It seems like a minute ago we were getting ready for the high school fall sports season. And, like always, I look back, wishing I knew how to stop time so I could appreciate it all.
As always, you wish you never had to cover a loss and you wish every team’s season ended with a [...]

We received word this morning that longtime Fairfield County sports figure and Hall of Famer Nick Koulas passed away at the age of 92 at a Stamford-based assisted living facility.
According to his Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame biography, “Koules is a legendary figure around the baseball diamonds and basketball courts of the county as [...]

It’s state tournament time in Connecticut, which means sudden endings for some teams while other teams surge ahead with hopes and dreams of more to come.
The Trinity Catholic volleyball team won its first two games of the Class S tournament to move on to the quarterfinals while the Westhill field hockey team knocked off Norwich [...]

There are two big stories to report this week in The Stamford Times.
The first is Tuesday night’s FCIAC volleyball quarterfinal victory for the Trinity Catholic Crusaders. Unfortunately, due to our odd-ball printing times, the team’s semifinal game against Greenwich will be played and done in on Thursday, before the Times even hit the streets (fear [...]

One Stamford-based soccer team won its game on Saturday and that’s a good sign for the future of the sport in the city.
On a day when the Stamford boys, Westhill boys and Westhill girls were all ousted from the FCIAC tournament, it took a group of U-12 girls to save the soccer day.
The Stamford Hurricanes [...]

Just when it looked like the Westhill High School boys soccer team would get through a season without any off-the-field adversity, the Vikings had to forfeit four games on Wednesday afternoon, forcing them into a must-win regular season finale to get into the FCIAC playoffs.
The Vikings got that win, defeating Fairfield Ludlowe, 4-1, on Wednesday [...]

A busy week means one of the busiest sections of The Stamford Times Sports that we’ve put out in a while.
From our cover story of the Westhill boys soccer team reclaiming bragging rights by winning the city title with a 2-1 win over Stamford last week, to two stories geared toward Monday’s Fairfield County Sports [...]

On Monday night at the Greenwich Hyatt-Regency hotel, Stamford High School product James Hilaire received the Chelsea Cohen Courage Award from the the Fairfield County Sports Commission during its 5th annual Sports Night banquet.
This came shortly he returned to Massachusetts last week to visit the hospital staff that saved his live after the Sept. 24, [...]

It was apparent at first glance that King’s soccer team was at a disadvantage against visiting Hopkins on Wednesday, even though the Hilltoppers were winless coming into the game. Hopkins had a much bigger squad but the Vikings held their own against the visitors until a three-goal outburst in just under three minutes broke a [...]

With the high school season in full swing, so too is The Stamford Times sports section — eight pages of jam-packed sports news for your reading pleasure.
The two big stories coming out of the city this week are both F-words — Football and Field Hockey.
On the football front, King’s Silas Redd had a career day [...]

It’s not like a lot of people were talking about this, especially inside the Trinity Catholic boys soccer camp.
But the fact of the matter is, according to the CIAC web site’s yearly results,  the Crusaders entered this 2009 season dragging along a 27-game non-winning streak that dated back to the fall of 2007. And an [...]

First off, let us begin with an official warning from the Surgeon General: This week’s Sports Section in The Stamford Times maybe hazardous to your health. It’s a whopping 10-pages long and we recommend you don’t lift using just your back. Use your legs and proper lifting mechanics.
That’s right, folks! Ten pages of sports news [...]

I’m back from visiting the various preseason soccer camps around the city and if the optimism I witnessed holds true, well, it could be a year where futbol is as popular as football.
• • •
Trinity Catholic is thinking postseason for the first time in, well at least in my time of covering the high school [...]

Stamford High School athletic director Pete Samperi said a small fire which broke out on the Stamford High School soccer field on Tuesday night damaged a small part of the facility, but did not cause any damage to the playing surface.
Samperi said a plastic trash bin had caught fire and burned, causing some damage to [...]

With official count-em-in-the-standings games last than a week away, (Can you say finally?), The Stamford Times offers up the first half of its annual Fall Sports Previews section this week.
As you can see by our Cover Photo, we’re looking at soccer, both boys and girls, this week as well as field hockey.
In boys soccer, we [...]

Summer is ending. Football is heating up. Fall sports are about to start. And The Stamford Times seems to touch a variety of bases in this week’s edition.
Football-wise, we tackle New York Giants wannabe lineman Cliff Louis, the Westhill High School product to grew so much as a player and a person at Morgan State [...]

Something had to be done and Westhill High School athletic director Mike King knew it.
In two years time, the Vikings boys soccer team had gone from a nationally respected team with a national ranking of No. 7 in the country, according to one poll, to a team that finished 6-9-1, couldn’t win a city championship [...]

James Hilaire, the Stamford High School product, who was seriously injured during a men’s college soccer game in the fall, continues his road to recovery and one of those steps included meeting the player who was also involved in the collision that left the University of New Haven senior goalie with life-threatening injuries.
The NCAA Publication [...]

The FCIAC has announced its 2008 postseason honors in all of its sports, with the exception of football and here are the winners from the city of Stamford:
FIELD HOCKEY
Alli Oakes, Westhill — All-FCIAC First Team
Laura Dembofsky, Stamford — All-FCIAC First Team
Madi McLaughlin, Stamford — All-FCIAC First Team
Brittany Longo, Westhill — All-FCIAC West
Katie Pape, Stamford — [...]

State Class L Field Hockey Results
Westhill 4, Amity 0 (up next – Wednesday at Glastonbury)
Stamford 2, Masuk – (up next – Wednesday at Chesire).
State Class LL Boys Soccer Results
Guilford 5, Westhill 0
State Class L Volleyball Results
Norwich Free Academy def. Stamford, 25-15, 25-23, 25-12
State Class S Volleyball Results
Lyman Hall def. Trinity Catholic, 19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, [...]

The CIAC released most of its 2008 fall sports tournament pairings on Halloween morning and one thing certainly was scary – road trips for everybody involved.
In boys soccer action, Westhill (6-8-1) will trek to Bristol Central (6-8-2) on Saturday (game time, reportedly, will be 3:30 p.m.), for the right to earn the 32nd seed and [...]

Courtesy of the University of New Haven athletic department:
Hilaire Joins Teammates on Senior Day!
WEST HAVEN – University of New Haven men’s soccer player James Hilaire returned to Kayo Field Saturday afternoon for the first time since he suffered a head injury in a game on September 23 against Merrimack College. Saturday was Senior Day for the [...]

Former Stamford High School soccer goalkeeper James Hilaire, a senior at the University of New Haven, has taken some very important steps in his recovery from a serious head injury in a game against Merrimack College last Month.
According to the last report supplied by the Boston Medical Center, posted on Thursday, Oct. 16, “James was [...]

In the boys soccer games which followed Tuesday’s City Championship matchup, Westhill and Stamford were both victorious in wildly different ways.
For the undermanned Vikings, it was a 10-0 thrashing of Harding as Jose Ramirez’s hat trick and Devin Edwards’ two goals and two assists sparked an offensive explosion from the probably-still-upset Vikings. Mateo Gallego, Chino [...]

I’m not really sure who I feel worse for this Wednesday afternoon.
Is it the Westhill boys soccer team, which got a pre-game bomb dropped on it when it learned it would be playing Tuesday’s city championship game against Stamford without two of its best players – Felipe Rodriguez and Danny Ruiz – both of whom [...]

True story: Stamford defeated Westhill, 2-0, to win the 2008 boys city championship. Couple of hours later, the Westhill girls field hockey team defeated Stamford, 3-1, to stake claim to its city title.
Up is down, left is right, cats are marrying dogs … What’s going on in the city of Stamford?
Actually, it’s pretty simple. While it [...]

Westhill High School boys soccer sensation Felipe Rodriguez was spotted at the Vikings girls game on crutches on Tuesday afternoon. When asked what happened, he said it was “a bad sprain.”
The injury occured during Monday’s game at Fairfield Warde, a contest that ended in a 1-1 tie.
Rodriguez said he might be out for as long [...]

The Stamford boys soccer team put together one of its strongest performances of the fall in routing Trinity Catholic, 5-0, on Monday; setting up a City Championship showdown with Westhill on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Carlos Calix and Carlos Llamas each had a pair of goals while CJ Lyle had a goal and an assist as the [...]

From the Associated Press
WEST HAVEN (AP) — Relatives of a University of New Haven soccer goalie who was critically injured in a game last week say he is finally awake and breathing on his own.
Boston Medical Center has upgraded James Hilaire’s condition from critical to serious.
New Haven was playing at Merrimack College [...]

Every team has a thorn its side. At present, the Los Angeles Angels have the Boston Red Sox; the Chicago Cubs have the Los Angeles Dodgers; and the Westhill Vikings boys soccer team has the Ridgefield Tigers.
Flashback: One year ago – It was the Tigers who knocked the then-No. 7 nationally ranked Vikings out of [...]

The latest update on former Stamford High School goalie James Hilaire, the University of New Haven senior goalkeeper who suffered a serious head injury in a game on Wednesday at Merrimack College in Massachusetts:
According to the UNH Web site and the Boston Medical Center, as of 3:30 p.m., Sunday, “James remains listed in critical condition [...]

Here’s the latest update of James Hilaire, the Stamford resident who was a senior goalkeeper for the University of New Haven men’s soccer team, and was seriously injured in Wednesday’s game at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
According to the UNH Web site, “James remains listed in critical condition. Last night he underwent surgery to repair his [...]

The Stamford Times learned on Friday morning that former Stamford High School soccer player James Hilaire, a senior goalkeeper at the University of New Haven, suffered a broken jaw and a serious head injury during a game on Wednesday afternoon at Merrimack College.
At least one report referred to these injuries as “life-threatening.” Hilaire is currently [...]

The following games have been affected by the rainy weather moving through the area. Check back regularly as more games will undoubtedly be added.
Friday, Sept. 26
Field Hockey – Staples at Stamford, ppd, to Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m.
Boys Soccer – Fairfield Ludlowe at Trinity Catholic, ppd., to Oct. 17, 4 p.m.

A win, a tie and a loss – not necessarily in that order.
The Stamford Black Knights earned their first win of 2008, the Trinity Catholic Crusader got a well-deserved tie, and the Westhill Vikings dropped their first game since the return of high-scoring forward Felipe Rodriquez. It was a Bizarro Day on the city’s soccer [...]

Dateline Westport: The Westhill girls soccer team made a road trip to the land of Paul Newman and the Staples High School Wreckers on Tuesday and let’s just put it this way: The Vikings picked a bad day to have a bad day – only because Staples had a very good day. It was [...]

Westhill defeated Wilton, 3-1, in boys soccer action on Monday night. A complete story will be posted on The Stamford Times web site on Tuesday.
Click here to view more photos from this game.

From thestamfordtimes.com:
By JOE RYAN — Times Correspondent
STAMFORD — Westhill soccer coach Joe Del Torto was lamenting about his team’s lack of offense after a loss to Trumbull on  Tuesday.
He said he was not sure where he would find the solution to the team’s goal scoring woes.
Well, one big answer was found less than 48 hours [...]

The Westhill High School boys soccer team opened its 2008 season with a dominant 4-0 road victory over cross-city rival Trinity Catholic. The bigger story, however, was the Vikings earned the win without senior star striker Felipe Rodiguez.
Against Trinity, the Vikings didn’t miss a beat as Daniel Ruiz scored two goals and assisted on tallies [...]

Tuesday’s weather woes are wreaking havoc with opening day. Here’s what’s been moved around as of 10 a.m., Tuesday morning.
Boys Soccer – Fairfield Warde at Stamford, ppd, to Wednesday, 4 p.m.
Girls Soccer – Stamford at Fairfield Warde, ppd, to Wednesday, 5 p.m.
Field Hockey — Greenwich at Stamford, ppd., Wednesday, 4 p.m.
Cross Country – Westhill at [...]

The 2008 fall sports season officials opens on Tuesday with a full slate of games for the city’s teams. On Tap are:
Boys Soccer — Fairfield Warde at Stamford, 4 p.m.; Greenwich at Trinity Catholic, 4 p.m.
Girls Soccer — Stamford at Fairfield Ludlowe, 7 p.m.
Field Hockey — Greenwich at Stamford, 4 p.m.; Danbury at Westhill, 4 [...]

From Dominican College last week, comes this post of the Chargers men’s soccer team, which features four players from Stamford on its roster: Pablo Pozo, Edwin Miranda, Diego Miranda, and Diego Barahona.
The Chargers opened their season by stunning the NCAA Division 2 defending national champions and top-ranked team in the country from Franklin Pierce with [...]

A few years ago, Chris Gerwig lamented over the fact that all the Trinity Catholic Hockey squad needed was a few talented players to come through the doors and the glory years could be re-visited.
He asked and the hockey gods answered with an influx of transfers like Anthony Chiaramonte and John Doherty plus talented incoming [...]

The Stamford Times has jumped into the Fall Sports pool feet first, offering its readers some preseason looks at the city’s high school sports teams in its Sept. 7 edition of the paper. The stories are also available online and included in this week’s coverage are the following: (Click on the links [...]