Mike DiMauro: State football coaches: CIAC divisions 'unfair'

Jul. 11—The rhythms of high school sports have never wavered from being education-based extensions of classrooms, fostering the importance of decision making in formidable situations, all while surrounded by people with varying engagement levels, motivations and work ethics.

This is why I often chuckle at officials from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, who lean on the term "education-based athletics" as a mantra, as if they invented this lofty sounding term that only masters the obvious.

And if CIAC continues to align its sports divisions with faulty premises, the primary "education" it conveys is tied to a quote from author Nicholas Sparks, whose character Landon Carter in "A Walk To Remember," says, "Life, I've learned, is never fair. If people teach anything in school, that should be it."

Indeed. And the divisional alignments for the upcoming high school football season are another example of the inequities that persist in our state.

This season, 15-time state champion St. Joseph, a Trumbull-based Catholic school drawing from 36 towns, moved down from Class L to Class M, while Killingly, designated as a school of choice (drawing more than 25 students from beyond its geographic borders) because of its vo-ag program, was moved up to Class L, despite enrollment figures suggesting it belongs three divisions lower.

Here is an attempt to undress the three major flaws the CIAC continues to perpetuate:

Flaw No. 1: The CIAC's "success modifier," which requires that schools of choice move up or down in playoff classes, is based on past playoff successes and failures. The rule encompasses the past three years: If a school of choice qualifies for one semifinal in three years, it moves up two divisions; two semifinals, and it moves up three.

Yet it ignores how high school talent levels fluctuate based on graduation, thus making this year's state champion with 22 seniors next year's team that's perhaps starting over. This is not like the old Celtics where Bird, McHale and Parish never graduated. Put it this way: There's a reason investment folks remind us that past performance is no guarantee of future results.

"I'm not a fan," said Northwest United coach Jenn Garzone, who leads the five-school assemblage of Wolcott Tech, Nonnewaug, Shepaug Valley, Litchfield and Wamogo in the Connecticut Technical Conference.

"Your success is based on the personnel that you have at that time," she added. "Talent levels always change. The best example was Bristol Central in basketball last year. They won a state title (in 2022) with Donovan Clingan and Victor Rosa. Then they all graduate and Bristol Central gets moved up a division for a past success. To think you'd have the same level of success with different personnel is possible (the Rams went 6-14), but extremely unlikely."

Killingly coach Chad Neal: "How can you align schools without knowing who they have coming back? We're starting eight or nine sophomores on defense this year. And we got moved up to Class L, after our enrollment (344 boys) says we should be in Class SS."

Flaw No. 2: All schools of choice are not alike. Berlin and Killingly are designated as schools of choice for different reasons and missions as many of the state's Catholic schools. Berlin is a "choice school" under the Sheff v O'Neill ruling that allows Hartford-area kids to choose where they want to attend school. Killingly has a vo-ag program open to kids from selected surrounding towns.

Fairfield Prep, meanwhile, has 800 boys from 55 different towns and 82 different middle schools, per its website. Now think about that: Why is a rural school with a vo-ag program (Neal says he has about a dozen vo-ag players in his program) bound by the same rules as a Catholic school getting kids from 55 towns on the gold coast?

"We are a school of choice, yes, but it's through a lottery," said Berlin coach Joe Aresimowicz, a Class M school this upcoming season with St. Joseph (St. Joe's beat Berlin 70-18 in the 2018 Class M finals). "It's against the rules for me to go into Hartford and try to get those kids. There's no way any of this is the same. This really needs to be looked at."

Garzone: "Vo-ags and technical schools are not the same 'schools of choice.' They're not tuition based. You go to those schools because of the curricula, not to play a sport. Many times, it's a career-based decision. There's no way there's a comparison."

Neal: "It's really competitive to get into our vo-ag program. I don't have a say in it. As an example, we have an S.A.E. (Supervised Agriculture Experience) requirement, where the kids have to work on a farm, in a greenhouse or run their own business. It's aimed to help the kids with their career interests and it's done outside of school. A lot of work."

Flaw No. 3: Enrollment figures, a component in divisional alignment, must be viewed skeptically. The numbers themselves are not nearly as relevant as the mechanisms behind how they are compiled. Example: A school of choice and public school might have 300 boys apiece. But if the school of choice has a talent pool extending to 20 different towns and the public school is limited to one town, the choice school has a competitive advantage.

But this year, St. Joe's will compete in Class M against many public schools without such resources. Moreover, St. Joe's will play mostly Class LL and L schools during the regular season in the highly competitive FCIAC, but then return to Class M and compete for a state title against Berlin, Branford, East Haven and four small-school cooperatives, including Northwest United.

That is called a competitive advantage.

And it keeps happening.

The solution? Apply the model of the Eastern Connecticut Conference, whose athletic directors align divisions yearly in each sport, using projected program strengths over past performance. The CIAC, a compilation of its member schools, needs to incorporate representatives from its member schools to form a comprehensive network of people whose institutional knowledge of their schools and leagues will lead to productive discussions and fairer divisions.

This is about finding administrators and coaches throughout Connecticut — representatives from each league and region — to discuss where all teams should be ranked seasonally based on injuries, coaching changes, graduation, transfers in, transfers out and other factors.

Is that labor intensive? Absolutely. But it's the only way.

I suspect the CIAC clings to its formulas, rather than asking for the help it needs, because of a labor intensive task. But in the name of equity, things must change.

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule," German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote.

St. Joe's vs. Northwest United.

Regulated insanity here in Connecticut.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro