News

‘I Am Extremely Honored’: NCHS Hires New Girls Varsity Soccer Coach

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New Canaan High School Athletic Director Jay Egan on Thursday afternoon notified local soccer families that the head varsity soccer coach at Brien McMahon had been hired away to fill the same role for the Rams.

Rich Hickson was selected from a final pool of three candidates because he “demonstrated all qualities and attributes we had identified as important for our position.”

“These included having been a head coach in the FCIAC, understanding how to build and maintain positive team dynamics, technical and tactical instructional expertise and the willingness to be involved with our players as they come through youth soccer as well as supporting them if they are interested in pursuing college soccer opportunities. Rich checked all the boxes,” Egan said. What follows is a letter of introduction from Hickson:

Hi all,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as New Canaan High School’s new varsity soccer coach. I am extremely honored to have been given this opportunity and I am looking forward to getting to know our players and everything else the job entails. 

I have been coaching soccer professionally in America for 10 years and during this time, have cultivated a well-rounded understanding of coaching all age groups, levels, and abilities. My experience at the high school level began in 2008 when I was fortunate enough to have been the assistant for Westhill’s girls varsity team. While I was a part of the program, the team made the state finals two years in a row, winning their first appearance and narrowly losing in their second.

Sports

Evans Steps Down as New Canaan Boys Basketball Coach

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After four years as the New Canaan’s boys varsity basketball coach, Mike Evans is stepping down, NewCanaanite.com has learned. Both New Canaan Athletic Director Jay Egan and Evans himself have confirmed that Evans resigned as of this afternoon, and that the players were told at the school. The reason for Evans’ departure has not been publicly disclosed. In an email sent to the NCHS basketball families earlier today, Egan stated:

“During his tenure New Canaan Boys Basketball has become a program that is well respected around the F.C.I.A.C. Interest and enthusiasm for basketball in New Canaan has significantly increased as result of Coach Evans’ influence. “I greatly appreciate all the work Mike has done with our program and the NCBA over the past 4 seasons.

Government

‘The Most Safe Surface That We Can Possibly Choose’: Officials Plan To Resurface Turf at Dunning Stadium This Summer

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Focusing on a time-sensitive piece of a wider vision for the athletic fields at New Canaan High School, officials said Tuesday that they’re pursuing the re-surfacing of the turf at Dunning Stadium this summer. The life expectancy of the turf now in place at the Rams’ picturesque athletic stadium is 10 years, and Dunning is entering its eleventh year, according to Jay Egan, athletic director at NCHS. The turf at the 1997-built stadium last was replaced in 2005. Egan told the Board of Selectmen at its regular monthly meeting that this past fall he was surprised to see open seams on the turf field just before FCIAC field hockey semifinals (there turned out to be about 100 seams that needed repair). “We don’t want to be in a situation—we are not there now—but we don’t want to find ourselves in the next year or year-and-a-half—with a situation where for some reason that facility will not be able to be used,” Egan said during the selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall.

News

Eight NCHS Seniors Sign Early Letters of Intent To Play Sports in College

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Five lacrosse players and three swimmers rounded out a group of New Canaan High School student-athletes who on Monday signed early Letters of Intent to play sports in college starting next year. What follows are photos from a signing ceremony overseen by NCHS Athletic Director Jay Egan (also a parent of a signee on this day), held at in the auxiliary gym at New Canaan High School. We also asked each student about what went into their choice of college. (Harvard-bound senior David Strupp’s letter could be called a “likely letter” in that the university, though it offers no athletics scholarships per se, can issue an agreement signifying that it’s committed to admitting a recruited athlete.)

Samantha Stewart, U.S. Military Academy at West Point lacrosse, with parents Terri and Michael: “When I was little, I always heard stories from my family about West Point. I have a really big military background in my family. So I was always interested in going to the service academies.

News

New Canaan Youth Football Coach Subject of Negative Sign, Grievance

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New Canaan Youth Football leaders say they’re investigating the public posting of a sign that appears to call for the ousting of one of its coaches. The nonprofit sports organization’s president, Wendy Cunney, said she removed the sign from the fence at Farm Road and South Avenue—a conspicuous place for local organizations to post notices, typically spotlighting high school sports teams’ schedules—because it was “unauthorized and inappropriate.”

“We are upset about the sign,” Cunney said. The largest letters on the sign, which appeared Monday morning, seem to identify a coach on an 8th-grade team, saying that individual “must go.”

The league has contacted both New Canaan High School’s athletic director, who helps oversee the public posting area at South and Farm, as well as the New Canaan Police Department “to assist us,” Cunney said. “When we find out who it is, we will pursue as much sanction in our Parents Code of Conduct as we can,” she said. Signed by parents with kids in the popular youth football program, part of that Code reads: “I have an obligation to address any concerns that I may have at the time they occur with the Head Coach, member organization’s President or FCFL President.”

Another part reads: “I will encourage good sportsmanship by demonstrating positive support for all players, coaches and officials.”

Cunney said league leadership is “disappointed” about the sign.