Cardinals Are The Champions

The Fall high school sports season came to a close on Saturday with the football state championships. 

Six championship games were played across two sites. Arute Field in New Britain, home of Central Connecticut football and Rentshler Field at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, home of UConn football. 

I joined Rob Adams and Chris Erway as part of the WGCH crew for Greenwich and Fairfield Prep at The Rent. 

Greenwich came away with the state championship, defeating Prep 37-17. For the Cardinals, it's their ninth football championship. 

Turnovers were really the name of the game, as Prep turned the ball over six times (five interceptions and a fumble lost) and Greenwich did not turn the ball over once. 

Three of those five interceptions were picked off by Charlie Dixon, including one which he returned for a touchdown. Dixon also had five catches offensively. 

Rob and Chris did a tremendous job on the broadcast. Yes, they were calling it for WGCH out of Greenwich, but they have affiliation with both schools and both towns, and they called an extremely fair game.  

I tried to do stats for them. It did not go well. I need to learn a better way to do stats for football, because whenever I try, it never works out well. Wish I could figure it out because I know it would make be more valuable. Of course, I Tweeted and tried to promote the game and the broadcast. I also tried to take some photos. 

Thanks to John Holt at the CIAC for welcoming us and for answering our questions. 

It was a fun day with lots of laughs. Great experience. Thanks to Rob for asking me to join him and Chris. 

Photo: John Holt/CIAC

Despite the loss, it was a tremendous season for Prep. A team that started 1-3 and then finished the regular season with six straight wins to get in the playoffs. The Jesuits were playing the season in honor of their teammate Jimmy McGrath, who died in May. 

Congrats to all the state champions who were crowned on Saturday in football, and this Fall across all sports. Happy for friends who are coaches, including Dan Farina at New Canaan and Tommy Howell at Joel Barlow, who each won football championships as assistant coaches. 

Winter sports are already underway, but now it's full speed onto basketball, maybe some hockey and maybe even watching some wrestling.