By Kim J. Harmon

Brrrrrr – just thinking about Newtown and Hall and that CIAC Class L state tournament soccer game still gives me the chills even though, as I write this, I’m sweating after the usual epic struggle to get the kids to go to bed.

It probably seemed a lot colder than it actually was, back on Monday, but being the first real day of sharp cold – at least where I’ve had to cover a game – I’m sure I exaggerated things a little . . . but that could just be the frostbite talking.

It got me to thinking, though, about the two winters I spent covering the University of Connecticut ice hockey team for The Daily Campus, the UConn newspaper.

This was about 16 years ago, back in the Stone Ages, and things were a bit barbaric up there in Storrs. Oh sure, the Huskies had a rink and all with a roof – but it wasn’t enclosed! In a more civilized place, a guy could cover a hockey game without having to chip ice off his pen or lose the feeling in all of his extremities.

The press – which was me and a guy from The Willimantic Chronicle, which made the weekly shopper look like The New York Times – did have the benefit of a little trailer. But the only concession to warmth was a million-year-old space heater that was so weak, staying warm was as hard as thawing a frozen steak with a match.

Ah, those were the days.

+_+_+

But - heading out to the CIAC_Class L_second-round tournament game between Newtown and Trumbull on Wednesday, it was sunny and over 60 degrees.

Thank heavens.

+_+_+

There but for the grace of god . . .

Newtown High School athletic director Gregg Simon had a chance to thank his lucky stars last week that he wasn’t in the shoes of Dave Strong, the A.D. at Masuk High School in Monroe.

Last week, Masuk was set to host the South-West Conference girls’ and boys’ soccer tournaments as well as the South-West Conference swim championships and suddenly had to move everything off campus because of an oil tank leak that caused some health concerns.

Can you imagine the number of phone calls that had to be made – to coaches, to officials, to the volunteers who would be doing whatever is was that needed doing at those three events?

Now, that’s a nightmare.

+_+_+

You have to feel a little for Bob Zito, don’t you?

The Stratford Red Devils have sunk to 2-5-1 on the season after getting beaten by Jonathan_Law last weekend, 27-20. Law went into the game 1-6.

I just figured, with coach Zito’s track record here at Newtown (the conference titles, the trips to the CIAC state tournament, the won-loss record . . . all that) and with the track record of the Stratford program, the Devils would be burning up the SWC.

Whatever the problems he is having over there, I have that feeling, though, that coach Zito will turn it around and sooner than later.

+_+_+

There goes Bloomfield High School again, running up the score in a football game against a hapless opponent.

Didn’t Bloomfield get lambasted last year by coaches, players and the press for running up scores?_Now, just this past weekend, it leveled a 70-3 spanking on Glastonbury High School.

The Lauralton_Hall girls’ soccer team was criticized recently, too, for running up double-digit scores against weaker teams in the South-West Conference.

There is simply no call for that. There is a points when you just have to call off the dogs.