A school with a rich tradition
Newsome breaks free during his team's victory over Ledyard in the 2011 CIAC Class M final.
File photo by Kevin Pataky
While Ansonia is not a brand name on the national high school football landscape, there are few teams in Connecticut that can claim as storied a history as the Chargers. Connecticut football will never be confused with Florida, Texas or Georgia. Ansonia will never be mentioned in the same breath as Lakeland (Fla.), Southlake Carroll (Tex.), South Panola (Batesville, Miss.) or De La Salle (Concord, Calif.).
Nobody's claiming it should be.
But in Connecticut, when you talk about Ansonia football, you're talking about a franchise with few historical rivals over the past 112 years, starting with the community involvement and passion shown at each home game. You're talking about a program that is so long in running that it had to take off the entire 1918 season to support the nation's overseas effort in World War I.
Mayors and First Selectmen throughout the state naturally support their local high school football teams. How many of them can claim to have both played football for their hometown team and to have served as its offensive coordinator?
Ansonia's seven-term native mayor, James Della Volpe, can claim both. He was the offensive coordinator at Ansonia prior to Brockett, and played football growing up in Ansonia. He can also claim to be father of another head high school football coach in the area, Duncan Della Volpe of Warde (Fairfield, Conn.).
The fact that Newsome will be chasing a six-decade-old national record will only add to Ansonia football lore.
"It's a small town and a small school, but you learn from the time that you're a little kid that football is what you want to do if you're a boy," Thomas said. "It's embedded in the town. In that sense, we're just like any other great football town in the country. Whatever the talent level is, however big or small, football is everything to people there."
Should Newsome put himself within striking distance of the record entering the 2013 season, the quest would undoubtedly provide a major boost for the school and its tenuous city population, attracting new and revitalized fans, out-of-state curiosity seekers and football junkies, and unprecedented national media attention.
But according to veteran sports writer and columnist Roger Cleaveland of the Waterbury Republic-American, it's also something the city of Ansonia would take in stride.
"What you have to remember about Ansonia is that it's used to success in football; it's used to being in the spotlight in the area and in the state," said Cleaveland, whose newspaper is the daily voice of the Naugatuck River Valley, one that gained "All-American" status a decade ago from the National Civic League.
"It would be terrific for the city and the valley in general and the state of Connecticut if Arkeel made a run at the record, and the people of Ansonia would be extremely excited and proud, especially given the magnitude of the record. But I also think they'd take it for what it would be, just another great piece in their high school football history."
