NB board votes to help youth league

The New Britain board of education voted Monday to loan high school football equipment to the town’s youth league for players to use in private full-contact football leagues.

The equipment could then be used by high school players to participate in a private or club football league separate from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference.

“The discussion really was that there is lots of youth football going on outside of the standard high school football leagues,” said board of education president Merrill Gay. “The irony of parents calling going, ‘Wait a moment, why is it that my youngest kid can play peewee football, but my son who’s in high school can’t play?”

After the CIACcanceled full-contact games play in early September, high school coaches and teams around the state mobilized to form private leagues to circumvent the CIAC’s decision.

Even after the state Department of Public Health advised all youth and amateur football leagues to postpone full-contact game play to the spring, many are still pushing forward.

Meriden and Derby also voted to loan out school equipment, according to GameTime CT.

“It is happening in New Britain, whether we want it or not,” said Gay. “It’s just happening with younger kids. It’s happening anyway, but they are going at it with plans on how to address a positive case.”

Gaysaid the board heard “very impassioned pleas” from players, who cited a need for game film to aide with college recruiting. He also added that there is an issue of equity in terms of privatizing football across the state.

“In wealthier towns, the parents are coming up with the money to buy equipment so they can do it on their own,” Gay said. “But that’s not really an option here in New Britain.

“It was sort of that equity issue that sort of persuaded people to go along with it.”

Gay said there was initially a voice vote that passed, but someone asked for a role call vote which failed on a tie. After a flurry of emails explaining the team’s safety protocols, which include cancellation of the season if the high school closes down or if a member of the team tests positive, another role call was held. Members then voted in favor of loaning equipment.

The vote 3-2 in favor with two abstentions.

It is unclear what a potential private league would look like for New Britain. In Fairfield

County, coaches are still working out the logistics to play privately. Most recently, teams were still in the process of raising money to cover the cost for players. Fairfield Ludlowe head coach Mitchell Ross estimated the cost of equipment for each player at $750.

Former New Britain football coach Jack Cochran started the Yankee Independent Football League, which had hoped to play an eightor nine-game season at New Britain’s Veteran’s Stadium.

“We just wanted to get some competitive film that these players could get to colleges,” Cochran told The Courant in September.

Milestone for Glastonbury’s Landers: Mark Landers was working as an associate producer at ESPN in 1999 when he began coaching the Glastonbury boys soccer team. Ken Mehler, who had coached Glastonbury for nearly 30 years, had to sit the year out after neck surgery.

Landers r e a c hed an agreement with an ESPN to coach for the year, though he agreed to leave for France on Nov. 15 of that year to cover the World Figure Skating championship. Sure enough, Glastonbury posted an undefeated record in the regular season and advanced to the Class LL championship.

Glastonbury went on to win a state title that season. Landers was off in France while the team he coached beat Guilford in overtime for its fourth state title.

“It was at that moment and time that I said, ‘I need to be teaching, educating and coaching kids for my life,’” Landers said.

Twenty-one 21 years and seven state championships later, Landers is doing just that.

He hit another milestone on Thursday, winning his 300th career game with a 1-0 victory over Tolland. Senior Zack Gardner scored the game-winner in the final 10 minutes.

“What a fantastic goal,” Landers said. “He came over to me after the goal and said, ‘That was for you.’”

Landers and his team celebrated back at Glastonbury High with ice cream. He’s still chasing his father Robert in career wins. Robert Landers coached boys soccer at Wethersfield for 25 years, and girls soccer for nine at Glastonbury.

Mark Landers credited the continued success at Glastonbury to his players over the years, who have continuously passed the winning recipe down to younger players.

“The guys knew what was at stake,” Landers said of Thursday’s game. “It was a good game, fun to watch, and it was amazing to be honest with you.”