Which school will be next to get a P5 invite?

[J187Money]

http://content.ciacsports.com/scripts/fb_schedules13.cgi?week=1

This is the Conn. HS football schedule for this week. Most games are not on Saturdays, and that's even with all the suspended games from the poor weather.

So, it's a weird perception that football is mainly played on Saturdays. It's about half and half.

3:30 or 4pm games on Fridays don't help much in terms of spectators though.

 

[J187Money]

I would also add that I'm not even sure that HS football is the bigger problem. I think it is Pop Warner football. My former boss (Cuse fan) gave up his seats to PSU/Cuse at the Meadowlands because of his kids Pop Warner games. There are a bunch of UCONN fans on my street that never go because they are at youth football stuff every saturday.

 

[upstater]

3:30 or 4pm games on Fridays don't help much in terms of spectators though.

But I thought the discussion is about players and families going to see UConn on Saturdays? The games are at 4 pm because the fields don't have lights, and even then, you can only play these games in early September. Come October, it'lll be dark by the 4th quarter.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

http://content.ciacsports.com/scripts/fb_schedules13.cgi?week=1

This is the Conn. HS football schedule for this week. Most games are not on Saturdays, and that's even with all the suspended games from the poor weather.

So, it's a weird perception that football is mainly played on Saturdays. It's about half and half.

This is a bad week to use as ‘typical’ standard for High School football in the Northeast due to Yom Kippur. Most NJ high school games were scheduled for last night, until the Thunderstorms set-up shop last night. Now, most are re-scheduled between 1 and 3 PM today or Sunday morning. Next week would be a better example.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

This is a big issue in a lot of towns. If lights aren't up already, getting them put up will be met with a fight. Amazing the fights we have in Milford over stuff to do with lighting / fencing for baseball fields, etc. And then there are the outliers - not every team has its own stadium (Platt plays at Foran for example). It absolutely should be a goal and anyone that has lights should make it a priority. But we are a ways from having that be the standard.

I agree, football attendance went-up a good 100% when the light went-up mid-way through my high school tenure in CT. There are draw backs though. I went to my first football game at my old high school in 10/15 years last fall and took a footpath through the woods to the to the field from where I parked. Had to keep my eyes closed and my nosed plugged because I really did not want to see nor smell what was going on in the shadows of the stadium,

 

[upstater]

This is a bad week to use as ‘typical’ standard for High School football in the Northeast due to Yom Kippur. Most NJ high school games were scheduled for last night, until the Thunderstorms set-up shop last night. Now, most are re-scheduled between 1 and 3 PM today or Sunday morning. Next week would be a better example.

Good point

http://content.ciacsports.com/scripts/fb_schedules13.cgi?week=2

You still have more Friday night games next week

 

[itgoeslike]

Not that I expect my son to be good at all, but he is 100% playing because of going to UCONN games with me since the Rent opened. He tried Pop Warner when he was 8, hated it and quit, but now that he has some size he went out for it and dreams about playing for UCONN.

Cool. Hope he makes it, or at least has fun trying.

 

[SouthronCross]

This is a big issue in a lot of towns. If lights aren't up already, getting them put up will be met with a fight. Amazing the fights we have in Milford over stuff to do with lighting / fencing for baseball fields, etc. And then there are the outliers - not every team has its own stadium (Platt plays at Foran for example). It absolutely should be a goal and anyone that has lights should make it a priority. But we are a ways from having that be the standard.

Why is getting HSFB fields lighted always met with a fight? That just seems so crazy to me.

You also mention some schools do not have their own stadiums. I know there are a couple of cities here in NC where some schools share a facility. Wilmington and Durham, IIRC.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Why is getting HSFB fields lighted always met with a fight? That just seems so crazy to me.

You also mention some schools do not have their own stadiums. I know there are a couple of cities here in NC where some schools share a facility. Wilmington and Durham, IIRC.

Why is getting HSFB fields lighted always met with a fight? That just seems so crazy to me.

You also mention some schools do not have their own stadiums. I know there are a couple of cities here in NC where some schools share a facility. Wilmington and Durham, IIRC.

In the Northeast, everything is met with a fight.

Shared football stadium are common in larger towns with more than 1 high school, it is more economical to build a single football stadium with all the bells and whistles than 2, especially in less affluent towns.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I played HS football over 50 years ago for Shelton High
We always opened with Seymour, Ansonia, East Haven, and Branford on Friday night. Plus we played ND of WH later on at night
the crowds were very large. I think most Valley teams except Derby played a lot of night games. I went to them since grade school.
Football was a big deal in the lower Naugatuck Valley. We had over 5000 for Seymour and Ansonia. Even East Haven drew back then
In AZ the schools are huge so comparisons are difficult.
I do think a team made up of Shelton, Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, and Oxford would do very well against teams with simalar enrollments. The total enrollment of those schools would be much less than the enrollment of Chandler Hamilton.

 

[SouthronCross]

In the Northeast, everything is met with a fight.

I've noticed that on the news. I have to give y'all props for the passion you all bring to those arguments.


Shared football stadium are common in larger towns with more than 1 high school, it is more economical to build a single football stadium with all the bells and whistles than 2, especially in less affluent towns.

OK, cool. Thats a sensible reason, especially in crowded cities.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I played HS football over 50 years ago for Shelton High
We always opened with Seymour, Ansonia, East Haven, and Branford on Friday night. Plus we played ND of WH later on at night
the crowds were very large. I think most Valley teams except Derby played a lot of night games. I went to them since grade school.
Football was a big deal in the lower Naugatuck Valley. We had over 5000 for Seymour and Ansonia. Even East Haven drew back then
In AZ the schools are huge so comparisons are difficult.
I do think a team made up of Shelton, Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, and Oxford would do very well against teams with simalar enrollments. The total enrollment of those schools would be much less than the enrollment of Chandler Hamilton.

I had to be 7/8 years old and I used to walk with friends (amazing what will not let our kids do today) to Derby HS for football. The year someone got stabbed and then the Shelton mayor got into a fight and broke his leg was the last Thanksgiving game my Mom let me go to.

Derby has under 400 students today and they had to go to a Co-Op with the local Tech HS. Ansonia is bigger with 700+. Seymour is down to 600+, primarily because both Beacon Falls and Oxford have their own high schools now. Shelton is still big with 1,600.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

When I was growing up, (the 70s), the Thanksgiving Day game in East Hartford was George J. Penny - East Hartford High game. The stands were always filled. Just think if GJP was still open and I wonder if the Rent would be the site it would be played at. (I heard it is now EHHS - Manchester for Thanksgiving at the Rent.

 

[buddy]

I played HS football over 50 years ago for Shelton High
We always opened with Seymour, Ansonia, East Haven, and Branford on Friday night. Plus we played ND of WH later on at night
the crowds were very large. I think most Valley teams except Derby played a lot of night games. I went to them since grade school.
Football was a big deal in the lower Naugatuck Valley. We had over 5000 for Seymour and Ansonia. Even East Haven drew back then
In AZ the schools are huge so comparisons are difficult.
I do think a team made up of Shelton, Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, and Oxford would do very well against teams with simalar enrollments. The total enrollment of those schools would be much less than the enrollment of Chandler Hamilton.

A team made up of the best of these schools would beat the current UConn team.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I had to be 7/8 years old and I used to walk with friends (amazing what will not let our kids do today) to Derby HS for football. The year someone got stabbed and then the Shelton mayor got into a fight and broke his leg was the last Thanksgiving game my Mom let me go to.

Derby has under 400 students today and they had to go to a Co-Op with the local Tech HS. Ansonia is bigger with 700+. Seymour is down to 600+, primarily because both Beacon Falls and Oxford have their own high schools now. Shelton is still big with 1,600.

I went to a Shelton/Derby game in the early 70's and 5 or 6 Derby starters were related to me. That was the valley.
My Derby grandmother who didn't. know a football from a footstool would give me grief if Derby won. My dad was a Derby guy but kept it quiet he was outnumbered. You could get a line on any valley game in any shop in the Valley. Most of the factories are gone now and Shelton seems to be more Fairfirld County then Valley.
I was just there and didn't see one person I knew.

I had a Sentinal route when I was 8. Picked up my papers downtown then walked a mile to start my route.
The only thing I was afraid of were dogs. It was a different world.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I went to a Shelton/Derby game in the early 70's and 5 or 6 Derby starters were related to me. That was the valley.
My Derby grandmother who didn't. know a football from a footstool would give me grief if Derby won. My dad was a Derby guy but kept it quiet he was outnumbered. You could get a line on any valley game in any shop in the Valley. Most of the factories are gone now and Shelton seems to be more Fairfirld County then Valley.
I was just there and didn't see one person I knew.

I had a Sentinal route when I was 8. Picked up my papers downtown then walked a mile to start my route.
The only thing I was afraid of were dogs. It was a different world.

Even from the early to mid 1980’s when I spent a lot of time in the Valley, primarily Derby and Seymour, a lot has changed. There are streets in Derby that my friends and I would bike around that I would not feel comfortable driving around today. My grandmother in Seymour used to let me hike by myself the mile though the neighborhood and adjoining woods when I was little to King’s (later Ames, now closed) for hours without a concern. It was a great place to go trick-or-treating, too. J

I also had family in Shelton, not Huntington nor White Hills. The town has always been very divided. With the Valley stuck in an economic hole for the last two decades, Shelton has slowly gentrified into a Fairfield County suburb with residents looking for cheaper alternatives to Trumbull, Fairfield, Westport, etc. or as an upgrade over Bridgeport, Stratford, etc. Still, the Valley is still there under the surface, especially at City Hall.