The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A plea to treat new athletic complex with care
Count me among the thousands of city kids who spent their youth running rabid around Pat Kidney Field, City School Field and Vets Park. Actually, any space reachable by bicycle or two good legs.
No one entertained us back then. We made our own fun through sports, friends and the outdoors. A ball of any kind was enough to get us outside and socialize. We also made do, because some of the fields of my youth were not, uh, manicured, or even lined. They just were.
It brings me to the gorgeous athletic complex at Woodrow Wilson Middle School. It required several million dollars in bond money to create, money that we, the people, approved of at the polls. After 16 months of construction, the temporary fencing is about to come down and residents will get to enjoy it.
So use it, don’t abuse it, and be grateful that no longer do we have to envy so many other towns that have modern athletic amenities.
Kids of today, unlike those who played before you at the complex, here is what you won’t have to worry about:
** A bad jump shot bouncing into a moving car on Farm Hill Road. The basketball courts at Pat Kidney Field, named for recreation Detroit Hunter and Cleveland Lowman, are protected by fences.
** Getting a sneaker caught in a crack after returning a forehand. The tennis courts, named for longtime educator Harold Kaplan, look like they’re built to last several lifetimes.
** Tripping on the uneven surface or broken pieces of the track. The new track, named for revered junior high coach Deb Petruzzello — you could eat off of it.
** Standing water on the softball field. The diamond, named for Lucille Gecewicz, a pioneer in the sport, often took two days to dry out after a hard rain and three days for the mosquitos to go away.
** Spraining an ankle just before rounding first base at Jerome Levin Field. I’m surprised there weren’t more injuries on the old diamond. It was unsafe.
** Not knowing the score during softball and baseball games. The scoreboards for years either were not a priority to operate or didn’t work at all. The new boards at each end of Pat Kidney
look sharp.
** Losing a slow roller in the infield grass. This happened long, long ago during a Woodrow Wilson High School game on an afternoon when the grass had not been cut for days. The story has become legend. The new sod is thick though, so be ready to charge the ball.
So get out there, enjoy yourselves and pick up your trash. Tell a friend the same. The space is yours and for generations that follow. Treat it with care.
BIG WEEK FOR BOYLE
I’m really, really surprised that former Xavier High quarterback Tim Boyle did not see action for the Packers in Friday’s preseason game in Oakland.
Veteran Brett Hundley (first half) and second-year pro DeShone Kizer (second) split the time in Green Bay’s 13-6 loss. To me, Hundley has showed enough in this preseason and last season to be the able backup to Aaron Rodgers. He’s a solid pro. Kizer was OK.
I have a theory: The Packers treated the game as the final audition between the two. If that’s true, and it makes sense, then I think Kizer gets released and Boyle, an undrafted rookie, will be kept on the practice squad.
Last week in training camp, when reporters asked Rodgers about the competition between Hundley and Kizer, he said this:
“Don’t leave Tim out of that. I think all three of the quarterbacks have played really nicely. The preseason’s about execution and about leading the team down for points. … I think Tim has done phenomenal. It’s tough to be that last guy in and you’re playing with a lot of guys fighting for bubble spots, and there’s always some mental issues at times with some of those guys, but he’s been standing in there and making some big-time throws.”
The Packers’ final preseason game is Thursday at Kansas City. NFL teams pare their rosters to 53 by the Saturday deadline. I like Boyle’s chances.
DIXON ADDED TO CROMWELL STAFF
Andre Dixon, who played at UConn, is coaching running backs for the Cromwell/Portland program this fall.
Dixon, 32, shared the backfield at UConn with Donald Brown, who went on to play in the NFL. Dixon was signed as a rookie free agent by the Giants in 2010 and had a brief spell on the team’s practice squad. He spent one season playing for the Hartford Colonials in the United Football League.
“The kids love him and I’m glad to have him,” said Randell Bennett, who’s beginning his second season as the Panthers’ coach. “You have to see peoples’ eyes light up when he’s around, and then I say, ‘What am I, chopped liver?’
“But it shows me how much people in this state love UConn football and know what he did there. I’m glad to have his friendship. He’s a great guy.”
THIS AND THAT
** Installation of bleachers on the visitors’ side at Xavier’s McHugh Field is expected to be completed this week. The Falcons play their first two games of the new season on the road before opening at home Sept. 21 against Wilbur Cross.
** So much for the Red Sox going after the record for wins (116) in a season. Boston (90-42 with 30 games left) was swept by the Rays, and the surprise is their offense is slumping. Now, the Yankees don’t look so out of the AL East race.
I still think the Red Sox are baseball’s best team, but if the slump goes on for any longer, just think of the pressure as we cross into September. Hmmm.
** More than 20 years after retiring as Xavier’s athletic director, Art Kohs remains the head of scheduling for the Southern Connecticut Conference in all sports.
“They call me ‘the guru.’ I’ve done it for so long, it’s like second nature,” Kohs said. “It’s not as easy as you might think. I have this criteria for who a school is going to play based on the last two years, then I switch it around, then there are crossover games. It’s fun. I enjoy it.”
** I know a proud and loyal Cleveland Indians fan, and I thought of him when the team’s closer, Cody Allen, allowed back-to-back solo home runs to the Royals in the ninth inning Friday and lost. If the Indians are going to push Boston or Houston in the AL in October, Terry Francona might want to think about calling on Brad Hand to close instead.
** Metro Movies was in the news recently as America’s top-grossing theater for “Billionaire Boys Club,” the long-delayed film starring radioactive Kevin Spacey (Google it). Top grossing, as in $45. The stunner isn’t the dollar figure, it’s that the theater’s manager thought it was a good business decision to show a Kevin Spacey movie. Good grief.
** It is the 25th anniversary of “Rudy,” one of the greatest football films in history. “Rudy” is showing for two days at select theaters around the country. I’d like to see Metro Movies devote a screen to that and other classics on special occasions.
While I’m at it, my five favorite football films: Rudy, The Longest Yard, North Dallas Forty, Remember The Titans, All The Right Moves.