By Tim Parry

King did not come home from West Hartford with a New England Prep School Athletic Conference championship. It didn’t take home the big trophy after the Sampson-Lourden Bowl. It lost 29-14 to a much bigger, much deeper Milton Academy team.

But Fairfield County should be proud of the King football program. It’s not every season that one of its Fairchester Athletic Association teams makes it to one of the five NEPSAC title games, and its not every season that a team like King could dominate so many of its opponents.

And by all means, King left everything on the Kingswood-Oxford School field yesterday. Including tears. Sure, some would say there’s no crying in football, but I’d rather see a team wear its heart on its sleeve like it did yesterday than take an oh-well approach when failing to win a title.

Here’s the article I did for the Stamford Advocate, and it includes some great photos by Kathleen O’Rourke (who didn’t catch me “chimping,” but did almost impale me with her monopod a couple of times, but she apologized and that’s cool!). And here’s the sidebar by Joe Ryan, which focuses on two senior captains, Vincent Love and Matt Santoro.

Milton head coach Kevin MacDonald and fullback Josh Scott, who was a one-person wrecking ball, had nothing but respect for King’s Big Three – Silas Redd, Kevin Pierre-Louis and Eric Joyner. They knew that the key to the game was to control the ball, and then find a way to contain those three Division I prospects.

And the overall numbers may have not shown it, but sophomore quarterback Mikey Serricchio did a very good job running the offense. And statistically, he did have a better day than counterpart Chris Amrheim, who completed just one of 11 passes.

Though I saw King in the preseason, I wasn’t convince a team like King could compete in the FCIAC. But after watching yesterday, I honestly didn’t see as many holes as I felt it had. And that was with a few key players in street clothes because of injuries yesterday.

What’s your opinion of King? Sound off on this thread on the FCIAC Football Blog’s boards.

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By Tim Parry

Looking for the best high school football team in Stamford? You may have to look outside the FCIAC to find it.

King – formerly the clunky-sounding King & Low-Heywood Thomas – has been in the shadows of Stamford, Westhill and Trinity Catholic for its lifetime. But with three juniors who are receiving Division I offers seemingly on a daily basis, the Vikings could be the team to watch in 2008 and 2009.

Despite a 4-5 record in the Fairchester Athletic Association last season, Silas Redd ran for 1,261 yards and 13 touchdowns as a sophomore, and has an offer on the table from Boston College, and one that may come Monday from Virginia.

Classmate Kevin Pierre-Louis is expecting a Boston College offer on Monday. He ran for 754 yards and seven touchdowns last season and had 147 tackles.

And Eric Joyner also impressed as a sophomore with 10 catches for 312 yards in a run-first offense. He, too, is getting the looks from Division I schools.

“Because we’re a private school, people think that if they play sports, they can’t go anywhere,” King head coach Danny Gouin said Saturday during a scrimmage involving multiple teams at Fairfield Warde. “Now we have Nate Collins, who is starting at nose tackle at Virginia. And there’s kids like Silas, Kevin, Eric Joyner, kids like Arlington Hendrickson and Jimmy Georges, who should be scholarship players here. And there’s Vinny Love, who is probably going to play in the Ivys somewhere.”

Gouin returns just about everyone from last season’s team with the exception of quarterback John Honey-Fitzgerald, who played last month in the Hall of Fame Classic. He will be replace by sophomore Mikey Serricchio, who started a game in Honey-Fitzgerald’s absence last season.

If the Vikings can defeat Hopkins in its opener on Sept. 13, Gouin feels King could be the team to beat in the Fairchester.

Which is why Gouin says King, a non-CIAC school, needs to get some scrimmage-time against CIAC opponents. Especially when one of the teams is the neighbor down the road, Trinity Catholic.

“We were very good against Trinity today,” Gouin said. “They are always hard nosed, tough, disciplined kids. Since we’re right down the street, it brings out the best in both teams. For us, as a private school, it takes away the stigma that we can’t compete. Our defense, I don’t think, gave up anything to Bullard-Havens. That’s a huge confidence builder for our team.”

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