I saw two vital pieces to Bunnell’s second-straight CIAC Class L and SWC championships on Saturday.

At Planet Fitness in Trumbull, I forgot to ask quarterback Chris Sloat if the team got its championship rings yet. But later at the JCC Schoolboy Classic in Bridgeport, head coach Craig Bruno was proudly wearing his.

That’s one nice piece of jewelry, with “Back to Back State Champs” on the top. But will a third time be a charm for the Bulldogs?

Though it’s baseball season for Sloat, he is spending time on the weekends throwing the football with receivers like 6-foot-5 star Mark Harrison. And word has it that the horrible grass and dirt surface at Bunnell will be replaced with turf, so the fastest receiving corps in the SWC will have a new runway to perform on.

Bunnell is now a program that reloads instead of rebuilds, so I don’t see any reason for them not to make it to the SWC Championship Game once again — and most-likely face Masuk. But the states may be a different story.

If you’re looking for a Staples-Bunnell showdown in Class L, I have some bad news for you. Because of size enrollments, Staples is apparently moving up to Class LL for the 2008. And Bunnell is shrinking, so the Bulldogs are actually dropping to Class MM.

But what a great state championship game New Canaan-Bunnell would be, should both team’s reloading efforts go well.