Football alums are proud to come home to Montville

Montville T here they were, all the Montville guys, sitting in a circle telling stories. A moment. Nothing more than a moment, an impromptu meeting, yet maybe the best illustration of why you coach high school sports.

For this. When your kids come back. As adults. With wisdom and insight that maybe you helped inspire.

This was last week at Montville High. Tanner Grove, once a player at 800 Old Colchester Rd., who will begin his 12th season as head football coach later this week, telling stories with assistant coaches Sean Ladyga (class of 1997), Tyler Girard-Floyd (2011), Nick Clemons (2013) and Christian Davis (2016). They either played with or for Grove, among the veteran coaches now in this corner of the world despite not reaching birthday No. 40 yet.

“Having them around is excellent for me because it kind of shows me on a personal level that all those early years when I was 25, 26, 27 and people were maybe unsure if I was ready to lead a high school program, that the time spent and relationships built were worthwhile win or lose,” Grove said. “If they're going to be in this region, they might as will be at home in Montville.”

The joy of the moment — listening to how stories from the old days get better with each rendition — wasn't without some irony. Translation: How could this program, so successful over the past 20 years, meaningful enough to keep the alums coming back, have attracted but three freshmen this season? Three freshmen. Consider: Grove is 78-38 in his career. A trip to the Class S finals in 2009. Three berths in the state semifinals in 2008, '10 and '12. Four division championships within the Eastern Connecticut Conference. Many college players produced. One losing season in 12 years for Grove.

One in the whole program since 1994.

And so where is the disconnect here? Again: three freshmen? What do Girard-Floyd, Clemons, Davis and Ladyga — alums spanning 20 years — see that the community does not?

Ladyga, who comes back home after coaching the Norwich Tech/Grasso Tech/St. Bernard cooperative, said: “In 1994, we were 3-7. We didn't have another losing season until last year. I bet nobody knows that outside this town. I'm not sure the people in town realize it either. We've got to get that info back to the community. Montville is a sports town and football is the lead of that.”

More Ladyga: “One of the biggest disconnects I see is the youth program's affiliation with the high school program. Just being a town guy, I see a disconnect there. I don't see a good relationship working with each other where people want to push those kids to play in Montville. I couldn't tell you the reasons why. But the community needs to come together with all sports, not just football, to get our town kids to come play at the town high school.”

Clemons: “Kids are now seeing Montville is a little down. Instead of wanting to stay home and build it back up, they're going somewhere else. Because it's easy.”

Girard-Floyd: “I was born in a different time, I guess. When I was growing up, it was about winning where you're at. Genuinely not liking the other towns. You'd never, ever want to join forces with them. You trained and you did all that extra stuff so that when it came to Friday night, you could beat them. Times have changed. Now everybody just wants to go to the programs that have the history and the hardware instead of staying with it and building and winning at home. People think the grass is always greener, I guess.”

Waning numbers is not an issue unique to Montville. Concussion factors alone are imperiling football participation across the country. But it's more pronounced in Montville and other small towns. Numbers aren't great by definition: It's a small town. Compound that with the grass perhaps being greener elsewhere and you get heartburn, headaches and hardships.

“A lot of schools now aren't fielding the traditional three teams of varsity, JV and freshman because the numbers just aren't there,” Grove said. “A lot of places have ‘froshmore' (a combination of freshmen and sophomores) programs now. Plus, the CIAC has stepped in to regulate the number of quarters (six) a kid can play in a week. That changes things. … This year with just the three freshmen, we'll run a mostly sophomore team. But if any of those sophomores have to play varsity, it gets a little tough. Any coach will tell you in any sport that if you don't have a high school subvarsity, it's difficult to maintain younger players who aren't varsity ready. They want to play. Very few kids want to practice every day.”

All true. Still, though, it's a bit vexing to wonder why the people in town aren't seeing what ought to be more obvious than a billboard. Grove wins. The alums return. Duh. So why are so many people in The Ville oblivious?

“We know who we are,” Grove said. “We don't have 100-plus years of history like New London or NFA. We have 50 years. But those 50 years mean a lot. That's a lot of grandfathers, fathers, sons and nephews trying to be the best they can be in their backyard.

“Look. Coming out of Tyl (Middle School), kids are inundated with options for high school because that's the system we've created. When the time comes when everyone else has given their sales pitches, I can finally, after May, talk to the eighth grade boys who might be interested in coming to Montville. I tell them the same thing. If you come here, you have a football coach who is also a teacher in the building, who always has time for you guys. I live three miles from the high school. If you need me, I'm there academically, athletically and community-wise. Hey, I ran the hills of Camp Oakdale. I'm with you.” This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro