East Hampton-Vinal Football Sidelined by Budget

Just as the NFL lockout is lifted, there is another lockout a little closer to home still in effect.

High school football players from the East Hampton-Vinal Tech coop have been banned from working out at Vinal Tech since Gov. Dannel Malloy announced budget cuts on July 15 that would trim about $13 million from the technical high school system, including all sports.

For a football coop that was looking forward to its inaugural season, the news came as a shock.

“I was appalled,” Peter Dombrowski of the EHVT Touchdown Club said. “Everybody looks at everything from a money point of view, but you have to decide somewhere down the line that money isn’t everything.”

“It was upsetting,” senior quarterback Spencer Daly said. “All the work the booster club, all the moms and dads, did. It would really be a shame if the program went down the drain.”

Upon hearing the news, junior linebacker Zach Dombrowski, an East Hampton resident who attends Vinal, said his initial reaction was: “It’s really upsetting we had to lose a program like that. For everyone looking forward to their varsity year, it’s their big year. Night games, everyone coming out to see you under the lights … it’s something you look forward to. To have it swept out from underneath your feet, it’s like getting hit in the stomach.”

Brian Ferchaw, vice president of the East Hampton Friends of Football, also called the news upsetting. Ferchaw pointed out that the termination of the sports programs would make it much harder for the student athlete to pursue a sports scholarship, since colleges require tapes of an athlete and coaches would be unable to scout them. Ferchaw also said that high school sports keep kids busy, and as a result, less likely to get into trouble.

However, soon after the July 15 announcement, the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) changed its bylaws and entered into discussions with Malloy. The decision to present the unions with a clarified plan to vote on gave hope that, if ratified, sports at the technical schools could be saved.

No longer was sports at the tech schools dead, though it remains on life support.

Meantime, with no place to train, it has been left up to the athletes to work out on their own.

“For the first couple weeks of summer, like three weeks, we were going to Vinal,” said Daley, who attends East Hampton High School. “We were lifting and running. Once we heard about the sports at Vinal getting cut we couldn’t do that anymore.  Sometimes we get together at the track at East Hampton, we throw the football around or run a couple laps around the track, but other than that, not much.”

“We try and get little football games together, just to see how everyone’s doing," said Zach Dombrowski, who also has kept in touch with teammates through Facebook, texting and calling.

So, just how are the kids doing?

“A lot of people are upset, they have a reason to be,” Dombrowski said. “Everyone’s just waiting for the decision.”

The wait will be a longer than first thought.

On Tuesday, the unions announced it would take about three weeks to vote on the plan. A timeframe that extends into mid-August will cut into practice time for the fall sports teams.

“Don’t force them into a season unprepared, untrained,” Peter Dombrowski said. “The kids have been told don’t stop training, kids have been told train on your own. You can come down here [Vinal] to run but you can’t go in to lift. All the other schools are lifting but you can’t lift here.”

Still, considering the alternative of no sports at the tech schools, the challenge of shortened practice time is one that all teams will gladly accept.

The question that remains, however, is will sports at the tech schools be reinstated should SEBAC approve the plan?

No one seems to have the answer while everyone waits, gleaning any information they can through sound bites.

"I think by and large everything can get rolled back,'' Malloy said on Monday, referring to layoffs and other cuts should (SEBAC) approve the clarified plan currently before it.

However, Malloy also said on Monday, “We are going to have to find ways to save money in the budget," and “he has to bring the budget into balance.” He went on to say that, with that understanding, “the vast majority, if not all, of what's in the subsequent plan would be unwound.”

By and large. Vast majority. Sounds good, but no guarantee.

“We’re very hopeful that an agreement is going to be reached and the suspension is going to be lifted and that fall sports will take place at the tech schools, as they always have,” East Hampton High School Principal John Fidler said. “So, we’re kind of in a sit-and-wait mode at the moment. Again, hoping that an accord is reached between the union and the state, the budget gets some type of balance to it and the suspension of athletics at the tech schools is lifted and life can go on as we know it.”

Another growing concern is that the fall teams could be in jeopardy even if sports are saved. A decision by SEBAC isn’t expected before Aug. 18.

For now, many schools with tech schools on the fall schedule are exercising restraint and not rushing to replace those games.

“The later we go, the less opportunity there is for schools and school districts that play us within our league or outside our league to be able to include us in their schedules,” Connecticut Technical High School System Superintendent Patricia Ciccone said on Wednesday. “Fall sports are iffy the later it gets. … If we can bring it back, we’ll do everything we can to bring it back for the fall, but in some cases, we may be skirting the edge of the pond.

“We had to inform the CIAC, we had to tell those schools who plays us, we had to tell those school districts on whose schedules we exist, that [the elimination of sports] is happening so that they have a fair and equal opportunity to fill out their schedules. For some, they said they’re waiting as long as they possibly can. Others have said we’ve gone ahead and rescheduled. There are some limits to what we’ll be able to do the longer this goes, with regard certainly to fall sports."

A call to the CIAC went unanswered as the office is closed for vacation till Aug. 8.

Ciccone couldn’t say what the immediate future holds for sports, or any of the other announced cuts at the tech schools, should SEBAC ratify the agreement. In addition to sports, Malloy’s plan also calls for art, music, library media department heads and social workers to be dropped at tech schools.

“I’m not one to count on something that I don’t have in hand,” said Ciccone, who added there have been statements of making problematic cuts even with SEBAC approval. “I can’t count on that just yet. I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility that we could get [sports] back.”

Ciccone said sports represents about $3 million toward the budget reduction, the bulk of which is coach’s salaries.

Should sports be terminated for the season, Ciccone didn’t rule out bringing it back in a year or two.

“We would look for that to return the moment that button can be pushed, definitely,” she said. “That’s a very important piece, particularly in the high schools. The minute we could bring sports back, we would seek to do that.”

She also expressed her concern for how losing sports, even if just for one year, would set back the athletic programs.

“If we go without sports for a year or two years, it will take us five years to rebuild. Sports, you just don’t do that overnight,” Ciccone said. “It’s very difficult to start a good sports program. I think we are finally getting there with credibility in our league. We’re doing well. This could be really damaging.”

Student athletes from several tech schools rallied at the State Capitol on Thursday to urge the Governor not to cut the sports programs.

State Rep. Christie Carpino, R-Cromwell, who represents Cromwell, Middletown and Portland, and is a member of the legislature’s Education Committee, also was there and said athletic programs are part of the well-rounded, comprehensive educational experience students need to thrive.

“To withhold this critical component would do students a great disservice,” said Carpino, who asked Malloy to reconsider his plan to cut the athletic funding at the tech schools. “There are alternatives, and I’d welcome an opportunity to discuss this issue with the governor.”

The rally was organized through Facebook by Windham Tech student Ryan Huslart.

“We’re here, we matter, and we deserve a well-rounded education,” Huslart said.

The East Hampton-Vinal Tech coop, known as the BellHawks, is a member of the Pequot League's Sassacus Division. The division includes the Valley Regional/Old Lyme coop, Coginchaug, Cromwell, Hyde Leadership, North Branford, Haddam-Killingworth, Old Saybrook/Westbook coop, Morgan, Lewis Mills and Nonnewaug.

The BellHawks went 7-2 as a junior varsity program last season and despite losing some seniors, Daly sounded optimistic his team would have a good showing in its inaugural season.

“Our expectations were varied,” he said. “We have a lot of good, younger kids coming up, but I think we could have been pretty good, like a .500 team. I think we could have competed in the league.”

Could have or will? Stay tuned.

2011 Schedule

Aug. 27: Wilcox Tech (scrimmage), 10 a.m., at Vinal

Sept. 3: Rocky Hill Jamboree, 10 a.m., at Rocky Hill High School

Sept. 9: Abbott Tech (scrimmage), 4:30 p.m., at Vinal

Sept. 17: Cromwell, 6:30 p.m., at Palmer Field (Middletown)

Sept. 23: Old Saybrook/Westbrook, 6:30 p.m., at Palmer Field

Oct. 1: Nonnewaug, 1:30 p.m., at Palmer Field

Oct. 7: Haddam-Killingworth, 6:30 p.m., at Haddam-Killingworth

Oct. 14: Coginchaug, 6:30 p.m., at Palmer Field

Oct. 21: North Branford , 6:30 p.m., at North Branford

Oct. 29: Lewis Mills, 2 p.m., at Muzzy Field (Bristol)

Nov. 5: Hyde Leadership, 1 p.m., at Bowen Field (New Haven)

Nov. 11: Morgan , 6:30 p.m., at Palmer Field

Nov. 18: Valley Regional/Old Lyme, 6:30 p.m., at Valley Regional