Halloween Memories

Holidays always bring memories. Some good, some bad. Some fun and others more serious. 

I have many Halloween memories from years ago. Are we sure I'm too old to trick-or-treat now? 

I won't bore you with all the memories and details, but definitely have a few thoughts. 

Years ago it was going with family friends across town and walking with them in their neighborhood. 

It was me, my dad and my brother (and I'm sure we did it before my brother was old enough) along with the three kids from our family friends and their dad. I'm pretty sure some years other friends of ours were also in the group with us. 

We'd have our Halloween buckets, and when they would get full, we'd put that candy in a larger bag (often a pillow case) so we'd have room for more.  

After we walked around the houses in their neighborhood, we'd go back to their house and sort, court and probably eat the candy. I remember dumping the candy out of the floor and then sorting it. 

There were many years for school that we had to sort and count our candy and then record the amount of candy and the different types of candy we got. The next day in school we'd have to turn all our information into pie charts, bar graphs, etc to demonstrate how those showed us information. 

They couldn't let us just enjoy the candy! 

Traditions change  and as we got older, my brother, dad and I started trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, sometimes with friends who lived nearby. We'd go around our couple loops and also up the block across the main road, where we knew we'd get the large candy bars. 

Then we'd walk down a block or two and loop back to our house. Some years in varied the path we took. 

People always debate how old kids are to trick-or-treat. I'm pretty sure I trick-or-treated through middle school. Then, freshman year of high school my friend/neighbor  and I hung out on his porch while his mom handed out candy. After that year, I think i realized I was too old to do anything. Other than eating candy, of course. 

I could write more memories, like Halloween in school and more, but I said I wouldn't bore you with all the memories. We all have our our memories. 

On that note, back to eating leftover candy.  

2023 at Warde 

2003 at Riverfield

Two Game Weekend

I know I said I wouldn't write about high school football every week, but here we are again. 

On Friday, I was asked to fill in and  do the scoreboard at Brien McMahon for their game with Warde as their usual scoreboard operator couldn't make it. 

Happy to help out McMahon Athletic Director John Cross as he needed someone to work and always good to pick up side gigs. 

Nice to work with cross country head coach Patrick Bradley, who was on the public address. Appreciate Patrick's help. It's always weird to work in a new spot and with new people, so his friendliness was very much appreciated. 

Whether it's Paul Piorek or Phil Simpson at Ludlowe, or Patrick Bradley on Friday, it's always great to work together with the PA announcer so we help each other and are in sync on down-and-distance and ball spot.  

It was a different controller than the one I used for football at Ludlowe, but one I've used for basketball in the past. That was good as I was somewhat familiar with it and just gave myself a quick tutorial before the game. 

Don't worry, I don't think I messed up the clock this week. It made it somewhat easier that the end of the third and all of the fourth quarter was running time, due to the score. 

As for the game, McMahon led from start to finish and came away with a 49-7 victory. 

It was good to see Warde play since I have not seen them yet this season. Often because their games conflict with Ludlowe and the home games specifically, where I am working the Ludlowe games. 

Saturday, I went to Darien to watch the Blue Wave take on Ludlowe. 

I was pretty sure some of "The Nest" (the Ludlowe student section) was going to come, so figured we'd need to watch them. Overall, they were pretty well behaved.  

I also always want to support my guys. Bunch of baseball, basketball and other players on the football team who I'm close with. I'll obviously support them all. 

Ludlowe took an early 7-0 lead on a touchdown catch by John Kleinbeck from Chris Bellentoni but after Darien tied it up and then took a 14-7 lead after one, they did not relinquish the lead. The Blue Wave defeated Ludlowe 34-21. On the defensive side of the ball for the Falcons, Ryan Torello came away with a well-played interception in the loss. 

On the scoreboard, not a great weekend for the two Fairfield teams. 

Warde falls to 0-6 and will host Bridgeport Central on Friday at 6pm. 

Ludlowe falls to 4-2 and will be back in action on Friday at home at 6pm vs McMahon. 

A couple added factors of this weekend were the weather and traffic, due to road work. Fortunately, at least for me, neither were bad at all. I worried all week about the traffic and alternate routes. Like usual, I worried for no reason. 

Another weekend down. Regular season for many fall sports (other than football) wrapping up and playoffs starting soon. We've got football until (at least) Thanksgiving. 

On to a new week. 

Scoreboard (Operator) Difficulties

Who do they say is one of the most yelled at people at an athletic event? The scoreboard operator. 

Let's just say it. Tonight was a rough one for me on the scoreboard for Ludlowe football's 53-44 shootout win over Ridgefield. 

It was a long first half, with a lot of scoring and a lot of passing, but was going fine for most of the first half. 

With under one minute remaining in the half, Ludlowe was leading 40-29 (yes, you read that right). Those 40 points came in large part to three Justin Toothaker touchdowns. 

 Ridgefield drove down the field and with under 10 seconds to go, threw a pass towards the right corner of the end zone that was incomplete with one second left. 

That set up a field goal attempt for Ridgefield's Cole Montanaro. He connected from 24-yards out to cut the deficit to 40-32 at halftime. 

Let me say, I stopped the clock as I believe I should have when the pass before the field goal attempt was incomplete. I know many people thought as the home clock, I should have let the second tick off and go to the half. Yes, I'm sure many other home clocks do that, and maybe I should have  I honestly didn't even look at the time when I was stopping it. Regardless, I have too much integrity and am on edge when I am doing the clock regardless. 

Then, in the fourth quarter, Ridgefield cut the deficit to 46-44, and could have tied it on a two-point try that was no good. Then I got really nervous. Could my scoreboard work impact the outcome of the game? Luckily for me in didn't come back to bite, and Ludlowe, Ryan Tompkins scored with 1:25 left to ice the game. 

In the fourth quarter, I also ran the clock when I was supposed to stop it, and then didn't see or hear the ref telling me the correct time initially. Thanks to Dan Seek for the assistance on that one. I was not to popular with the Ridgefield coaches in the booth on that one. At least that one got corrected and didn't impact anything. 

So no coaches were happy with my scoreboard work tonight. I don't blame them. 

Why did I just write a whole blog post picking on my poor scoreboard skills? Good question! 

Two more home games on the scoreboard this season. Hopefully it goes better than tonight. 

National Coaches Day 2023

October 6 is National Coaches Day. 

The definition of a coach is "a person who teaches and trains the members of a sports team and makes decisions about how the team plays during games." 

A coach is so much more than that though.

From playing sports, to covering sports, to coaching and working in athletic offices, I have dealt and deal with coaches a lot. 

There is a lot that goes that goes into being a coach beyond coaching practices and games. There's preparation, and paperwork and dealing with people and issues and so much more. 

There are many different coaching staff roles and duties to make sure everything runs smoothly. There are variations depending on the age of athletes, level of play and the league that the coach is coaching in. 

A good coach doesn't just care about wins and loses and how the athletes perform of the field, court, etc. A good coach cares about their athletes. They care about them both on the field and off. A good coach not only wants their players to have a good experience with the team, but is there for them in life. 

A coach may make a decision in a game that is the best to help their team win. This doesn't mean they don't like or care about the player as a person. 

The head coach is the leader of the program and he can dictate how he wants to use his assistant coaches. Many coaches have different roles for how their assistants can help them. 

Coaches are teachers even if they are not actual teachers as their full-time job, at any level, but especially at the youth and high school level and that's important. 

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For me, it's being an assistant on the Ludlowe baseball coaching staff. We have a great staff led by Ken Geriak and a tremendous group of kids who it's a pleasure to coach. Everyone has a role and it's about the kids. 

It's also working with all the coaches I do at Ludlowe and Warde. I honestly work more directly with coaches than I do the student-athletes. From coaching permits and paperwork, to rosters, buses and so many other items that come up on a daily basis. 

Some coaches I am friendlier with than others and deal with more. A lot of that depends on the sport and their needs, as well as what coaches are around the office more than others. 

Then there's also my heavy involvement in Ludlowe basketball and dealing with John Dailey and his staff even more than I do the other coaches I work with for my actual job. 

It's the coaches I've covered as a media member. Always so gracious and helpful. 

It's also those I played youth sports for. So many great parents who were the coaches who knew I wasn't a great athlete but was passionate and cared. 

There are way too many coaches to name them who have had an impact on me. Especially with the fact that I don't want to forget or slight someone. Everyone important in one way or another. 

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There are so many great coaches professionally. Everyone has their opinions. 

From Vince Lombardi to Phil Jackson to Connie Mack, to Mike Krzyzewski to Geno Auriemma and so many others. And that's just head coaches, not even making any assistants. 

Everyone doesn't like their teams coach when things aren't going well and loved them when they are. That's the reality of sports and the position they are in.