Top FCIAC teams to meet down stretch

Staples girls soccer coaxch Barry Beattie wants to take a certain blueprint and run with it to the final weekend of the season — then take that one final step.

For that blueprint, he need not look any further than a team in his own conference and Wednesday’s upcoming opponent. Ridgefield comes to Westport for a 3:30 p.m. FCIAC showdown.

“Me and (Ridgefield coach) Iain (Golding) spent the last couple days together for dinner,” Beattie said late last week. “It’s a big rivalry, but a friendly one between him and I.”

Staples has already started to follow the Ridgefield blueprint: success in the FCIAC, followed by success in the Class LL state tournament by reaching the final each the last two years. Both times, Ridgefield was there waiting and won the ultimate game.

It was Ridgefield that has been to the LL final the previous two seasons and lost to Glastonbury both times.

The interesting thing about life in the FCIAC is there are so many difficult regularseason games. In Staples’ case, all of the heavyweights are on the back end of its schedule: at Darien Friday, at St. Joseph on Oct. 21, home against New Canaan on Oct. 25 and at Wilton on Oct. 29.

Ridgefield already edged Darien and tied New Canaan over a fourday stretch. The Tigers host St. Joseph on Friday afternoon, travels to Fairfield Warde on Oct. 21 and is at Wilton on Oct. 23.

St. Joseph hadn’t allowed a goal over its first nine games before New Canaan scored in a 21 loss last Friday. The Cadets still have Trumbull, Ridgefield, Darien and Staples left on their regularseason schedule.

“The last five years we have had pretty much the same identical schedule,” St. Joseph coach Jack Nogueira said. “I’m assuming they will all be tight, onegoal games. I’m assuming that we will win some and lose some. I will be curious to see how we do.”

New Canaan has already played Ridgefield and St. Joseph, but still have to face McMahon, Darien and Staples down the stretch.

So what will it look like when the dust settles in a couple of weeks? No one knows for sure, but all of those FCIAC teams will be looking to achieve what Ridgefield did last year: winning an FCIAC and Class LL state tournament championship.

UNIFIED

The Guilford starters will have some company when they take the field during pregame introductions on Friday afternoon.

The 11 starters will be joined by 11 members of the Unified Sports program when the starters’ names are called prior to the 3:45 p.m. game against Foran, scheduled to be played at Bittner Field. The 11 members from Unified Sports will be accompanied by 11 of their partners.

“We recognize that integration made a great difference in our team this season compared to previous years,” Guilford cocaptain Gabriela Garcia-Perez said. “We know that this concept is crucial in every aspect in life but even more essential for the Unified Sports Athletes.”

GarciaPerez and fellow cocaptain Madison Gambardella aid they began to organize this event during the summer with help from Jaye Carson, a Unified Sports coordinator. The Foran game was chosen “because of the special connection that Guilford has through Unified Sports with Foran,” GarciaPerez said.

There are over 100 members of Unified Sports at Guilford High and between 4050 at each of the two middle schools in town.

GarciaPerez noted the success of the 811 Indians is due in part of the synergy between each of her teammates. GarciaPerez said each player will have the word inclusion written on their arms. Everyone — players, Unified athletes and their partners — will wear customdesigned shirts with the same word on them.

This hits close to home for GarciaPerez. Her younger brother Segio is a helper for Unified Sports at one of the middle schools. And she started her own program called Community Integration Mentoring Program (CIMP), which is similar to Unified Sports in that its goal is to integrate communities and empower children who have disadvantages to become successful in today’s society.

“Helping others to have the same opportunities and tools to be successful in life is a very special topic to me and I would like to advocate for it every time I have an opportunity,” GarciaPerez said.