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PHOTOS: 16 NCHS Student-Athletes Sign Early Letters of Intent To Play Sports in College

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Sixteen New Canaan High School seniors on Wednesday signed early Letters of Intent to play sports in college starting next year. The photos below are from a signing ceremony overseen by NCHS Athletic Director Jay Egan, held in the Wagner Room. 

We also asked the student-athletes why they chose their future schools, and put their responses next to photos:

Jane Charlton

Duke
Lacrosse
“A little bit of everything. The stellar academics combined with athletics, as well as the amazing atmosphere that the team creates. And just the student body and culture in general.”

 

Amanda Hall

Boston College
Crew
“I’ve always loved Boston College. I visited a few years ago and then I was offered a spot on the team, so I took it and I was really excited about it.”

 

Alexandra Mehos

Colgate
Swimming
“When I visited the campus, I really fell in love with it.

Board of Education

Board of Ed Adopts Policy for Naming of Buildings and Grounds

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The Board of Education on Monday voted unanimously in favor a policy that will allow the elected body to name district buildings and grounds after individuals or groups. 

Created in the wake of a formal agreement between the town and New Canaan Athletic Foundation that’s designed to ensure the long-term viability of the new and re-turfed youth sports fields and track at the high school, the policy calls for the Board to solicit community input, select names and approve changes. “Facility naming shall be considered in cases when it has been recommended to honor a person or organization providing exemplary services or contributions to the New Canaan Public Schools,” according to the policy (which can be found in full here). 

Board members Maria Naughton, Penny Rashin, Dionna Carlson, Brendan Hayes, Tom Cronin and Julie Mackle Reeves voted 6-0 to adopt it after a second read and minor changes. Board members Sheri West, Katrina Parkhill and Jennifer Richardson were absent. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the policy came forward in conjunction with the NCAF agreement and is designed to establish a process to follow in the event that someone makes a donation that warrants naming rights. “It’s a very big deal to name something after someone,” he said “There should be a relatively high bar, I think, going into something like this, because it’s a significant honor.”

The Board spent time discussing the proposed language in the policy and ultimately decided to do away with a clause specifying that the honored individual or organization must have “an affiliation” with the district.

New Canaan Football Club’s ‘Hot Hand’ in Cup Play

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For more than 30 years, Nobel Prize winning economists and scientists who study human behavior and judgment led by Thomas Gilovich, Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky (GVT, for short) have questioned whether human beings can defy statistical probabilities and get “hot” or streaky in their performance, particularly in sports. Out of that skepticism came the technical term “The Hot Hand Fallacy,” empirically attempting to debunk the amazing performances that each of us have witnessed with athletes who frequently defy statistical probabilities (see Steph Curry). 

Now, please bear in mind that I’m not a PhD nor am I close to being nominated for any awards, let alone a Nobel Prize. But this much I have read from contemporary academics, “recent work has uncovered critical flaws in the research which underlies this consensus (the hot hand fallacy). In fact, these flaws are sufficient to not only invalidate the most compelling evidence against the hot hand, but even to vindicate the belief in streakiness.” 

And here’s someone who knows a thing or two about hot streaks, the legendary Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach who famously said regarding the academics who disputed the hot hand: “Who is this guy? So he makes a study.

News

Raising the Bar: NCFC 2007 Boys Red ‘Onward to Victory’

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New Canaan, September 15, 2019

The incredibly rich and storied history of Notre Dame football has given the fans of the Fighting Irish 11 national championships and seven Heisman trophies, a fight song that induces goose bumps whenever, in all of their glory and splendor, the Band of the Fighting Irish marches out playing the ND Victory March. 

More than any other college football program, Notre Dame has created heroes and legends on the field that have translated into tinseltown legends. I of course am referring to the two classics topping USA Today’s 25 best football movies of all time, “Knute Rockne, the All-American” and “Rudy.” Thank you in advance to the Fighting Irish for the key ingredients for my New Canaan Youth Sports story this week. 

This past Sunday on the pastoral fields of New Canaan’s beautiful new athletic facilities, the NCFC Boys Red 2007 team embraced its new leader and Coach, Maegan Doyle. Coach Maegan is a highly accomplished soccer player who hails from Harwich, England, played for England’s U19 Women’s team and recently won the NCAA Division II National Player of the Year for the University of Bridgeport Women’s soccer team while leading them to the 2018 D2 National Championship. 

And just before this weekend’s match, one of the NCFC Red ’07 Boys players, Javi Minuesa, broke his collar bone and will be sidelined for four to six weeks. A team favorite, Javi definitely will definitely be missed on the field and on the sidelines. See where this is going?

Homepage Featured

Podcast: The Rise of the New Canaan Athletic Foundation

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk New Canaan Athletic Foundation Chairman Mike Benevento about the organization’s efforts over the past several months not only to formalize a partnership with the town, but to sketch out—for the very first time—a detailed, sustainable master plan for youth and varsity sports facilities in New Canaan. Those efforts include a newly announced music festival planned for Saturday, Sept. 7. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Karl Chevrolet, a proud supporter of the full range of New Canaan Athletics. Let’s go Rams.

Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0: