Why did they reverse a decision that was made just a little under a month ago?
That's the question Montville Principal Tom Amanti wanted an answer to in Wednesday's meeting of the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
Amanti, who backed a vote in early November to remain a two-division conference, had a good point. When is something official in the ECC?
The answer is, apparently, when everyone is satisfied.
Griswold and Plainfield clearly were not and the AD's agreed with them as NFA's Gary Mackowicki pointed out that his scheduling committee always thought a three division format would be better.
Mackowicki said the others agreed when they saw the enrollment numbers.
"It wasn't just the two schools (Griswold and Plainfield) who were the 8th and 9th in the Large, it was the 3-4 others that were so close in enrollment that, in any given year, it could be them in the Large Division."
ECC Chairman Gene Blain said he didn't know if he was walking into a hornet's nest yesterday but he was happy when it turned out to be a happy hive as a unanimous vote put the ECC back into three divisions in football for the next two seasons.
At least, that's what they said yesterday.

Anyone who has been around high school football had to know the St. Bernard/Norwich Tech Saints had their hands full with Hillhouse very early on.
Standing on the sidelines, I was watching Hillhouse, which won 40-0 to advance to the Class M championship, fly to the ball and when they got there- they hit.
"On most of my carries, I saw somewhat of a hole, hit the hole, there was no more hole," St. Bernard junior Christian Mulcahy said.
The Academics truly made it academic by midway through the first quarter when they had 28 points on the board. Admittedly, 14 of those points came from Saints miscues, an interception and a blocked punt but even without those factors, Hillhouse was dominant. Running back Danny Williams touched the ball three times offensively and scored on all three occasions, one of them was called back by a holding penalty. Quarterback Keerome Lawrence out ran the entire St. Bernard team on a 94-yard sprint to the end zone in the second quarter.
Coach Marc Romano said it was clear who the better team was, "When you have three guys tackling one kid every single time, it's hard to break anything. We had little bits and pieces we tried to do but, hats off, they're a great team."
The nice thing for Romano and the Saints- they can say the same thing.

Hopefully, they prove me wrong but I only see one ECC team moving on to a state championship game come this weekend.
The Windham Whippets, the top-seed in Class M, have the best chance to succeed in tonight's semifinal. They're playing on their home turf, against a known opponent and that opponent has more than its' share of injury issues.
The Whippets will likely be without Tyrese Nickson but the Colonels will be playing minus quarterback Marc Mignault and either with or without a banged up running back in Tim McNeil.
The Whippets just have to avoid the trap of looking ahead as it might be easy to do considering the situation. They also have to contend with a staunch Ledyard defense.
My pick: Windham 20-12.

I haven't personally seen Hillhouse but everything seems to indicate their game at East Haven vs. St. Bernard will likely belong to the Academics.
Everyone says the same thing about the hosts - they're fast and they're big. Hillhouse is paced by senior quarterback Keerome Lawrence who can throw, 645 yards passing and run, 608 yards rushing. He is also responsible for 14 of the Academics touchdowns. When they hand off, Danny Williams is the man who has scored 11 times this season as Hillhouse has outscored their opponents 267-84.
The Saints hope Kyle Brahm will be ready as the senior fullback is a key to their ball-control hopes. Keep the ball away from the Hillhouse offense and you have a chance.
My pick: Hillhouse 28-14.

And finally, you don't beat up on the fifth ranked team in the state and get taken lightly. Stratford is tough and Griswold, unfortunately, may find that out tonight. The Wolverines have to hope their big offensive line can punch enough holes to allow the Wolverines to move the football.
Personally, I think this one is a tough task for the Wolverines.
My pick: Stratford 34-14.

Remember, I've been wrong this season (quite a few times in fact). Let's hope that's the case again. See you tonight in East Haven at the St. Bernard-Hillhouse game.

It may be time for the high school playoffs but it's next year's football season that will be the topic of discussion come Wednesday.
The Eastern Connecticut Conference Principals are scheduled to sit down at NFA Wednesday morning to, once again, discuss the football alignment. It's too early to tell how the Principals are feeling now but two schools feel they were hoodwinked back in early November.
Griswold and Plainfield voted in favor of a new alignment based on October 2006 enrollment numbers for boys only grades 10-12. That formula changed the whole dynamic of the two-division format and sent the Panthers and Wolverines into the Large Division next season with New London and Killingly dropping down to the Small.
Needless to say, once those enrollment numbers were figured out there were those crying foul.
The Principals have instructed the Athletic Directors to draw up several other scenarios in addition to the two division format for this meeting. It's a good bet that a three-division format will be looked at very closely as some Medium Division teams, in addition to Plainfield and Griswold, may side with those looking for relief from the two-division deal.
If they do decide on a three division package, there will likely also be debate on whether the divisions will be split 6-6-5 or 5-6-6 or some other break down.
The ironic thing, this year's two division format worked just fine as far as competition. New London was in the heat of the battle in the Large Division, ahead of such enrollment giants as NFA and Fitch, and the Small was very competitive.
Here's a novel idea - don't tinker for a year. Leave the teams in the same divisions as they are currently with the same scheduling matrix.
Then again, the ECC has never been one to leave good enough alone.

It was tough to see Ledyard quarterback Marc Mignault on crutches in the second half of Friday's game vs. Fitch. Mignault tore a ligament in his left knee late in the first half of the game and, according to head coach Bill Mignault, is all done for the season including the semifinal game vs. Windham on Tuesday. If there is any bright spot in the injury, it's that Mignault is only a junior and has not played his last game as a Colonel.
With Mignault on the sidelines, the offensive burden rested with Tim McNeil. But the running back didn't last much longer as he left the game with a concussion just after scoring a touchdown to cut the deficit to one with 10:13 left in the third quarter.
Without those two players, the Ledyard offense stumbled. The Colonels had 14 running plays which netted only 40 yards, 25 of those on a reverse by Hector Torres. The passing game was even less effective as it produced two completions in six attempts for a negative three-yards and an interception.
If McNeil does not return, the Colonels could be in for a long night at Windham Tuesday in a Class M Semifinal. The Ledyard defense is staunch but they need the offense to hold on to the ball to keep Windham's talented offensive players on the sidelines.
By the way, nice crowd at Fitch on Friday despite it being the day after Thanksgiving. It was a much nicer day to watch a football game.

I've been covering high school football a long time and let me tell you, as most of you already know, Thursday had to be one of the most miserable I've seen in awhile. Cudos to everyone who went out and stayed out in the wind driven rain to cheer on the mud caked players. The weather took me back to the early 80's when I was at a Putnam-Plainfield game and the rain that was falling gradually turned to ice and then snow over the course of the game. Although yesterday may have been a little worse due to the wind.
One thing about weather, it's a great equalizer and can certainly change the complexion of a game. If you had a big back and a big line that could move straight forward, you probably did well yesterday as opposed to those teams that relied on their quickness and cutting ability.
NFA's win over New London could be directly attributed to that, Griswold was helped by the field conditions and so were RHAM/Lyman and Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech.
Speaking of the Tigers, they and Woodstock had the honor of playing in one of the games that many didn't talk too much about because of their records. Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech finished 2-7 and Woodstock 0-9 so maybe Matt Wendorf of the Tigers hit it right on the head when I asked him if his team's win yesterday made things a little better.
"It almost seems like the season doesn't matter any more because it's Thanksgiving and it's just great to be around family and friends."Wendorf said to me.
That, my friends, is what Thanksgiving is all about.
See you at the Ledyard-Fitch game today.

It was a first for me on Wednesday night, taking in a football game on Thanksgiving Eve rather than Thanksgiving Day and I wasn't the only one.
It was great to see over a thousand people out at St. Bernard despite the cool, blustery conditions and the game, as expected, was probably one of the better finales to this football season.
Host St. Bernard didn't let their upcoming state semifinal blur what their true goals were- win the ECC Small Division and beat Montville. For those who missed the final score, it was 17-7.
You have to give cudos to Coach Marc Romano and his staff who came in and guided the Saints to an 8-1-1 record, their second consecutive ECC Small Division title and the first state playoff appearance for the Saints in 28 years.
There's a little bonus to playing Thanksgiving Eve when you're involved in the playoffs, it's called an extra day to prep. Romano said he and his staff would give their players Thanksgiving off but the staff will meet Thursday night to discuss the game plan against either Windham, Ledyard or Hillhouse. The Saints still had an outside shot to host a game if both Ledyard and Hillhouse lost on Thursday.
Montville left the field with a 5-5 record, much less than what they hoped for but it was a tough season. First-year head coach Tanner Grove saw things go awry from the start when his Indians were shocked by Putnam (still the upset of the year) and later lost quarterback Brian Emery and receiver Nick Markovitz to injury.
"You put in all this time, all this work and all this effort and to not have it pay dividends, it stings. I think the kids gave me everything they had in them but we didn't have enough players who could make plays when we needed to," Grove said.

There will be thousands of Eastern Connecticut folks who are going to start Thanksgiving morning off, not only with a cup of coffee, but a little high school football.
Many will be taking in the renewal of the New London/NFA rivalry or the battle between Griswold and Plainfield, or East Lyme trying to make the state playoffs against Waterford. There's of course, Windham which is shooting for a perfect regular season vs. E.O. Smith.
Let's take a time out, however, and focus on the newest of the rivalries. Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech at home against Woodstock.
Yeah, I know it's the 1-7 Tigers against the 0-8 Centaurs but let's consider a few things. A Woodstock win would be it's first ever varsity victory and there is that chance. It's the first ever Thanksgiving Day game to be played at Ellis Tech in Danielson and,possibly, the last. There has been talk, once lights are put on the field in Danielson, to move this game to a Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve affair. It also pits two programs put together in the same way, not by tax payer dollars directly, but by contributions to Booster clubs who got the whole thing started and keep it going.
Where ever you plan to be this Thanksgiving Day, remember one thing. It's not only the wins and losses that count- it's how you play the game. Happy Thanksgiving!

It may not have begun the way they had wanted nor did it end in the manner they would have wished but you had to admire the spirit of the East Lyme High School girls volleyball team in the Class L State Championship game o on Saturday in Fairfield.
The Vikes got a rude awakening when Bristol Eastern scored the first eight points of the first game and, in truth, they never seemed to recover.
East Lyme did put a little rally together in the second game thanks to the serve of Paige Babcock but a well-placed time out and a hard kill by Sara Plourde essentially ended any hopes that the Vikings had of a comeback.
There were some tears afterwards but players like Babcock and Brittni Taylor both expressed how good they felt about how far they and the program had come.
The two seniors will not be around next year to continue the Vikings forward progress but everyone around the program felt that this group of girls had started something. Most, especially head coach Jack Biggs, can only hope the kind of enthusiasm shown by the players in the program and those who supported the program in it's bid for a title continues.

Hi, I'm Marc Allard, a former sportscaster in Eastern Connecticut who now
proudly calls himself the Assistant Sports Editor of the Norwich Bulletin.
Welcome to the newest blog on the web and one that we hope you will find
informative, fun and a must to visit because it's about you. You being the
high school athlete in Eastern Connecticut and the parents, grandparents,
relatives and friends of that athlete.
I've been covering this area for the last quarter-century and I'm just
getting started. So if you want to know the scoop about high school
athletics, stop in often and welcome aboard.