Hurricane Sandy certainly had its impact on New Haven area high school sports teams, including girls’ swimming and field hockey, forcing cancelations and postponements of practices and games.
One of the hardest hit programs is the Seymour girls’ swim team, which is in the process of preparing for the upcoming Naugatuck Valley League swim and diving championships.
“Most of Seymour is out of power,” Seymour girls’ swim coach Missy Orosz said. “A lot of my team is still stuck in their neighborhoods because several trees are still blocking roads.
The high school is out of power (as of noon Tuesday) so we haven't been in the water since Saturday."
The NVL swim trials are tentatively scheduled to be held on Thursday at Kennedy High in Waterbury at 4 p.m. The diving competition is scheduled for Friday at either Kennedy or Woodland (to be determined Wednesday) at 4 p.m. The NVL swim finals are at Kennedy on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“I am hoping that power is restored soon,” Orosz said. “We might look into our local Ansonia YMCA to snag pool time, but they have no power right now."
Orosz also said NVL League commissioners will update the status of league tournament schedules for all sports on Wednesday.
Like most teams, the Branford girls’ swim team has missed practice time on Monday and today (Tuesday).
“We have missed opportunities to swim yesterday and today but I am hopeful that we can squeeze in a practice tomorrow (Wednesday),” Branford girls’ swim coach Scott Butler said. “I hope that the missed workouts will minimally affect those of us training for states (CIAC Class L-M-S and State Open meets)."
Amity girls’ swim coach Todd Rainey said, “We missed practice on Monday and Tuesday. I do believe that the pool at Orange (Orange Community Pool) does have power. We hope to be back in the water tomorrow but we'll have to wait and see about any school closure.
“The timing of this storm was not ideal in terms of SCC Championship preparation, but we'll do the best we can. It certainly could have been much worse."
The Lauralton Hall field hockey team has been trying to reschedule its last regular season game with Amity since it has seeding implications for the post season.
“We are still trying to play our regular season game versus Amity,” Lauralton Hall coach Theresa Napolitano said. “We need to schedule this before either team plays a league playoff game. Thursday is the last day to get it in (for the CIAC to count it toward postseason seeding).
“The SWC (South-West Conference) tournament starts with the semifinal round Thursday but if we end up with a conflict and play Amity that day, then that semifinal game may be pushed to another day. Barring any field or school issues we will try to schedule the Amity game for tomorrow (Wednesday)."