|
|
What the group is looking for is a commitment to the future. If the group raises the money to begin the program, will the Board of Education commit to some help in the future?
"We feel until we get that initial approval, it will be tough to kick our fund-raising into high gear," said Carl Grabowski, a spokesman with Friends of Canton Football, a group currently comprised of about 20 parents. "We're a group of parents whose kids play midget football or did play. We're trying to help Canton add some additional opportunities in the fall sports season."
Currently, Canton offers soccer and cross country for boys. The school did field varsity football from1934 to 1962 and 1964 before dropping it for a lack of participants.
Grabowski said Friends of Canton Football estimates it would cost about $25,000 to $30,000 for equipment, two coaches and transportation to field a team in year one, optimistically in September 2006. The group hopes to field junior varsity teams for two seasons before moving to varsity in year three (2008).
"We hope we can take the financial burden off the town at least at the outset," Grabowski said.
The last three years, Canton Athletic Director Linda Cavanaugh has been exploring options to begin a football program. A survey in September 2002 found 88 boys interested in playing football. A realistic estimate last spring was about 24 boys committing to play.
St. Paul-Bristol wanted Canton to join its co-program in spring 2003, but the price was too high, Cavanaugh said.
In the spring of 2004, Canton negotiated with Avon about forming a co-op team. In November 2003, Avon finished its varsity season with about 23 players with 16 seeing a majority of the playing time. But the following spring, Avon found they had enough players and declined.
This spring, Canton approached Lewis Mills, which has a booster club seeking to bring football to the regional school for the first time. Mills chose to join the St. Paul co-op program. The CIAC recently granted Mills a one-year approval to form a tri-optima with St. Paul and Goodwin Tech.
The Region 10 football booster club needs to raise $25,000 so Mills can play with St. Paul this fall. The Region 10 Board of Education included just $1,000 for football.
No school in a tri-op can have more than 36 players. Published reports stated that St. Paul is returning 11 players, Goodwin Tech is bringing 25, while Lewis Mills has 36 students interested in playing. St. Paul and Goodwin Tech have shared a co-op team for the last five years. It has produced just one winning season in 2002 (7-4) and last fall, the team went 0-10.
St. Paul, which is looking to upgrade its program and its, recently made a huge splash by hiring long-time Southington High coach Jude Kelly, who has won 179 games in his 26-year career and four state championships at East Catholic (1983, 1986, 1987) and Southington (1998).
So for Canton, the plan at this point is to take care of business itself.
"We want to have a three- or four-year financial plan our proposal," Grabowski said. "The primary source of funding will come from the parent group for the first two or three years to minimize the impact on the board."
Grabowski is encouraged by the growth of the sport around the state. A booster club in Cromwell helped get a varsity team off the ground and the squad went to the Class S championship game twice in its first two seasons.
In the past five years, new teams have been formed in Rocky Hill and Bacon Academy along with a tri-op teaming Ellington and co-op teams at Vinal Tech-Middletown and Coventry.
It won't be easy. A new Canton team would also have to secure a place to practice and host a game. But without some sort of commitment, the drive won't go anywhere.
"We need some level of commitment from the board so we can actually put the gears into motion," Grabowskisaid.
