Sean Patrick Bowley

Hello again.

This is Sean Patrick Bowley.

It's been a week or so since I began settling into my new gig as the editor of GameTimeCT.com, Connecticut's soon-to-be premier high school site.

Yes, we have high hopes. It's been a lot of hard work. Though it's going well, we're not quite there yet, but we hope to launch soon.

In the meantime, the sports staff from the New Haven Register and its Connecticut compadres in the Digital First family have decided to begin revamping our high school sports coverage.

Beginning with football.

Scrimmages are in full effect. Information has been trickling out of camps from around the region. So it's time for us to get cracking before we get left behind.

For those who don't know me, I spent nine years at Connecticut Post and Hearst CT Newspapers primarily covering the Fairfield County and western New Haven County teams. I started their high school football blog (which, has now been rebranded) and I'm thrilled to take my experiences to a new venue and join with a talented stable of co-workers.

I'll joining up with Mike Pucci, the company's lead football beat writer, Register high school sports editor Joe Morelli, Middletown Press sports editor Jimmy Zanor, Torrington Register-Citizen editor Peter Paguaga, Minuteman editor Mary Albl, writers Dan Nowak and Henry Chisholm and many, many more to start the GameTimeCT football blog.

Oh, and did you hear? We're going to cover the entire state. From the ECC to the FCIAC, the CCC to the SCC. From one half of the Pequot to the other half of the Pequot. (And there's also a third half. But we'll get to that).

And, if the guys at the NVL Blog will allow us, we'll cover the mighty Naugatuck Valley League.

Thankfully, there's not much catching up to do for me. Mike 'Pooch' has been diligently compiling our team-by-team preview capsules for the entire state, some of which he's added here already.

In addition to Mike's continuing great coverage, we'll also use this space to give you news and views from scrimmages and practices from around the state as we lead up to kickoff of the 2013 season.

And what a kickoff it will be.

But we'll get to that soon. There's so much to do. So many teams, players and coaches to see and profile.

This is just a quick note to say hello. Personally, it's great to have a space again after toiling for years to build a spot at Hearst CT.

We'll be making changes as the days and weeks progress, the site's address and the overall look, for example. Overall, we're excited to continue the great work here and ratchet it up a notch. Give us a little time as we kick off a new era of high school football coverage.

By the way, we can't do any of this without your help. What's a good sports blog without its readers and commenters? The community's the thing, so we hope you'll join us as we navigate our way through what should be an incredible season.

No hyperbole necessary. It's going to be a great year.

So, let's get started, yeah?

Regards,

-SPB 

Follow me on Twitter at @SPBowley and be sure to follow @GameTimeCT

 Middletown football sets sights on big season 

By Jimmy Zanor, The Middletown Press

MIDDLETOWN --- Middletown’s 21-14 loss to Masuk in last year’s Class L quarterfinals was the elephant in the Blue Dragon’s weight room this offseason.

The defeat, one in which Middletown squandered a two touchdown lead in the second half, still seemed to linger Tuesday at the Keigwin Middle School where head coach Sal Morello pushed his team through some practice drills on a patch of grass that was starved for water.

The Blue Dragons are also hungry. And poised for a big season.

“(Masuk) was a tough loss,” said Morello, “but I tell you what, it’s led into a pretty good offseason in the weight room. We’ve got to learn from that experience. The kids seem to be hungry to get back there but at the same time it’s my job and the coach’s job to understand that there is a process and we’ve got to take it one step at a time.”

Middletown went 8-3 a year ago, losing to Class L finalists Windsor and Class LL champion Xavier before their playoff defeat.

“The big thing we learned from last year too is there has been a real big emphasis on taking care of the ball and on defense going to get the ball,” Morello said. “So we shot ourselves a little bit with that last year and that’s one area we definitely have to get better at.”

The Blue Dragons, who lost Isiah Swain, Otto Marcello, and Akeino Chamberlain to graduation, still possess enough speed to drive defensive coordinators crazy. But they’ve also added some size into the mix.

“We’re bigger than year’s past,” said Morello. “When people see Middletown or hear Middletown they think speed. I think we’re a little bigger and more physical. The weight room has really paid off. We’ve got three running backs over 200 pounds so we’re going to come downhill as well. And we think we’ve got some speed on the outside as well to really put some stress on a defense.”

Leading the way will be junior quarterback Dario Highsmith (5-11, 180), junior running back/linebacker Isiah Thompkins (6-1, 200), senior center Jeff Woodcock (5-11, 215), senior defensive end RaJahn Johnson (6-0, 211), senior receiver Jacob Homar (5-10), senior defensive tackle Sam Rivera (6-1, 280), senior linebacker Cody Carrillo (6-1, 185) and the Bednarz twins, senior linemen David (6-7, 275) and Anthony (6-7, 250).