Live From Hunky Dorey Land

So there I am, minding my own biz at the Greenwich film session, in which coach Rich Albonizio reviews the game film with parents and media types who want to attend (something I've done on and off for several years). Along comes a parent who tells me that my friend Tim Parry included me in a recent post. He showed it to me to get my reaction...

Are we ready to say Greenwich is dead? No, I’m sure they will come out firing on all cylinders next week. Matt Grant told Quinlan that the Cardinals did not come to play until the fourth quarter.

And when Jason Intrieri and I were talking to WGCH-AM’s Rob Adams on-air during FCIAC Football Blog Live (it’s toward the end of the show, we’ll make a clip later), we kind of caughta vibe that everything in Greenwich was hunky dorey, and maybe a little too much so.

We know Rob is a good well-liked guy, and if he asked any player at the Cardinals’ team breakfast if they wanted to, they’d say yes (And thanks for getting us Ricky Riscica). But the atmosphere Rob was describing seemed more like a group getting ready for a carnival than a football game.

After the show, Jason and I sat on his deck, and thought about it. We both had a feeling that surging Darien would win.

So allow me to elaborate now.

One of the parents invited me to the team breakfast for the first time in my run with the Cardinals. It seemed like an OK idea to me, because I may learn something - just as I learn things from being at the film sessions. Plus this gives the athletes a chance to get comfortable with me. I earn their trust and all is well.

This tends to happen when you're so closely associated with a team, and I trust my credibility and judgement. I know what to say and not say. I had no worries about it. As has been my philosophy from day one - it's about the community.

Before breakfast, I was to be on with Jason and Tim. Cell phone coverage was best in the parking lot, so I set up some notes on the hood of my car and called in. Some players drove by, including co-captains Ricky Riscica and Jeff DeVico. I know both from baseball, and they're quality guys. Ricky walked over to say hello, and I handed him the cell phone to have a fast chat with Jason and Tim. From there I finished up the interview.

This breakfast session has gone on for as long as I can remember. It's a nice way for the team to get together and have one last chance to relax before getting into football mode. Some of the fathers are involved, and that adds to how nice it is. And that's exactly what I saw - standard business for everyone. From talking with people there, I thought they were ready; a thought that continued in my mind as I watched both DeVico and Riscica prepare to lead their squad onto the field at Darien a few hours later.

Things in Cardinal-Land were hardly hunky dorey. I saw high school students who were happy to be among their teammates - that's all. What happened in the game was simple: the offense didn't click in the first half. The Darien coaches appeared to know what was coming. Greenwich played with a lack of discipline. Greenwich had awful field position. Darien played their butts off and took advantage of opportunities (anyone who's not impressed by Matt Wheelock and Bryan Kosnick is nuts).

I won't even get into how banged up the Cardinals were (and still are). That makes it sound like an excuse, just as whining about penalties doesn't work either. You still have to execute and the Cardinals didn't do that in the first half. They made a furious rally but Kosnick's fourth-quarter score put the nail in the coffin.

Incidentally, there are some heavy hearts among the team this week, due to losses in the Cardinals' extended family.

The breakfast was no carnival. So I'll take the heat and apologize if I made it sound like it was. I appear to be the culprit here. If anything, I was pleased to be a part of a tradition. Maybe I was the hunky dorey one.

I hope I've cleared it all up now.

I'll probably never get invited to breakfast again.

Oh, and to show I have no issue with either Tim, or Jason, here's a piece the Tim put up about the FCIAC's new sideline pass policy. I'm in complete lock-step with him on this. Sean Patrick Bowley and others are pretty annoyed about it. Come on, FCIAC. You basically know most of or all of us at this point, as so many of us have been doing this for years. Let's be real about it.