Around Town

‘A Great Feeling’: Paladino Construction Wins New Canaan Rec Softball Title 

By |

Joe Paladino hadn’t played softball in 10 years when he attended a friend’s party in 1999 and heard about New Canaan’s Rec Department summer league. He signed up, and five years later launched his own Paladino Construction team, working through some difficult and even winless early seasons before finally getting to .500 mark and consistently making the finals. “We considered ourselves the Buffalo Bills of New Canaan softball,” Paladino recalled. “We always got to dance but could never make the magic happen.”

Until recently. Last week, Paladino Construction bested a team called “The Firm” by a combined three-game score of 34-11 to capture its second straight league championship.

Board of Education

Superintendent: District Shortens Quarantining Period for Families Traveling Out-of-State for Sports Tournaments

By |

New Canaan Public Schools officials say they’ve updated a quarantining requirement that affects many sports-oriented families. 

Until this week, if a family traveled out-of-state for more than 24 hours for a sports tournament, they’d be required to quarantine for a minimum of seven days after testing negative for COVID-19 virus on their return, or 10 days without a test-out, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi told members of the Board of Education said during the elected body’s meeting last week. Luizzi said during the meeting, held May 3 via videoconference, that he and others were seeking approval from health officials to update the change the requirement so that kids involved in sports could return to school faster. 

In email to the school community Tuesday, Luizzi said district officials now are allowing students to return to in-person learning with a negative PCR test after returning to Connecticut. “Having raised two daughters who are both student-athletes, I know the challenges this particular DPH/CDC guideline may have caused, and I’m thrilled to be making this welcome adjustment to our protocols,” he said in the email. The Connecticut Department of Public Health’s guidance is based on that of the CDC, and is more strict than rules that apply to other types of travel, Luizzi said during the Board of Ed meeting. “When I asked them about why—why this is different from any other kind of travel—what they said was the expectation that when students and families go to tournaments, they’re going to be spending most of their time off the field, together with multiple households in the same setting,” Luizzi said.

Homepage Featured

‘They’re a Very Special Group’: New Canaan Basketball Falls to Ridgefield in FCIAC Semis

By |

For more than 26 minutes Tuesday’s FCIAC semifinal showdown between Ridgefield and New Canaan lived up to its billing and looked to be a fitting sequel to the previous meeting between these two teams 20 days ago—a double-overtime win for the Rams. 

Unfortunately for New Canaan, a storybook ending was not in the script this time around. The top-seeded Tigers outscored New Canaan 16-4 over the final 5:15 en route to a 62-49 win. With the win, Ridgefield advanced to the FCIAC finals for the third consecutive year and will try for a three-peat against Westhill. Meanwhile the Rams, who came into the tournament as the No. 5 seed will wait another year to seek their first FCIAC title since the 1968-69 season.

Government

Town Approves Contract for Electrical Work at NCHS Track

By |

The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $17,000 contract with a Darien-based company to install power outlets at the finish lines at the New Canaan High School track. As it is, a generator is rolled out onto the field to power up timing devices and scoreboards for track and field events at NCHS, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the town Department of Public Works. Under a contract with Darien Electrical Contracting Inc., power will be installed in a shed near the Waveny water tower and will also come down to the finish lines at the track. The work would “get rid of the need for bringing a generator out to the track,” Zagarenski told the selectmen at their March 9 meeting, held via videoconference. 

“So needless to say, the high school Athletic Department is very supportive of this project,” he said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract. 

Williams said he was “a little befuddled as to why this wasn’t done when we redid the track in the first place, years ago.” (Williams served on the Fields Building Committee that oversaw the water tower turf field and track projects.)

Zagarenski said conduits had been put in place as part of the original project, but installation of bleachers and grandstand seating was higher priority.

Homepage Featured

‘We Played With Pride Tonight’: Magnus Leads New Canaan over Wilton in FCIAC Quarterfinals

By |

Willis Reed. Most basketball fans know the name and the moment associated with it. In Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Championship, the injured New York Knicks captain—barely able to walk and not expected to play with a torn thigh muscle—shocked the Los Angeles Lakers and when he emerged for pregame warmups. Reed then electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd and his teammates by sinking his first two shots of the game. The Knicks went on to win the game and the championship.