Co-ops a bit complicated in ECC
The oddball situations Kim Detuzzi faces as a high school gymnastics coach perfectly sum up the upcoming winter high school season.
Detuzzi, owner of ABC Shoreline Gymnastics in Niantic, is head coach of the East Lyme/Norwich Tech co-op gymnastics team. She's also the head coach at Old Lyme.
Ordinarily, both programs would compete at the same meets. They cannot this season because the Eastern Connecticut Conference decided against non-conference games because of COVID-19. East Lyme is from the ECC. Old Lyme is in the Shoreline Conference. Norwich Tech is from the Connecticut Technical Conference.
The student-athletes from the three schools can't compete against one another . ... but haven't been restricted from working out together at ABC. They do not, for instance, share the same apparatus during practice.
“Gymnastics is kind of a little crazy,” Detuzzi said with a laugh. “It's really complicated.”
The ECC will have four sports this winter — boys' and girls' basketball, gymnastics, and boys' swimming.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference's Board of Control, on the recommendations of the Connecticut Department of Health, canceled cheerleading/ dance and wrestling earlier this month. Those teams may work out and practice in small groups.
Gymnastics and swimming both caused issues for the ECC. Fitch has been the host school for a boys' swimming co-op with Ledyard, New London, Stonington and Wheeler, in addition to East Lyme's gymnastics co-op. Then there's Killingly and Woodstock Academy gymnastics, which have separate teams but work out together at Deary's Gymnastics in Danielson.
“(Gymnastics) threw a wrench at us,” said Stonington athletic director Bryan Morrone, chairman of the ECC's advisory committee. “(The ECC) called the (CIAC) about the fact that Killingly and Woodstock are two teams. They're not a co-op, so any time you go to their gym (for a meet) it's a would be a tri-meet.
“(The CIAC ) said that's not allowed. We're like it really doesn't mean much if you held it the same way (we usually do) because the girls are together anyways.”
Norwich Tech junior Avery Sullman is considered a team of one but allowed to compete with East Lyme because she's done so with it before. In-per
son dual meets are allowed (Stonington and Norwich Free Academy, for instance, will face off three times). Teams may also hold solo meets to fill out their schedule and allow them to qualify for All-State status.
Eight of Old Lyme's 10 meets last season involved East Lyme. The Wildcats will instead compete against Shoreline foes Haddam-Killingworth and Valley Regional.
“This is nightmare,” Detuzzi said about having to juggle schedules. “It's so COVID it's not even funny.”
Fitch boys' swimming, on the other hand, won't be allowed to coop this season. It leaves the Falcons with only 11 swimmers.
“It's very disappointing,” Fitch head coach Katey Kokomoor said. “The seniors, this would've been our fourth season with them. The boys are all a team and they're all going to miss each other. It's sad to us that they don't have a chance to swim this year.”
Ledyard athletic Jim Buonocore said, “It was a unanimous decision across the board in terms of the athletic directors in suspending cooperative programs this winter season and just getting through this pandemic as best as we can. Each decision is based off of making sure you're keeping your school community as safe as possible, and so when we talked about the cooperative programs, we talked about limiting exposure and not having that cross contamination, so to speak, with multiple schools coming together on a daily basis.”
Co-ops also affected hockey. The CIAC gave the greenlight to play the sport this winter but the ECC's only hockey team is the Eastern Connecticut Eagles, an 11-team co-op with players from Bacon Academy, East Lyme, Fitch, Griswold, Killingly, Ledyard, Montville, Norwich Free Academy, Stonington, Waterford and Wheeler.
The ECC ruled that the Eagles can't play because of its co-op status.
“You're not just talking about one school that is affected (by the virus) — you're talking in essence about five-plus schools that become affected by the situation,” Buonocore said. “It certainly isn't an easy situation and it certainly wasn't an easy decision by any means because you're talking about a student-athlete at the end of that situation.”
Kokomoor said that some of her swimmers, and those who couldn't compete with Fitch, are part of club teams that will restart soon.
The ECC previously announced that it will hold regional postseason tournaments in basketball. The ECC divided its basketball programs into two geographically-based regions, 10 in the south and nine in the north. Division I will feature Bacon, East Lyme, Fitch, Ledyard, Montville, New London, NFA, St. Bernard, Stonington and Waterford. Division II will have Griswold, Killingly, Lyman Memorial, Plainfield, Putnam, Tourtellotte, Wheeler, Windham and Woodstock.
No decision has been made about ECC championship meets for gymnastics or swimming, Morrone said. Swimming will have virtual meets, as was done for girls last fall. Its championship meet was canceled a few hours in, however, due to a positive COVID-19 test.