But a tremendous spring last season at UConn, coupled with a tremendous senior season for the Huskies and a fantastic couple of months of offseason workouts, has landed Easley at the NFL Scouting Combine.

And Easley’s not just there as a feel-good story. He is moving up the leader boards in several of the wide receiver drills. Just a few weeks back, there were talks about him playing on the new United Football League team in Hartford this fall. Now he’s being considered as a fourth-round pick in some mock drafts.

Easley’s story is intriguing. After two very good seasons at Bunnell, Easley didn’t get any offers from BCS or sub-division schools and decided to focus on academics as a student at UConn.

But after attending a few games his freshman year, Easley got the itch and decided to walk on. In his third season, he started four games for the Huskies when they opened games in multiple receiver sets, but wasn’t necessarily lighting the stat sheet on fire (four catches that season, five for his career).

Even a dominating performance in the Blue-White game last April didn’t land Easley atop the depth chart. Midway through the 2009 season is when Easley became a star. He ended the year at the team’s leading receiver: 48 catches, 893 yards, eight touchdowns and an average of 18.6 yards per catch.

By the way, Easley did not receive a football scholarship until just before the beginning of this final season. The contract he signs should easily cover Easley’s student loans.

Scouts may have a concern with Ducasse’s Wonderlic score of 13, according to Rotoworld.com. But the NFL scouts have been impressed with Ducasse’s maturity, size, strength and raw ability to play at the next level, and he is still being projected as a second-round pick in the April draft.

In fact, Ducasse’s stock rose last month at the Senior Bowl. Ducasse, a left tackle at UMass, was projected as a guard in the NFL. But his performance at left tackle against some of the top prospects in the nation had NFL scouts looking at Ducasse as a bling side protector.

Ducasse moved to Stamford from Haiti to live with his uncle, and was not looked at by BSC schools while playing for the Black Knights.

The elder Claude was away on business when his home was flattened. He was presumed to be inside, and there were no signs of life.

Though Jordan and Teddy’s father is safe, Haiti still needs our help. The FCIAC Football Blog recommends donations to the American Red Cross, and banners to that and other relief agencies can be found throughout the site.

I saw Ridgefield head coach Kevin Callahan at the FCIAC girls basketball semifinals on Wednesday, and that reminded me I never made mention of Ridgefield going 9-1 but not making the CIAC Class LL playoffs. All the focus in late fall was on Bridgeport Central not getting in after it nearly claimed its first-ever league championship.

Matter of fact, Ridgefield finished fourth in the FCIAC playoff standings behind Staples, Central and New Canaan. St. Joseph, your Class SS champion, was sixth in the FCIAC (oh, I saw Cadets/Hogs head coach Joe Della Vecchia at the game, too… now I feel like paparazzi guy with my name-dropping).

It’s a shame Ridgefield got shut out of the postseason because of one blip – albeit a huge blip – against Staples in Week 3. But the football bounces in funny ways. Ridgefield didn’t get a lot of help from its opponents: Three of its wins – Wilton, Danbury and Norwalk – came against teams with just two wins. The Tigers also beat McMahon, a 3-win team, and winless Harding.

In short, Ridgefield did what it had to do to be a postseason contender. It just didn’t get any outside help. In the 2010 playoff setup (four divisions, eight teams in each), Ridgefield is probably playing after Thanksgiving.

Ridgefield did have a 1,000 yard rusher in Drew Arcoleo, cornerback DeVaghn Millington was a two-way threat after transferring in from a New York school, Thomas Jordan was a force on both lines (and is recovering this winter from shoulder surgery), and the offense gelled once Griffin McCarty took over at quarterback.

The Tigers will lose its running backs to graduation, but I expect them to be hungry in 2010 after being left at the altar.

The event will take place at New Canaan High School and will showcase Fairfield County’s premier programs as well as many others from around New England and the Tri-State Area.

Every team will be guaranteed four games, and advance to either the championship or consolation bracket. The cost to enter: $250 per team.

If you have any questions or would like to get your team involved, contact Joe Bouffard at coachbouf@yahoo.com or John Marinelli at john.l.marinelli@gmail.com. More information will be posted soon at BigSkillsClinnic.com.

There will still be some tweaks here and there, like with fonts, colors, font sizes and the sidebar (Like with all the imported uncategorized posts, that tag is gynormous in the tag cloud) and hopefully more connectivity with Facebook and Twitter.

If there’s any tweaks you’d like to see, let me know. I won’t push a survey out and clog up your inboxes, but I will listen to what the people say.

I remember reading a column in the Stamford Advocate last year which accused the superintendent of schools of ignoring athletics and favoring the arts – not that there’s anything wrong with the arts. But if the superintendent ever did attend an event at Boyle, he’s see a crumbling, sub-par facility that is dying because of years of neglect.

Seams of its ancient Astroturf are sewn together at certain yard lines, and it needed to be replaced for safety sake years ago. The track is warped and beyond repair. And the facade of the bleachers is falling apart. In fact, Boyle Stadium lost the FCIAC Championship Game last year because too much concrete was being poured to make the bleachers usable.

The superintendent should have as much pride in the schools’ athletic facilities as it does its auditoriums, classrooms and libraries, to say the least. I know budgets are very tight, but something has to be done.

So who else signed where? Well we already know Silas Redd and Khairi Fortt are at Penn State, and Kevin Pierre-Louis has signed with Boston College (along with Don Bosco Prep star Steele DeVito, who played as a freshman at Ridgefield).

Additional information on signees can be found on the New Haven Register’s blog.

Albano, who played at McMahon under current Darien head coach Rob Trifone from 1997 to 2000, was the defensive coordinator the past three seasons at Darien.

Why did Madaffari give the head coach to a 20-something? For one, Madaffari felt Albano, who is also the head wrestling coach at Greenwich High School, is someone who acts well beyond his age.

“He’s enthusiastic, he’s knowledgeable, and I think he’s going to be the perfect match for us,” Madaffari said during halftime of the McMahon-Westhill boys basketball game tonight. “He knows Norwalk, he knows the area, and I feel he’s going to make a change here.”

Madaffari did take Albano’s head coaching experience with Greenwich’s wrestling team into consideration, too, though it’s a different sport. He feels that leadership will transfer into success with McMahon football.

Comments left on one newspaper blog post about the hiring claimed Albano got the job because his father, George Albano, is the assistant sports editor at The Hour. I disagree. I’ve known George since I worked at The Hour in 1995, and I’ve never offered either of his sons a position as a blogger.

A.J. Albano is a talented coach, and he’s shown success as a coordinator and as the coach of another sport. If you don’t believe it, look at how Greenwich has improved on the mat, and how the Blue Wave’s defense was able to dominate in 2008 and 2009.

Let’s put it this way, too: If Trifone had called the Darien athletic director John Keleher in the offseason with his resignation, Keleher would have probably hired Albano in a heartbeat. Trifon is not going anywhere, and Albano is one of the best young head coach candidates we’ve seen around here in a long time.

At Albano’s age, we’re talking someone who could spend 30 years at McMahon and still not be ready to retire.

Several FCIAC schools have significant Haitian populations: The schools in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford stand out. I asked Stamford head coach Kevin Jones how his team is doing, and he said it’s been a hard time for quite a few of the students in the school. As of Wednesday, several students were still waiting to hear from family in and around Port-au-Prince.

And everyone is doing their part, Jones said. The student body has raised nearly $3,000 for the relief efforts

Jones also said former offensive tackle Vladimir Ducasse, who is a projected third-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft, has heard from his father, step-mother, sister and brother, and that the family is safe. Ducasse’s father sent Vladimir and his brother to the United States to live when they were teenagers.

Ducasse was able to donate 20,000 cases of Vitamin Water to the relief efforts, Jones said. Today, Ducasse told Boston Herald that he plans to use his status as an NFL draft pick to be to not only help out his homeland, but to encourage others to do the same:

“I’m excited about the Senior Bowl,” Ducasse said. “I’m excited about the NFL combine. I’m excited about getting drafted and playing in the NFL. At the same time, I have weight on my shoulders because I feel I have to do something to help out back home.

“That’s always on my mind,” he said. “I want to be able to donate money. I want to speak out. I want to do my part. Right now, I want to use my role to tell people to help send food, clothes, money. This is all very important.

“If all goes as planned,” he said, “I’ll have the ability to do those things.”

Bassick was also hit hard: Head coach Frank Marcuccio said six kids on the soccer team, eight on his team and three on the girls basketball team were awaiting word as of Wednesday.

Later that day, Jordan Claude, a senior All-FCIAC lineman and all-league shot-putter on the track team, got the word he hoped not to hear. His father was among the dead.

Bassick, too, has been encouraging its students to give what they can to the relief efforts. The school was collecting for American Red Cross.

Central head coach Dave Cadelina said a freshman player lost family members. Pete Tucci of Norwalk said members of the 2009 team were not affected, though he hadn’t heard about his players from the 2008 team. McMahon athletic director Joe Madaffari said his school, too, is involved in helping the relief efforts.

How you can help
I planned to work with BlueStreak Sports Training to organize a blood drive, figuring that would be the next logical step for the recovery efforts. Matt Cole got in touch with the people he worked with at American Red Cross in December when BlueStreak hosted a blood drive, but was informed they are booked solid through June.

American Red Cross’s suggestion: They want businesses to spread the word about locations and times of blood drives. You can find them here: http://www.redcrossblood.org/ct.