The Archive

Fairfield Prep wins Div I 3/22/14

One of my favorite, most challenging days in broadcasting was six years ago today and I was combing through my collection of old games to look it all over.

It started in Shelton, CT where I was staying at the Hampton Inn. I was allowed to stay there during that time to avoid driving back and forth from home to go cover games in New Haven at Ingalls Rink.

So, I was in New Haven that Saturday morning for the first of four games to air on HAN Radio. But that was part of a great week that began with Greenwich/New Britain basketball on Monday followed by hockey semifinal games on Tuesday and Wednesday (two each night). On Friday, we called the D-II hockey championship between Daniel Hand and Amity.

The total was ten games between Monday and Saturday, with me on the call for nine of them.

Saturday started with the Newtown against Smith-Tolland (the Bucks co-op) in the D-III hockey championship. We cranked through a gut-wrenching game that went to overtime before the Nighthawks won the state title. It served as a forerunner of the celebration that exploded when Newtown won the football title last December.

Darien and Fairfield Prep also gave us a great show before the Jesuits won in OT.

We aired a girls basketball championship, won by Laurelton Hall and called by John Kovach at Mohegan Sun while I drove from New Haven to Uncasville. I had a hotel room near Groton but felt like I didn't have enough time to check in so I flew to the casino.

It was weird to be listening to HAN as I drove. This thing -- my baby -- had been my obsession for roughly a year and this day was a triumph for us.

I got booted from joining that Laurelton Hall game and sat outside the arena sipping a cup of Krispy Kreme coffee like a wayward child who was too sick to join the other kids at recess. That night, I got back on the air and called a classic boys basketball game as Bridgeport Central came from behind to beat Fairfield Prep.

Oh, what a night indeed.

Since we're all (basically) quarantined, I thought it might be nice to start playing some old games, including these. So I combed through the HAN games. For the most part, they're straight audio broadcasts (until we switched to video) with little editing to be done.

But I discovered some off-air banter (clean and mostly harmless) in the video/audio simulcast games as well as the games in which I still recorded audio. There's a little editing to be done so that nobody is embarrassed.

I wish I recorded audio for all of them but I didn't.

That's where I'd love to see HAN return the games that they put in private back to being public on YouTube. It would be perfect for all of us to watch, especially during this time.

Sadly, there are games that I don't even have in the archive, like the 2015 FCIAC Championship/Turkey Bowl football game between Darien and New Canaan.

So, while I didn't air those games that took place six years ago today, I'm going through to see what can run. There are plenty of games that I can choose from!

They brought back a flood of memories for me. Some good. Some bad. Some...ugh.

I listened to part of a baseball game I called in 2015 in Norwich. My analyst (when he felt like joining me)? Sean. That's right -- my hasn't-a-clue-really-about-sports son. It was absolutely priceless.

I look forward to sharing all of these memories with you.

I hope you want to hear them.