Local Sports Feed » Greenwich

Greenwich Rugby Takes On Xavier

timparry — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:02:05 +0000

Haven’t seen live rugby? It’s becoming much more common in Fairfield County, with several high schools now offering it as a club sport. And if there’s a match to watch this weekend, it very well could be Sunday, 1:30 p.m., at Central Middle School in Greenwich.
The Cardinals will be playing its annual season showdown with rival Xavier High School of Manhattan. For the past three years, Greenwich and Xavier have been the Northeastern United States representatives at the U.S. Rugby High School Tournament. Last year Greenwich went two for three in
Tier B and finished 13th in the nation. Xavier went undefeated in three games and finished as Tier B champs and ninth in the nation.

This year’s showdown should be a monumental collision. Both teams have players on the U.S. National team. Both teams are undefeated, even after leaving the country to get rugby lessons.

Greenwich traveled to Argentina during April vacation looking for a game and went two for two, beating the best club in Argentina along the way. Xavier went to Ireland for two weeks and defeated four clubs in two weeks.

Greenwich’s players on the National team include Paul Jarvis and Chris Rosa.

For more information on rugby, check out this local link: http://metnyrfu.org/MetUnionRugby/HighSchool/highschools.htm

And for a link to the Greenwich Rugby page: http://www.greenwichrugby.com/

From Golden Domes to Helga Horns

timparry — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:18:33 +0000

With its first pick in the sixth round (187th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings have selected John Sullivan of Greenwich.

The situation is ideal for Sullivan, as the only center on Minnesota’s roster is 10th year veteran Matt Birk. The Vikings will most likely have Sullivan learn from Birk, who may soon be retiring.

More to come on this developing story, including analysis and interviews.

Starting with:

Sullivan’s post-draft conference call.

And Vikings head coach Brad Childress’s post-draft press conference.

Football Scholar-Athletes Honored

timparry — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:18:45 +0000

Thirty of Fairfield County’s finest football-playing scholar-athletes were honored April 10 by the Ralph DeSantis chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. Also honored at the dinner at Continental Manor in Norwalk were the head and assistant coaches of the year in the SWC and FCIAC, as well as two officials of the year.

Three players received $500 scholarships to be used towards their college education as well: William Bass (Bassick), Richard Holmes (Danbury), and Chris Payne (Wilton).

Wilton’s Tim Eagen was introduced as the FCIAC’s coach of the year by his mentor, Tom Fujitani, who he served under as an assistant coach for several years, and thanked his assistant coaches and the Warriors’ booster club for its efforts in helping to build a top-notch program. Ridgefield’s Kevin Callahan introduced one of his former players, New Fairfield’s Andy Buchsbaum, as the SWC’s coach of the year.

Carl Cairo (Greenwich) and John Pereira (Pomperaug) received their league’s respective assistant coach of the year awards.

The scholar-athletes honered were:

William Bass, Bassick
Nick Verderosa, Bethel
Chris Green, Brien McMahon
Kenneth Cobb, Bridgeport Central
Steven Moss, Brookfield
Jeffrey Farrell, Bunnell
Greg Passineau, Canterbury
Richard Holmes, Danbury
George Rhein, Darien
Matthew O’Laughlin, Fairfield Ludlowe
Thomas Marx Jr., Fairfield Warde
Jonathan Meyers, Greenwich
Scott Hickling, Joel Barlow
Victor Ciancetta, Masuk
Chris Lemoine, New Canaan
Patrick Cassidy, New Fairfield
Jonathan Henion, New Milford
Eric Puffer, Newtown
Cyprian Oyomba, Norwalk
Patrick Purrell, Notre Dame-Fairfield
Stephen Barton, Pomperaug
Tyler Strittmatter, Ridgefield
Michael Dinihanien, St. Joseph
Jason Zins, Staples
Justin Shumyhora, Stratford
John O’Leary, Trinity Catholic
Jameson Cherilus, Trumbull
John Midy, Westhill
Dylan Hannum, Weston
Chris Payne, Wilton

Also honored were a few unsung heroes of the game, the referees. Without them, of course, the games wouldn’t count in the standings. Bob Seirup, who has been working with the Fairfield County Football Association for 54 seasons, was honored as its official of the year. Bill Vasutro was the Colonial Football Association’s honoree.

FCIAC Can’t Compete At CIAC Division I Hockey Level

admin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:40:52 +0000

I’ve been on ice skates once, as a 4th grader who had sprained his ankle twice in the prior year. Needless to say, I refused to let my father let go of me that day on a frozen Mill River in Fairfield, and that pair of Caldor skates lay useless in my parent’s basement forever.

My floor hockey career ended as a sophomore in high school when I jumped in front of Kevin Arrix, a sophomore on the New Canaan varsity, to block a shot and ended up with something like 30 stitches above my right eye. (Kevin apologizes to this day, even though I take the blame)

But you don’t have to own a stick or know how to skate to understand that FCIAC teams cannot compete at the CIAC Division I level.

Why? Because the FCIAC’s Division I teams play everyone in in the league once, then participate in the FCIAC’s winnerless holiday tournament, and only schedule four out of conference games each.

This is great for Division II teams like Fairfield and Trinity Catholic, both of which were in the Frozen Four, and will benefit emerging Division III programs like St. Joseph.

But let’s break it down here: Fairfield Prep finished the regular season 9-10-1 and won the CIAC Division I championship as the 11 seed. Notre Dame-Fairfield was the runner up, the 9 seed, and had an 11-8-1 regular season. Prep didn’t play any games outside of D-I, Notre Dame played two games against D-II opponents.

What did FCIAC finalists Darien and New Canaan do? Darien played 11 of 20 regular season contests against D-I foes, New Canaan played 10. Darien played two D-II teams in the FCIAC playoffs, New Canaan beat one.

Needless to say, playing lesser opponents during the regular season doesn’t help when it comes to the CIAC D-I tournament, where FCIAC teams went 0-4 in the first round.

Now look at Trinity Catholic and Fairfield. Trinity Catholic had nine D-I games, including two in the FCIAC playoffs. Fairfield also skated against nine, including one in the playoffs and East Haven, the D-I’s top seed, in the regular season. They were clearly ready for trips to Ingalls Rink.

So what’s the FCIAC to do if it wants to get better? Or, better yet, keep its best players from running off to Prep schools? Here’s three ideas:

1. Take a lesson from the SWC and break the FCIAC down to D-I and D-II/III. The D-I teams will play each other, and the D-II/III teams play in their realm. Then make each school go out of conference to find opponents. This was a rare year for Notre Dame, which actually played against a pair of SWC D-II opponents. Fairfield Prep doesn’t touch anyone of the SCC’s second-tier schools.
2. Abandon the FCIAC holiday tournament, which doesn’t really seem to serve a purpose but to fill the schedule for two more games. Find some out-of-state foes like Prep and Notre Dame do when they get in prestigious tournaments. Heck, some D-II schools, I think Sheehan was one, played a tournament in Quebec.
3. Consider an end to the postseason FCIAC championship tournament. Not even separate D-I and D-II/III tournaments. You’re adding up to three extra games before the CIAC tournament. And, you have to cram your required (up to) 20 regular seasons into one less week to get ready for FCIACs. Maybe that’s a good thing if you’re playing similar foes. But maybe it’s also wearing FCIAC teams down.

Will all this help the FCIAC improve as a hockey conference? Yes. The D-II/III teams can fill their schedules with D-Is who want to play, or stay in their division. And the FCIACs D-Is can be freed up to take on teams like Tri-Town, Simsbury, Conard, and Glastonbury more often.