The battle for the top seed in the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls basketball tournament begins tonight in Norwich and Willimantic.
Both the Waterford and Windham girls have had perfect league records (11-0) so far but one of the toughest tests remaining on the schedule for Waterford takes place tonight. The Lancers travel to Alumni Hall to face the Norwich Free Academy Wildcats. NFA still could have a shot at the top seed and a playdown round bye with a win over Waterford. The Lancers have only one real big test left tonight and it comes at home vs. East Lyme in the last game of the regular season.
Windham begins a tough stretch tonight as they host Bacon but then have to go on the road for games at Stonington, Griswold and Montville, all potential stumbling blocks. Windham is also 11-0 in league play.
Griswold coach Gary Kinel goes for win number 499 tonight when his Wolverines face a much improved Killingly squad in Jewett City. St. Bernard, the number two team in the ECC Small Division, pays a visit to number three, Plainfield. Woodstock, which has already qualified for the ECC and state tournaments, plays a team still struggling to get there, Ledyard, at home tonight in Woodstock.

You can say one thing about him, he doesn't beat around the bush.
Putnam coach Tony Falzarano's quote to Norwich Bulletin freelancer Josh Barton was just about priceless on Saturday after his team lost to Tourtellotte for the first time since 1992 in boys basketball.
"You can't make chicken salad out of chicken-you-know-what," Falzarano said.
While some may want to try and take offense out of that statement, it does illustrate one thing clearly- it's not easy to win year in and year out in a small school.
The Clippers went to an unexpected state championship game a year ago but that, essentially, cleaned their closet of a group of talented players who had been together for awhile. Konrad Lueders, their foreign student from Germany, is also gone.
That left only Tim Sabourin from the starting group and a host of players who were involved in supporting roles at best last season. It also accounts for the Clippers woes this season as it isn't easy to start all over again in a school that has less than 200 boys in it.
Sabourin has added to those woes as well as he has been fighting to get back into playing shape after an illness scare followed by a back injury. Travis Godley had been providing much of the offense for the Clippers early in the season but the opposition has become wise to him and Putnam needs someone to step up. Putnam has averaged just over 40 points a game this year and that won't win you too many games in the ECC.

This is what you would have to call playing an away game at home.
Ledyard boys basketball coach Jeff Brown went back to work at Norwich Free Academy last night, he just couldn't go into his office.
Brown, you see, is not only the Ledyard varsity coach but a physical education teacher at NFA as well. That means his office is the one the basketball coaches use during game time.
"It's tough," Brown laughed when we talked about it prior to the Colonels game with the Wildcats last night. "But it's exciting too because I know all the (NFA) players and they all razzed me a bit about it but it was all in good fun- it's a good atmosphere."
Brown said he had no plans to go near his office, didn't even bring his keys with him.
Brown almost brought an upset with him as the Colonels played a never-say-die game and fought back from a couple of large deficits to make it close at the end. A couple of ill-timed turnovers ended their upset bid.
You can read more about Brown and his first year as Ledyard coach as well as the Colonels need for a bigger presence inside in the Monday basketball notebook.

There is a certain responsibility that comes with the coverage of local events such as local sports and it's a responsibility that I feel very strongly about.
We, as reporters and editors, are writing about our neighbors in the local communities, adults and youth alike.
It is this responsibility that makes us choose our words very carefully and, yes, sometimes we choose wrong.
I couldn't help but notice this in a story written in a local weekly publication in Northeastern Connecticut. The weekly covered Tim Panteleakos being named head coach of the Tri-Town American Legion baseball team and referred to him as an "infamous" coach.
Tim Panteleakos may be a lot of things to a lot of people but "infamous" is not one of them.
Webster's defines "infamous" as "having a reputation of the worst kind-notoriously evil". Those words do not define Tim Panteleakos.
Panteleakos, the football coach for the Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech program, wrestling coach at Ellis Tech and baseball coach at Brooklyn Middle School, admits he lets his own emotions run him at times but it is his passion for the game and most of all, for his players, that tend to fire up those emotions.
I've had to do some tough articles on Tim Panteleakos and have always found him to be receptive and cooperative no matter what the subject content. I'm not saying I approve of everything that Panteleakos does on the sidelines but "infamous" is one tag that I would never put on him.
Just some food for thought.
And may we add, good luck to Tim Panteleakos and the Tri-Town American Legion baseball squad.

This is what you have to call dedication and it's just about what it takes in this day and age to climb to the upper echelon of any sport.
Norwich teen Sara Bailey no longer goes to school in Norwich and no longer sees the majority of her family with the exception of weekends.
"I miss my twin sister, my brother and my dad but I've made new friends here," Bailey said from Spokane,Washington where she had just competed in the State Farm U.S. ice dance championships.
Bailey and her partner, Kyle Herring, still have a ways to go but they climbed another rung of the ladder this week with a second place finish in the novice competition. From here, they hope, is junior and senior competition and, if all goes well, the ice dancers ultimate goal- the Olympics.
But remember what it has taken Bailey.
She has moved from Norwich, with her mom, to train at the University of Delaware and now lives with her mother in Middletown, Delaware. The two make the long drive to Connecticut generally every weekend to re-unite with the rest of the family. A sacrifice, Dad Mike Bailey told me, but a necessary one.
Bailey goes to school only on a half-day schedule and makes up the rest on-line. She trains, works out and practices six hours a day. It's the kind of schedule and dedication one must have if they want to be one of the best in the world and, hopefully, for Sara Bailey- it's all worthwhile.

The Eastern Connecticut Conference may have some real good matchups when teams play within their own divisions, it gets a little tougher when the Large and small cross over with the Medium.
Such is the case tonight.
The best boys game out there probably will take place in Danielson where Fitch meets Killingly. The Redmen have a potential Division I player in Shane Gibson who's second in scoring in the area and also have Tom Derosier who is amongst the leaders in 3-point baskets made. The Falcons also have a two pronged attack with Windell Hinkson and Jesse Hahn, both of whom average in the mid-teens per game and Hinkson has also been deadly from three point range. You almost get the idea that whichever team wins the inside battle tonight, wins this game.
The best of the girls games takes place in Griswold where Kailee Grasso leads the Lyman Bulldogs into a game against the Wolverines. Grasso is averaging over 20 points a game, second best in the area, but Griswold may still welcome the break. They have the hard route as they're in the same Division as Stonington, Montville and Bacon Academy and playing outside the division is a little breather for them.

The underachievers beat the overachievers on Friday night.
Windham downed Woodstock 61-44 in a game that featured one team that is not happy with how it's been playing and another team that has been playing above what was expected of them.
Woodstock, prior to their loss to the Whippets, had won seven of their first 10 games. That's pretty good for a team that lost just about its' entire starting lineup to graduation.
"We're overachieving maybe," Woodstock coach Rob Mileski told me Friday night, "We're making a couple of plays and some shots are going down."
On the other side of the court, Windham had a 6-4 record coming into the game with a team that was expected to, not only contend, but likely win the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division and also be in the midst of the battle for the league title.
"We're not playing together, the chemistry doesn't seem to be flowing," Whippets coach Bill Strand said.
Woodstock and Windham will be the featured topics in our Monday notebook, check it out on Monday morning. Also, we will update the scoring leaders in the area for both boys and girls and have the top active career point leaders in girls basketball.

Everything goes through your mind in the seconds immediately following someone suffering what could be a severe injury.
It's tough on a coach to see that happen to one of their athletes, it's even tougher when that coach happens to be Mom.
Killingly gymnastics coach Robin Deary-Fillmore said she experienced a quick range of emotions after seeing her daughter, Kasey, fall from the bars last Tuesday in the worst fall she has seen in her gym in a quarter-century.
"I made sure she was physically OK, that she was only hurt and not injured and that her college career was still ahead of her," Deary-Fillmore related as to what raced through her mind in those moments after the fall.
Kasey Fillmore, a senior, has a gymnastics scholarship to attend Bowling Green University in the fall and that seems to be on track as she was not seriously hurt.
"MRI's and the X-rays showed that nothing was broken, they didn't do an MRI on the one part of her back that's still sore but it's getting better. I think it's just a lot of twisted, sore muscles which takes some time to heal- it's killing her to watch," Deary-Fillmore said.
She won't be watching much longer if she wants to participate in the post-season state competitions and, for that reason, expect Kasey to be back Monday.
"She will do something (Monday) even if it's as basic as you could possibly see, I'm talking about low-level gymnastics, just to make sure she has her events in so she will be eligible," Deary-Fillmore added.
Fillmore wasn't the only one nursing an injury, freshman Christine Caron whacked her two big toes in practice on the bars and was limping around Thursday night. Justine Basley, Killingly's number two gymnast, suffered a fall of her own off the bars in warm ups for the NFA meet but the Redgals still persevered and won easily 128.55-117.5 over the Wildcats.

The Bacon Academy Bobcats had a goal Wednesday afternoon that they almost achieved on the wrestling mat.
"We wanted to hold (Windham) to 30 points," Bacon Academy coach Michael Voiland said, "That was our goal."
The Bobcats weren't all that far off that, switch one match around and the score easily could have been 31-30 instead of the 37-25 final Windham victory.
"Whatever good team we wrestle, we want to hold to 30 points," Voiland added. "We were close against their starting lineup."
Voiland hopes the good outing against Windham will earn the Bobcats a little respect as they have posted a 14-4 record this year although they are just 1-3 in a difficult Eastern Connecticut Conference.
"I knew Bacon would be tough," Windham coach Pat Risley said, "it's a 12-point match and we won three or four close ones. Two go their way, tie match, so I knew it would be tough."
The Whippets did build a 37-10 lead which helped them a bit for the remainder of the year as 215 pound wrestler Doug Ross, who's a little worse for the wear right now, got a day of rest.
Just one quick note to add from basketball, congratulations to Kerrianne Dugan of Waterford for reaching the 1000 point mark in her career. We will have the active career point leaders for girls basketball in Monday's notebook.

Get used to seeing the youngsters.
That's the word from Norwich Free Academy girls basketball coach Bill Scarlata who, at times, had as many as four freshmen on the court together in their game vs. Windham.
"We may have to that this year," Scarlata said after the four-point loss to the Whippets, "We may have to play them a lot more and see if they want to play hard."
Kastine Evans, whom we wrote about around the holidays as a player to watch in 2007, is living up to that billing. Evans scored 16 points and had nine rebounds for the Wildcats against Windham as she played much of the game.
"She played a great game today, in fact, I thought most of our freshmen played well at the varsity level so I was happy to see that," Scarlata added.
The Wildcats really haven't hurt themselves, record-wise nor respect-wise, by utilizing their younger players. NFA is off to an 11-2 start and, as of last week, were ranked fifth in the state in the Hartford Courant girls basketball poll.

If you're wondering who is the best team in the Eastern Connecticut Conference when it comes to girls basketball this season, join the crowd.
Windham certainly is in the mix after their fourpoint, 54-50, win over Norwich Free Academy late yesterday afternoon.
The Whippets, thanks to their tenacity, team speed and depth, should be right in the thick of things come late February. Waterford appears to be the front runner right now with Windham and NFA on their heels. You can't count out Stonington due to Heather Buck in the middle and a team like Montville could surprise some people.
It's a lean week overall in high school athletics and that's not only due to the holiday, you can blame the mid-term exam schedule for a light Tuesday night of games. The schedule really doesn't pick up again until Friday.
There are a couple of good local rivalries playing themselves out tonight as Putnam takes on Plainfield and Bacon Academy meets Lyman in girls hoops.

Windham High girls basketball coach Ken Valliere was pretty funny Friday night.
Normally, when a coach calls in his scores, it's pretty standard. "We won, here's the score, here's how it happened" sort of thing.
Valliere was rather ecstatic when he delivered his message of the Whippets 61-60 win over Montville.
"I'm sitting here, watching the tape to see how we won this thing," Valliere said.
How?
The Whippets apparently just got hot at the right time, with 4 1/2 minutes to play (or when most NBA teams finally decide they should play the game they've been missing all night long).
Amie Toner scored 17 points for the Whippets Friday night, 13 of those in the final quarter. Vanessa Bosques had 15 points, 10 came in the final quarter and six of those were on two big 3-pointers.
The Whippets made it exciting against a good Montville team Friday night and their next outing will be just as tough. 10-1 NFA comes in to play 10-1 Windham on Monday afternoon, Martin Luther King Day, at 5 p.m in Willimantic.

I had a chance to take in some of the first day of the World Baseball Coaches Convention on Thursday night and, if you're a coach, player or just fan of baseball, it may be worth your while to stop in as well at the Mohegan Sun Convention Center.
Now, you may ask yourself what this has to do with high school sports and the answer must be, plenty, since most of the local high school coaches were there.
Phil Orbe from Montville, Mike Garvie of St. Bernard, John Iovino of NFA, Ben Campbell from Woodstock, Dave Shea of Bacon Academy, Griswold's Kevin Trahan, Putnam's Dave Austin and John Schiffner from Plainfield were all in attendance Thursday night.
"Unbelievable," Schiffner said when asked if this was a treasure trove of information for a local baseball coach.
"I've been doing this for 29 years at a fairly high level so I'm supposed to have some of the answers but I learn things here every session that I go to that I can bring back to Plainfield High," he added.
The Convention continues today and tomorrow with Schiffner as one of the early featured speakers. Don Mattingly, B.J.Ryan and Steve Philips are amongst the featured speakers today.

Where, oh where, have the points gone?
That seems to be a question many Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division coaches are asking themselves as this girls basketball season progresses along.
The game Tuesday night between the St. Bernard Saints and Wheeler Lions was a typical ECC Small Division game this season. The Saints came out on top 34-20 but it was a struggle for both teams to find the basket.
Why?
The ECC Small has talented players, Lyman has Kailee Grasso (who has averaged over 20 points a game), Wheeler has Keyokah Mars- Garrick, Tourtellotte has the likes of Megan Berthiaume, New London has Taylor Nicholson but there isn't a whole lot of depth surrounding these players offensively, Plainfield lacks the "go-to" player and the Division's best, Putnam and St. Bernard tend to be more defensive-oriented with offense coming off that defensive prowess.
Just because the ball isn't going into the basket often (with the exception of Lyman games) doesn't mean the girls aren't trying. On the contrary, the Saints and Lions did put 100 percent out, 100 percent of their shots just didn't go in.

It's bad enough to lose five or 10 or 15 games in a row, now imagine losing 77 straight.
That has been the fate of the Parish Hill Pirates boys basketball team as their struggles continue this season in a brand new conference, the Constitution State Conference.
I had a chance to speak with coach Mario Arriaga over the weekend and the good thing about this (if there's a good side to all this) is that he seems to be genuinely pleased with how his players continue to persevere despite the adversity and it's not only the losses. It's the blows the team has experienced along the way such as Brandon LaChappelle's broken leg last season which shelved one of the team's top scorers.
The Pirates were never much of a force in the Quinebaug Valley Conference and it didn't get any better when they were forced to join the Charter Oak Conference when the QVC broke up after the 1999-2000 season. Arriaga and company are hoping for better in the CSC, another move necessitated by a league's break up as the Charter Oak Conference is no longer in business as of this fall.
You can read more about Arriaga and the Pirates as well as stories from Stonington and NFA in the high school boys basketball notebook in the Norwich Bulletin. The updated scoring leaders are also in today's edition.

We have certainly sung the praises of the Killingly High girls gymnastics team and rightfully so as they have not disappointed in their first two meets this season.
The Redgals scored 143 vs. Woodstock and NFA and 133 against Windham. Kasey Fillmore, who will attend Bowling Green University on a gymnastics scholarship, scored an almost perfect 9.9 on her bars routine in their opener.
But I also had the opportunity to talk to one of the grandparents of one of the gymnasts who admitted to me that it's very difficult to attend a gymnastics meet for him, personally.
That's because he sees his grand daughter landing on such a small area like a balance beam and it makes him wince because he knows the possible implications of a miss and a fall.
Killingly freshman Christine Caron certainly knows some of those outcomes as she suffered two severely broken ankles and a broken toe in a fall two years ago and is still feeling the effects.
That's the reality of gymnastics, there is also the dreams that are associated with it such as Killingly's quest for another state title and, if everything goes their way, a possible New England championship. We'll keep you posted.

Here's just another good reason why the fine folks in Plainfield did the right thing when they built their new high school.
I had the chance to talk with Jeff Parkinson on Thursday, the Panthers indoor track coach, and he had a chance to convey how it used to be at Plainfield.
He would be out there in the dead of winter spraying lines on the parking lot so his team could practice their sprint events. They would be teaching hurdlers how to hurdle (without the use of actual hurdles) and relay events were a guessing game for hand offs.
Things have changed much for the better for Parkinson and his 50 or so athletes who train with him. They now have a nice new track to call their own and Mother Nature has blessed them either with an extended fall or an early spring (let's hope it's the latter) to further hone their skills.
The new facility doesn't take away one mean fact of life for the indoor track athletes throughout Eastern Connecticut, going to track meets is a job not just an adventure. Many events can take up to nine hours on a Saturday. You can read more about that today in my notebook in the Norwich Bulletin.

The Norwich Free Academy Wildcats are 8-0 in boys basketball and here's something that embellishes that record even more.
They've played the past week against some pretty large schools and pretty good schools without the likes of their center.
"Jon Merjuste, our center, a lot of people have already forgotten about him but he had a family commitment out-of-state for a week which was excused. We played four games plus (Tuesday night vs. Waterford) without him," NFA coach Neal Curland said.
The Wildcats may have missed him but they also got some strong performances in his stead such as that of Kyle Onate last night. The former Griswold player contributed 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals to the Wildcats effort.
"The guards and everyone else had to pick up their efforts a little bit but we can't wait to get Jon back," Curland added, "He's a big bruiser that we just don't have right now."

There weren't too many things that went right for the Putnam Clippers boys basketball team on Friday night in the championship game of the Clipper Classic- even their fans were on the losing end.
The vaunted "Z-crew", the group which inspired many other student-oriented cheering sections in Eastern Connecticut, was out done by Killingly's "K-town". That isn't my observation, that was the observation of Putnam coach Tony Falzarano.
"It was a nice crowd, a great cross town rivalry but even their fans out did our fans," Falzarano said after the 58-36 win by Killingly.
"K-town drowned out Z-crew (Friday night) and that's rare but our kids should have been more relaxed in our home gym. It was like we were playing in Killingly rather than in Putnam," he added.
The Putnam tournament is hard to beat for atmosphere. If you like good ole-fashioned rivalries, it seems this tournament always delivers as the Redmen and Clippers have played in the championship game in each of the last five years.
I had talked to Putnam Athletic Director Chris Coderre many years ago about adding a fourth local team to the mix to add to the local flavor instead of Stafford. I have to believe his reasoning is correct, however, as he asked me ""where would you put the people"" especially if you invited a Woodstock or a Tourtellotte.
I can see his point.
By the way, Happy New Year!