September 23, 2025 • 43 mins
On this episode of the CIAC Glory Days Podcast, host Jada Mirabelle sits down with Al Carbone and James Buonocore to dive into the world of the Connecticut High School Football Alliance. They discuss how the Alliance got started, how matchups are set, its goals, the responses to critics, and the impact it’s having on high school football across Connecticut. A must-listen for fans, players, and anyone curious about the CT high school football!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the CIC Glory Days podcast.
I'm your host, jada Maribel,and today I'm joined by Al
Carbone, the SEC Commissioner,and Jim Bunicor, the Assistant
Principal and Athletic Directorat Ledger High School, and
they're both a part of theleadership team of the
Connecticut High School FootballAlliance.
Thank you both for joining metoday.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thanks for having us.
Jada, very excited, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So to start off, for those who are watching, who may
not know what exactly is theConnecticut High School Football
Alliance, for those who are,watching who may not know what
exactly is the Connecticut HighSchool Football Alliance.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
The Alliance is a football league in the state of
Connecticut made up of sevenconferences as well as four
independents.
Two of those independents arefrom the state of Connecticut
and two independents are fromthe state of Rhode Island.
The goal of our alliance is toassist those conferences in
(00:48):
scheduling high school footballgames.
To date, we've scheduled over600 plus games since our
inception and just already in2025, in week one, we scheduled
61 high school football games.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Wow.
So when was the allianceofficially formed and what was
that motivation behind creatingit, besides having all the
leagues work together?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So back in 2016, the Southwest Conference, the
Southern Connecticut Conferenceand the Eastern Connecticut
Conference our commissionerskind of got together and said
wouldn't it be great to havesome kind of a scheduling
alliance?
Because high school footballscheduling is hard right and so
there's always challenges.
You have odd numbers of teams,you have bad matchups in your
league.
So we got together and we endedup scheduling about 32 games in
(01:35):
that first year in 2017.
And it's just built from eachyear going forward and getting
more leagues involved and, asJim just talked about the
schedule, over 100 games now inthe 2025 season.
So high school football gets alot of attention, so scheduling
is one of the things thateveryone focused to.
You only play 10 games, and sothe alliance was really formed
(01:58):
to address all those challengesthat we have as leagues.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, because with those 10 matchups, you have to
be very conscious of what you'rescheduling to make sure your
team is benefiting fromeverything.
So who else is a part of thealliance?
Because I know you both are apart of the leadership team, but
how does it work?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So the seven conferences that are part of the
alliance, besides the SEC andthe ECC, we include the FCEAC,
the Southwest Conference, theNVL Naugatuck Valley League, the
CTC, the Connecticut TechnicalLeague, and the four
(02:34):
independents, which includeNANAWAG.
It's a cooperative program, anew program this year in our
state, amistad, which is afirst-year varsity football
program, and the two schoolsfrom Rhode Island are Bishop
Hendrickson, which is aperennial powerhouse in the
state of Rhode Island, andWesterly High.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
School.
He did forget the CentralConnecticut Conference, the CCC.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yes, and the Southwest Conference, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So the largest league in the state.
That being said, there areteams that are independent and
not part of leagues.
They've gotten rejected from aleague or they were a co-op, a
newly formed co-op or such, andso Nonawag and Amistad had
reached out to us and said canyou help us with scheduling?
So, like in reality is, thealliance is like a scheduler
(03:21):
broker, so we are able to givethem a full schedule, which, as
you said before, 10 games.
I think that each of them gotnine or 10 for the year.
So every week you're seeingthese teams get schedules
playing the teams from thoseaforementioned leagues.
So, really, what we've reallyevolved into is really in a
scheduling alliance, but onethat's also promoting high
(03:43):
school football and gettingthese competitive matchups I see
.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, when this all began, you know, initially it
was, you know, designated weekswhere we were setting aside for
alliance games.
It has now morphed into we havean alliance game scheduled at a
minimum one game all the waythrough week 11, because we've
maxed out non-awog schedule forthem at their request, amistad
(04:07):
schedule for them at theirrequest.
But then also, as you lookthrough the season, because of
leagues and the inequity inthose leagues, you know, we have
alliance games kind of dottedin throughout the year.
For example, in week nine we'llhave a Fitch-West Haven matchup
, you know, an SEC-ECC matchup.
In week five or six we have aKillingly-Massic matchup, you
(04:31):
know an.
SWC-ECC matchup Because, again,you know, as the main scheduler
in the Eastern ConnecticutConference, you know there are
times where I have issues comingup with games that are sensible
for student-athletes, sensiblefor student athletes, sensible
for those school communities,and the Alliance has helped
solve some of those issues.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And just talking from the SEC's perspective is you
know, we used to do back about10, 15 years ago we did actually
a scheduling partnership withthe FCA where we had like a
challenge and then the SWC andthe NBL did a challenge.
A couple of years later thatkind of morphed into the
Alliance of making sure that youhave these other leagues who
have openings in their schedulesto look in and, as Jim said,
(05:14):
make it in the benefit of thestudent athletes to play a
competitive football game asopposed to just force feeding a
bad matchup in your league.
And let's be honest, ourleagues are diverse and we have
challenges, odd numbers of teams, openings, all this stuff, and
so why so?
Why, you know, force feed amatchup just because it's a
league matchup, when you can goto another league and say, hey,
I, this is a you know the typeof team I have.
Do you have a comparable teamthat would like to play in this?
(05:36):
You know we call it off week,off alliance week, but in any of
the weeks.
So you're following thatschedule to get them 10 games,
because no team wants to playless than 10 games.
That's what you're.
You know they put the effort inAround the year, 365 days to
prepare.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You should get those 10 games.
So essentially, the Alliance isa resource for schools to
orchestrate different matchupsthroughout their season.
That's really what it comesdown to.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, I think that's a good explanation of it and a
description of it.
And you know, but I thinkthat's a good explanation of it
and a description of it.
But then, as Jim said, there'salso those designated weeks,
like week one, where weobjectively matched up teams
based on playoff power pointsand that where you have those
matchups designated home or away.
But that leads to the furtherconversations with the leagues
(06:22):
to work together to say, hey, doyou have an opening here?
I need another game for thisteam.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So are there any other states that have an
alliance program like this, oris this more of a pilot program
in Connecticut?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I think other states at this point do start off their
seasons with non-conference, orin some states they're called
non-district games, and usuallythat can range from week one to
week four before they get intowhat they call, you know,
divisional play.
So states vary, you know.
(06:54):
In regards to, you know,scheduling, in regards to, like
an alliance, where it's nowinterstate, I don't think
there's much like us.
You know, when you look aroundthe country it's pretty unique
in terms of what we're doing.
So you know it's a process forus too.
We really don't have otherstates to look at to get
(07:18):
feedback hey, how are you doingthis?
You know our state is differentalso in that it's not a big
state.
You know it's not like we'reTexas and there's a.
You know a six to eight hourdrive to get through.
You know you can get from pointA to point B.
You know Stonington toGreenwich in about a two hour
time frame.
So it does allow us someflexibility and, you know,
(07:41):
ability to meet the needs of allof our alliance member schools.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And I like to say this from the promotion part
yeah, we're the first ones inthe country to do something and
promote it as such, which isunique and exciting for us, but
it's also, too, is we're as Jimsaid, we're a resource, and the
schools from you know teams fromother states who are reaching
(08:07):
out to us because they're takingnotice of it, so it's getting a
lot of attention we're, we'regetting good feedback, we work
together and so when schoolsfrom other states are want to be
part of it, because I think inthe past, football scheduling
was this thing that you knowpeople did behind you know,
maybe closed doors and like youknow you had friends and you
know you, behind you know, maybeclosed doors and like you know
you had friends and you know you, you try to align with them.
Now it's more more open.
(08:28):
I like to say transparent, inthe sense of, hey, we have these
options for you and the moreoptions that we can provide you
know our, you know memberschools of the alliance, the
better it's going to be, becausewe're always and we can adjust
if we have last minuteminutechanges or obstacles.
We had lost a team in thespringtime and we were able to
(08:49):
quickly get those nine schools afootball game, a good football
game, comparable football,because we had access to all the
schools and the schedules.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, I mean you'd rather have it be a transparent
process.
That's a good sign that otherstates are reaching on wanting
to model an alliance after thework that you're doing.
So how are these matchupspicked?
Is there a specific formula, ordo rankings or any specific
criteria go behind making thesematchups?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
It's a little bit of both.
This year, for the first time,for week one we scheduled purely
objectively off of the previousyear's final CIAC state playoff
rankings.
We had never done that before.
That was at the request of oneof our conference affiliates
(09:36):
that came into the alliance thispast year and we felt that it
was extremely transparentbecause at the conclusion of
Thanksgiving Day games everybodyknew who they were going to
play for the most part leadinginto the 2025 season.
There was a couple ofadjustments we had to make to
that, you know, in terms of likepulling Killingly out of the
(09:58):
mix because we knew we wanted togive them, you know, one of our
independents coming from thestate of Rhode Island.
And then just some adjustmentsdue to one conference in our
state that's not a member.
They fill the majority of theclass S and double S rankings.
That's the Pequot League.
So them not being a member ofthe alliance caused a little bit
(10:23):
of issues because it gave us anunbalance of number of teams.
So after we made thoseadjustments and ranked,
everybody had their matchup set.
And you saw some outstandingmatchups this past week,
highlighted, I believe, by thatkillingly Bishop Hendrickson
game, which certainly, I think,with over 3,000 people in
(10:44):
attendance and the type of backand forth game it was speaks
volumes about.
Those are the types of gameswe're trying to create, you know
, on a weekly basis and on aconsistent basis.
So that was the first time wedid an objective schedule
straight off of your ranking,subjective schedule straight off
of your ranking.
As we move throughout the restof the season now it becomes a
(11:11):
little bit more subjective and alittle bit more dialogue
between the representatives fromeach league sitting at the
table right here at the CIACoffices.
When we schedule, we talk aboutprogram strength, we talk about
returning players, we talkabout returning players, we talk
about past success and you know, do those matchups make sense?
Do they fit within the leaguestructure of scheduling, you
(11:32):
know, for those teams?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So there's a lot of back and forth and it's not just
one meeting, it's multiplemeetings and just an added
comment you know when thisalliance was formed and Dave
Johnson, who was thecommissioner of the Southwest
Conference and the former AD atBunnell, was really one of the.
You know the founders, foundersand he says we want to create
excitement and interest intohigh school football and high
school football gets a lot ofattention.
(11:53):
We saw this in week one.
Jimmy talked about the killingLee Bishop-Henrick game.
You had Daniel Hand and StJoe's two that played in the
semifinals last year go to alast-second game, last-second
play for a game.
You had Ansonia play Bloomfieldthat played in the class-ass
finals, first game for theAnsonia coach who replaced Tom
(12:14):
Brockett who was there for acouple decades.
So you're adding excitement.
But it's also about the othergames.
So everyone focuses on the goodmatchups of the good teams.
I look at all the teams.
I look at Wilbercross,bridgeport Central, who probably
have been struggling asprograms, and they look to week
(12:35):
one and says this is acompetitive football game and it
was 21-8.
And Bridgeport Central won forthe first time in about six
years.
You had Wilby from theNaugatuck Valley League who won
for the first time in about sixyears.
You had Wilby from theNaugatuck Valley League who won
for the first time since 2022.
These matchups, especially theobjective ones in week one,
creates so much reallyenthusiasm and interest into
that week one.
(12:55):
But also a realistic one becauseyou know, as Jim said,
sometimes as leagues we forcefeed matchups because you're in
a league and you have to do that.
We've taken that variable outof it because of the alliance
and so in those off weeks, if wecan schedule these good games
and look at and say this is areally good matchup, that
creates interest.
And you know, and I know thatfor a fact of like, when people
(13:18):
you want to have home gamesearly in september to get you
know fans to come and studentsto come, you want to.
You know the weather's warm andall the stuff and it builds up
throughout the season.
So if you can generate thatmuch interest in week one, as we
did with the objective kind ofversion of of that schedule
piece, and then add those gamesthroughout the season, it just
adds a lot more interest intothe sport and there's a lot of
(13:40):
stuff going on.
But it's really been a a reallybenefit for everybody who's
been involved.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, the feedback's been extremely positive from
this first week.
Granted, there'll be a few youknow naysayers out there and you
know I've received an email ortwo.
Not everybody can win.
We scheduled 61 games.
You know there's going to be 61teams that are not on the
winning side, but you know whenyou can talk about some of those
programs that have not been assuccessful over the course of
(14:08):
the past four to five years.
And we had a team down our endof the state that won a game 13
to 10 in overtime To start theseason off, to start your school
year off that way.
That's exciting, that's helping.
I feel like our alliance, ourorganization, is helping
programs that need to rebuild,get a chance to breathe get a
(14:32):
chance to get themselves onsolid footing and hopefully
create some success for the year.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, these matchups definitely do give teams a new
sense of competition that theynormally wouldn't have
encountered in prior seasons.
So do coaches or athleticdirectors have any say in the
matchups?
Because I know you had justmentioned that you all sit
around a table, you know all theleague commissioners and come
together for the matchups, butdo coaches or ADs have any input
?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
ADs absolutely have 100% input because at our table
there's an AD from everyconference representing, you
know, their particular school orschools, so they get an
opportunity to dialogue.
They get an opportunity to talkabout that particular team or
teams that are in discussion forgames.
(15:17):
They really need to comeprepared to tell us about, you
know, roster sizes, returningplayers, is there going to be a
coaching change?
Those are all things that gointo consideration when
scheduling games.
For the most part, the ADs arethe expert from their league
representing their schools, fromcoaches.
(15:38):
Al and I will certainly talk tocoaches throughout the year.
We'll get feedback.
I speak to the coaches in myleague and I know he speaks to
the coaches in his league, butalso we try to reach out to
coaches in other leagues to getsome feedback.
Talk about teams, talk aboutplayers and talk about things
that they want to see from theAlliance and how we go about our
(15:58):
scheduling.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
So we try to make it as transparent as possible and I
think that's, and just to addtwo quick points to that about
coaches and ADs is that you knowand the league commissioners
I'm not associated with oneschool, I represent a league,
but we have to have representingour league walk into the room
with information about all ofour schools.
So you have to talk about.
(16:21):
You know here's where ourleague ranks and these teams and
who's coming back in in talkabout you know here's where our
league ranks and these teams andwho's coming back in that
aforementioned stuff that youknow.
Jimmy talked about theinformation.
The second part of this is wealso have an obligation to make
sure that you know we're doingthe best for our leagues but
we're doing the best for thesport Because, as Jimmy said,
there's a lot of variables thathave gone into the sport of
(16:41):
football and you know and we'lltalk about'll talk about the
naysayers and the challenges oftravel, sub-varsity, all that
stuff.
So we're just not schedulinggames, we're also getting
together as a group and sayingwhat can we do?
(17:02):
What's best next for it?
And I would say is based on thefeedback that I've gotten from,
like, coaches and athleticdirectors from all of the
leagues.
We were able to proposesomething to the CIC football
committee about playoff points.
So when you play an Alliancegame, that's a you get all the
points as a league game.
But we also get.
The point is, if you lose thatgame and Jimmy talked about, you
know, week one you lose thatgame and that team that you play
(17:23):
goes on and gets eight or ninewins, you get five points, bonus
points plus up to.
So we propose that as thealliance, a group of leagues, to
say is we want you to playthese games and here's the
process, but also this is what'smaking positive.
So you play those competitivegames and you're going to be
rewarded for that, for playingthose you know tougher games or
(17:44):
those comparable games that youshould be playing, as opposed to
maybe playing a game that'sjust not in the best interest of
everybody involved.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, for a very long time if you didn't win your
game it was zero points goingtowards your, you know, playoff
participation possibility.
So one of the things as westarted scheduling more
competitive games, you know someof the schools were like, well,
it's not to our advantage.
(18:12):
So the Alliance proposed to theCIAC Football Committee a
formula where you will berewarded for that strength of
schedule.
So, 61 teams that did not winin week one, if they played a
team that goes on and wins seven, eight, nine games, they're
still going to accumulate 40, 45, possibly 50 points towards
(18:37):
qualifying for the stateplayoffs.
So now, with the expandedplayoffs, six divisions, eight
teams qualifying, playing analliance game, playing a
competitive game, that is goingto prepare you, you know, for
the postseason, I think is moreenticing, you know, for those
types of schools that understand, you know what the big picture
(18:59):
is, you know where they want tobe in December versus, you know
where they are right now.
But also, to the point alreadymade, it's also not just about
those schools.
It's about those schools thatyou know need a little bit of
assistance, need a little bit ofhelp to get themselves back on
solid ground.
So we think we're benefiting,you know everybody, from one end
(19:21):
of the spectrum to the other.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, I'm glad you both touched on that new formula
because that can be anincentive for schools,
especially when it comes down tothe end of the season, when it
gets to playoffs, like those,few extra points can make a big
difference.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Make a big difference , but also prepare you in the
sense of you know you get to theplayoffs and you may be.
You know, we've had schools,you know, in all of our leagues
that have made the playoffs forthe first time.
That's exciting, like don't getme wrong, like everyone gets
exciting and they, you know theyget to it.
But then it says, hey, weplayed this team or we had, you
know, we had, we played thisteam from that league earlier in
the year and we saw them.
(19:53):
So there's always preparationthat goes into it.
But it's the reward of playing.
We played that quality opponentand we know that we can compete
and earn those playoff spots.
And we've seen that in not justfootball, we've seen it in a
lot of sports.
Now the CIAC is changing theway they rank teams to go to the
playoffs so that the mostqualified teams are earning that
spot.
(20:13):
And so I think in football sixdivisions, eight teams you're
seeing the teams qualify.
But you're also seeing theteams that have played a
rigorous, you know,non-conference and a conference
schedule get to the statechampionships and be successful.
And I like to say you know,here's the Alliance plug, but
you know the top 16 teams in thefinal state polls the last two
(20:36):
years were all Alliance teams.
You know they played alliancegames.
Some played multiple games andI love to use the example.
You know newtown, um, back five, six years ago.
You know plays in the swc.
They have, you know, teams thatare smaller than them and and
they would go to the playoffsand they would lose in the
quarterfinals.
And you know, and the swcleadership and dave's no,
(20:58):
they're going to play.
They need to play somecompetitive games.
They played three SEC teams,won them all in 2019, and then
end up winning a statechampionship over Darien and
probably one of the mostexciting finishes ever.
But that prepared them and youhear the feedback from coaches
saying these are good games andso we're going to continue to do
that.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, at the core of the Alliance, it's really comes
down to competition, exposurefor athletes and playoff
preparation.
Are those the main goals behindall of these matchups?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I think, yeah, you hit it.
Those are all things.
I think those are outcomes,those are outcomes Our goal my
goal and.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I can't speak for Al, but my goal is to make sure
that from weeks one through 10,we are providing sensible
football games for kids Likethese guys and I was a head
football coach for 17 years theamount of time that you prepare
for 10 football games, it'soutrageous.
When you compare it back to 48minutes 10 times a year, and
that's again I'm not talkingabout just the in-season
(22:02):
preparation um from a sundaythrough a thursday, but from
that january 1 throughmid-august.
So again, we owe it to thesekids um, to these student
athletes, to the coaches, togive them an opportunity to
compete fully 10 times for 48minutes.
I think more competitiveplayoffs and the right teams
(22:23):
getting into the playoffs, moreexposure those are all kind of
byproducts to what we do.
I think what we do, our mainfocus, is just making sure that
during those 10 weeks we do thebest we can to make sure that
each week matters.
And if that means, you know, outof my 14 football playing
schools in the ECC, seven ofthem are able to play eight or
(22:46):
nine ECC schools, but four orfive only get to play five and
they have to go out to get theother five games.
That's what I'm going to do ifit makes sense for their program
.
And I think that's kind of themindset we're all in right now,
including the SWC, the FCAC, theCCC, the NVL and even the CTC,
(23:10):
who I think sometimes does notget looked at as an athletic
conference because of theiracademic focus from a technical
standpoint.
They've jumped in and they'retaking on two games a year
because they want to promotefootball in their conference and
I think it's been great forthose schools and it's allowed
(23:33):
us to schedule some reallycompetitive games where those
technical high schools arelocated or dotted throughout the
state.
We've been able to give themsome games that make a
tremendous amount of sensegeographically and have created
a little bit of rivalry for sometechnical high schools where
typically they're separated froma pretty good distance.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, that would be very beneficial to them because
they're in diverse locations allthroughout the state.
They're not in one small area.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And I think that goes to the point and what Jimmy
said is completely right and hecan speak for me.
But I'll just say I just loveworking with all of the six
other leagues because thecommissioners, the football
chair people and each of thosethey're all dealing with the
same issues and challenges andso working together.
When it started with DaveJohnson, gary McIlwicky was with
(24:24):
the ECC and Jimmy getting toknow their leagues and their
challenges.
That allowed us to agree on alot of things and to make
proposals to the CIAC and forthe CIAC football committee to
ask.
You know Dave Johnson was onthe football committee so he
would give an alliance report.
I've been lucky to go on tomeetings with Jim, with the
football community, to give themupdates of what's going on, so
(24:46):
to be able to communicate toaudiences that maybe don't think
about all these things and worktogether as leagues.
I thoroughly enjoy going therebecause when I can go back to
the SEC and says well, you knowwe're talking to these other
conferences and it's alsobenefited other sports into
having arrangements with forother sports and scheduling
things.
So we've worked to really focuson that communication but
(25:09):
really the collegiality betweenthe leagues.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, it seems like a great level of collaboration
between everyone involved.
So week one gave us a fullslate of Alliance games.
I know we had mentioned some ofthose that stood out, but for
the rest of the calendarthroughout the season, which
ones do you guys have circledthat you think are going to be a
great level of competition?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I'm going to answer this question every week because
to have games in every weeklike Bassick and Bridgeport
Central in week two they play inthe same stadium.
They've multiple times they'vebeen close games.
They're rivals.
The kids are excited about this.
Bridgeport Central is 1-0 forthe first time and I don't know
they can go 2-0 for the first.
(25:45):
I don't even know how longBassick's been, you know getting
better their coach.
They have some really good youknow players.
So like I'm excited about that.
But I'm excited that we haveDaniel Han and Brookfield, you
know, and I think it's weekthree.
We have sunnington, st joseph's.
We have killingly playing masikin week five, um, but now in
new canaan.
But now in new canaan in week11 we have hill house playing
(26:06):
wilton because wilton doesn'thave a thanksgiving day opponent
, so they have to play in week11 and we've been able to get
them games in that.
You know week 11 thanksgivingday week.
So it's not, I just think, tohave games just gets it.
But like in week nine, as Jimsaid, fitch versus West Haven.
Like there's these matchupsthat you look at each week and
you say, wow, I didn't realizethat there was Alliance games,
(26:28):
because every league schedule isdifferent and they create these
open matchups.
So to do that allows us topromote it from an Alliance
perspective, but also to saythat you know whether it's the
media, the fans hey, I'm goingto go check out this football
game that I, you know I don'tget to see West Haven come down
to, you know Groton too much,and so I think that's where
(26:49):
Maloney Fairfield prep, you know, again, perennial playoff teams
, which will be week six, buteven, like Plainfield, which is
now the Valley Panthers goingdown to play Wilbercross in a
competitive game.
So not to say that we'reexcited about it, but I think
every matchup means something inAlliance and we like to promote
it in saying this is anAlliance matchup.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Another byproduct of what we do is the officiating
Officials from all of thevarious boards are now also
being exposed to teams fromother parts of the state, teams
that they're actually going toend up working their contests
when we get to the stateplayoffs.
So you know, we talked aboutbyproducts of you know, seating
(27:33):
and teams being prepared andselected for playoffs, but the
officials, I think, benefit fromthis as well.
Matter of fact, to the pointwhere officials are now working
in split crews, for example, I'mhosting a game tomorrow night
at my place in Ledger and I havea split crew not only from the
Eastern board, but I haveofficials coming from the
(27:55):
Colonial and Fairfield Countyboard and they're going to be
working together, which ispretty unique.
But they've kind of taken, Iguess, a cue from the alliance
in terms of the collaborationand working together and again
just trying to improve theircraft in what they do.
But I know the officials havecertainly been open to this.
(28:18):
The officials have certainlybeen open to this and they like
to see new teams come in.
I know our board loves it whenquality teams from the other end
of the state are coming downand playing some of our teams
and they get to work those games.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, that's a great perspective for officials as
well, because that's also a newlevel of competition that they
have to oversee.
So what would you say tocritics who raise concerns about
things like travel timeinvolved or breaking away from
traditional rivalries, or eventhe idea that sometimes the
competition may seem evenlymatched but when it comes to
game time it might not be?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, the travel time is certainly something we're
cognizant of and we've discussedat length and we've made
adjustments due to over our timetogether since we formed the
alliance in 2017.
And that piece led to theelimination of sub-varsity
scheduling.
So we do not schedulesub-varsity games from an
(29:10):
alliance standpoint.
We tell our membership, whichare those seven conferences and
those four independentssub-varsity scheduling is on
your own.
You need to rely upon yourconference.
Make sure that those games areas local as possible Because,
again, sub varsity is aboutdevelopment of the student
athlete.
If I have to schedule a gamemultiple times, for example, if
(29:33):
Ledger needs to play Fitch threetimes in sub varsity football,
we will.
You know, score doesn't matter.
It's about repetition for thosekids and getting them game
experience.
So we removed that sub-varsitypiece where travel could become
an issue.
Now, when we go back to varsity, I go back to my prior answer
(29:55):
about again and not to keepbeating a dead horse here but
they only get 10 shots.
The game is only 48 minuteslong.
The amount of time these kidsprepare it's it's.
It's a whole heck of a lot morethan they get to play.
So if I have to go on a bus for90 minutes in comparison to
(30:17):
maybe a 20 minute trip.
But that bus trip 90 minutes incomparison to maybe a 20-minute
trip but that bus trip 90minutes is going to provide me a
competitive game, a game that'smeaningful, a game that I know
is going to go a full 48 minutesand all my varsity kids are
going to be able to play theentire time, instead of maybe
traveling 20 minutes where thegame's over at halftime or we're
running the clock for the thirdand fourth quarter quarter.
(30:39):
I have to play my sub varsitykids.
I then have to cancel my subvarsity game the next morning.
I am going to sign up for that90 minute bus ride every day of
the week and I think everystudent, athlete and coach will
as well, because, again, we wantit to be meaningful.
You don't get many opportunities.
We've always said football isdifferent and it is because you
play once a week and you onlyget to get after it 10 times.
(31:02):
Other sports get to playmultiple times a week.
In some cases they get 16 to 20games a season.
We need to take all of thatinto consideration.
So for those that are like, wow, you know that's a long trip,
ask the kids if it was worth it.
I bet the most of them will sayit was.
My school went down to Milfordlast week in week one.
(31:26):
No one flinched about the ride.
No parent guardian flinched.
The student athletes andcoaches didn't flinch.
We had a great, competitivefootball game, certainly much
better than one I could haveprovided them within our league
at that point.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So here's like the soundbite Would you rather drive
90 minutes and play a fullfootball game or go five minutes
down the road and get buriedand have running time and not
have a sub-varsity experiencebecause you can't because of the
rules of which quarters andthings like that.
But I would say something aboutlike tradition.
So, jimmy, I think the pointsare great, but tradition is you
(32:05):
have nine other games on yourschedule, right, leagues are now
organized and you, yeah, we,there's those.
There are rivalries, I get itand I've also found, as 22 years
as a commissioner, is we have29 different sports.
You know, I may be a rival inthis sport or not a rival in
this sport, or we play in thissport and it's, you know, it's,
it's things.
(32:25):
So high school sportseducational based athletics has
evolved over this, you know,couple decades, and so we got to
make it worth it for these kidsto get those experiences.
And so you know, tradition isgreat and tradition is going to
be there.
That's a factor.
But we also need to, you know,make sure that.
You know we're providing thatopportunity, because the sub
(32:46):
varsity piece is a bit, is agood one, because leagues are
now challenged.
I know I go to every meeting.
It's like, well, I don't have asub varsity, we have a
Frostmore team, all this stuff,so it's always changing.
So if you can know, you varsity, we have a froshmore team, all
this stuff, so it's alwayschanging.
So if you can know, you canjust go, you know, five minutes
down the road or 10 minutes downand have a sub varsity game.
You're providing those kids adevelopment tool to get better
(33:07):
so that they can go to thevarsity and play in those games.
So it all.
You know it's a great soundbiteand it's a great excuse and the
critics will be critics, but welook at the bigger picture and
and say this is what high schoolfootball should be about.
We've made good changes andwe're collaborating doing so.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, and outside of it, every league needs to
protect what's important to them.
That's the league'sresponsibility From an alliance
standpoint.
Outside of the two independentsfrom our state who we're
providing full schedules for,the rest of our conference
members, you know we'rescheduling anywhere from one to
(33:44):
four games, so we are in no wayinfringing upon what's important
to them, what their traditionalyou know rivalry games are
within their conference.
That's their responsibility tomake sure that they continue to
do that.
You know it's my responsibilityto make sure.
You know Fitch and Ledger arestill playing.
New London and NFA are stillplaying.
You know NFA and Fitch arestill playing.
(34:07):
Like, those are myresponsibilities as the league
scheduler and I would say thatfor every league throughout the
state.
So I don't think we've takenaway from any traditional
rivalries and of course,contrary to what Many folks
believe, we are also proponentsof Thanksgiving Day and those
rivalries that have continuedfor years and years.
But what the Alliance has doneis we've actually maybe created
(34:32):
a few resurgences of games thathave been off the radar.
For example, this past yearEast Haven played North Haven,
two neighboring schools that Idon't think have played in years
Over a decade and so thealliance was able to create that
matchup, which I think wasgreat for both communities and
(34:53):
probably very exciting for thestudent-athletes.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
And just a point about like week one with the
objective matchups.
There were nine instances whereteams from one league played
each other because it'sobjective.
So east haven, north haven,lined up because of their and
they got to play.
You know, I know jonathan lawplayed lyman hall, cheshire
played xavier in the sec, in theccc there were a couple.
East line played woodstockacademy, so like that was a
(35:17):
positive because that may helpopen up another competitive game
because you're playing thatgame.
So it all has it's has, it's abig picture type of focus.
And you know, again, if we'repromoting high school football
and giving teams you know achance to be competitive and
play those you know 10 games andthen maybe have a chance at the
playoffs.
I always look at it from aleague perspective.
(35:39):
The SEC is, if our SEC teams wehave 21 teams, two-thirds of
our teams going into week eight,week nine, are in the playoff
conversation, that has benefits.
I know it's not all about theplayoffs, it's about getting
better.
But we always hear one criticismis oh well, if we lose our
(36:01):
first three games, kids aregoing to quit.
Well, kids are going to quitregardless of all the stuff.
It's the coach's responsibility, the administrator's
responsibility to build thatculture.
As Jim said, the preparationthat goes in, those are going to
happen, but it's not going tobe because they got beat five
straight times because they wereforced into a bad schedule.
So I think the point is thebalance is that the Alliance has
(36:24):
created some enthusiasm forkids to get better and they want
to go play football and have anuptick and get that opportunity
to be competing for a playoffspot.
So as week nine, 10, 11 come,we're still in the mix here.
That gives you a little bit ofhoop.
That's what playing sports isabout.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, those are all very strong points, especially
regarding that traditionalrivalries are still on the table
, teams can still be a part ofthat, and sometimes you might
have to travel for a little bitmore competition.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I will say this as the person in this state who
gets characterized as theThanksgiving Day hater.
You can use this for theouttakes, but it's actually
helped our league refineThanksgiving Day matchups
because we had teams that didn'thave Thanksgiving Day matchups,
(37:11):
as I kind of mentioned before.
It's actually helped our leagueschedule because now we've been
able to manipulate notmanipulate but change some of
the matchups between teams thatshould be playing for the
betterment of our league andthat everyone, because that
always created some challengesto go find games.
And so I would say that youknow that is now a part of the
(37:31):
schedule week 12, thanksgivingDay week and it's allowed our
league to be able to get to aleague schedule and still be
able to, you know, compete inthe Alliance.
So that's just a public servicenonsense.
To all the SEC folks that getmad at me when I talk about that
, you know, aforementionedholiday.
I'm glad we cleared that up forthem.
Dartboard ready, right, that'swhy you're in the middle.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
All right.
So, as we wrap up, how do yousee the alliance expanding
throughout the seasons?
What are the goals as the yearsgo on?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, our goals are to increase membership, you know
, a continue to keep the currentmembership, but with that
increased membership, you know,I think we'd love to get every
conference in the state ofConnecticut participating.
We still have one out there andwe'd love to get the Pequot
League in.
We think they'd bring a ton ofvalue, you know, to what we do.
(38:23):
We are, as I stated earlier inthe show, looking to expand
outside our state borders.
The feedback I'm getting fromthe state of Rhode Island has
been overwhelming.
So I certainly feel like fromthat end of the state it's going
to come, but we're reaching outto the other end, into New York
and Pennsylvania and LongIsland, to see if we can bring
(38:44):
in some schools from that endthat are looking to pick up a
game or two throughout theseason.
Regarding how we schedulematchups, I think the objective
model that was used in week onewas very successful.
I do think we need to tweak ita little bit Again.
Al and I would bring that backto our full leadership team, but
I would love to see us kind ofcreate a larger pool of teams
(39:09):
available to rank and schedule.
We did it this past year withall six divisions and, as I
alluded to, the S and double Swas kind of gave us a little bit
lower number of schools justbecause of not having the Pequot
League in.
So, a if we can bring them inor if we start combining the
(39:34):
divisions together, we don'tusually get the new divisions
until May or June in some cases,so we always work off the year
prior.
So that provides a little bitof dilemma and sometimes people
out there will wonder well, whyis this team playing?
Why is team A playing team Bwhen they're in M and they're in
(39:58):
L?
Well, they are this year, butlast year they were in double M
together, and so that's howwe're operating.
Just because the divisionsaren't aren't being released, um
, until typically May or Juneafterwards, so our schedules are
done at that point, um, so whatwe're talking about this year
and looking at doing is maybecombining the divisions, uh,
(40:20):
bringing S and double S together, m and double M together and L
and double L together, m anddouble M together and L and
double L together, or possiblyleaving them separate, just to
kind of create a larger pool ofteams to rank.
We also want to continue to lookat the technical schools, the
cooperative schools also, andsee where they fit.
A lot of times they're placedin double M or, in some cases,
(40:43):
cases L, because of thecollaboration of schools, but it
might not be appropriate, youknow, to find them a game in
that particular classification.
So another thing we're going totalk about is maybe moving them
into the S double S category toprovide a more appropriate game
.
So we're going to continue towork, we're going to continue to
evolve, make adjustments,no-transcript, adjust what we do
(41:31):
, and I think those are twothings we're looking at right
now.
In doing that, we think willhelp.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
That's good that you see that for next season yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And I would just say this, jimmy's, you know we love
promoting the sport of highschool football.
There's a lot of people thatare interested in it, there's a
lot of stakeholders.
We just love, you know, usingthat Alliance umbrella to work
together to come up with thesetweaks and improvements and
having the conversations.
I think it's one and we justlove promoting it.
You know, all hail right and sowe have fun doing it.
(42:02):
You, you know.
But the fact that we have this,I would say, collegiality to
work on and discuss these issues, it's not being done in some
little closet, you know it's.
It's being done around thetable, looking each other in the
eye and saying what you'redoing.
And so I think we've we've comeso far in eight years and we're
(42:23):
just going to keep gettingbetter and it helps the sport of
football and we are dialed intoall of those stakeholders who
have provided us input along theway, and I think we're open to
it.
And I think that's one thingthat's always I would say is
admirable is that we're notperfect.
We acknowledge that, but wekeep getting better, to discuss
(42:45):
about the ways that we can getbetter.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, year by year, you'll continue to evolve and
see what works and what doesn'twork.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah, so I'm excited to see the rest of the Alliance
smash-ups throughout the season,and thank you to both Al and
Jim for joining me on the CICGlory Days podcast.
I think it was a greatconversation for viewers to hear
more about the work that goesbehind the Alliance.
So thank you both.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Yeah, we appreciate the opportunity.
I think, you know, it's a greatopportunity for us to be able
to come talk about what we do,why we do it, how we do it,
because I believe for the casualfan out there who takes a
vested interest in Connecticuthigh school football, they don't
really see everything that goes, you know, at high school
(43:26):
football they don't really seeeverything that goes on behind
closed doors and there's a lotto it.
And again, our goal is probablyno different than theirs and
that's to see and providecompetitive opportunities for
our student athletes across thestate.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
All hail.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
All hail.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Okay, thank you.
Welcome to the CIC Glory Days podcast.
I'm your host, jada Maribel,and today I'm joined by Al
Carbone, the SEC Commissioner,and Jim Bunicor, the Assistant
Principal and Athletic Directorat Ledger High School, and
they're both a part of theleadership team of the
Connecticut High School FootballAlliance.
Thank you both for joining metoday.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thanks for having us.
Jada, very excited, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So to start off, for those who are watching, who may
not know what exactly is theConnecticut High School Football
Alliance, for those who are,watching who may not know what
exactly is the Connecticut HighSchool Football Alliance.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
The Alliance is a football league in the state of
Connecticut made up of sevenconferences as well as four
independents.
Two of those independents arefrom the state of Connecticut
and two independents are fromthe state of Rhode Island.
The goal of our alliance is toassist those conferences in
(00:48):
scheduling high school footballgames.
To date, we've scheduled over600 plus games since our
inception and just already in2025, in week one, we scheduled
61 high school football games.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Wow.
So when was the allianceofficially formed and what was
that motivation behind creatingit, besides having all the
leagues work together?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So back in 2016, the Southwest Conference, the
Southern Connecticut Conferenceand the Eastern Connecticut
Conference our commissionerskind of got together and said
wouldn't it be great to havesome kind of a scheduling
alliance?
Because high school footballscheduling is hard right and so
there's always challenges.
You have odd numbers of teams,you have bad matchups in your
league.
So we got together and we endedup scheduling about 32 games in
(01:35):
that first year in 2017.
And it's just built from eachyear going forward and getting
more leagues involved and, asJim just talked about the
schedule, over 100 games now inthe 2025 season.
So high school football gets alot of attention, so scheduling
is one of the things thateveryone focused to.
You only play 10 games, and sothe alliance was really formed
(01:58):
to address all those challengesthat we have as leagues.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, because with those 10 matchups, you have to
be very conscious of what you'rescheduling to make sure your
team is benefiting fromeverything.
So who else is a part of thealliance?
Because I know you both are apart of the leadership team, but
how does it work?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So the seven conferences that are part of the
alliance, besides the SEC andthe ECC, we include the FCEAC,
the Southwest Conference, theNVL Naugatuck Valley League, the
CTC, the Connecticut TechnicalLeague, and the four
(02:34):
independents, which includeNANAWAG.
It's a cooperative program, anew program this year in our
state, amistad, which is afirst-year varsity football
program, and the two schoolsfrom Rhode Island are Bishop
Hendrickson, which is aperennial powerhouse in the
state of Rhode Island, andWesterly High.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
School.
He did forget the CentralConnecticut Conference, the CCC.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yes, and the Southwest Conference, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So the largest league in the state.
That being said, there areteams that are independent and
not part of leagues.
They've gotten rejected from aleague or they were a co-op, a
newly formed co-op or such, andso Nonawag and Amistad had
reached out to us and said canyou help us with scheduling?
So, like in reality is, thealliance is like a scheduler
(03:21):
broker, so we are able to givethem a full schedule, which, as
you said before, 10 games.
I think that each of them gotnine or 10 for the year.
So every week you're seeingthese teams get schedules
playing the teams from thoseaforementioned leagues.
So, really, what we've reallyevolved into is really in a
scheduling alliance, but onethat's also promoting high
(03:43):
school football and gettingthese competitive matchups I see
.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, when this all began, you know, initially it
was, you know, designated weekswhere we were setting aside for
alliance games.
It has now morphed into we havean alliance game scheduled at a
minimum one game all the waythrough week 11, because we've
maxed out non-awog schedule forthem at their request, amistad
(04:07):
schedule for them at theirrequest.
But then also, as you lookthrough the season, because of
leagues and the inequity inthose leagues, you know, we have
alliance games kind of dottedin throughout the year.
For example, in week nine we'llhave a Fitch-West Haven matchup
, you know, an SEC-ECC matchup.
In week five or six we have aKillingly-Massic matchup, you
(04:31):
know an.
SWC-ECC matchup Because, again,you know, as the main scheduler
in the Eastern ConnecticutConference, you know there are
times where I have issues comingup with games that are sensible
for student-athletes, sensiblefor student athletes, sensible
for those school communities,and the Alliance has helped
solve some of those issues.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And just talking from the SEC's perspective is you
know, we used to do back about10, 15 years ago we did actually
a scheduling partnership withthe FCA where we had like a
challenge and then the SWC andthe NBL did a challenge.
A couple of years later thatkind of morphed into the
Alliance of making sure that youhave these other leagues who
have openings in their schedulesto look in and, as Jim said,
(05:14):
make it in the benefit of thestudent athletes to play a
competitive football game asopposed to just force feeding a
bad matchup in your league.
And let's be honest, ourleagues are diverse and we have
challenges, odd numbers of teams, openings, all this stuff, and
so why so?
Why, you know, force feed amatchup just because it's a
league matchup, when you can goto another league and say, hey,
I, this is a you know the typeof team I have.
Do you have a comparable teamthat would like to play in this?
(05:36):
You know we call it off week,off alliance week, but in any of
the weeks.
So you're following thatschedule to get them 10 games,
because no team wants to playless than 10 games.
That's what you're.
You know they put the effort inAround the year, 365 days to
prepare.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You should get those 10 games.
So essentially, the Alliance isa resource for schools to
orchestrate different matchupsthroughout their season.
That's really what it comesdown to.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, I think that's a good explanation of it and a
description of it.
And you know, but I thinkthat's a good explanation of it
and a description of it.
But then, as Jim said, there'salso those designated weeks,
like week one, where weobjectively matched up teams
based on playoff power pointsand that where you have those
matchups designated home or away.
But that leads to the furtherconversations with the leagues
(06:22):
to work together to say, hey, doyou have an opening here?
I need another game for thisteam.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So are there any other states that have an
alliance program like this, oris this more of a pilot program
in Connecticut?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I think other states at this point do start off their
seasons with non-conference, orin some states they're called
non-district games, and usuallythat can range from week one to
week four before they get intowhat they call, you know,
divisional play.
So states vary, you know.
(06:54):
In regards to, you know,scheduling, in regards to, like
an alliance, where it's nowinterstate, I don't think
there's much like us.
You know, when you look aroundthe country it's pretty unique
in terms of what we're doing.
So you know it's a process forus too.
We really don't have otherstates to look at to get
(07:18):
feedback hey, how are you doingthis?
You know our state is differentalso in that it's not a big
state.
You know it's not like we'reTexas and there's a.
You know a six to eight hourdrive to get through.
You know you can get from pointA to point B.
You know Stonington toGreenwich in about a two hour
time frame.
So it does allow us someflexibility and, you know,
(07:41):
ability to meet the needs of allof our alliance member schools.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And I like to say this from the promotion part
yeah, we're the first ones inthe country to do something and
promote it as such, which isunique and exciting for us, but
it's also, too, is we're as Jimsaid, we're a resource, and the
schools from you know teams fromother states who are reaching
(08:07):
out to us because they're takingnotice of it, so it's getting a
lot of attention we're, we'regetting good feedback, we work
together and so when schoolsfrom other states are want to be
part of it, because I think inthe past, football scheduling
was this thing that you knowpeople did behind you know,
maybe closed doors and like youknow you had friends and you
know you, behind you know, maybeclosed doors and like you know
you had friends and you know you, you try to align with them.
Now it's more more open.
(08:28):
I like to say transparent, inthe sense of, hey, we have these
options for you and the moreoptions that we can provide you
know our, you know memberschools of the alliance, the
better it's going to be, becausewe're always and we can adjust
if we have last minuteminutechanges or obstacles.
We had lost a team in thespringtime and we were able to
(08:49):
quickly get those nine schools afootball game, a good football
game, comparable football,because we had access to all the
schools and the schedules.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, I mean you'd rather have it be a transparent
process.
That's a good sign that otherstates are reaching on wanting
to model an alliance after thework that you're doing.
So how are these matchupspicked?
Is there a specific formula, ordo rankings or any specific
criteria go behind making thesematchups?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
It's a little bit of both.
This year, for the first time,for week one we scheduled purely
objectively off of the previousyear's final CIAC state playoff
rankings.
We had never done that before.
That was at the request of oneof our conference affiliates
(09:36):
that came into the alliance thispast year and we felt that it
was extremely transparentbecause at the conclusion of
Thanksgiving Day games everybodyknew who they were going to
play for the most part leadinginto the 2025 season.
There was a couple ofadjustments we had to make to
that, you know, in terms of likepulling Killingly out of the
(09:58):
mix because we knew we wanted togive them, you know, one of our
independents coming from thestate of Rhode Island.
And then just some adjustmentsdue to one conference in our
state that's not a member.
They fill the majority of theclass S and double S rankings.
That's the Pequot League.
So them not being a member ofthe alliance caused a little bit
(10:23):
of issues because it gave us anunbalance of number of teams.
So after we made thoseadjustments and ranked,
everybody had their matchup set.
And you saw some outstandingmatchups this past week,
highlighted, I believe, by thatkillingly Bishop Hendrickson
game, which certainly, I think,with over 3,000 people in
(10:44):
attendance and the type of backand forth game it was speaks
volumes about.
Those are the types of gameswe're trying to create, you know
, on a weekly basis and on aconsistent basis.
So that was the first time wedid an objective schedule
straight off of your ranking,subjective schedule straight off
of your ranking.
As we move throughout the restof the season now it becomes a
(11:11):
little bit more subjective and alittle bit more dialogue
between the representatives fromeach league sitting at the
table right here at the CIACoffices.
When we schedule, we talk aboutprogram strength, we talk about
returning players, we talkabout returning players, we talk
about past success and you know, do those matchups make sense?
Do they fit within the leaguestructure of scheduling, you
(11:32):
know, for those teams?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So there's a lot of back and forth and it's not just
one meeting, it's multiplemeetings and just an added
comment you know when thisalliance was formed and Dave
Johnson, who was thecommissioner of the Southwest
Conference and the former AD atBunnell, was really one of the.
You know the founders, foundersand he says we want to create
excitement and interest intohigh school football and high
school football gets a lot ofattention.
(11:53):
We saw this in week one.
Jimmy talked about the killingLee Bishop-Henrick game.
You had Daniel Hand and StJoe's two that played in the
semifinals last year go to alast-second game, last-second
play for a game.
You had Ansonia play Bloomfieldthat played in the class-ass
finals, first game for theAnsonia coach who replaced Tom
(12:14):
Brockett who was there for acouple decades.
So you're adding excitement.
But it's also about the othergames.
So everyone focuses on the goodmatchups of the good teams.
I look at all the teams.
I look at Wilbercross,bridgeport Central, who probably
have been struggling asprograms, and they look to week
(12:35):
one and says this is acompetitive football game and it
was 21-8.
And Bridgeport Central won forthe first time in about six
years.
You had Wilby from theNaugatuck Valley League who won
for the first time in about sixyears.
You had Wilby from theNaugatuck Valley League who won
for the first time since 2022.
These matchups, especially theobjective ones in week one,
creates so much reallyenthusiasm and interest into
that week one.
(12:55):
But also a realistic one becauseyou know, as Jim said,
sometimes as leagues we forcefeed matchups because you're in
a league and you have to do that.
We've taken that variable outof it because of the alliance
and so in those off weeks, if wecan schedule these good games
and look at and say this is areally good matchup, that
creates interest.
And you know, and I know thatfor a fact of like, when people
(13:18):
you want to have home gamesearly in september to get you
know fans to come and studentsto come, you want to.
You know the weather's warm andall the stuff and it builds up
throughout the season.
So if you can generate thatmuch interest in week one, as we
did with the objective kind ofversion of of that schedule
piece, and then add those gamesthroughout the season, it just
adds a lot more interest intothe sport and there's a lot of
(13:40):
stuff going on.
But it's really been a a reallybenefit for everybody who's
been involved.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, the feedback's been extremely positive from
this first week.
Granted, there'll be a few youknow naysayers out there and you
know I've received an email ortwo.
Not everybody can win.
We scheduled 61 games.
You know there's going to be 61teams that are not on the
winning side, but you know whenyou can talk about some of those
programs that have not been assuccessful over the course of
(14:08):
the past four to five years.
And we had a team down our endof the state that won a game 13
to 10 in overtime To start theseason off, to start your school
year off that way.
That's exciting, that's helping.
I feel like our alliance, ourorganization, is helping
programs that need to rebuild,get a chance to breathe get a
(14:32):
chance to get themselves onsolid footing and hopefully
create some success for the year.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, these matchups definitely do give teams a new
sense of competition that theynormally wouldn't have
encountered in prior seasons.
So do coaches or athleticdirectors have any say in the
matchups?
Because I know you had justmentioned that you all sit
around a table, you know all theleague commissioners and come
together for the matchups, butdo coaches or ADs have any input
?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
ADs absolutely have 100% input because at our table
there's an AD from everyconference representing, you
know, their particular school orschools, so they get an
opportunity to dialogue.
They get an opportunity to talkabout that particular team or
teams that are in discussion forgames.
(15:17):
They really need to comeprepared to tell us about, you
know, roster sizes, returningplayers, is there going to be a
coaching change?
Those are all things that gointo consideration when
scheduling games.
For the most part, the ADs arethe expert from their league
representing their schools, fromcoaches.
(15:38):
Al and I will certainly talk tocoaches throughout the year.
We'll get feedback.
I speak to the coaches in myleague and I know he speaks to
the coaches in his league, butalso we try to reach out to
coaches in other leagues to getsome feedback.
Talk about teams, talk aboutplayers and talk about things
that they want to see from theAlliance and how we go about our
(15:58):
scheduling.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
So we try to make it as transparent as possible and I
think that's, and just to addtwo quick points to that about
coaches and ADs is that you knowand the league commissioners
I'm not associated with oneschool, I represent a league,
but we have to have representingour league walk into the room
with information about all ofour schools.
So you have to talk about.
(16:21):
You know here's where ourleague ranks and these teams and
who's coming back in in talkabout you know here's where our
league ranks and these teams andwho's coming back in that
aforementioned stuff that youknow.
Jimmy talked about theinformation.
The second part of this is wealso have an obligation to make
sure that you know we're doingthe best for our leagues but
we're doing the best for thesport Because, as Jimmy said,
there's a lot of variables thathave gone into the sport of
(16:41):
football and you know and we'lltalk about'll talk about the
naysayers and the challenges oftravel, sub-varsity, all that
stuff.
So we're just not schedulinggames, we're also getting
together as a group and sayingwhat can we do?
(17:02):
What's best next for it?
And I would say is based on thefeedback that I've gotten from,
like, coaches and athleticdirectors from all of the
leagues.
We were able to proposesomething to the CIC football
committee about playoff points.
So when you play an Alliancegame, that's a you get all the
points as a league game.
But we also get.
The point is, if you lose thatgame and Jimmy talked about, you
know, week one you lose thatgame and that team that you play
(17:23):
goes on and gets eight or ninewins, you get five points, bonus
points plus up to.
So we propose that as thealliance, a group of leagues, to
say is we want you to playthese games and here's the
process, but also this is what'smaking positive.
So you play those competitivegames and you're going to be
rewarded for that, for playingthose you know tougher games or
(17:44):
those comparable games that youshould be playing, as opposed to
maybe playing a game that'sjust not in the best interest of
everybody involved.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, for a very long time if you didn't win your
game it was zero points goingtowards your, you know, playoff
participation possibility.
So one of the things as westarted scheduling more
competitive games, you know someof the schools were like, well,
it's not to our advantage.
(18:12):
So the Alliance proposed to theCIAC Football Committee a
formula where you will berewarded for that strength of
schedule.
So, 61 teams that did not winin week one, if they played a
team that goes on and wins seven, eight, nine games, they're
still going to accumulate 40, 45, possibly 50 points towards
(18:37):
qualifying for the stateplayoffs.
So now, with the expandedplayoffs, six divisions, eight
teams qualifying, playing analliance game, playing a
competitive game, that is goingto prepare you, you know, for
the postseason, I think is moreenticing, you know, for those
types of schools that understand, you know what the big picture
(18:59):
is, you know where they want tobe in December versus, you know
where they are right now.
But also, to the point alreadymade, it's also not just about
those schools.
It's about those schools thatyou know need a little bit of
assistance, need a little bit ofhelp to get themselves back on
solid ground.
So we think we're benefiting,you know everybody, from one end
(19:21):
of the spectrum to the other.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, I'm glad you both touched on that new formula
because that can be anincentive for schools,
especially when it comes down tothe end of the season, when it
gets to playoffs, like those,few extra points can make a big
difference.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Make a big difference , but also prepare you in the
sense of you know you get to theplayoffs and you may be.
You know, we've had schools,you know, in all of our leagues
that have made the playoffs forthe first time.
That's exciting, like don't getme wrong, like everyone gets
exciting and they, you know theyget to it.
But then it says, hey, weplayed this team or we had, you
know, we had, we played thisteam from that league earlier in
the year and we saw them.
(19:53):
So there's always preparationthat goes into it.
But it's the reward of playing.
We played that quality opponentand we know that we can compete
and earn those playoff spots.
And we've seen that in not justfootball, we've seen it in a
lot of sports.
Now the CIAC is changing theway they rank teams to go to the
playoffs so that the mostqualified teams are earning that
spot.
(20:13):
And so I think in football sixdivisions, eight teams you're
seeing the teams qualify.
But you're also seeing theteams that have played a
rigorous, you know,non-conference and a conference
schedule get to the statechampionships and be successful.
And I like to say you know,here's the Alliance plug, but
you know the top 16 teams in thefinal state polls the last two
(20:36):
years were all Alliance teams.
You know they played alliancegames.
Some played multiple games andI love to use the example.
You know newtown, um, back five, six years ago.
You know plays in the swc.
They have, you know, teams thatare smaller than them and and
they would go to the playoffsand they would lose in the
quarterfinals.
And you know, and the swcleadership and dave's no,
(20:58):
they're going to play.
They need to play somecompetitive games.
They played three SEC teams,won them all in 2019, and then
end up winning a statechampionship over Darien and
probably one of the mostexciting finishes ever.
But that prepared them and youhear the feedback from coaches
saying these are good games andso we're going to continue to do
that.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, at the core of the Alliance, it's really comes
down to competition, exposurefor athletes and playoff
preparation.
Are those the main goals behindall of these matchups?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I think, yeah, you hit it.
Those are all things.
I think those are outcomes,those are outcomes Our goal my
goal and.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I can't speak for Al, but my goal is to make sure
that from weeks one through 10,we are providing sensible
football games for kids Likethese guys and I was a head
football coach for 17 years theamount of time that you prepare
for 10 football games, it'soutrageous.
When you compare it back to 48minutes 10 times a year, and
that's again I'm not talkingabout just the in-season
(22:02):
preparation um from a sundaythrough a thursday, but from
that january 1 throughmid-august.
So again, we owe it to thesekids um, to these student
athletes, to the coaches, togive them an opportunity to
compete fully 10 times for 48minutes.
I think more competitiveplayoffs and the right teams
(22:23):
getting into the playoffs, moreexposure those are all kind of
byproducts to what we do.
I think what we do, our mainfocus, is just making sure that
during those 10 weeks we do thebest we can to make sure that
each week matters.
And if that means, you know, outof my 14 football playing
schools in the ECC, seven ofthem are able to play eight or
(22:46):
nine ECC schools, but four orfive only get to play five and
they have to go out to get theother five games.
That's what I'm going to do ifit makes sense for their program
.
And I think that's kind of themindset we're all in right now,
including the SWC, the FCAC, theCCC, the NVL and even the CTC,
(23:10):
who I think sometimes does notget looked at as an athletic
conference because of theiracademic focus from a technical
standpoint.
They've jumped in and they'retaking on two games a year
because they want to promotefootball in their conference and
I think it's been great forthose schools and it's allowed
(23:33):
us to schedule some reallycompetitive games where those
technical high schools arelocated or dotted throughout the
state.
We've been able to give themsome games that make a
tremendous amount of sensegeographically and have created
a little bit of rivalry for sometechnical high schools where
typically they're separated froma pretty good distance.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, that would be very beneficial to them because
they're in diverse locations allthroughout the state.
They're not in one small area.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And I think that goes to the point and what Jimmy
said is completely right and hecan speak for me.
But I'll just say I just loveworking with all of the six
other leagues because thecommissioners, the football
chair people and each of thosethey're all dealing with the
same issues and challenges andso working together.
When it started with DaveJohnson, gary McIlwicky was with
(24:24):
the ECC and Jimmy getting toknow their leagues and their
challenges.
That allowed us to agree on alot of things and to make
proposals to the CIAC and forthe CIAC football committee to
ask.
You know Dave Johnson was onthe football committee so he
would give an alliance report.
I've been lucky to go on tomeetings with Jim, with the
football community, to give themupdates of what's going on, so
(24:46):
to be able to communicate toaudiences that maybe don't think
about all these things and worktogether as leagues.
I thoroughly enjoy going therebecause when I can go back to
the SEC and says well, you knowwe're talking to these other
conferences and it's alsobenefited other sports into
having arrangements with forother sports and scheduling
things.
So we've worked to really focuson that communication but
(25:09):
really the collegiality betweenthe leagues.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, it seems like a great level of collaboration
between everyone involved.
So week one gave us a fullslate of Alliance games.
I know we had mentioned some ofthose that stood out, but for
the rest of the calendarthroughout the season, which
ones do you guys have circledthat you think are going to be a
great level of competition?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I'm going to answer this question every week because
to have games in every weeklike Bassick and Bridgeport
Central in week two they play inthe same stadium.
They've multiple times they'vebeen close games.
They're rivals.
The kids are excited about this.
Bridgeport Central is 1-0 forthe first time and I don't know
they can go 2-0 for the first.
(25:45):
I don't even know how longBassick's been, you know getting
better their coach.
They have some really good youknow players.
So like I'm excited about that.
But I'm excited that we haveDaniel Han and Brookfield, you
know, and I think it's weekthree.
We have sunnington, st joseph's.
We have killingly playing masikin week five, um, but now in
new canaan.
But now in new canaan in week11 we have hill house playing
(26:06):
wilton because wilton doesn'thave a thanksgiving day opponent
, so they have to play in week11 and we've been able to get
them games in that.
You know week 11 thanksgivingday week.
So it's not, I just think, tohave games just gets it.
But like in week nine, as Jimsaid, fitch versus West Haven.
Like there's these matchupsthat you look at each week and
you say, wow, I didn't realizethat there was Alliance games,
(26:28):
because every league schedule isdifferent and they create these
open matchups.
So to do that allows us topromote it from an Alliance
perspective, but also to saythat you know whether it's the
media, the fans hey, I'm goingto go check out this football
game that I, you know I don'tget to see West Haven come down
to, you know Groton too much,and so I think that's where
(26:49):
Maloney Fairfield prep, you know, again, perennial playoff teams
, which will be week six, buteven, like Plainfield, which is
now the Valley Panthers goingdown to play Wilbercross in a
competitive game.
So not to say that we'reexcited about it, but I think
every matchup means something inAlliance and we like to promote
it in saying this is anAlliance matchup.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Another byproduct of what we do is the officiating
Officials from all of thevarious boards are now also
being exposed to teams fromother parts of the state, teams
that they're actually going toend up working their contests
when we get to the stateplayoffs.
So you know, we talked aboutbyproducts of you know, seating
(27:33):
and teams being prepared andselected for playoffs, but the
officials, I think, benefit fromthis as well.
Matter of fact, to the pointwhere officials are now working
in split crews, for example, I'mhosting a game tomorrow night
at my place in Ledger and I havea split crew not only from the
Eastern board, but I haveofficials coming from the
(27:55):
Colonial and Fairfield Countyboard and they're going to be
working together, which ispretty unique.
But they've kind of taken, Iguess, a cue from the alliance
in terms of the collaborationand working together and again
just trying to improve theircraft in what they do.
But I know the officials havecertainly been open to this.
(28:18):
The officials have certainlybeen open to this and they like
to see new teams come in.
I know our board loves it whenquality teams from the other end
of the state are coming downand playing some of our teams
and they get to work those games.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, that's a great perspective for officials as
well, because that's also a newlevel of competition that they
have to oversee.
So what would you say tocritics who raise concerns about
things like travel timeinvolved or breaking away from
traditional rivalries, or eventhe idea that sometimes the
competition may seem evenlymatched but when it comes to
game time it might not be?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, the travel time is certainly something we're
cognizant of and we've discussedat length and we've made
adjustments due to over our timetogether since we formed the
alliance in 2017.
And that piece led to theelimination of sub-varsity
scheduling.
So we do not schedulesub-varsity games from an
(29:10):
alliance standpoint.
We tell our membership, whichare those seven conferences and
those four independentssub-varsity scheduling is on
your own.
You need to rely upon yourconference.
Make sure that those games areas local as possible Because,
again, sub varsity is aboutdevelopment of the student
athlete.
If I have to schedule a gamemultiple times, for example, if
(29:33):
Ledger needs to play Fitch threetimes in sub varsity football,
we will.
You know, score doesn't matter.
It's about repetition for thosekids and getting them game
experience.
So we removed that sub-varsitypiece where travel could become
an issue.
Now, when we go back to varsity, I go back to my prior answer
(29:55):
about again and not to keepbeating a dead horse here but
they only get 10 shots.
The game is only 48 minuteslong.
The amount of time these kidsprepare it's it's.
It's a whole heck of a lot morethan they get to play.
So if I have to go on a bus for90 minutes in comparison to
(30:17):
maybe a 20 minute trip.
But that bus trip 90 minutes incomparison to maybe a 20-minute
trip but that bus trip 90minutes is going to provide me a
competitive game, a game that'smeaningful, a game that I know
is going to go a full 48 minutesand all my varsity kids are
going to be able to play theentire time, instead of maybe
traveling 20 minutes where thegame's over at halftime or we're
running the clock for the thirdand fourth quarter quarter.
(30:39):
I have to play my sub varsitykids.
I then have to cancel my subvarsity game the next morning.
I am going to sign up for that90 minute bus ride every day of
the week and I think everystudent, athlete and coach will
as well, because, again, we wantit to be meaningful.
You don't get many opportunities.
We've always said football isdifferent and it is because you
play once a week and you onlyget to get after it 10 times.
(31:02):
Other sports get to playmultiple times a week.
In some cases they get 16 to 20games a season.
We need to take all of thatinto consideration.
So for those that are like, wow, you know that's a long trip,
ask the kids if it was worth it.
I bet the most of them will sayit was.
My school went down to Milfordlast week in week one.
(31:26):
No one flinched about the ride.
No parent guardian flinched.
The student athletes andcoaches didn't flinch.
We had a great, competitivefootball game, certainly much
better than one I could haveprovided them within our league
at that point.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So here's like the soundbite Would you rather drive
90 minutes and play a fullfootball game or go five minutes
down the road and get buriedand have running time and not
have a sub-varsity experiencebecause you can't because of the
rules of which quarters andthings like that.
But I would say something aboutlike tradition.
So, jimmy, I think the pointsare great, but tradition is you
(32:05):
have nine other games on yourschedule, right, leagues are now
organized and you, yeah, we,there's those.
There are rivalries, I get itand I've also found, as 22 years
as a commissioner, is we have29 different sports.
You know, I may be a rival inthis sport or not a rival in
this sport, or we play in thissport and it's, you know, it's,
it's things.
(32:25):
So high school sportseducational based athletics has
evolved over this, you know,couple decades, and so we got to
make it worth it for these kidsto get those experiences.
And so you know, tradition isgreat and tradition is going to
be there.
That's a factor.
But we also need to, you know,make sure that.
You know we're providing thatopportunity, because the sub
(32:46):
varsity piece is a bit, is agood one, because leagues are
now challenged.
I know I go to every meeting.
It's like, well, I don't have asub varsity, we have a
Frostmore team, all this stuff,so it's always changing.
So if you can know, you varsity, we have a froshmore team, all
this stuff, so it's alwayschanging.
So if you can know, you canjust go, you know, five minutes
down the road or 10 minutes downand have a sub varsity game.
You're providing those kids adevelopment tool to get better
(33:07):
so that they can go to thevarsity and play in those games.
So it all.
You know it's a great soundbiteand it's a great excuse and the
critics will be critics, but welook at the bigger picture and
and say this is what high schoolfootball should be about.
We've made good changes andwe're collaborating doing so.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, and outside of it, every league needs to
protect what's important to them.
That's the league'sresponsibility From an alliance
standpoint.
Outside of the two independentsfrom our state who we're
providing full schedules for,the rest of our conference
members, you know we'rescheduling anywhere from one to
(33:44):
four games, so we are in no wayinfringing upon what's important
to them, what their traditionalyou know rivalry games are
within their conference.
That's their responsibility tomake sure that they continue to
do that.
You know it's my responsibilityto make sure.
You know Fitch and Ledger arestill playing.
New London and NFA are stillplaying.
You know NFA and Fitch arestill playing.
(34:07):
Like, those are myresponsibilities as the league
scheduler and I would say thatfor every league throughout the
state.
So I don't think we've takenaway from any traditional
rivalries and of course,contrary to what Many folks
believe, we are also proponentsof Thanksgiving Day and those
rivalries that have continuedfor years and years.
But what the Alliance has doneis we've actually maybe created
(34:32):
a few resurgences of games thathave been off the radar.
For example, this past yearEast Haven played North Haven,
two neighboring schools that Idon't think have played in years
Over a decade and so thealliance was able to create that
matchup, which I think wasgreat for both communities and
(34:53):
probably very exciting for thestudent-athletes.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
And just a point about like week one with the
objective matchups.
There were nine instances whereteams from one league played
each other because it'sobjective.
So east haven, north haven,lined up because of their and
they got to play.
You know, I know jonathan lawplayed lyman hall, cheshire
played xavier in the sec, in theccc there were a couple.
East line played woodstockacademy, so like that was a
(35:17):
positive because that may helpopen up another competitive game
because you're playing thatgame.
So it all has it's has, it's abig picture type of focus.
And you know, again, if we'repromoting high school football
and giving teams you know achance to be competitive and
play those you know 10 games andthen maybe have a chance at the
playoffs.
I always look at it from aleague perspective.
(35:39):
The SEC is, if our SEC teams wehave 21 teams, two-thirds of
our teams going into week eight,week nine, are in the playoff
conversation, that has benefits.
I know it's not all about theplayoffs, it's about getting
better.
But we always hear one criticismis oh well, if we lose our
(36:01):
first three games, kids aregoing to quit.
Well, kids are going to quitregardless of all the stuff.
It's the coach's responsibility, the administrator's
responsibility to build thatculture.
As Jim said, the preparationthat goes in, those are going to
happen, but it's not going tobe because they got beat five
straight times because they wereforced into a bad schedule.
So I think the point is thebalance is that the Alliance has
(36:24):
created some enthusiasm forkids to get better and they want
to go play football and have anuptick and get that opportunity
to be competing for a playoffspot.
So as week nine, 10, 11 come,we're still in the mix here.
That gives you a little bit ofhoop.
That's what playing sports isabout.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, those are all very strong points, especially
regarding that traditionalrivalries are still on the table
, teams can still be a part ofthat, and sometimes you might
have to travel for a little bitmore competition.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I will say this as the person in this state who
gets characterized as theThanksgiving Day hater.
You can use this for theouttakes, but it's actually
helped our league refineThanksgiving Day matchups
because we had teams that didn'thave Thanksgiving Day matchups,
(37:11):
as I kind of mentioned before.
It's actually helped our leagueschedule because now we've been
able to manipulate notmanipulate but change some of
the matchups between teams thatshould be playing for the
betterment of our league andthat everyone, because that
always created some challengesto go find games.
And so I would say that youknow that is now a part of the
(37:31):
schedule week 12, thanksgivingDay week and it's allowed our
league to be able to get to aleague schedule and still be
able to, you know, compete inthe Alliance.
So that's just a public servicenonsense.
To all the SEC folks that getmad at me when I talk about that
, you know, aforementionedholiday.
I'm glad we cleared that up forthem.
Dartboard ready, right, that'swhy you're in the middle.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
All right.
So, as we wrap up, how do yousee the alliance expanding
throughout the seasons?
What are the goals as the yearsgo on?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, our goals are to increase membership, you know
, a continue to keep the currentmembership, but with that
increased membership, you know,I think we'd love to get every
conference in the state ofConnecticut participating.
We still have one out there andwe'd love to get the Pequot
League in.
We think they'd bring a ton ofvalue, you know, to what we do.
(38:23):
We are, as I stated earlier inthe show, looking to expand
outside our state borders.
The feedback I'm getting fromthe state of Rhode Island has
been overwhelming.
So I certainly feel like fromthat end of the state it's going
to come, but we're reaching outto the other end, into New York
and Pennsylvania and LongIsland, to see if we can bring
(38:44):
in some schools from that endthat are looking to pick up a
game or two throughout theseason.
Regarding how we schedulematchups, I think the objective
model that was used in week onewas very successful.
I do think we need to tweak ita little bit Again.
Al and I would bring that backto our full leadership team, but
I would love to see us kind ofcreate a larger pool of teams
(39:09):
available to rank and schedule.
We did it this past year withall six divisions and, as I
alluded to, the S and double Swas kind of gave us a little bit
lower number of schools justbecause of not having the Pequot
League in.
So, a if we can bring them inor if we start combining the
(39:34):
divisions together, we don'tusually get the new divisions
until May or June in some cases,so we always work off the year
prior.
So that provides a little bitof dilemma and sometimes people
out there will wonder well, whyis this team playing?
Why is team A playing team Bwhen they're in M and they're in
(39:58):
L?
Well, they are this year, butlast year they were in double M
together, and so that's howwe're operating.
Just because the divisionsaren't aren't being released, um
, until typically May or Juneafterwards, so our schedules are
done at that point, um, so whatwe're talking about this year
and looking at doing is maybecombining the divisions, uh,
(40:20):
bringing S and double S together, m and double M together and L
and double L together, m anddouble M together and L and
double L together, or possiblyleaving them separate, just to
kind of create a larger pool ofteams to rank.
We also want to continue to lookat the technical schools, the
cooperative schools also, andsee where they fit.
A lot of times they're placedin double M or, in some cases,
(40:43):
cases L, because of thecollaboration of schools, but it
might not be appropriate, youknow, to find them a game in
that particular classification.
So another thing we're going totalk about is maybe moving them
into the S double S category toprovide a more appropriate game
.
So we're going to continue towork, we're going to continue to
evolve, make adjustments,no-transcript, adjust what we do
(41:31):
, and I think those are twothings we're looking at right
now.
In doing that, we think willhelp.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
That's good that you see that for next season yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And I would just say this, jimmy's, you know we love
promoting the sport of highschool football.
There's a lot of people thatare interested in it, there's a
lot of stakeholders.
We just love, you know, usingthat Alliance umbrella to work
together to come up with thesetweaks and improvements and
having the conversations.
I think it's one and we justlove promoting it.
You know, all hail right and sowe have fun doing it.
(42:02):
You, you know.
But the fact that we have this,I would say, collegiality to
work on and discuss these issues, it's not being done in some
little closet, you know it's.
It's being done around thetable, looking each other in the
eye and saying what you'redoing.
And so I think we've we've comeso far in eight years and we're
(42:23):
just going to keep gettingbetter and it helps the sport of
football and we are dialed intoall of those stakeholders who
have provided us input along theway, and I think we're open to
it.
And I think that's one thingthat's always I would say is
admirable is that we're notperfect.
We acknowledge that, but wekeep getting better, to discuss
(42:45):
about the ways that we can getbetter.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, year by year, you'll continue to evolve and
see what works and what doesn'twork.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah, so I'm excited to see the rest of the Alliance
smash-ups throughout the season,and thank you to both Al and
Jim for joining me on the CICGlory Days podcast.
I think it was a greatconversation for viewers to hear
more about the work that goesbehind the Alliance.
So thank you both.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Yeah, we appreciate the opportunity.
I think, you know, it's a greatopportunity for us to be able
to come talk about what we do,why we do it, how we do it,
because I believe for the casualfan out there who takes a
vested interest in Connecticuthigh school football, they don't
really see everything that goes, you know, at high school
(43:26):
football they don't really seeeverything that goes on behind
closed doors and there's a lotto it.
And again, our goal is probablyno different than theirs and
that's to see and providecompetitive opportunities for
our student athletes across thestate.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
All hail.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
All hail.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Okay, thank you.
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