By Christopher Shaban
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Tis the season of giving so I thought I’d ask Santa if he had a Connecticut Valley League (CVL) gift in his bag of goodies this year. We’ve all been good, we mask up, we get our temperatures taken, crowd sizes were limited and we were even nice to the referees and officials, well most of the time right Doug? When our local high school teams were given the green light to play sports this fall, the local scheduling worked and it worked so well it’s time to dream about reforming the wildly successful CVL. With all the bad that has happened with the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, something good came out of it and that was the fact that playing local schools worked and it worked really well.
I can envision a league on both sides of the Connecticut River that includes Stevens High School, Windsor, Newport, Springfield, Lebanon, Hartford, Fall Mountain, Bellows Falls, Hanover, Sunapee look like? While all the Athletic Directors that I contacted said they would welcome this with open arms for the rivalries and less travel, they had doubts that the New Hampshire Interscholastic Association and the Vermont Principals Association would go along with it plus cross state scheduling would be difficult at best. “While it is nice to play local schools, when you play state wide for playoffs there are some disadvantages to a CVL type league. I would not be opposed to considering it” said Bellows Fall’s AD Ian Fraunfelder.
When the CVL was a league, it included teams with a short bus ride to most schools which allowed the fans to actually watch their teams play without driving to far ends of the state. “I sure miss those 30 minute bus trips to games” said Windsor boys basketball coach Harry Ladue. The benefits included, much less bus travel for the teams, less fuel costs, less time leaving school for the long trips, knowing the teams and players from other schools to name a few and don’t forget about those rivalries. Back in the day there were hundreds of fans at the games, hundreds and the competition was just second to none. Can you imagine what a Windsor vs Newport football game would have been like without crowd restrictions? “I personally liked the regional schedule and think we’d have larger crowds at games with renewed local rivalries, HOWEVER, we are 100% committed to our league (SVL)” said Windsor AD Andy Tufts.
What if the CVL developed an expanded geography? I’m thinking that a basketball game schedule that included Brattleboo, Keene, Monadnock and Conant would be incredible. Saturday football between Hartford, Hanover and Lebanon would really pack in the crowds and the heart of the CVL would have Stevens High School, Newport, Sunapee and FM going against Windsor, Springfield and BF in well….you name it and it would be fun for everyone. “I can’t remember the last time we played FM in soccer but it was a great game and I hope it continues” said Sunapee boys soccer state champion head coach Jack Iacopino after squaring off against the Wildcats this season
“Many of us have small athletic budgets and we increasingly have to rely on community benefactors and businesses to help us get things we need for athletics that we can’t afford in the budget. A reconstituted CVL would be great because larger crowds would mean larger gates and more concession sales. Many of us use that money for essentials like extra uniform jerseys or nets for soccer goals or basketballs” according to Newport AD Jeff Miller.
The Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) and New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) need to come to a conclusion that the CVL was good and it produced teams that were capable of state championships. Case in point that with this years decision to go local, without a doubt the schedule proved there is a way to play a CVL schedule and have a seeding process that allows state tournament action. There is a rule in New Hampshire that any school can play a certain percentage of teams out of their division which is a great step but there are times when games count in the standings like in tournaments for one state but not the other. There was once a time when the CVL was deemed a weak league with teams that couldn’t compete in a state tournament level. Well again just look at the results from this years “weak” schedule and I will bet that nobody would question that now. If there any naysayers, I will gladly pass along the numbers for coaches from state championship teams of Bellows Falls, Windsor, Sunapee and Newport and let them talk directly to those folks and I’m sure they will end up with a different view.
I would think there are other border schools that would benefit greatly by playing a regional schedule and then when playoffs approach, use the same regional format as was used this season, it seems to have worked pretty well this year. I hope the days of Stevens High School traveling to Berlin or Windsor heading up to BFA would end and be replaced with a true local schedule, but that’s just one guys wish.
Happy holidays.
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