Bullard-Havens, Kolbe team up in football co-op

At Bullard-Havens, a senior-heavy group might have had a chance for a special 2020 football season with a new but familiar head coach. A pandemic stole that and sent all those seniors off to the next step in their lives.

The next step at Bullard-Havens for 2021 turned out to be joining forces with the school across town, Kolbe Cathedral, which is returning to football for the first time in decades.

“I had suggested to Kevin Bellenot, our AD, what about a co-op with Kolbe?” Tigers coach Paul Constantini said. “He put feelers out.”

The schools united, and Bullard/Kolbe debuts in the fall, scheduled to open on

the road Sept. 10 at Cheney Tech.

“They say there are about 20 kids interested,” Constantini said.

And the Tigers needed them. They had only about a dozen players returning from last year. About another dozen expressed interest at freshman orientation.

Add a few extra players to that, and you might play. But it’d be a lot tougher to maintain the kind of program that has won 21 regular-season games in a row, or that has at least nine wins and a Class S playoff appearance in five of the past six years that the CIAC has played football.

“We really needed last year, to have a good, successful season and get into the Pop Warner program,” Constantini said. “We really needed last year to get the numbers back up.”

Constantini got the job in spring 2020, just as the world shut down, replacing Chris Pace — his cousin — who took over at Abbott Tech/Immaculate. He’d been on Pace’s staff; he has also coached at Foran, Weston and Stratford.

The CIAC didn’t sanction a tackle football season last year, with the state Department of Public Health declining to recommend playing one. The CTC didn’t allow its teams to take part in the 7-on-7 or lineman challenges that other leagues held in lieu of tackle football.

“I felt really bad for the kids,” Constantini said. “This group of kids was closer than any group since I’d been there. We had a lot of seniors, and it was their time, finally,” stepping into starting and potentially starring roles.

“They still kept coming just in case there was a spring. Six of them are going on to play college ball.”

The new co-op was placed in Class M when the CIAC released its 2021 divisions last week.

Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Bullard-Havens High School’s Edward Holmes carries the ball during Class S quarterfinal football action against Haddam-Killingworth in Bridgeport in 2018.

Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Class S quarterfinal football action between Bullard Havens and Haddam-Killingworth in Bridgeport in2018.