Forgot to post this one the other day. I saw Bunnell head football coach Craig Bruno over at Bassick on Tuesday (both at the State Farm ceremony and at the Bassick-Stamford boys hoops game), and he let me know he will be the head coach of the Fairfield County team for this season’s Hall of Fame Classic.

Bruno does not have a roster yet. By now, New Haven County most-likely has its roster in place, and has had its annual meet-the-team pizza party. This is New Haven County’s game, and they want bragging rights over Fairfield County.

Heck, New Haven County already has the bragging rights this season, with the state’s number one and two teams in the polls (Fairfield County teams were third and fourth), but they want to mop the field up with Fairfield County sweat once again.

A few years ago, I think it was the summer of 2006, Fairfield County head coach Jim Santomassimo summed it up after a New Haven County win. To paraphrase: Fairfield County kids would rather go to Nantucket than play in an all-star football game.

Whether you want to believe that or not is up to you. There are a lot of commitments kids have to make, or that their families make for them. Vacations are a part of that equation. So are other sports (Chris Evans last season stuck with AAU hoops, and he earned a scholarship with Sacred Heart as a result), so is getting a head-start on college (I think Ludlowe’s best senior in 2007 went off to college the day after high school graduation).

And you’re not going to get Khairi Fortt or Silas Redd to play. They’re both enrolled at Penn State and will participate in spring drills soon.

Here’s how the process works for selecting a team, from what I understand: The coaches of each high school within the Fairfield County chapter of the National Football Foundation (your FCIAC and SWC schools) nominate their players. The coach and a committee then select a team based on those players, with an effort to include one player from every school. If a player is forced to drop out because of another commitment or an injury, the coach can call in players to fill the roster.

Bruno could probably use your help building the roster. So if you can think of some worthy seniors, go ahead and leave a comment below… within the guidelines of acceptable behavior, or course.

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First let me apologize to Pat Pickens of the Fairfield Citizen. For 364 days, since he heard how exciting the 2008 Hall of Fame Classic was, Pickens was gearing up to cover the game himself instead of sending a freelancer. With my car in the shop, he even let me bum a ride to Sacred Heart off of him.

Needless to say, Pickens was disappointed with a 49-0 final. He’s in a spot though where he can write about both sides: Fairfield Prep is a part of the New Haven chapter.

Enough stalling, let’s get to some links from the dailies, the blogs, and the real-time media outlets:

• New Haven Register: Classic Rocked: New Haven thumps Fairfield
• New Haven Register: ‘Cochran Rule’ joke gets plenty of mileage at Classic
• The Road to Boyle: 50-Point Rule Almost Played Out in Hall of Fame Classic
• Valley Independent Sentinel: Ansonia’s Roberts Dominates Hall Of Fame Football Classic
• News-Times: Long night for area all-stars
• Waterbury Republican-American: Ragone leads New Haven County All-Stars in rout
• Connecticut Post: New Haven all-stars dominant Hall of Fame Classic
• The Hour: County grid stars routed
• Stamford Sports Scene: Mr. Dixon Meet Mr. Florian
• Warrior Nation: Wyde Out Wyman Doing His Thing
• WTNH: New Haven beats Fairfield in Classic

And for more, I’ll be on WNLK/WSTC’s Final Score with Matt Levine live today at 1:15 to talk a little more about the game.

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The day has come. New Haven County and Fairfield County will square off at Sacred Heart, 7 p.m. tonight. The media has done a good job hyping it up. I’ve already provided some links, and more are posted below.

The News-Times takes its spin on one of the big plot-lines: The Callahan Family. Also, a feature on David Bray and Mike Valenti, and this piece on Fairfield County players heading to my alma-mater.

The Advocate’s got a piece on Nick Cortese, the Trinity Catholic star who says he’s part of an “Earth, Wind & Fire” backfield for Fairfield County.

The Post has a piece on Russ Furlow, a Foran lineman, who will suit up tonight for New Haven County and play at Southern Connecticut.

And here’s a pair from the Waterbury Republican-American (wait, they’re password-protected now!). Anyway, go to http://rep-am.com to read thier stuff.

The Register’s article, however, is accessible.

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I got a little worried when I was driving home from the Hall of Fame Classic practice for Fairfield County’s team on Friday. One player I was looking for was missing. That was Central fullback Giovanny Marmolejos.

And it’s easy to pick Marmolejos out in a crowd: He stands just 5-foot-3. But he plays the fullback position like a bull. Marmolejos has a low center of gravity, but he’s also so strong and keeps moving those feet that he’s nearly impossible to bring down.

The Post features Marmolejos in this article as a lead-up to the Hall of Fame Classic, which will be played at Sacred Heart on Friday at 7 p.m. It says he squats 525, but I heard a rumor last year at the Strongest Man competition that Marmolejos could actually squat 700.

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Yes, I’m pinching myself. I’m posting something from The Hour. I did a Google search for Hall of Fame Classic clips, and The Hour showed up on top. More important, the article wasn’t password protected. Maybe management at The Hour is coming along and realizes consumers aren’t willing to pay for online content?

Anyway, The Hour did a nice piece on the Norwalk players on the Fairfield County roster. Ridgefield head coach Kevin Callahan, who is heading up the all-star team, put a call out for linemen when his roster was depleted, and D.J. Morrell rounded up his troops.

Stamford receiver Chris Evans was in awe of the Norwalk linemen at practice last Friday: He was beaming about how huge they are, and wondered how any defense was able to see running back Chris Hines come out of the backfield.

Heck, Callahan and Ridgefield had fits trying to stop Hines and company in November.

Here’s the link to The Hour’s article.

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Brookfield linebackers Trevor and Travis Treibt were noticeably missing from Fairfield County’s first 2009 Hall of Fame Classic practice last Monday, two days after winning the Coaches Choice Award for Connecticut in the Governor’s Cup. When they arrived, Tuesday, Fairfield County had its spark.

Fairfield County head coach Kevin Callahan said the twins walked in and made a statement to the team: It’s awfully quiet here. And with that, the all-star team had some energy.

Even if they played with no emotion, the twins would be fun to watch. The recent Brookfield graduates are definitely two of the best athletes to grace SWC football fields in quite some time. They have speed, agility, play-making ability. And they can block – they went and worked out with the offensive linemen for a bit on Friday.

But their energy can give opposing team fits. That intangible led the Bobcats to the SWC and CIAC Class M titles in 2008.

And their energy is infectious. They are definitely rubbing off on their teammates, helping to bring them to the next level.

Fairfield County is going to need it. New Haven County plays for keeps. They aren’t too happy that Fairfield County won in double overtime last season. It’s more than an all-star game for New Haven County. It’s bragging rights.

And if Fairfield County isn’t pumped up and ready to play, it should be a brutal win for New Haven.

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And the Hall of Fame Classic articles begin… Jesse Quinlan of the Greenwich Time (and Stamford Advocate) takls with Kevin Callahan about the Fairfield County team. Callahan, the Ridgefield coach, will get a chance to coach his son, Kevin, and will have an older son, J.R., as an assistant.

Other links:

• Wyman part of Hall of Fame Classic
• Three RHS football players in Hall of Fame Classic

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It’s Hall of Fame Classic time. The game is just 10 days away, and the Fairfield County team – coached by Ridgefield head coach Kevin Callahan – began practice yesterday at Wilton.

There’s a big target on Fairfield County’s back after it defeated New Haven County 31-30 in double overtime. That broke a 5-game Fairfield County losing streak.

Here’s who is on the current 40-man roster for Fairfield County. The list is subject to change, and always seemingly does. Before you completely complain about personnel, remember that some kids like Bunnell receiver Mark Harrison, Ridgefield’s Matt White and Warde lineman Andrew Millmore are already attending college classes.

Either way, go ahead and discuss the team in the Forums.

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