Lewis Mills votes to leave Berkshire League for CCC

BURLINGTON — Region 10’s board of education voted to move Lewis Mills’ athletic program from the Berkshire League to the Central Connecticut Conference beginning in the 2019-20 school year at a meeting at Har-Bur Middle School Monday night.

The 6-3 vote, with one board member absent, came after a year-and-a-half study by a four-person committee, aligning the Spartans in an eight-school southern division of the 32-member megaconference.

Mills joins Bristol Eastern, Bristol Central, Plainville, Berlin, Platte-Meriden, Maloney-Meriden and Middletown in the new division, in which it goes from the biggest school in the Berkshire League with a 760-student population to the next-smallest after Plainville (707 students) as Class M schools in a largely Class L and LL conference.

The unanimous recommendation by the committee, headed by John Vecchitto, came largely on the basis of a shrinking school population in the 10-member Berkshire League, composed of three Class M and seven Class S Schools.

That, said Vecchitto, produces fewer JV programs with which to compete and a shrinking level of competition.

“We would expect the first year to be rough,” Vecchitto said, “but the CCC offers us a more reliable and consistent conference.

“If we don’t like it, we can change.”

Board member Susan Baccaro represented the member opposition, saying “Seventy-five percent of the people here don’t want us to do it. I have a problem with that.”

In fact, vociferous opposition came from a long line of speakers during the public part of the meeting before the board discussion, including two coaches and three members of the Lewis Mills swim team, with the only voices in favor coming from a Burlington resident who coaches in Farmington and a mother of three Spartan athletes.

The opposition was highly concerned that Mills will be in over its head in its new conference.

Coach Al Ciarlo cited Wolcott Tech’s problems in the Berkshire League after seeking better competition. Another coach cited Rockville with the same problems in the CCC.

Veccitto countered that his committee, in response to similar doubts presented a year ago in its first presentation, contacted Rockville and Avon to determine their experience, removing their own doubts.

“We’ve done our due diligence,” he said.

Athletic Director Dave Francalangia agreed.

“They’ve done their due diligence,” he said. “We’re going to have to go out and compete, and I think we will.”