The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘It’s like you’re starting all over’: Teams hit reset
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.