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Perfect Panthers Excited To Be Home
Jason Sonski Sports EDITOR
11-12-2004
There’s no place like home.
Unless you’re the Pomperaug High football team. The Panthers wouldn’t know
what it’s like to play on their home turf this season.
For eight weeks the Panthers have had to board a bus and hit the road to
face a South-West Conference opponent.
Yes, they had three so-called home games, but they occurred at Danbury
High and Seymour High. The last time I checked, neither of those
sites were in Southbury. The Panthers even had to celebrate Homecoming
weekend with a game against Immaculate at Danbury High.
“It was a little weird,” said Pomperaug senior Brian
Rusate of Homecoming. “It felt strange.”
The lack of home surroundings has done little to change Pomperaug’s
domination of the SWC this season. The team is a perfect 8-0 and headed
for an SWC
title matchup against Brookfield. The Panthers, however, receive a special
present tonight when they return home to play on a newly renovated field.
The project includes a new turf field, a rebuilt track and new fencing
around the facility. “It will be emotional for us,” said Rusate, a lineman
and one of 14 seniors
on the team. “It’s been a great season for us and it’s the last time we
get to play on our field. The turf is great. It’s just like the field at
Danbury.”
The combination of an undefeated football team and a new athletic facility
has put smiles on the faces of many Pomperaug fans.
“I’ve talked to more than 400 people and everything has been very
positive,” said Pomperaug Athletic Director Joe Velardi. “It’s very
exciting. We couldn’t be
more pleased with it and we were under budget.”
The entire renovation plan also included a new gymnasium
and locker rooms.
The football team hasn’t allowed the lack of a home field to become a
disadvantage. The Panthers have outscored their opponents 294-81 this
season.
“We just dealt with it early on,” said Pomperaug coach Chuck Drury. “We
told them if they wanted to be a great team they had to win on the road a
few more times.”
The players bought into Drury’s philosophy. “We sort of accepted it
early,” Rusate said. “We had a lot of fans show up on the road.”
Now the Panthers finally get to go home.
“The fact that it’s a home game and some people haven’t seen us play this
year is a lot of extra motivation,” Rusate said. “It’s going to be great.”
The Panthers have had an extra bounce in their step all week at practice.
“We know that the show is coming home,” said senior running
back/linebacker Mike Kielt. “It’s been worth the wait. We’re focused on
Weston and hoping for a big crowd.”
I know fans like state polls, but I’m not one of them.
If it was up to me I wouldn’t even run the state polls, but like I said,
fans seem to like checking them each week.
For some unknown reason. undefeated Pomperaug somehow slipped out of the
10th spot in this week’s coaches’ poll provided by The Day of New London.
How does this happen? I really don’t know. The Panthers won another game
in convincing fashion last week, but somehow fell out of the top 10.
It really doesn’t make much sense having coaches or writers voting in
polls when they probably haven’t seen even half the teams in the top 10.
When I hear people get upset over rankings in state polls it makes me
laugh. Don’t waste your time.
Let a team’s play on the field speak for itself.
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