I’ve been seeking answers from the CIAC. The response? Crickets.

In a 2016 report by the Office of Legislative Research, it was determined that the CIAC effectively reported to nobody in the General Assembly.

The CIAC is a self-governing board, answering only to its internally elected board tasked with upholding its own constitution and by-laws.

If the CIAC is answerable to no one in the state legislature, its executive director and the associate executive director certainly don’t have to answer my questions.

So they don’t.

I could call them spineless. I don’t. I could call them drunk with their own power. I won’t.

I will call them smart. If Glenn Lungarini and Gregg Simon want to toy with writers, ice them out, run to their editors or avoid those editors, they certainly can. And they have.

It is not their problem. It’s my problem.

I have begged up to CIAC leaders to talk. I have asked for definitive word on if they, indeed, stopped talking to me. Nothing. I have gone to my editors. I have sought advice.

Done everything except what I should have. Sit down and write the truth.

If this was UConn or the Yankees or the Giants, even if a coach didn’t want to talk to a journalist individually, there still would be media gatherings. A regular give and take on news would flow. Same with the governor.

Save COVID updates in 2020, Lungarini and Simon don’t hold media gatherings. Instead, you reach out to them individually or go through director of media John Holt.

The CIAC isn’t the NCAA or a major sports league. With high school athletes, colossal screwups and relentless gambling aren’t a source of entertainment. Yet like the NCAA, the CIAC is composed of a large group of schools with

several sports that require competitive and eligibility scrutiny.

That can lead to creative tension among CIAC boards, athletic directors, coaches and media. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s healthy. Schools range from parochial to vocational, from suburban to urban. What divisions should they play? How many schools should compete for state titles? There is no perfect system.

From off-season coaching to hockey co-ops to soccer penalty shots, builtin to the jobs of the CIAC executives is a level of inherent disagreement and criticism. Opinions, ideas, criticism, it’s a public process to improve the system.

I don’t know, for example, who can look at girls soccer and see Catholic schools as five of six

Class S, M and L finalists and all three champions in each of the past two years and feel great about the playoff formula. Just don’t look for me to ask CIAC leadership at this point. I get crickets.

Mike DiMauro of The Day of New London has long railed about the schools of choice.

Sean Patrick Bowley of GameTimeCT relentlessly carves up the football playoff system.

I’m far from the only critic.

Yet as columnist of the largest entity covering the entire state with GameTimeCT, I decided when I got the job that it would be journalistically irresponsible to criticize the CIAC without giving it a chance to give its side of an issue. Lungarini had said he always makes himself available

for comment. He hasn’t. Same with Simon.

High school sports ought to be about giving the kids the best possible pathway to fair competition. So it should be more a debate, yes, sometimes contentious. High school sports are not the end of the world, but in excess of 100,000 names fill state rosters each year. It does mean a lot to a lot of people.

In August, I reached out to Lungarini for comment on the idea of one-school, one-vote for implementation of new rules. It could improve the CIAC’s unwieldy process that some argue doesn’t best represent the entire membership.

Given the state legislature’s decision to look into the CIAC leadership, it was a legitimate question.

Crickets.

In late October, DiMauro presented an interesting idea of forming a basketball committee from all over the state to best rank playoff divisions. His premise is all 183 schools be ranked annually based on injuries, coaching changes, graduation, transfers, etc. immediately before the season or at some point during the season.

I reached out to Simon, who is the CIAC liaison to the basketball committee, numerous times. Crickets. Without comment from them, I no longer will write opinions about CIAC structure, decision-making, playoff eligibility. None of it. If there is no way for me to gather Lungarini’s side of the story, I’m stabbing at important facts in the dark.

That’s not journalism. That’s guessing. That’s not fair to people who care about how high school athletics in the state. Not fair to the athletes. Sound opinions aren’t based on guesses.

In August, Len Fasano, former President Pro Tempore of the state Senate, said the CIAC was “out of control … Totally unregulated, run by the very few, like maybe three. Everyone else is afraid to say it because they don’t want to lose their coaching or referee status.”

I would have given Lungarini a chance to respond to Fasano if he answered my text on one-school, one-vote. It was part of that column.

Instead there were only crickets.