No Power, No Play - Newtown Sports Teams Were On Hold

By Andy Hutchison

The score early this sports season: Mother Nature 1, Newtown Nighthawks 0.

After a morning and afternoon of tryouts on Saturday, August 27, Newtown High School’s athletes expected to be fully engaged in rigorous practices and preseason scrimmages during the first week of school. Instead, Hurricane-Turned-Tropical Storm Irene blew away those plans.

Scheduled tryouts/practices for late-Saturday and Sunday were canceled, as were all Newtown High School-related activities at the beginning of the week after power was knocked out of much of the region.

“Saturday morning was fine, and most of the teams had tryouts on Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon,” Newtown High School Athletic Director Gregg Simon said.

Then, the winds intensified, the rain came and – by the time the storm had passed and the sun was out on Monday – enough damage had been done to delay the opening of school and continue to postpone practices. Simon noted on Tuesday that most of the other South-West Conference schools seemed to be in the same boat.

Simon, on Tuesday, was awaiting word from school officials as to when and if teams would be permitted to resume tryouts and practices before the start of school. Newtown’s first day of classes had, at that point, already been pushed from August 30 to September 6. “There are a lot of things we can do,” said Simon, adding that, for example, early-season non-conference games can be rescheduled for later in the campaign if necessary.

On Wednesday morning, the NHS athletic director received the good news that practices/tryouts would resume on Thursday, meaning the teams missed just a handful of days of preseason preperations instead of a whole week. Still, the schedule change caused by the storm has set teams back.

“Obviously it’s Mother Nature and you can’t do anything about it,” said Marc Kenney, Newtown High girls’ soccer coach, adding that he respects the importance of safety first and the decision to cancel practices. But, Kenney added: “From a coaching perspective, I’m so frustrated. We got off to such a great start Saturday and got a lot of things done.”

Kenney noted that while most of the school teams are in the same situation, some are not, including Immaculate High in Danbury, which was scheduled to host a girls’ soccer scrimmage on Tuesday.

Kenney said on Tuesday that he was confident his athletes would get out and run/workout on their own during the layoff. “They certainly have enough time for it now,” he pointed out. Kenney said his athletes have been hard at work, training in camps and on their own throughout the summer. “I would hate to have all of that fitness base go away in a three or four day span, and it could” he said. “My hope is that we can recover from it.”

The soccer coach added that missing too many practices would effect teams for the rest of the season and could result in injuries. Newtown High’s girls’ soccer team, scheduled to scrimmage Darien on September 6, has its season-opener on September 13, at Pomperaug in Southbury.

Steve George, Newtown High’s football coach, pointed out that his team has the advantage of a week of practices under its belts, whereas the other sports programs only have a day under theirs. The down side is that football teams need to have had a handful of practices before they can start contact drills, meaning several days without practice would put the Hawks back at square one in the hitting department.

“My only concern is that we’re on a level playing field,” said George, adding that teams less-impacted by the storm, with more practice opportunities, will have an advantage.

Newtown’s football team, which is set to kick off the regular season September 16 at Joel Barlow in Redding, was slated to scrimmage New Fairfield on Tuesday, August 30, but that got postponed. No practice for a few days, and less scrimmages, means teams won’t be as sharp on the field in the early going, George believes. “It’s definitely not good for the training. There’s a lot to get done,” he said. On the bright side, however, with less scrimmages there will less of a chance of opponent-caused injuries. George noted that his team got banged up to the tune of multiple injuries in scrimmages last preseason. “Right now the only thing injured is our pride,” he said light-heartedly.

Simon said he is pleased that the teams can get back out and resume tryouts and practices, and noted that the inconvenience is minor in comparison to the struggles some have been facing with no power or water for showers during the past several days.

“I feel really badly for the people of Newtown. Obviously they’re going through a lot. Hopefully we can get back to some normalcy now,” Simon said.