Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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All but one grade involved in the New Canaan Youth Football will send a team this weekend into a championship or semifinal. The program serves third- through eighth-graders. Best of luck to our boys competing for titles:

3rd grade black team
4th grade red team
5th grade red & white teams
6th grade red & black teams
8th grade black & white teams

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We’re hearing from some local historians that New Canaan’s backing of a Democratic candidate for president this week may have been the first time since 1964 that a Democrat seeking the nation’s highest elected office carried the town (LBJ). ***

Speaking of the election, NCHS ’14 graduate and George Washington University student Chase Williams, son of New Canaan Selectman Nick Williams, appeared in images that went viral in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, after he climbed a tree outside the White House, where a combination of protesters and celebrators had gathered after Republican Donald Trump won the presidential race. Chase, a varsity soccer captain when he was at NCHS, told us that he arrived there and “it was a madhouse” with people screaming and becoming increasingly belligerent.

Sports

New Canaan 6th Grade Red Football Shuts Out Fairfield

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For “Shiftin’”Griffin Gentner, timing was of the essence. The elusive New Canaan 6th Grade Red running back has had a tremendous, workman-like 2016 season, picking up huge yards and several key first downs all year long, but had yet to find the end zone. That is…until this past Saturday. Gentner’s breathtaking 20-yard touchdown run in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter sealed the deal for Big Red (6-0-1) as they took down the tough Fairfield Wildcats  (5-2) 14-0 on the road at Taft Field. “Everybody was blocking for me,” Gentner—who broke three would-be tackles on the run—told NewCanaanite.com.

Sports

New Canaan 6th Grade Red Football Shuts Out Westport, Aspetuck

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You’d almost think Clayton Kershaw was pitching for them. The New Canaan 6th Grade Red football team has played three games in 2016 and they have just as many shutouts blanking both Ridgefield and Westport 6-0, followed by a 20-0 whitewash of Aspetuck this past Sunday. With the three wins Big Red is one of three undefeated teams in the FCFL 6th Grade Division, joining last year’s co-champs—the Wilton White and Wilton Blue teams—atop the league standings. NEW CANAAN 6, WESTPORT 0

Big Red overcame six penalties and a stingy Westport defense en route to a 6-0 win over the Wreckers on Sunday, Sept. 11 at Dunning Field.

Sports

New Canaan 6th Grade Red Football Tops Ridgefield

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The old adage “the best offense is a good defense” rang true Saturday night as the New Canaan 6th Grade Red football team blanked the Ridgefield 6th Grade Black 6-0 on the road at Tiger Hollow. New Canaan took advantage of two turnovers and held the Tigers to 43 yards of total offense en route to the opening night win. Meanwhile Big Red’s offense dominated the time of possession with long, sustained drives that kept Ridgefield’s offense off the field or deep in its own territory during the rare instances in which they had the ball. “Ridgefield was a tough team,” New Canaan head coach Nick Cascione told NewCanaanite.com. “The boys responded well and they played a complete game.”

Trey “Spiderman” Hartnett was a two-way star for New Canaan, hauling in three receptions for 40 yards, including one for the game’s only touchdown.

News

Incident Involving New Canaan Youth Football Game At Center of Fairfield County Football League Lawsuit

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Saying a New Canaan youth football player roughed up one of his, and that the incident’s fallout led to his being unfairly ousted, a former assistant coach in Fairfield is suing the nonprofit organization that oversees a countywide league. According to a lawsuit filed recently by a former assistant coach of the Fairfield Wildcats team of the Fairfield County Football League, a New Canaan sixth-grade player during a scrimmage last summer kicked a Wildcat “in the back of the head with great force while the Wildcats player was defenseless on the ground after completion of a play.”

In response, the plaintiff, Robert O’Connell, “reprimanded the offending player and directed him to return to his coaches,” according to the lawsuit, filed July 27 in state Superior Court and embedded below as a PDF. “Subsequently, the plaintiff approached the offending player’s [New Canaan] coach and informed him of what had just happened, in reply to which the player’s coach directed foul language toward the plaintiff and aggressively approached him whereupon, rather than engage and escalate the situation, the plaintiff turned and walked away.”

The lawsuit does not name the players or New Canaan coach involved, yet it says that largely as a result of the incident and what Wildcats board members claim to have happened, O’Connell was suspended from coaching in the league and his son, by extension, was forced to undergo an awkward re-registration that effectively prevented him from playing in it, as well. The lawsuit names the FCFL and the Fairfield Wildcats as defendants, as well as the Wildcats’ board president, Clarence Zachary, and vice president, Timothy Ihlefeld. The Wildcats and its officers are represented by New Canaan’s Lambert Toohey & Rucci LLC, while O’Connell is represented by Green & Gross PC of Bridgeport and the FCFL of Wilton’s Bayer & Black PC.