By Ray Curren
Elm City Sports Columnist

On the day the press box at Amity was named for him Thanksgiving morning, the intent was to get Stan Gedansky to talk about himself.

Good luck with that.

If you’re reading this, you probably know Gedansky, even if you don’t know you do. He’s been the public address announcer for Amity football since 1975, about the same time he started with the school’s booster club.

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There will be a retirement party on Saturday (Nov. 26) for Cheshire girls’ swim coach Ed Aston who has decided to retire after 37 seasons as coach. The event will be held at the Cheshire High cafeteria from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with snacks and soft drinks provided.
Tickets are available at the door for $15 with checks made payable to Cheshire Swimming and Diving. Anyone who attends is urged to bring copies of pictures, videos, stories and memoires to share. Photos will be added to a scrap book at the event.
For more info, contact Gina DeLuca at 203-675-9496 or email her at deluca.gina@gmail.com or contact Bridget Bowman at 917-334-3647 or at bridget.bowman@ey.com.
Dan Nowak

The PreGame Lacrosse Tour, an organization that evaluates high school lacrosse talent for college recruitment, will be making a stop at Hamden Hall on Saturday. The organization is run by former lacrosse coaches including former college coach Tony Seaman.
The onsite coordinator is Hamden Hall boys lacrosse coach Anthony Raccio.
The event will run from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and will include a player evaluation session, assessment of a player’s lacrosse IQ, perform training, play games and culminate with a recruiting seminar for parents.
Players have to register before Saturday by filling out an application at PreGamelacrosse.com.
“Hamden Hall was chosen because Tony Seaman knows me and was my coach at C.W. Post,” Raccio said. He also coached at Towson, Johns Hopkins and Pennsylvania. "The event is also run by former college lacrosse coaches Jim Stagnitta.and B.J. O’Hara. Many players leave these exposure tournaments with questions but the PreGame coaches will answer everyone’s questions.
“The day ends with a seminar to help parents and players navigate their way through the recruiting process.”
For more information and to learn about fees call Raccio at 203-415-5950, contact Seaman at tseaman@Towson.edu or Stagnitta at jstagnitta@pregamelacrosse.com.
Dan Nowak

CHESHIRE - The Cheshire football team will make its debut on its new turf field on Thursday against Southington at 10 a.m. School and town officials will be on hand for a kickoff ceremony for the turf that will begin at 9:20 a.m. prior to the annual Thanksgiving Day game.
Expected to take part in the celebration are Cheshire Superintendent of Schools Greg Florio, Cheshire High athletic director Steve Trifone, state Representative Mary Fritz, Turf Committee Chairman Bob Behrer and Cheshire Town Councilman Tim Slocum.
The official dedication of the field will take place next year when the construction is completed. Trifone said the new track surrounding the field is about 90percent colete and is expected to be done by Saturday. There is also a brick walkway with names of the project donors listed on each brick that needs to be installed as well.

The Sheehan vs Lyman Hall powder puff and Thanksgiving Day (Carini Bowl) football game tickets will be on sale in the Sheehan gym lobby on Tuesday night from 5-7 p.m.
Tickets bought on Tuesday will be $6 for adults and $4 for students and senior citizens. All tickets sold at the games will be $7.

Hand boys' soccer goalkeeper Tucker Hackett was the only player from Connecticut selected from 40 nationwide to play in the first annual High School All-American game on Dec. 10 in Birmingham, Ala.
Hackett, a Register All-Area selection last year, will play for the East team. The game is being held the same weekend as the men's NCAA Division I College Cup. The All-American game will be played the day in between the semifinals and the final.
For a full list of the participants, visit www.highschoolsoccerallamerican.com.

As of 4 p.m., all CIAC tournament games scheduled for today are still on, including the Guilford-Cheshire Class LL quarterfinal-round game at 7 p.m. at Sheehan High School in Wallingford.

Branford's Class M semifinal-round game against Barlow has been postponed to Thursday at 6 p.m. at Fairfield Ludlowe.

The following five games have been pushed to Thursday:
Portland at East Hampton, ppd. to Thur. 2:00
Glastonbury at Trumbull, ppd. to Thur. 5:00
Litchfield at East Granby, ppd. to Thur. 2:00
Lyman Memorial at Valley Regional, ppd. to Thur. 5:30
Farmington at Norwalk, ppd. to Thur. 6:30

Due to wet field conditions, the Guilford-Cheshire Class LL boys soccer quarterfinal scheduled for 2 p.m. has been moved to Thursday at 7 p.m. at Sheehan High School.
This is the only state tournament game postponed as of noon.

Cheshire has had all of its home football games moved this season due to the new turf being put in. But the Thanksgiving Day Apple Classic vs. Southington is still on at the high school at 10 a.m.

By Mike Madera
Elm City Sports Writer

MILFORD — With the possibility of facing South-West Conference rival Joel Barlow on the horizon, the Lauralton Hall volleyball team knew it had to focus on a tough Foran team first in the quarterfinals of the CIAC Class M state tournament.

Knowing the Lions were a scrappy bunch that was not going to go away easily, the Crusaders were put to the test.

Through two games, the Lions gave Lauralton Hall everything it could handle. Then, the Crusaders took over.

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Foran was the last team standing in a thrilling 47-41 double-overtime victory over Guilford last Thursday night in Milford. Click here for the game story.

By Mike Madera
Elm City Sports Writer

With two games remaining in the season and postseason hopes clinging to each, North Haven football coach Tony Sagnella wanted his team to keep it simple. In the final two contests against Lyman Hall and Amity, Sagnella felt his team needed to take it play by play and quarter by quarter.

Consider the first step done.

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By Ray Curren
Elm City Sports Columnist

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and unfortunately, in the high school football world, it’s hard to get too many impressions on a team.

With 10 weeks in the season and most of the games happening at the same time (although we’ve had a couple of Saturday rain make-ups), some teams just get missed.

Or, in my case with Shelton, they have one chance.

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North Haven clinched the SCC Division II East title with a dominant 49-20 win over Foran on Friday night. Click here for the game story

Led by the running attack of David Attolino and James Semmonella, Amity cruised to a 42-21 victory over Lyman Hall Saturday afternoon in Woodbridge. Click here for the game story (and excellent photos by Russ McCreven).

Also, click over to ctbulletin.com for photos from coach Ed McCarthy's triumphant return to the sidelines in West Haven's 14-6 win over Wilbur Cross from Friday night.

Two of Connecticut’s most outstanding high school seniors were honored with distinguished recognition as state winners of the 2011 Wendy’s High School Heisman Award. Jennifer Mears of Rockville in Vernon and Christopher Madaffari of McMahon in Norwalk will now go on to compete for the national award that celebrates their hard work, dedication and exceptional records in athletics, academics and community leadership.

Mears and Madaffari were chosen from 48,000 applicants, surviving rounds that narrowed contenders to one male and one female winner from each school, and then to Connecticut’s respected group of 20 state finalists. The area finalists are listed below:

Matthew Aspinwall - Foran
Elia D’Onofrio - Derby
Matthew Moutinho - Woodland
Samuel Poryanda - Branford
Yuning Zhang - Guilford

Going through withdrawal because the CIAC state tournament has been pushed back a few days? Don't worry, check out our tournament outlooks right here!

Here are some things to look for in the CIAC boys' soccer tournaments.

Check out some things and players to watch in the girls' soccer tournaments.

Dan Nowak provides an outlook on the upcoming field hockey tournament.

Chris Hunn lets you in on a few things to look for in the girls' volleyball tournaments.

The CIAC tournament pairings will be released on Wednesday.

By Ray Curren
Elm City Sports Columnist

From the “Hindsight is always 20-20” department, we bring you the 2011 Notre Dame-West Haven football team.

Coming off a 2009 state title and a 2010 season in which they were a fairly disappointing (by their standards) 7-3, it was time to regroup. Star quarterback Sean Goldrich had graduated, as had speedsters Tirrell Young-Williams and Phil Bentley.

While we really didn’t know how tough, we knew the schedule in Division I would be brutal and that Notre Dame – while never expected to be poor by any stretch – might absorb a few losses along the way this season.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL COLUMN

With the CIAC pushing the start of its state tournaments to Thursday, the South-West Conference has decided to move the two soccer finals to Monday at Bunnell. The girls go off at 4:30 p.m., followed by the boys at 7.

No. 2 seed Shelton beat No. 3 Amity 1-0 Thursday night to get a chance to defend its SCC championship on Saturday. Standing in the way is No. 4 seed Cheshire, which advanced past top-seeded Sacred Heart Academy in penalty kicks in the semifinals. game time is 5 p.m. at East Haven High. This is the third matchup between the two Housy rivals with Shelton going 1-0-1.
That will be preceded by the SCC boys final at 3 p.m., pitting No. 2 Fairfield Prep against No. 4 Notre Dame-West Haven, a 1-0 winner over top-seeded Cheshire. Prep beat Guilford 3-0 on Wednesday and went 1-0-1 against ND during the regular season.

Due to last Saturday's snowstorm, the CIAC has pushed back the start of the state tournament until Wednesday at the earliest.

For the updated schedule click here

SCC commissioner Al Carbone is awaiting the results of today's semifinals to determine when exactly the finals will be for the soccer finals at East Haven, but the times will likely be at 3 and 5 p.m. Check back later for the update.

By Mike Madera
Elm City Sports Writer

BRANFORD — If the Sheehan volleyball team goes on a run in next week’s state tournament, the Titans can easily point to Wednesday night’s Southern Connecticut Conference tournament quarterfinal victory over Branford as a spark.

The story is not that the Titans defeated Branford 3-1 — it is how the victory came about.

After splitting the first two games and trailing 21-13 in the third game, the Titans were on the verge of going into the fourth game in a must-win situation.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference has rescheduled the remaining three divisional cross country championships and the State Open to Tuesday at Hammonasset State Park in Madison.
Also, teams in boys' and girls' soccer, field hockey and girls' volleyball will have until Saturday, an extra two days, to complete regular-season games to qualify for the state tournament.
The Class SS and S girls and the Class SS boys cross country meets were originally scheduled at Wickham Park but that facility is unavailable due to damage occurring during Saturday's snowstorm. The S girls will begin at noon, followed by the SS boys at 12:35 p.m. and the SS girls at 1:05. The boys State Open race will begin at 1:45 p.m., followed by the girls' race at 2:30.
The state tournament pairings for the other four sports will be released on Sunday.
"In the case of cross country and in soccer, volleyball and field hockey, we believe we have done everything possible to allow schools to complete their regular seasons while still holding fair and competitive tournaments," CIAC associate executive director Paul Hoey said in a statement. "We would hope that member schools whose facilities are available will help others whose facilities may not be so that as many games as possible can be completed by Saturday."