High school football action between Newtown and Masuk in Monroe, Conn., on Wednesday Nov. 27, 2019.
On a December weekend when four Connecticut class state football championships are to be decided, including the most anticipated game in years, two of the towns involved are dealing with issues that cut to the fiber of what they are and what they believe is right.
One town’s decision is understandable.
The other town’s decision is flabbergasting.
For months, the Class L championship between Daniel Hand and St. Joseph has stood as the heavyweight title match. Both are undefeated. Both have dynamic players. Both have won back-to-back state titles. Hand coach Dave Mastroianni has overcome a second bout with cancer to return to his team. Everything about the 3 p.m. game at Veterans Stadium in New Britain speaks to a compelling high school athletic experience.
Yet this weekend it is within the hearts and minds of the people of Newtown and Killingly that we find the place where athletics cross into life. It is the place where those who claim sports and society should never intersect again are proven wrong. It is the place where we find out about ourselves.
CLASS L CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW CAPSULE | CIAC FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCOREBOARD
At its morally deepest and politically most contentious we are talking about racism and mass shootings. In its more immediate form, we are talking about protecting tradition and protecting young people’s emotions.
On Dec. 6, Joel Cookson of the CIAC sent an email to the media sharing and supporting the request of the Newtown High School administration to refrain from interviewing players, coaches, parents and students about the Sandy Hook shooting.
Saturday is the seventh anniversary of the tragedy that left 26 — including 20 elementary school children and six educators — dead. Saturday is the day Newtown faces Darien in the Class LL championship at 3 p.m. at Trumbull High. Referencing the shooting, Cookson wrote, “will undoubtedly put unwanted stress on the players, school and community.”
After Newtown advanced past the quarterfinals, the CIAC had a brief informal discussion about moving the final to Sunday. Newtown superintendent Lorrie Rodrigue said the high school principal and athletic director consulted with the team about playing on the anniversary.
“They wanted to play, keeping the main focus on the game,” Rodrigue said.
Dec. 14, 2012 was the day all of us in Connecticut feared, yet never could have imagined happening. Since that day we have prayed Newtown’s pain will ease. Sandy Hook, too, is our flash point on the never-ending debate on banning semi-automatic weapons, restricting high-capacity magazines, universal background checks, prohibiting violent felons from owning handguns and proper funding for mental health. Families of some of the Sandy Hook victims have become among the most outspoken.
Would we have wanted to do a piece on Newtown leading into the game? Would we have wanted to do a piece on senior linebacker Ben Pinto, whose younger brother Jack died at Sandy Hook? The answer, of course, is yes. The Pinto family will be remembered tenderly as the one visited by former Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.
We do not know how many Newtown players were attending Sandy Hook that day in 2012. We do know such a column would have been handled respectfully here and we know others who would have, too. Upsetting young people or pulling them from their focus before one of the biggest days of their young lives is not our mission. Yet it is those closest to the situation who are best positioned to decide an appropriate course.
“We have respectfully asked media over the years to honor our community’s request to remember and grieve privately for those we lost on 12/14,” said Rodrigue, who said there will be a moment of silence prior to the game. “(With the game) being played on the anniversary, we wanted the media to respect our students, staff and families while they are attending the game. The focus should remain on the athletes and the opportunity they have to compete for the state championship.”
Will players and coaches decide to talk about the emotion of the day once the game is over? They may. What about parents and fans? If the Nighthawks win, one or more may feel inspired to do so. It is their right. And it may ease their burden. All of it is understandable.
Killingly also will be in New Britain on Saturday for the 11 a.m. Class M championship against Weston.
Killingly will be Killingly.
After a long, contentious meeting on Wednesday night, its recently elected Board of Education voted to rescind the new Red Hawks nickname and mascot, yet not bring back the Redmen name.
The vote on returning to the Redmen was a tie. And now a bipartisan subcommittee is being formed to find a compromise. This follows months of debate and an initial decision by the BOE to change to the Red Hawks.
How a town grew so divided over a mascot is confounding.
The term Redmen in our 2019 world is racist and to put it any other way is to strain credibility. We’re not calling anyone the Yellow Men or Black Men or even White Men. The ship has so sailed on this, it is halfway across the Atlantic. Cartoonish depictions are way out of bounds.
And don’t throw “snowflake” at me. This isn’t crazy liberal stuff. This is common decency. This is common sense. I have argued with those who don’t even want the proper names of tribes used. I believe if the tribes approve and names like Chippewas are employed respectfully it’s fine. But Redskins? Redmen? C’mon. Killingly’s girls teams were called Redgals, which rings the insensitivity bell.
“A year ago today, if you had asked me should we change (from Redmen), I was adamantly opposed to it,” Killingly athletic director Kevin Marcoux said. “Over time, I have come to realize the right thing to do is to move forward, not hold people back and like the students have, I embraced the change. That came with education for myself and I think a lot of people have been enlightened on this issue.
“There’s a great sense of pride in folks who are trying to remain Redmen and keep that mascot, but what the school leadership is trying to do is find a way to honor that legacy yet also move forward and unite people. The bottom line is that the mascot was not uniting, as you saw at the Board of Ed meeting, clearly was not uniting Killingly whatsoever.”
The arguments for those who want to retain Native American nicknames and mascots always seem to come back to tradition. Believe me, I love the right kind of traditions. Yet it disappoints me to see adults link their accomplishments, their memories, even their lives to a nickname or mascot.
You know what Killingly tradition is? It’s good, hard-working people. It’s determined athletes and bright students.
I live one town over from Killingly. I work all over the state. I hear stuff.
In recent years, I’ve heard nothing but praise for Chad Neal and the powerhouse football program he has built in Killingly.
In recent days, I’ve heard people making fun of Killingly.
The Republicans won big in the local elections in November, gaining control of the school board and town council. Reinstating the Redmen was a campaign promise of many of them. The Republican Town Committee maintained changing from the Redmen was “the beginning of the elimination of our town’s traditions and culture if Democrats take our seats.”
One of the Republicans elected to the BOE, Jason Muscara, 20, told the Norwich Bulletin he was no longer a member of the American Guard, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a “general hate group.”
The biggest shame in all this would be for Killingly athletes to get pulled into this politically charged environment. Especially this weekend. There was a pep rally Friday and Marcoux said he was heartened to see the school “completely unified.”
“My message was unity,” Marcoux said. “We’re not freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors. We’re not anything else than Killingly High School fighting for a fourth state championship. The kids are resilient and a lot of times make a lot more sense than adults. In this case, that’s my opinion on the matter.
“Since we went to Red Hawks in October the kids have embraced it. There was a lot of reluctance at first. Old habits die hard. There was a lot of pride in these kids who were Redmen their entire lives.”
Marcoux said the students were heavily involved in selecting the new mascot and logo.
“The kids were ready to move on,” Marcoux said. “I had not heard a word from the student body in months.”
Oh, yeah. St. Joe’s by a touchdown.
