By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
Slowly, football’s National Signing Day is taking on more meaning in Connecticut.
With the University of Connecticut now in a BCS Conference and playing in its second bowl game (Meineke Car Care Bowl, a loss to Wake Forest), the state is starting to take note of where top players are going.
In addition, Connecticut has become a more fertile recruiting ground in recent years, although the number of Division I scholarship players pales by comparison to state’s like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Texas, California or even New Jersey.
UConn added one in-state player, offensive lineman Eric Kuraczea (6-foot-1, 305) from state champ Ansonia. His high school coach, Tom Brockett, said if Kuraczea were taller, everyone in the country would have taken a look.
Trevardo Williams (6-3, 215), a defensive end with sprinter speed (he was a state contender in the 100-meters), committed to UConn but will likely go to a year of prep school at Canterbury.
A third in-state possibility is lineman Kevin Eagan of Northwest Catholic-West Hartford, who reportedly has narrowed his choices to the Huskies or Rutgers.
Another UConn signee, linebacker Sio Moore, is listed as being from Virginia, but is originally from West Haven and played his first year of high school ball there.
Eagan’s high school teammate, Mike Golic, Jr., will be at Notre Dame next year. The 6-5, 260-pounder is the son of Mike Golic and nephew of Bob Golic, both Notre Dame players. The elder Mike Golic is a co-host of the ESPN radio show Mike and Mike in the Morning.
Rutgers got two Connecticut players. Marcus Cooper, a 6-3, 185-pound receiver from Bloomfield and Khassem Greene, a 6-2, 195-pound defensive back from Avon Old Farms prep, both will become Scarlet Knights.
Seven other Connecticut players signed with Division I schools. Rich Bell, a 6-2, 277-pound defensive tackle from Salisbury School will attend Tulane; Mike Cox, a 6-0, 203-pound running back from Avon Old Farms will go to Michigan; Masengo Kabongo, a 6-3, 279-pound defensive tackle from Fairfield Prep will go to Maryland; Torrey Mack, a 6-0, 195-pound running back from Stratford will attend Virginia; James Nixon, a 6-1, 177-pound defensive back from Hyde Leadership in New Haven and Bridgeton Academy will go to Temple; Ryan Sedlacek, a 6-4, 292-pound offensive tackle from Staples-Westport will attend Illinois and Dudley LaPorte, a tight end (6-5, 255) who played high school ball in Stratford before advancing to Santa Barbara Community College, will play at Utah.
Nearly 20 more players have committed to Division I-AA schools, most notably state player of the year Alex Thomas, a running back from Ansonia, who will go to Yale and Jonathan Myers, a running back and linebacker from Greenwich who will attend Princeton.
Thomas set state records for career yardage and touchdowns, and owns single-season records for both as well. Greenwich’s fullback, Josh Kozel, also will go to Yale.
Hamden Dominates Hockey Showdown
The state’s No. 1-vs.-No. 2 boys ice hockey showdown proved to be something of a dud as second-ranked Hamden skated past top-ranked South Windsor, 6-1, before a capacity crowd at the Lou Astorino Rink Saturday in Hamden.
The Green Dragons got a pair of goals from junior Pat McGovern and the Hamden defense limited the Bobcats to 14 shots on goal, 13 of them stopped by goalie Anthony Avitable.
“They were the fastest team we’ve played,” South Windsor coach Neil Rodman told Dan Nowak of the New Haven Register. “Hamden is a great defensive team. They played with discipline and they set the tempo with some big hits to the body early in the game.”
“We finally got three solid periods out of them for the first time this season,” Hamden coach Bill Verneris said. “I couldn’t be happier because we dominated on offense, defense and in the goal.”
Freshman C.J. Carignan got the first goal for Hamden and senior Ron Esposito made it 2-0. McGovern got his two goals in the second period and senior Matt Hickman added one.
Junior Mike Berezecky gave Hamden a 6-0 lead before South Windsor got a goal from Casey Glover.
The Green Dragons are 12-3 while South Windsor fell to 15-1.
