‘It’s like you’re starting all over’: Teams adjusting after year off
In some respects, Harry Bellucci is fortunate.
The Hartford Public football coach has nine players back with varsity time. It’s not necessarily a significant number, but every bit of experience helps following a year hiatus due to the pandemic.
“We’re sort of playing catch-up,” Bellucci said.
Bellucci is a creature of habit. He loves structure and organization and in most instances prefers to plan in advance rather than act on impulse. But as the sport ramps back up in Connecticut, he’s finding it difficult to fall back into a routine.
And he’s not alone, either.
“It’s hard,” New Canaan’s Lou Marinelli said. “It’s like you’re starting all over again, starting from scratch.
From Day One, all those things we took for granted before — you look out there and you say, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ ”
The CIAC was never given the green light from the Connecticut Department of Public Health to stage a tackle football season last fall. More than a dozen teams, including New Canaan, were able to play in independent leagues, but only briefly.
Schools are now scrambling to make up for lost time.
“When things did open up in the spring, we weren’t allowed to use the fitness center for training and everything else because everyone was still worried about COVID,” Marinelli said. “We missed a winter, and we missed a spring of training. I think the whole state has been set back.”
Before this season, most juniors had played the same number of reps at the varsity level as freshmen: none. Even seniors still aren’t as versed as usual.
“It’s been hard,” Xavier’s Andy Guyon said. “(Our seniors) don’t know what they don’t know, if that makes any sense, because they were sophomores the last time we were doing this. It’s baptism by fire.
“With our schedule and our league, there’s no easy days. You’ve got to come to work ready to play every single Friday night. The good news is everybody else is in the same situation. That keeps you a little bit sane. But still, it’s hard. It’s hard. It’s not the kids’ fault. We’re trying to coach them up as best we can. It’s exhausting.”
There was hesitancy about how players would perform coming off the layoff. Coaches figured they’d be rusty, but they also worried about an uptick in injuries.
“The kids seem to not be in as great shape as they should be,” said Bellucci, who nevertheless has guided his team to a 2-0 start. “That’s from a year of inactivity. From last August to March we were unable to do anything at all. We couldn’t even have weightlifting. Some schools weren’t able to do so until this summer.”
Others ran into interruptions during the preseason as well.
Rockville, for instance, lost its season opener to the SMSA Co-Op 21-0 last Saturday after a quarantine cost the Rams a scrimmage and multiple practices.
“We had a lot of kids that had never played a game and did not have any practice,” Rockville coach Erick Knickerbocker said. “It was definitely ugly. No matter what you do in practice or meetings, the kids need experience.”
“There’s so many moments I think that as a coach you take for granted,” Knickerbocker added. “You think the kids know certain things. Saturday night (in our first game), we said, ‘Oh my God, they don’t know where to get water, they don’t know where to stand next to the coaches on the field. They don’t know what to do before a game.’ Even things that you tell them, little simple things, it’s been very challenging in that sense.”
Simsbury coach Dave Masters said he had to explain the intentional grounding rule to one of his players. Also, when he asked his team to take a knee to run out the clock on a 37-0 victory over New Britain in Week One, the entire sideline followed suit.
Out of necessity, many coaches have gone back to teaching the basics.
“The biggest thing is having kids learn the routine at practice, and budgeting your time a little a bit better because they haven’t had to do it for so long,” Bellucci said, adding that one of the biggest differences between junior varsity and varsity is the amount of film study that’s required. “Most of these guys when they were living at home probably weren’t getting up until noon. Now, it’s getting back to regular life.”
Ansonia has 12 seniors, but just one — senior running back/defensive back Darell McKnight — with significant varsity experience. That’s certainly a rarity for the 20-time state champions.
“We used to have kids in our program for four years,” coach Tom Brockett said. “By the time they were seniors, they were ready to play.”
South-West Conference contender Masuk is in a similar position with only two returning starters — not to mention a new, albeit familiar, coach in Steve Christy. One of those returnees, however, is senior quarterback Nick Saccu.
“It’ll take us another two or three games to realize who we really are,” Christy said prior to a 58-14 rout of Stratford in Week Two. “Right now we really don’t know. There’s no real advantage because everybody has the same problem. It’s not like they just said Masuk has to deal with it.”
Some teams are also dealing with lower numbers, leaving coaches to wonder if high schoolers’ priorities changed during the pandemic. Bellucci said a few of his former players opted to stick with work over football.
“Kids found jobs and didn’t want to leave,” Bellucci said. “They’re getting used to having a few extra dollars in their pocket.”
Said Marinelli: “Kids found other things to do. Who’s got a job, who’s got a girlfriend, who knows what? And football’s not that easy to play.”