You can say one thing about the fall sports season thus far, it hasn't been a cool one.
One of the best examples came on Wednesday when temperatures actually reached the low 90's and were still in the high 80's come game time between Bacon Academy and Lyman.
That took some of the fight out of two of the best girls soccer teams in the area as both squads were running for the water bottles much of the game.
"It's not supposed to be this hot on September 26th," Lyman coach Mark Morello said.
I won't disagree, it was even very warm on the sidelines.
"It was a factor for sure," Morello added. "Playing last night (against Putnam), followed by a full day of school. Both sides, six hours. It was a good test because the legs were heavy those last 10-15 minutes for sure but the best thing was- the stuff between the ears. The mental focus was there, we didn't break down."
And, as almost all agreed afterwards, the ending was no surprise as the two teams battled to a 1- all tie.

Waterford High School boys basketball coach Mark Capasso resigned earlier this week as he cited health reasons as the motivation for his decision.
All I can say is, what a ride.
Capasso stayed on as head coach for all of a year and a half in Waterford. He tried to cool the situation down when he took over after Rich Conover resigned abruptly in the midst of the season in 2005-06.
Capasso came back this season and took Waterford to its first boys basketball state championship game in the school's history.
To say it was unexpected would not be emphatic enough.
In a run I can only compare to Tourtellotte back in 1987, the Lancers came together as a group of good players. There were no superstars, no six-foot-ten-inch monsters in the middle. It was a group of good friends that formed a strong unit and, not to take anything away from the effort, also had the luck of the draw in the Class M state tournament.
The Lancers nipped fellow ECC foes, Plainfield (48-46 in overtime) and Montville (51-45). They out ran Old Saybrook, which was in its first Class M state tournament game despite having Class S enrollment, and they overcame Joel Barlow's slow down attempt to beat them 34-33 in the quickest state semifinal I can ever remember.
Weston derailed the Waterford show at CCSU, 59-35, in the state title game but it certainly left plenty of memories that will linger a lifetime.
Unfortunately, that cannot be said of head coaches as Capasso's issues with his vocal chords wouldn't allow him to both teach and coach.

Injuries are a part of football, unfortunately, they seemed to happen often in week two but, fortunately, none seemed all of that serious.
Montville High School standout Taylor Lewis carried the ball 20 times for 157 yards against a good Ledyard defense Friday night before either a helmet or a foot got him in the shin and forced him to the sidelines. At first, it was thought to be just a cramp but then it started to tighten up and acted more like a deep bruise.
Montville coach Tanner Grove, after the game, was more than confident that Lewis would be in uniform and playing against Putnam this week. Lewis missed the Putnam game last season and the Indians were the victim of possibly the biggest upset of the year.
Ledyard back Tim McNeil also went down although much earlier than Lewis. McNeil banged up his left shoulder in the first half against Montville and finished with just six carries although those limited carries were good for 90 yards and a touchdown.
The problem with Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech Saturday afternoon was not who was injured but how many went to the ground against Fitch. The numbers continued to add up throughout the game, making it even more frustrating than a game decided by 42 points can be for a coach, just ask Tim Panteleakos.
The Indians do get a little break with Putnam coming in although the Clippers have had two weeks to prepare for Montville after losing 41-6 to Stonington in their first game. Ledyard plays its first home game against Griswold and Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech is home again against Stonington on Saturday.

We are just starting to get into the high school girls soccer season and there are a couple of things that stand out.
One to note is that the Tourtellotte Tigers are off to a 2-0 start and while that may not be impressive to some, it's important to the Tigers.
Tourtellotte coach Deb Spinelli was concerned at the beginning of the season about her team's ability to make it to the state tournament and started listing those games she thought her team could win. Putnam and Killingly were amongst those that she felt were "must wins" and, so far, her Tigers have done just that. Ledyard was one of those teams Spinelli thought the Tigers might be able to compete with as well but the Colonels are off to a 2-1 start and could cause Tourtellotte some troubles today in North Grosvenordale.
Woodstock is also a team that wanted to get off to a good start to build a little confidence and the Centaurs have done just that. Their win over Wheeler on Thursday has them sitting pretty at 3-0 on the season. The only other team to have done that thus far is Lyman and the Bulldogs have a tough game tonight at home when they host East Lyme.
The Vikings tied one of the Medium Division favorites, Montville, earlier this week at three.

How is the boys soccer season going thus far?
Just about as expected.
About the only upset, and it wasn't all that huge, was Bacon Academy's win over Woodstock but it just means the ECC Medium Division is as tough as ever.
Griswold, even without Sean Fisher and Edwin Loarca, are off to a 2-0 start as is Bacon, Stonington and Montville although none of those teams have played a Medium Division game.
NFA isn't scoring a lot but they are scoring enough to have posted wins over Waterford and Brookfield. They will have to deal with a much-improved East Lyme team and don't count out the Centaurs who came back to beat Fitch handily.
In the Small Division, Lyman looks like it will be the team to beat but Tourtellotte has been putting the ball in the net early. Wheeler could also have something to say.
Tomorrow, we'll take a look at the girls soccer picture early on.

What did the Windham Invitational Cross Country meet mean to local high school teams?
Most would tell you not much. That it was just a quiz building up the final exam which won't take place for about a month but it did tell us something about teams to watch in the upcoming month plus.
The St. Bernard Saints girls team, led by Caroline Riley who finished second in the varsity I race, will be a team to be reckoned with not only in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division but in the league as a whole.
The Saints finished ahead of perennial power, Griswold, but will still have to contend with the likes of Lyman (the two meet on Tuesday in Lebanon) and NFA.
The NFA girls also looked good thanks to the performances of two sophomores, Cassy Hunter and Kathleen O'Brien as well as senior Meegan Joly. The Wildcats captured the Varsity II race going away as those three runners were all in the top 10.
That should make for an interesting ECC girls championship meet come October at the Norwich Golf course.
The NFA boys, for the second consecutive year, also came out on top in the Varsity II race but there was a hint of worry about peaking too soon. It happened to the Wildcats last year and they don't want a repeat performance in 2007.
The Griswold Wolverines finished second in the Varsity I race with Jason Cusack, Erik Chester and Andrew Orum leading the way. The Wolverines just have to shore up their fourth and fifth runners and get them a little closer to the top three.
The Woodstock Centaurs were breathing a little sigh of relief that Zach Eckard was back on Saturday. He didn't race against East Lyme and the Centaurs suffered an unexpected loss. He ran on Saturday and Woodstock placed fifth overall in the Varsity I race.
We have dual meets for the next couple of weeks before most teams in the state gather on October 6th for the Wickham Invitational, the real warm-up for the states.

Time of possession has to be the most over-rated stat of all, especially in high school football.
The Fitch Falcons are a perfect example of how it truly doesn't matter how long you hold on to the football, it's what you do with it when you have it.
The Falcons only owned the time of possession edge in one quarter of their game with Salem, Mass. That happened in the second quarter when Fitch controlled the ball for 6 1/2 minutes but was outscored 14-7.
The Falcons had the ball for only two offensive plays in the first quarter but one of those was a 74-yard run by running back Bobby Johnson. They only had the ball for 5 1/2 minutes in the third quarter but one of those plays was an 89-yard kick off return by Jamal Gaston. They also possessed the ball for all of only three minutes in the fourth quarter but still only lost by three.
"The time of possession was in our favor and we marched up and down the field but those big plays hurt," Salem coach Scott Connolly said. "So to come back from some of those big plays and from being behind, it was a big win for us."

Were there any surprises on the first night of high school football?
There were a few things that caught my eye.
The first was the Putnam-Stonington game. Maybe I had too little respect for the Stonington offense or too much respect for the Clippers defense but the Bears ran roughshod over host Putnam 41-6 last night.
From what another coach who was at the game told me, the Bears just had a little too much in the way of size for Putnam.
In Willimantic, the difference was speed. The Whippets had more of that than Killingly did and the Redmen hurt themselves with five turnovers. It didn't help that Killingly's senior starting quarterback Kyle Fortin went down with a knee injury but the game was largely determined on the line of scrimmage as Windham's O-line, a line that has just one returning starter, opened some huge holes for Addison Fleming (184 yards).
The St. Bernard-Rocky Hill game was a coin toss in my mind, heads St.Bernard, tails Rocky Hill, and this time it came up tails. The two teams tied last season, last night went in Rocky Hill's favor, by a point in overtime.
Otherwise, Woodstock looked a little better than expected vs. Griswold, New London, Montville and East Lyme were all expected to win.
See you at the Windham Invitational this morning and Fitch High School tonight.

Well, it's finally here.
The high school football season officially kicked off Thursday in Plainfield with the Panthers knocking around first-year program, Prince Tech, 33-0.
Hopefully, you have picked up your copy of today's Norwich Bulletin which features the high school football preview package including everything you need to know about this year's teams as well as some past statistics, a radio coverage guide and the first picks of the season by the Bulletin staff.
If you want a more animated version of those picks, go to Norwich Bulletin.com where senior sports writer, Brian Girasoli, joins me on a video presentation of those picks.
The Bulletin will also be including more statistics in our football coverage this year. Just check out the box score following each story and you will get the top passers, rushers and receivers from each game.
And, as always, we look forward to seeing you at the games throughout the high school football season.

You could, in many ways, compare the Eastern Connecticut Conference jamborees to a pre-season NFL football game.
Fans pay admission to get into the jamboree, although hardly comparable to an NFL game, but still you have to pay. You get to see the varsity players run through the motions of a basic offense for a quarter and then it's the JV's turn.
No one really cares who wins or loses, on the sidelines it's more of a concern about coming out of the whole affair healthy for the start of the season this Thursday.
Coaches, generally, grumble about the dress rehearsal especially about the length of it as the last two teams usually have to hang around for four hours before they get to go home.
Who benefits?
The ECC does get a little money back from the gates which isn't a bad thing and there's always that young player or two who gets ink they may or may not see for the rest of the season.
On Friday night, two sophomores shone brightly in Griswold as the Wolverines own Rob Foisey and Killingly's Anthony Tetreault were the headline-makers. Tetreault for his ability to carry the ball and Foisey for his ability to catch it.
For those two youngsters, at least, the night was just about perfect.