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Ray Curren
Elm City Newspapers
October 15, 2007 - Madison’s outgoing Superintendent, Dr. H. Kaye Griffin, has a welcome message on the district website, that mentions, “The school district’s top priority is student achievement in each classroom for each student.
We need parents/guardians and the community at large as partners in our educational endeavors.” Why - after more than a decade of relative success in making Madison one of the top achieving districts in the state - she chose to meddle in the world of Daniel Hand athletics, only she knows. But Griffin, who will retire at the end of the year (she maintains that was always her plan), learned a hard lesson many politicians and public servants forget: Know thy constituents.
People in Madison don’t like you to mess with their athletics. Hand has been a state champion or runner-up in 10 different team sports in the last eight years, and were voted by Sports Illustrated as the top athletic program in Connecticut. So last February when Griffin and the Board of Education suspended Athletic Director Craig Semple over taking in free athletic equipment, eyebrows were raised and people in Madison got mad. At the next meeting, the Board voted 7-0 to remove the equipment because Semple “bypassed the board’s practices and procedures for identifying and acquiring” the equipment, which was donated. A month later, the Board reversed itself, but Semple was still suspended, leading angry parents to bombard the meetings, until the Board - in a move that may work in Burma or North Korea - cut off all speaking of “personnel” at meetings. Two of the people critical of Griffin and the Board in print were Larry Ciotti, a legend in Madison as a former Hand coach and current Yale assistant, and his son, Mike, who had just completed his first year as a Hand assistant after working for several years with Madison Youth Football. Predictably, the muzzling did not have its desired effect.
The fitness center, with the $22,000 in donated equipment, opened on March 21, with Semple finally reinstated. Two weeks later, Griffin announced her retirement, and much of Madison cheered. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Not in Madison. In July, it was announced that Mike Ciotti’s contract would not be renewed because he wasn’t certified. Or because it was a conflict of interest for him because he did business with the school district. Or because he allegedly interrupted head coach Steve Filippone’s class. Had nothing to do with the fact he and his father spoke out against the Board and the outgoing Superintendent, no, sir. Again the parents bombarded the now apparently vindictive Board, and again the Board, of course, lost. Ciotti got his certification renewed and was back coaching, albeit two weeks after the season started. And now, about a dozen paragraphs into the story, is the time where I get to tell you that Hand is 5-0 and might be on their way to their fourth football title in five years. About a dozen paragraphs too many for Filippone, who for the second time in three years (Hand’s steroids controversy dominated the headlines in 2005), at least throughout the preseason, has been overshadowed by, well Filippone described it better than I can when he called it “political garbage. ”Filippone stayed quiet during the whole off-season of discontent, but I’m sure inside he wanted to jump up and down at some point and say, “It’s about the kids, people.”
Coming off a mediocre 4-6 record, Hand’s first losing season as a member of the SCC, the Tigers have dealt with the controversy and prospered, taking a 5-0 mark into Friday’s showdown with the only other unbeaten in the conference, Shelton. After last Friday’s 26-14 defeat of Amity, Filippone talked about how they did it. “They suffered through an unbelievably tough offseason, with both all the stuff that was in the papers and some other internal things,” Filippone said. “We had a lot of distractions, but we worked them out and we persevered. I give everyone involved a lot of credit.”
Led by quarterback Mike Langrieger and tailback Dylan Taylor, the Tigers have proven effective, but where they have really shined is on the defensive side of the ball. Hand had Amity quarterback Billy Choiniere under pressure all night, sacking him seven times, three by senior Richard Leighton. Hand did the same to high-powered Xavier in its opener, and has not allowed more than 16 points all season. But the work is only halfway done, and with Shelton, Notre Dame, and West Haven up in the next three weeks, as well as an improved Class MM (which includes Notre Dame), the Tigers still have plenty of work to do.
“There’s not a bad team in this league, certainly not in Division I,” Filippone said. “We had a tough season last year, but the reality is, we were very young and we were in almost every game, so it’s not a huge surprise we are where we are. But every week will be tough.” And regardless of what happens the rest of the way, Filippone will be happy just to answer questions about football, please. “The system always works when people sit down and discuss what the problem is and work together to solve it,” Filippone said. "That's what happened with our football team." Amen, brother.
YOU SURE THAT‘S RIGHT?: Coming off a loss to Division II North Haven, there wasn‘t much that indicated Cheshire had much of a chance against Fairfield Prep, who seemed to have its sights set on a return to the Class LL playoffs. So when the score came across: Cheshire 35, Prep 7 in the second quarter, it sounded backward. It wasn’t. The Rams swarmed the Jesuits with an opportunistic defense and a budding star in sophomore quarterback Tood Heritage, who threw for 200 yards and two touchdowns, running for another. The other star of the night was former QB Billy Ragone, who intercepted three passes and scored three times.
It looked like the Cheshire we thought we’d see at the beginning of the season, the team who pulled off a similar stunner over West Haven, 42-21, last season. Looking at the glass half full, it was a stunning performance from the Rams, who with teams like Amity, Notre Dame, and Southington still on the schedule, could play a good spoiler. But with the glass half empty, where was that team against Hamden and North Haven?
JUST CALL HIM AMAKER: There was a good reason why he wasn‘t on the North Haven roster, and why he ended up in the box scores as just Amaker on Saturday, as Kendrick Amaker - who scored three touchdowns for the Indians in their 34-14 win over Lyman Hall - was only in the school for a week. His family moved from Meriden to North Haven, and he arrived just in time for coach Tony Sagnella, who had seen quarterback Jeff Bartek go down the week before. But backup QB Mike Friello did a solid job, and the Indians keep rolling on. If they can get by Guilford this week at home, they appear to have a clear path toward a showdown with Amity on Thanksgiving Eve (yes, Wednesday night). A 9-1 record will likely be enough to earn a berth in Class MM, as North Haven, like Jonathan Law is in search of its first playoff appearance in CIAC history, one of the many benefits of the two-division system the SCC currently enjoys.
EXTRA POINTS: Notre Dame‘s 28-14 win over Xavier was actually played at East Haven High, as the Knights eschewed going back to Quigley Stadium one last time. Despite lack of a permanent home field, Notre Dame is 4-1, and with a couple of wins in the next two weeks could make its way to the Class MM playoffs. More good news: Veterans Field is finally scheduled to open next week against Hand. No, really, this time … Struggling West Haven unveiled its future against Hamden in the form of freshman Kevin Phillips, who ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries. The Blue Devils are still dangerous, posting a 28-12 win over the Green Dragons …
Shelton‘s trip to New Haven was a bad one, but was almost disastrous. The Gaels eeked out a 15-12 win to keep its undefeated season alive, but may have lost running back Andre Henderson for an extended period of time with a shoulder injury. Henderson left the game in the first half and did not return …
Scott Mazur‘s officiating crew, the same one that almost ejected Amity coach Mike Devito two weeks ago, worked the Amity-Hand contest last week, largely without incident. Only five penalties were accepted in the game, four on Amity, just one on Hand …
Speaking of penalties, after both of Hamden‘s touchdowns against West Haven, the Green Dragons were called for delay of game on the ensuing conversion. Some things you can’t make up, folks …
Hillhouse’s game with Branford, originally scheduled for Saturday because the Hornets wouldn’t play on Friday afternoon, will now be at West Haven High on Friday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m.
GAME OF THE WEEK Hand at Shelton, Friday, 7 p.m. - It‘s easy to forget after last season that Hand entered 2006 as three-time defending state champion, so we should have figured they wouldn‘t stay down for long. To survive at Finn Stadium, though, their defense will have to maintain the form that has gotten it to this point. The Tigers did give up some big plays against Amity and can‘t afford to do the same this week. For the Gaels, if Andre Henderson is out, who replaces him?
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Billy Ragone, Cheshire - Ragone started the season as Cheshire‘s quarterback, but after being replaced by sophomore Todd Heritage has made the most of it. Last Friday, he intercepted three passes against Fairfield Prep, returning one for a touchdown, and also caught two more TD passes as the Rams crushed Prep, 42-7, in the SCC‘s biggest upset of Week 5.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS 94
Number of points Fairfield Prep has allowed in the last three weeks after posting shutouts in their first two games. The Jesuits, who crowd chanted “we play defense“ when they were blanking Shelton in the second quarter of Week 3, allowed 26 to the Gaels, 26 more to Xavier, and a whopping 42 to Cheshire last week. POWER RANKINGS
1) Shelton (5-0, Last Week 1) -- Looked shaky last week, a little hope for Hand Friday night.
2) Hand (5-0, LW 3) -- Reports of their demise after last year were greatly exaggerated.
3) Notre Dame (4-1, LW 6) -- We don‘t need no stinking home field, Knights exclaim.
4) Fairfield Prep (3-2, LW 2) -- Probably should drop more, but they did beat Law 42-0.
5) Jonathan Law (4-1, LW 8) -- Intermission portion of schedule should continue this week.
6) Hillhouse (4-1, LW 5) -- Last day game for Bowen Field this season Friday vs. Sheehan.
7) North Haven (4-1, LW 9) -- Guilford is a pretty scary opponent this week for Indians.
8) Amity (3-2, LW 4) -- Looked much better in second half, couldn‘t block anyone in first.
9) Cheshire (2-3, LW 15) -- If you saw 42-7 Cheshire coming, then you‘re a bold-faced liar.
10) Xavier (2-3, LW 7) -- Another team that‘s pretty difficult to figure out from week to week.
11) West Haven (2-3, LW 11) -- Plenty of empty seats last week at Ken Strong Stadium.
12) Wilbur Cross (1-4, LW 10) -- Could be one of the most dangerous 1-4 teams in Connecticut.
13) Guilford (2-2-1, LW 12) -- Seems like they got a pretty difficult draw for a D-II team.
14) Lyman Hall (2-3, LW 13) -- Were competitive against North Haven, but not good enough to win.
15) Hamden (1-3-1, LW 14) -- Two wins over Cheshire, 0-12-1 against everyone else since ‘05.
16) Branford (1-3-1, LW 17) -- Coaches were happy to give longest winless streak back to Easties.
17) Sheehan (1-3-1, LW 16) -- Not surprised they got beat by Guilford, surprised they were blanked.
18) Foran (1-4, LW 18) -- Still a few winnable games out there for the Lions this season.
19) Derby (1-4, LW 19) -- Going to guess the O‘Brien Tech merger hasn‘t helped much yet.
20) East Haven (0-5, LW 20) -- The last of the winless teams in the SCC this season.
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