At a recent family function, my great uncles and father were discussing high school sports. My uncle was a pretty good player for NDWH back in the mid 1950s. He and his brother were discussing the glory days of the District League, and how it was tops in their day. Then, they said it all shifted during the great suburban sprawl of the 1960s. The Housatonic League was king from then on. My grandfather was a lineman at Derby, well before the glory days (read early 1940s). My uncle played fullback and baseball for Amity. I learned to love football watching the early 90s Housy games. Got to see (and scrimmaged against) the McIntosh's. I was there the day Seymour students stormed the field at Derby. While back then, there were the East Havens, Sheehans, and Lyman Halls of the league, the Housy was a great league.
What's left of the Housatonic League? Most of its members play in the SCC. Seymour is an NVL team. I'm willing to bet that either/both Woodland and Oxford would have joined the Housatonic League, had it still existed. The SCC is good. The NVL is good. But the rivarly isn't there, and when it is, it's forced. Consider this, Derby has added a Tech school to it's roster. If every week was a classic, like in the old days, would Derby have fallen off the map? Wouldn't you rather watch Seymour play a Cheshire, Amity, or Derby this week? Instead, Wildcat fans have to watch the Kennedy Eagle single wing come to town this weekend. HELL, right now, I'd take a North Haven. Plus, it's early October, and had the old leagues and rules existed right now, at some point, Ansonia and Derby would have tangled. Instead, NVL fans are stuck with an 11th awful NVL game. Some SCC schools haven't even scheduled an 11th game.
What about an all (almost) Valley League? If the town is south of Waterbury, and it touches either the Housatonic or Naugatuck Rivers, CT could have a seriously stacked league, with classics every week. Ansonia, Derby, Naugatuck, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Woodland...throw in Cheshire, Amity, Holy Cross, and a Pomperaug or Masuk...WOW.
Consider this CIAC, how much have fuel costs risen in the past year? How much will they rise? How can it be fixed? Just throwing these thoughts out there.
Everyone else...you can now complain.
Saturday Final Scores
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Class M State Championship Hillhouse 7 New London 0 Hillhouse freshman
running back Harold Cooper scored the game’s only touchdown. Class L State
Champio...
14 years ago
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3 comments:
If Ansonia and Seymour had joined the SCC when it started the old rivals would still be playing
Hey C I could not agree more except for 1 team...As you have it there are 12 teams which would mean in a 10 game year you would miss 1 team. I say to hell with Holy Cross (I am not sure if I could say that..sorry Father). The whole private school mixed with public schools irks me. They should all play in their own league. In the SCC I can not find anyone that is not an alum of Prep, ND, or Xavier that actually roots for them. Keep all those snooty SOB's in their own league. You would also need to decide about Thankgiving a team or 2 would nedd to make an concession.
There is of course the other problem. In this time of the "do nothing" AD a league like you suggest causes all sorts of scheduling problems. (they are only problems because an AD would have to work to correct it) Not all of those teams offer the same sports. Pomperaug and Masuk have field hockey. Shelton has boys and girls lacrosse. Amity and Shelton even have Boys volleyball.I venture to say that Ansonia, Seymour, and Derby kids have never even seen a field hockey stick. So you see a person making 100+K a year would hate to have to work to out of conference to schedule...But a football only conference like you said would just be a dream as you would get a meaningful matchup every week.....
Can't we invent Title X...make the have nots equal with the haves?
No sport left behind...anything goes!
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