The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Area teams adjusting to safety protocols
MIDDLETOWN — Bridgeport’s three public high schools will not play basketball this winter. The city has a proud, rich history with the sport, and the decision to cancel the season probably crushed the souls of the grown-ups, too.
One coach told Hearst Connecticut Media last week his players were “really, really hurting.”
The high schools here at home have it pretty good by comparison.
Middletown, Xavier, Mercy, Cromwell and others have put in about a week’s worth of practice, with two more weeks to come. That’ll be three weeks of preparation total instead of the usual two before the 12-game pandemic season begins on Feb. 8.
That’s also three weeks’ worth of health-related questions, reminders about adjusting a mask, sanitizing hands and spacing out from a teammate. Even so, by most accounts, there are few to no complaints. Perspective.
“We could be home right now,” said Rick Privott, who is into his seventh season with the Middletown boys team. “It’s a blessing to even be out here right now, and you hope everybody stays safe.
Overheard in a few gymnasiums this week:
“Fix your mask!” “Pull your mask up — if I have to do it, you have to do it!”
And, “12 games! That’s all you get!”
Also, “Treat every day like it’s your last on the court!”
Privott has only 15 players this year between the varsity and junior varsity programs. Three chose not to play this winter, the risks of COVID-19 being a factor. The coach understands and sympathizes.
“It’s all about keeping people safe, first and foremost,” Privott said. “We’ve been given an opportunity to be out here. It could have gone another way — and it still can. We’re here now. And for the time that we’re here, we need to do everything we can to stay here.”
CIAC rules require athletes to have their temperature taken and
answer a host of daily health-related questions prior to practice.
Middletown varsity assistant Kelvin Jones coached a number of Middletown players on the volleyball team, and the girls are accustomed to his expectations when it comes to COVID precautions.
“I have the kids go wash their hands before practice,” Jones said. “They have a bottle of hand sanitizer with them and I have them sanitize their hands after practice. I’m pretty strict when it comes to COVID (safety). The hardest part is maintaining things with the girls, because they get tired of doing the same thing over and over and over.”
This winter, more than at any other time, teams are playing for each other, knowing a single misstep could damage trust or jeopardize a season.
Middletown head coach Rob Smernoff paused a drill during Friday’s practice to say he heard only one Blue Dragon acknowledge a teammate’s nice effort.
“I point that out because I’m trying to get them used to supporting each other,” he said. “I’ve told them to treat every day like it’s your last on the court.”
Last week, in a socially distanced preseason meeting with players and parents, Smernoff said he urged them to watch that night’s UConn-Tennessee for an idea about the logistics of this winter’s games — players spaced out in the bleachers and coaches seated apart from them.
“Watch the games on TV,” he said, “and you’ll see what they have to do in order to follow protocols.”
In Cromwell, girls basketball coach Kelly Maher’s message from the get-to with masks and otherwise: “Let’s just figure it out and get playing.”
Masks make it difficult as players work on their preseason conditioning. And during a defensive slides drill, the Panthers gasped for air through their masks. But like all other high school basketball teams, they are dealing with the challenges brought by the protocols
“You just have to figure out when to push yourself and when not to push yourself too far,” senior point guard Monica Dewey said.
The de-emphasis of multi-person gatherings has taken away at least one rite of the preseason: team bonding experiences.
“The first two practices (of a season) we come together like normal and talked about being there for each other … and we would have team bonding,” Dewey said. “Maybe we can go outside if it’s warm enough, but there’s no place to go. It’s a big deal that we have to all be safe because the season can shut down at any time.”
At Haddam-Killingworth, many of first-year girls varsity coach Ann Diebert’s players were fallseason athletes already acclimated to safety protocols.
“It’s been a fairly easy transition,” said Diebert, who teaches English at H-K. “They have been conditioning on their own since they found out about the winter postponement (to a Jan. 19 start) and came in to practice ready to work. It’s a testament to how resilient they have been every day. I teach in the building and have multiple players in the classroom.
It’s helped in establishing communication and getting information out.”
Diebert played high school and college basketball in Pennsylvania and said she’s wondered how she would have dealt with being masked up on the court. For the Cougars, there have no issues.
“Basketball has so much of a full 360 kind of view,” she said, “the up and down of dribbling and rebounding, playing in traffic, going up in traffic, but so far our girls haven’t said anything. If anything, they are getting used to this new normal, being grateful for the opportunity and taking it and running with it.”
WCNXRADIO.COM SIGNS OFF
An important slice of Middletown history evaporated on the final day of 2020 when John and Judy Clark ceased operations at WCNXradio.com. John Clark, who graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, has been battling cancer for some time, and the work required to keep the station running had gotten to be too much.
WCNX was born in 1948 as a day-time AM station (1150 on the dial) and was popular for nearly five decades, in part, because of local programming. Main Street was home to its studios until a facility was built in 1956 at its tower site on River Road. The were a few ownership changes over time, although the call letters remained intact until retired TV executive Don DeCesare bought CNX in 1993 and rebranded it as WMRD.
The Clarks, who knew the value of “WCNX” to the locals, negotiated to preserve those call letters and used them when they started their web-based station
around 2006.
In the years of WCNXRadio.com, John and Judy Clark have been visible at high school sports contests around the area, particularly at Cromwell and Xavier high schools. Gene Gumbs has been the go-to play-byplay man during football, basketball and baseball seasons, with help from color guy Jay Hickey.
Three years ago, Gumbs decided to launch sportscountry.net to fulfill a desire to do a weekday morning talk show. He continued to call games for the Clarks.
“John and Judy were kind of the impetus for me starting my own station,” said Gumbs. “I started calling high school sports here when John made me his sports director. We would come up with the schedules together and the broadcaster pairings for CNX and do other things. I eventually wanted to do my own thing with sports talk and went out on my own — with their support.
In return, the Clarks would simulcast Gumbs’ talk show once a week on WCNX.
“It certainly helped get my listenership up,” Gumbs said. “In some ways they feel like proud parents. In the last year and a half, or since John’s diagnosis, I would do games for them and it would be simulcast on my station, a two-for-one.”
Gumbs recently launched a GoFundMe page to help the Clarks in their time of need. You can find it by visiting gofundme.com and searching “John and Judy Clark.”
IN THE SCHOOLS
The latest on the area’s seniors who will go on to play a sport in college in 2021-2022:
** All-around athlete Jimmy McGoey of HaddamKillingworth will play football at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. McGoey missed out on the baseball season last summer and a football season of any kind as a senior. He will score and rebound for the Cougars this winter and play first base in the spring.
** Morgan senior Rob Zirlis, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, will play baseball at Mitchell College. He’s also part of a strong frontcourt on the Huskies’ basketball team that is expected to again contend for a Shoreline Conference title. At Mitchell, he will join former Shoreline opponents John-John Jose of Coginchaug and Roland Thivierge of Portland.
** Cromwell’s Mark Rodriguez will run track at Central Connecticut State University. He competes in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters for the Panthers and was the third-place finisher in the Shoreline cross country championships in the fall.
** Morgan point guard Catie Donadio, among the top returning players in the Shoreline, will play basketball at Connecticut College.
THIS AND THAT
** Curt Schilling (70.0 percent of the vote), Roger Clemens (61.0) and Barry Bonds (60.7) were the first three below the Hall of Fame cut last year (75 percent of the vote is needed for election). This year’s totals will be revealed Monday night. If none of the three is elected, 2022 will be each’s 10th and final year on the ballot.
** Henry Aaron had so many admirable qualities — courage, poise and humility — to go with supreme talent. In my mind, Hammerin’ Hank remains baseball’s true home run champion.
It would be something if the Braves, in this era of self-reflection and doing the right thing by others, heed a call to change their name to the Atlanta “Hammers.”
** Fans of documentarian Ken Burns’ “Baseball” might recall the April 1974 clip of Aaron hitting his record-breaking 715th home run, and the hug he received afterward from his mother on the field. Narrator John Chancellor quotes Aaron as saying, “I didn’t know my mother could squeeze that hard.” It gets me every time. Burns tweeted, “Hank Aaron was not only one of baseball’s greatest players, he was also a remarkable American hero whose perseverance and forbearance in the face of unspeakable racism is a testament to the human spirit.”
** Upon his retirement, many have pondered whether quarterback Phillip Rivers is worth of Hall of Fame inclusion. He threw for 63,440 yards, fifth all time, in his 17-year career, but didn’t win a ring and was 5-7 in the playoffs. Because of that, if I had a vote, Rivers wouldn’t get it. I’ve always felt halls of fame are meant to include winners and game-changers. Rivers is neither.
** It’s hard to live in a world where Simon and Garfunkel don’t talk to each other.
** Outside of watching my Jayhawks lose yet again (a three-game losing streak!), my down time last week was spent on music history. If you’re a fan of the Bee Gees (HBO), the Go-Go’s (Showtime) or (82-year-old) Gordon Lightfoot (Amazon), these documentaries will not disappoint.
** Get well soon, Chris Serra.