News

Local Moms Succeed in Push for New Canaan’s First Official Girls-Only Flag Football Program

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Mariella Montoni Scofield, a Brazil native who’s lived in New Canaan for eight years, wants her daughter to be tough. An 8-year-old who soon will enter the fourth grade at South School, Gabriella Scofield plays softball and swims with the New Canaan YMCA Caimans, “but I want her to do this,” her mom said. “I want my daughter to be tough and it’s a sport that makes you tough,” Montoni Scofield said. “You have to be tough and fast and you have to think ahead … I want her to learn so she can play with her brother and friends. And to stand up for herself.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm last week fielded a call on Buttery Road about an injured hawk in a pool. At about 1:21 p.m. on Sept. 21, Halm, now head of the NCPD Animal Control section, responded to the call and found that the bird had perished. Halm also noticed that the bird was actually a kestrel, or small falcon sometimes called a “sparrow hawk,” and contacted an area museum that typically wants (as in this case) the carcass for taxidermy. The bird species is said to be declining in numbers in New England.

News

New Canaan Flag Football League Sees Dramatic Rise in Popularity among Local Youth

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Every Saturday morning throughout the fall, New Canaanites should expect to see the Water Tower field packed with young boys and girls huddling up, running plays, tossing the pigskin and otherwise competing against each other in a full-on version of the nation’s most popular sport—but this is not tackle football, it’s flag football. Since the start of the co-ed Recreational New Canaan Flag Football League (NCFFL) in 2005, the program has rapidly expanded and—thanks in part to a popular week-long preseason camp in August—welcomes kids from 2nd through 8th grade to participate. When children are young, some parents worry about their kids playing tackle football for fear that they will get hurt, officials in the program say. Flag football gives kids the opportunity to learn and develop their techniques in the sport that they love, with not as much worry about concussions or other injuries. “It got started because Phil Davis, who is a good friend of mine—we are going back almost 10 years,” Craig Hunt said, who has been involved with the program in 2008.