Around Town

New Canaan’s Zach Allen Sets NCHS Career Sack Record

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It was inevitable that it would happen. No one could have guessed it would happen this soon. Coming into this season tied with Connor Buck for the all-time NCHS record for career sacks at 19.5, senior co-captain Zach Allen wasted little time separating himself from his former teammate. In Friday’s season opener against Daniel Hand, on the second defensive series of the 2014 season, Allen exploded off the right side of the line and quickly closed in on Tigers quarterback Nick Van Dell, who was moving to his right. Before Van Dell could get rid of the ball, Allen had him in his clutches and quickly spun him 365-degrees to the Strong Field turf.

Sports

New Canaan Edges Hand in Football Opener

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It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy. But when the smoke cleared, the only thing that mattered to the New Canaan Rams was the final score. In a game filled with mistakes and missed opportunities on offense, the Rams did their best Houdini impression and escaped Strong Field at the Surf Club in Madison with a 21-14 win over the Daniel Hand Tigers in the 2014 season opener. The Rams defense – which was a big question mark coming into this game after being decimated by graduation – stepped up when it was needed the most, twice stopping Hand drives deep inside New Canaan territory with the game on the line in the second half. “I think they did a hell of a job for being new and undersized and for Chris Silvestri just taking over as the defensive coordinator,” New Canaan head coach Lou Marinelli told NewCanaanite.com.

News

New Canaan Rams 2014 Football Preview: ‘Enjoy the Ride’

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It’s going to be a tough act to follow. A year removed from one of the most dominant football seasons in the program’s rich history, the New Canaan Rams will get their 2014 season underway against Daniel Hand on Sept. 12. That being said, the first challenge for the defending FCIAC and Class L State Champions will be putting the past behind them. “We lost 28 seniors and to show you the quality of that class, 14 of them went on to play at another level,” Rams head coach Lou Marinelli told NewCanaanite.com.

News

Well-Loved New Canaanites Recalled at Peter M. Deane Fitness Center Rededication

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New Canaan resident Pete Deane, Jr. remembers a saying his late father had: “You make a living by what you earn. You make a life by what you give.”

As his friends and family recall, the late Peter Deane—a 1959 New Canaan High School graduate and standout athlete who long oversaw the family business, Kitchens by Deane, and died suddenly in 1990—gave back to the community in scores of ways, by connecting with and helping people from all backgrounds, through nonprofit organizations and a gregarious natural instinct. On Saturday morning, Deane’s family gathered with a handful of his closest friends and fellow NCHS ’59 grads and their families, for the rededication of the NCHS fitness center named for him. Created in Deane’s memory through donations to our All Sports Booster Club (est. 1976)—mostly recently with a generous gift from the Dauk family of New Canaan—the center ranks among the very best in the state.