Date: Fri 06-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Quick Words:

Sloppy-Field-Football

Full Text:

Post-Season Games Should Be Played On Better Fields

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

WATERBURY - Rain. The biggest four-letter word in sports. The great

neutralizer.

There are times when a football game is meant to be played in the slop, where

the game is decided less on skills and more on the basic instincts of

adaptation and survival, but Tuesday night - at the Municipal Stadium annex

field in Waterbury - was not one of those times.

It was the CIAC Class L semifinal between Newtown and Holy Cross of Waterbury,

and in all likelihood the biggest game most of the players on either team had

ever been in, and the field - which was not even the main Municipal Stadium

field, but a field created near a Little League baseball diamond - was a

poorly drained ocean of freezing slop.

Holy Cross - though its star running back developed hypothermia because of the

field conditions, forcing him to sit out most of the second half - had less

trouble with the field than Newtown and defeated the Nighthawks, 12-0, to

advance to the Class L championship on Saturday. That game will be played on

the artificial turf of Jess Dow Field at Southern Connecticut State

University.

The semifinal Tuesday night should never have been played, at least not on the

trough beside Municipal Stadium. Because of the tightness of the CIAC

schedule, with the Class L championship set for Saturday night, the game had

to be played. But it should have been moved to another field - right up the

road at Watertown High, for instance, or down the road at Naugatuck High

School, where the Greyhounds have one of the best fields in the Naugatuck

Valley League.

The field conditions clearly didn't stop Holy Cross star Tarell Freeney, who

rushed for 200 yards, but it absolutely effected Newtown's multi-faceted

Wing-T offense which relies on pulling guards and sweeps to either side. The

guards - with their cleats slipping in the mud - couldn't get off the line of

scrimmage. Newtown fumbled the ball away four times in Holy Cross territory,

and saw the Crusaders score both touchdowns off turnovers.

Newtown may still have lost on an dry playing surface, anyway, but that will

never be known.

In the Class LL semifinals that same night, the field at Danbury High School

was as bad as Municipal Stadium's, but instead of playing on it, the game was

moved over to Western Connecticut State University where the contest was

played on a dry Astro Turf field.

Ironically, in respect to Newtown, had Stratford High School (8-2) not been

upset by Bunnell High School (5-5) on Thanksgiving Day, the Nighthawks would

have been ranked second, with the home field advantage, and Tuesday night's

game would have been played at Bethel High School . . . where it was dry.

Newtown coach Bob Zito refused to make the field an excuse for losing but

admitted that it was, by far, the worst field he'd ever played on, and it was

clear that a game of that magnitude shouldn't have been played there.

But that's what the losing team is left with.

The winning team might admit the field was atrocious, but it would also point

out that it had to play on the field, too.

Maybe Newtown loses that game on a sunny Saturday afternoon or under the

lights on a better, drier field, but neither team - nor the rooters from

either school - were served when officials decided to go ahead with the game.

There had to be other, better options.

One of them should have been taken.