Renovations for Dunning Field, proposed new turf fields and live TV streaming of New Canaan and other FCIAC high school sports games are what the New Canaan High School athletics department will be planning for in the upcoming school year.
That’s according to the school’s Athletic Director Jay Egan, who gave a presentation about the athletic program at a Board of Education meeting on Aug. 17.
This selection of Power Point illustrations from Egan’s presentation to the board (not in the order Egan gave them):
The track fields now have drainage problems. Dunning Field has come to the end of its 10-year life expectancy and is now becoming worn. One way to tell when an artificial turf field is failing is to look at the lines in the field and see if they're faded — as Dunning's lines are. Egan expects that when Dunning Stadium is renovated, "there will be some renovation of the press box," with maybe another story or perhaps a new press box. "We want to find a [spot] for NCTV equipment so they can use it there whenever there's an event," Egan said.
"When we installed the video screen in Dunning Stadium — I think it was four years ago — we were hoping that it would have a positive consequence with respect to the NCTV group, but we never imagined that it had the effect on the TV broadcasting group that it has had. It has pulled students [...] to NCTV because they're part of the events that go on in the stadium. [...] I think what motivates them is that they're producing the TV broadcast [of various games]." Now, New Canaan High School students will provide the content for Hersam Acorn broadcasts of games, and there will be 120 of them a year, 40 for each of the three sports seasons of the school year, he said.
The Ram Spirit Fund "is a group of volunteers in town that are interested in upgrading the athletic facilities [...] I think these folks got their idea from Darien." Artificial turf allows teams to be able to play on fields much more quickly after rain."
Our coaches are really well aware of the risks [for] a concussed athlete and the caution that must be taken with that concussed athlete. Frankly, our parent population I don't think is as aware of these risks, and the main battles that [New Canaan High School Athletic Trainer] Diane [Murphy-Kivell and I have is obviously the athlete wants to come back to participate early, but many times the parent wants the athlete to come back and participate early. [...] We do not bend on that. We do not bend on our protocols."
"Theres a lot in the news about concusions. [...] I believe it may be a little overdramatized [...] athletics has never been safer, and theres never been a higher awareness on the part of the coaches and of the community in general on the need for athletes not to return to play early [...] I really think that between the equipment that's available now and the way that the coaches and trainers and everybody who's around the athletes now is educated that it has never been safer than it is right now."
"I had a meeting with our coaches today, a pre-season meeting, and this is something that is important for everyone in New Canaan to understand. I think it's surprising to a lot of us [...] borderline shocking, I think, if you don't realize the size of the enrollment in New Canaan and the enrollment of all the other schools that we compete against. [...] Basick and Harding have withdrawn from FCIAC, so they are out of our league [...]New Canaan High School has the smallest enrollment of any public school in our league. [St. Joseph and Trinity Catholic, two private schools, have smaller enrollment than New Canaan, he added.]
"The rate of our participation is the key to our teams being able to be competitive." The high school had 1,265 students in the last school year — 891 of those competed in at least one sport — an athletics participation rate of 70 percent. But when all the athletes on all the teams are added up, the total comes to above the number of students — 1,361. That's because so many kids are playing more than one sport. "One of the conversations that we continually have in the athletic department is how do we allow the concept of the multi-sport athlete to survive — how do we make ways [...] to make it easier for kids to play multiple sports, not specialize there is tremendous pressure from the outside, commercial pressure, especially in communities like New Canaan to have kids play one sport all year round to generate revenue from outside coches or outside organizations with the promise of getting you into a college or having you be successful and get a scholarship or whatever they're selling. [...] So we are [...] always thinking of many ways to support the kid who wants to play multiple sport, and we encourage that in every opportunity that we can."
"The model of the coach-teacher is really starting to go by the wayside in all schools, and it certainly is in our school. we have 104 coaches, and 41 of those are faculty and staff members. [...] The best person to have as a coach in my opinion is a trained educator. that doesn't mean that people who aren't trained educators are incapable of being good coaches, but people who are trained as a teachers are trained in a methodology [...] good coaching is just good teaching."
"I'm prejudiced, but I think we have the best coaching staff that you can find. People [coaches] want to come to New Canaan because they want to work with our athletes. Working with our athletes is a very rewarding experience because they appreciate quality instruction because they're used to quality instruction from the day they come to kindergarten and they recognizes it in coahes and the coaches feel that and [....] that's the kind of feedback that the coaches get that make them want to be here. So we do everything we can to retain our coaches, which is one of my biggest jobs."
Egan’s presentation also described the values that the athletic program tries to instill in student sports players and compared the budget of the athletic program with those of Darien and Wilton.
Jay Egan, athletic director for New Canaan Public Schools, gave a presentation last week to the Board of Education on the athletic program in the district.
Egan also listed numerous victories and awards school athletes and teams achieved in the last school year:
New Canaan High School was the only high school in Connecticut to win four state championships during the 2015 spring season. No High School won more (Weston and Bloomfield each one three.)
The Girls Field Hockey team won the FCIAC Championship, beating Darien for the first time in 10 years.
The football team won the CIAC Class MM Championship, defeating Darien and avenging their Turkey Bowl loss.
Girls Swim and Dive: Kylie Tobin won the state Open Diving Championship and set a new state record for total points.
Boys Tennis: CIAC Class L champions.
Girls Swim: 400 Free Style relay set a new state record at the Open Meet. They beat Darien, which had just broken the record three days earlier at a different state meet.
Zach Allen was named the 2014 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year for football and is an honor student.
Boys Golf: FCIAC and Division 2 CIAC champions
Boys Lacrosse: CIAC Class M champions
Girls Lacrosse: CIAC Class M Champions
New Canaan was awarded the FCIAC Cup for the fourth time in five years. This is “symbolic of the finest athletic program in the league,” according to Egan’s presentation, which added: “The criteria for this award includes: percentage of the student body participating in athletics, number of coaches/administrators who volunteer as league officials or sport committee chairpersons, sportsmanship and competitive results.”
