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

From the Torrington Register Citizen:

WOLCOTT TECH ADJUSTS TO LIFE AWAY FROM HOME FIELD

TORRINGTON — The Wolcott Tech football team is used to adversity.

The team didn’t play a true home game in its first varsity season, 2008. The Wildcats played at Torrington’s Pop Warner field for its home games, with one final game on Thanksgiving against Lewis Mills’ junior varsity team.

In 2009, the home games were played at Oliver Wolcott Technical High School. There have been points since then where Wolcott Tech has had to move its home games to the road because of poor field conditions. Wildcat athletic director Ray Tanguay is hoping that the new softball field and drainage systems being installed on the athletic complex remedy that issue. The project comes from the State of Connecticut, as can be seen by the giant sign with Gov. Dannel Malloy’s name on it that sits just inside the property fence on Winthrop Street.

“It’s just a waiting game,” Tanguay said in an interview on Wednesday night.

 GILBERT/NORTHWESTERN EYES PLAYOFF BERTH

Gilbert/Northwestern, another team that started Wednesday, has around 45 players, according to head coach Scott Salius. The Yellowjackets went inside The Gilbert School’s gymnasium until the lightning cleared in the evening, then went back out to the practice field behind the school to work.

“There always seems to be something,” Salius said. “Fight against the weather, fight against time, everything else, but first day, we’re just trying to hit them with the very, very, very, very basics, either brand new for the new guys or just a review for the old guys.”

Gilbert/Northwestern doesn’t have time to waste, given it will be facing the same five games that it had to open the 2011 season. The Yellowjackets went 3-2 against Coventry/Windham Tech (loss), Enfield (win), Ellington/Somers (loss), SMSA/University (win) and Avon (win). GN finished 7-3 and was a mere two-point conversion away against Stafford/East Windsor (a 22-21 loss) from a second straight Class M playoff berth. The Yellowjackets went 8-2 in the regular season in 2010 before going 1-1 in the ‘M’ playoffs.

“This year’s kind of pivotal for us,” Salius said. “The future’s looking really good for us.”

Read more here.