By Kim J. Harmon

I

f I could coin a phrase - and possibly avoid trademark infringement at the same time – I would heartily say, “Football at Newtown High School . . . You Gotta Love It!”

It’s always been a good experience (and not just because it’s home turf, either) and it keeps getting better and better.

For one, the stadium is the best facility in the South-West Conference.

Two, the concession stand and its “culinary delights,” as Mike Kelley, president of the Blue & Gold Booster Club, likes to call them, is also the best in the SWC.

Three, there is no scratchy recording of the National Anthem warbling out of tinny speakers. No, at Newtown (and only at Newtown) it’s live – and coming from marvelous voices like that of Leah Blewett.

And four, the final piece of the puzzle, is the guy in the booth. For most schools, public address announcing usually comes down to just calling out the 50-50 raffle numbers at halftime, but at Newtown there is a sincere attempt to bring some color to the game.

That part was at its best – man, was it ever – this past weekend when Jay Edwards took the mike. Now Mr Edwards is a teacher and assistant volleyball coach at Newtown High School, but last Saturday he showed about 400 fans where his real talents lay.

Okay, he is no John Facenda (as if anyone could be), but with his Connecticut School of Broadcasting background he was crisp, accurate, informative and, as Walt Frazier likes to say during the New York Knicks games, “omnipresent” throughout the game.

Let’s hope we hear more, eh?

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Is there a better time of year?

Watching the football games on Sunday, my eight-year-old son sits down for a quarter and we watch Kerry Collins throw a couple of nice passes and the New York Giants score a touchdown, and during a break we grab the Nerf© football and run outside to toss a few passes. Then we run back, watch more football, and run back outside at halftime.

It was fun.

That’s some of what I signed up for when I became a father, alright.

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I walked up to the back field last Friday as freshman Ross Coates – in street clothes – was getting an impromptu tryout as Newtown’s new placekicker and I watched as he punched several kicks right through the wooden uprights back there.

Each got a rousing hurrah from the rest of the team.

Come Saturday night in a 39-0 rout of Brookfield, Coates gets out there and drills his second PAT (from 24 yards out) attempt right through the uprights. Never mind that he missed his first attempt (not by much) and his third attempt was blocked, this is great stuff.