Katie Pape. “To do something no one else has ever done.”

What has been most illuminating in recent days is the way the seniors on the team have said a win this year would be even more significant, though players usually remember their first championship.

“Winning it once was excellent,” said defender Emily Powers. “To go back to back….” To win it again would mean so much.”

Last year the Black Knights finished 17-4-0-1 and were a strong team from start to finish. This year they had the potential to be just as talented, but the road proved to be long and winding.

One of the team’s key players quit toward the end of the preseason. Madi McLaughlin, who set a city scoring record last year with 26 goals, injured her knee midway through the regular season and did not regain her form until the state tournament started. Two key players were suspended for the final two games of the regular season.

Stamford headed into the state tournament with a 9-6-2 mark after going 3-5-1 in its previous nine games.

It was a situation that would have sank most teams. But the players on the Black Knights have two important qualities: talent and character. Pape said the players practiced on their own for four days between the league and state playoffs, without coach Matt Forker, and that it allowed them to bond again.

“For some reason we work better at motivating ourselves more than anyone else,” said Pape, who is one of the team’s four captains, along with Powers, McLaughlin and Laura Dembofsky. “That’s when we started to click.”

The Black Knights have always had the tools to be in their current position. It just took them a little longer than expected to realize it.

“The confidence level is high this year like last year,” Powers said. “Last year going into the final our whole season had gone well and we thought there was no way we were going to lose. This year it has been a little bit more of a roller coaster ride, a lot bumpier.”

The Black Knights have smoothed that pavement with four straight wins in the tournament, the last three coming against the No. 1, 4 and 5 seeds. Simsbury is the second seed.

“Going into the tournament we didn’t realize how good we were,” Pape said. “We thought of ourselves as average girls. That’s why we are so confident now, because we have worked so hard. We’re so excited.”

There is also something about winning a title as a senior, the players agreed, that resonates deeper. For someone like Powers, who does not play any sports, this is the final game of her high school career.

“This is it,” she said. “To go out on top would mean so much. I think because it is the last time it would mean even more.”

And the chance to make Stamford High School sports history in the process.

A Special Team

November 12th, 2008 | Posted in news | 1 Comment »

Ten years ago I left The Advocate for a job at ESPN, which turned out to be the worst one I ever had in my life. I quit six months later without having another position and eventually returned to the paper.

Most people cannot understand why I would leave Dick Vitale, Keith Olbermann and the world of professional and big-time college sports for Stamford High, Westhill, Trinity Catholic and the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference.

I thought about the reason why again tonight as I was driving home from Hamden after watching the Stamford field hockey team defeat top-seeded Glastonbury, 2-1, in the semifinal round of the state tournament. Sometimes the best stories are not provided by the biggest stars playing at the highest levels, but by good people right in your own backyard.

And a big part of the allure of a community paper for me has always been the people. Hearing someone tell you they still have stories you wrote about them in their scrapbook has meant more than all the World Series and NCAA Tournament games I have been fortunate enough to cover.

The Stamford field hockey team is just a perfect example of this sentiment. I’m not a big field hockey fan — I don’t hate it and I’m not militant like many who don’t understand the rules and detest the constant whistles. There are just other sports I prefer. Yet I will gladly be getting up early Saturday morning to drive to Wethersfield to watch the Black Knights attempt to win their second straight state title.

A big reason is the players on the Stamford team and Matt Forker, their coach. They are impossible not to like. At a local paper you really get to know who you write about.

I remember Katie Pape when she was a little kid running around the Trinity gymnasium during her brother’s basketball games. Now she is one of the stars others look up to. Madi McLaughlin and Laura Dembofsky loathe losing more than any high school athletes I have met, and they are as gifted at making others laugh as they are scoring goals and dominating games. There isn’t a nicer person in Stamford than Emily Powers, a great defender and huge sports fan who I have no doubt can handle my old job at ESPN one day if she wants it. Heather Wilson is a thoughtful interview with a memorable smile. And a pretty clutch player in goal.

This is not to imply that the Stamford field hockey team is the only one who has roused such sentiments. There have been many others. It is just the latest example of why I am one of the fortunate few who get up in the morning and enjoy going to work.

Good kids and good coaches inspire journalists. It is a challenge to make your words live up to their deeds.

They can even make you look forward to getting up early on a Saturday morning and driving an hour to watch a field hockey game.

Solving the FCIAC’s Schedule Problem

November 11th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

After a month of talking to league officials and coaches, and tossing together a few ideas of my own, I have solved the FCIAC’s problem with the football schedule…..to my own personal satisfaction.

Check out my column tomorrow for The Ruden Plan. It is really quite simple. The championship game has to regain priority over the Thanksgiving games. If you do that — and the championship game should ALWAYS take priority — you can overcome all the obstacles created by a 19-team league and a number of bylaws.

Unfortunately, as you will read, my idea will probably never see the light of day.

Let me know what you think.

Postseason and Other Musings

November 8th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

A few thoughts from Friday’s games:

— Everyone should know by now that seedings in the state playoffs can be misleading and the word “upset” is overused. Teams with more losses playing in strong leagues are often more formidable than others with better records from weaker leagues.

So no one should be surprised by the Stamford High School field hockey team’s current run into the semifinals of the Class L Tournament after its 2-1 overtime win over Pomperaug. Half of their six losses can directly be attributed to one of the Black Knights’ key players, Madi McLaughlin, suffering a mideseason knee injury and the two-game suspensions handed to two starters at the end of the regular season.

Stamford, the 13th seed, is the defending state champion, and after some ups and downs it is now operating at top form, and while the rest of the road will be difficult, starting with a semifinal game against top-seeded Glastonbury, there is no reason the Black Knights cannot repeat.

It was especially fitting that center midfielder Laura Dembofsky scored the winning goal Friday. She is no stranger to the dramatic, having scored the clinching goal in last year’s championship game. She had been frustrated the past few weeks by her inability to finish plays. For the second straight year she came through in the clutch.

— The Staples boys soccer team played a near-perfect game in its 5-0 quarterfinal dismantling of E.O. Smith, The Wreckers are young, and after winning the FCIAC title it would not have been surprising if they suffered a letdown in the state playoffs.

But the team’s inexperience is actually an asset. The players don’t seem to realize how skilled they are and, more importantly, are totally impervious to pressure.

That is a pretty good combination as the Wreckers prepare to meet Glastonbury in the semifinals in what continues to be a special 50th year anniversary celebration for the program.

— The Westhill High School football team is a perfect candidate for a psychiatrist’s couch. The Vikings have a lot of talent, but they are also maddeningly inconsistent. They went from 0-2 and looking at a miserable season, to 4-2 and the prospects of their first winning record in over two decades, now to 4-5 following their third straight loss, 25-14 to Trumbull.

The Vikings played well enough to win in stretches and poorly enough to lose in others. Now the trick will be trying to salvage their year by at least splitting their two remaining games. It won’t be easy: they have to play Greenwich and Stamford.

The Mess That is the FCIAC Football Schedule

November 7th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

The furor over all but one of the Game 5 week games not counting toward the league standings has temporarily died down — though the controversy could soar again next week — but the bottom line right now is that the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference football schedule is a complete and utter mess.

It is embarrassing that the league has to resort to a point system where teams not only have to worry about the outcome of their games, but whether they can accrue enough bonus points depending on how their previous opponents fare. This is a system in theory similar to college football’s BCS over the past few years, and we have all seen what a joke that has turned out to be.

Right now St. Joseph has to worry about beating Wilton tomorrow and hope for wins from Brien McMahon and Danbury to build up bonus points. Is this really how we want the finalists for the league’s title game to be decided?

And if you thing the Week 5 furor was bad a month ago, imagine what will happen if the Cadets win tomorrow and then defeat Darien and reach the final because their loss to Stamford dis not count in the league standings.

I’ve been busy looking into this story for the last couple of weeks, talking to coaches and league officials. I plan on weighing in with my own opinion next week in the paper.

I spent 15 minutes talking with FCIAC executive secretary John Kuczo about this at the title game of the soccer tournaments. Kuczo is as frustrated as everyone, but like everyone feels hamstrung.

A 19-team league creates an impossible scenario. But the bigger problem is league bylaws which mandate that divisions have to be arranged by school size, and that certain teams outside of Thanksgiving Day rivals must meet during the regular season.

There can be no perfect system, but I still believe the current one came be improved. It is going to require the FCIAC to take the bold step of reworking its bylaws for football, which is different than all other sports. Right now you have 19 athletic directors whose agendas vary.

Not everyone is going to be happy, but right now the overwhelming priority should be to come up with the best system possible even if it does not meet 100 percent approval. And that means deciding your finalists based on wins and losses, not a convoluted point system that few understand and fewer like.

Many consider the FCIAC to be the best league in the state. It is hard to disagree. But greatness also comes from having the courage to be bold, and while the league has tried hard to come up with a system that works for the most, it is time to try harder. The current format does not come close to meeting the level of excellence that has characterized the FCIAC.

Right now I have my own proposal that will please some and not others. I don’t have any affiliations to individual schools or an agenda. But the players, coaches and fans deserve better. A lot better. The FCIAC championship game should be the showcase of the scholastic season. Its stature has been badly diminished in the past decade.

It is time to return to greatness, and that comes with sacrifice and leadership.

Do fans out there feel the same way? What are your thoughts?

A Pair Of Sleepers

November 3rd, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

Both the Stamford High School and Westhill field hockey teams advanced today in the CIAC Class L Tournament with a pair of wins in the qualifying round.

Though the Black Knights are seeded 13th and the Vikings 16th, with difficult draws, both teams have to be viewed as solid sleepers.

It might be difficult to consider a defending state champion an underdog, but Stamford is seeded lower because it finished the regular season by going 3-3-1 in its final seven games due to a pair of two-game suspensions to a couple of starters and a knee injury that slowed Madi McLaughlin, who last year set a city scoring record with 26 goals.

But McLaughlin had her burst back today. She and Dani Robustelli scored Stamford’s goals in a 2-0 win over Masuk. It took a hot goaltender and a couple of shots off the posts to deny her of several more goals. The Black Knights are a much more dynamic team with McLaughlin at 100 percent — she said she is currently at “98 percent.”

Stamford has a number of stellar senior starters — forward Katie Pape, center midfielder Laura Dembofsky, defenders Emily Powers and Carmen Petrafesa and goaltender Heather Wilson among them — and though it will have to play fourth-seeded Cheshire on Wednesday, it would not be a surprise if the team made a run at a second straight title.

The Vikings dominated Amity today, 4-0, on goals by Alli Oakes, Lauren Hallett, Courtney Van der Linden and Sarah Benjamin. The team finished the season at 7-7-1 but often played at a higher level than their record would indicate. Oakes is one of the state’s top scorers, while Brittany Longo is a leader at the middle of the field.

Westhill now must travel to play Glastonbury, the No. 1 seed, but it has proved all season it has the talent to play at an elite level.

For those who like to dream, Stamford and Westhill need two more wins apiece and then would face each other in the semifinals.

She Powers Stamford’s Teams, On and Off the Field

November 1st, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

It should come as no surprise that on Halloween night the Stamford High School football team had one of its smallest crowds of the season. It should also come as no surprise that Emily Powers was one of the fans in the student section at Boyle Stadium for the Black Knights’ 41-21 win over Fairfield Ludlowe.

“There was a football game,” Powers explained matter-of-factly. “It was supposed to be a win. I like going to games.”

At a time of declining numbers in the stands, Powers is a throwback. It is hard to imagine anyone having greater school spirit than the perky Stamford senior.

Powers goes to every football game. She estimates that she missed just two to three boys basketball games last winter and made every baseball game. She attends a majority of the hockey games.

Stamford athletics is Powers’ own personal field of dreams. Her mantra could easily be, “If they play it, I will come.”

“I get into it,” Powers explained. “You are only in high school once. We all dress up and go to the football games.”

Powers is more than just a fan. She is also a starting fullback for the Black Knights’ field hockey team, arguably their most underrated player and an excellent defender.

I wrote a column about Powers two weeks ago. I had only interviewed her once previously, but after spending a half hour with her I came away thinking here is someone who represents all that is good about scholastic sports. She is extremely popular with her teammates and students at the school, very outgoing and is passionate about playing without seeking any personal acclaim.

I was also taken with how big a sports fan she is, and not just supporting her school. Powers said she will probably spend part of today watching college football. She is looking forward to the Georgia-Florida game. Tomorrow, after her team’s final practice before Monday’s opening round of the state tournament, Powers will sneak in some naps while sitting in front of her TV watching pro football, including her favorite team, the Giants.

“There’s always some game to watch and I love it,” she said.

Don’t be surprised if five years from now Powers is working in some capacity in the sports world. With her personality she would make an ideal publicist.

Right now Powers is focused on trying to help the Black Knights repeat as state champions. Her final game will come sometime in the next two weeks.

And when her career is over? Powers will probably shed a few tears and then be back in the bleachers supporting Stamford’s other teams.

Champions Of A Different Color

October 29th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

Two deserving teams with different pedigrees were crowned champions tonight at the FCIAC boys and girls soccer finals at Norwalk High School.

Staples, with a starting lineup that featured just three seniors but made up for its youth with a high skill level, defeated Greenwich, 3-1, to win the boys title. It was a fitting outcome for a revered program celebrating its 50th anniversary as the Wreckers won their 25th crown. It was the team’s fourth title in the past 12 years but just the second outright in that span.

Staples perhaps best demonstrated its mettle in Monday’s semifinals, when it overcame a sluggish first half against Norwalk in which it could easily have been down two goals if not for a pair of outstanding saves by Adam Liu before erupting for three second-half goals in a three-minute span.

This Staples team played with the same skill level and class as its more seasoned predecessors. Dan Woog, who once played for the team, covered it for the Westport News and then was an assistant coach, has kept the program at the same high level as his venerable predecessors: Albie Loeffler and Jeff Lea.

In tonight’s opener, St. Joseph, which had never even played in an FCIAC final, won its first title with a 2-0 win over Darien. There is even a link between the two: Sarah Frassetto scored the Cadets’ first goal. Her father, Don, is a former starter for Staples.

It was a disappointing loss for a Blue Wave team that is enjoying the best season in its history and will be a definite threat when the state playoffs begin next week. Jon Bradley has done an outstanding job developing the team into a power.

While a lot of the conversation after the game was about Frassetto’s perfectly placed direct kick and Jessica Schloth’s brilliant individual move that led to her scoring the Cadets’ second goal, their unsung hero was Alyssa Gillespie, who seemed to have the ball attached to her foot the entire second half. It was her ability to control tempo with the lead that was the real key to St. Joseph’ first title.

Baskin’s Decision on Hold

October 25th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

One of the biggest mysteries of the scholastic sports season is which college will get the services of Tevin Baskin, Trinity Catholic’s outstanding basketball player. Baskin originally said he wanted to make a decision by November, before practice starts.

Yesterday, at the Crusaders’ football game with Stamford, Baskin said he now likely won’t make his choice until the spring.

“I need more time and don’t want to rush it,” Baskin said.

Providence and Massachusetts have been the rumored likely places for Baskin to land.

“That’s what a lot of people think, but not me,” Baskin said.

When I asked him if a gun was put to his head today and he had to make a choice where would he go, Baskin smiled.

“I’d take the bullet,” he said.