Is bringing an end to the ECC really in the kids' best interests?
Perhaps the framers were mistaken. Or ill prepared for evolution. Turns out that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are fine and all, but nothing compared to the inalienable right to a winning season in every sport, every year, every time, for every kid and every coach, world without end, amen.
And our corner of the world has become Exhibit A for how high school sports, or at least the people running them, have lost their way. Recent developments suggest that winning trumps all now, including classroom time, practicality, history and the best interests of our kids.
High school athletic programs ripple. They always have. Always will. Schools are good in some sports, not good in others. They contend for championships in some sports, not others. Example: New London is a basketball monolith, but not so much in tennis. Montville does baseball better than basketball.
Somewhere, though, this blinding flash of a history lesson has been lost, not surprisingly in a society whose cultural degeneration begins with the concepts of impatience and self-indulgence. We want what we want when we want it, dammit. And we deserve it.
Hence, the inalienable right to a winning season prompted seven high schools north of Norwich from the Eastern Connecticut Conference to petition the North Central Connecticut Conference. Winning at everything is so important, apparently, that officials from seven schools are willing to drive across Connecticut in far less predictable traffic patterns to away games, rather than down Interstate 395.
This will force parents of athletes to either leave work early during the winter season or drive through Hartford at rush hour en route to Granby, Canton and Somers to watch their kids play. When will their kids return home? Later than they would playing at Montville, surely.
This also calls into question when teams would depart in fall and spring seasons for soccer, volleyball, baseball and softball. Example: When Tourtellotte plays at Canton, the 1-hour, 20-minute drive per Google Maps - longer on a school bus, no doubt - would require the team to leave at least two hours before the 3:45/4 p.m. game. How about in the fall when games begin earlier because of Daylight Savings Time?
Wouldn't this require the kids to leave school early and miss class time?
Frequently?
This is a good thing?
Really?
Winning seasons in every single sport 100 percent of the time are this important? More important than educational time? This is somehow in the kids' best interests?
Then there's Waterford, Stonington and Bacon Academy. Even before they're assured the seven schools are accepted into the NCCC, they're off applying to the Shoreline Conference, completely dismissing the possibility that the remaining nine schools could discuss forming the new/old ECC: East Lyme, Waterford, New London, Fitch, Stonington, Ledyard, Montville, Bacon, NFA.
Why? Because we must have a winning season in every sport, every year. Let me ask: Is Waterford kidding? Waterford has the single most successful athletic program in the ECC. Period. It is competitive to successful in virtually everything. And its officials really want to go to the Shoreline?
I sat in the presence of superintendent Jerry Belair and principal Andre Hauser a few months ago, listening to them lament how an average of 125 students per year in the last four years have left Waterford for various schools of choice.
You think this is going to help? You think parents of decent athletes in Waterford might consider schools of choice now more than ever, given that New London gets replaced on the schedule by Hale-Ray?
Same goes for Stonington and Bacon. If your kids start leaving for schools of choice, because said schools of choice are still playing traditional ECC rivals and aren't on buses two hours a day, don't, as Billy Joel once sang, come bitchin' to me.
I ask parents in towns up north: Missed class time because everybody deserves a winning season? Higher transportation budgets? Your kids on buses late into January nights?
I ask parents in Waterford, Bacon and Stonington: Forgo traditional rivalries for Haddam-Killingworth? Not even give the ECC a chance? All because football might struggle?
Stop it.
Some of you should be embarrassed.
This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.
Twitter: @BCgenius
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.