By Kathy Brown.
High school sports has been an item of contention this year with the world wide pandemic of COVID-19. Connecticut leads the other states in the US at this time in the least amount of cases per 100,000 residents. The CIAC (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) has been back and forth with which sports to allow in high schools across the state. The latest decision that they made was that football was not going to happen this year.
That decision spurred Kevin Cavrell (a junior) and Daniel LaRosa (a senior), who play football for Haddam Killingworth High School, to start a petition to get the CIAC to reverse its decision, allowing them to play football this fall. Kevin got the idea from Ohio State Quarterback Justin Fields, who started a petition when the Big 10 cancelled college football. “This all started when the CIAC decided to cancel 11 on 11 football,” explained Kevin. “The alternative would be a 7v7 season, which if you aren’t familiar with the term, is essentially cutting out all linemen and playing touch or flag football. This is like if the basketball season was cancelled and we were forced to play H-O-R-S-E.”
According to this website, Dr. Fauci thinks Connecticut is a state that CAN play sports.
Kevin and his teammates think the many procedures already in place would make football safe to play that the CIAC laid out in August. “Some additional modifications I would suggest if that plan was not enough could be the new Schutt face masks that a lot of college teams will be using,” suggested Kevin. Other ideas are “an expansion of the player box on the sideline so that players could social distance, possible elimination of JV games, outdoor locker rooms, personal water bottles, and daily sanitization of gear.”
Kevin said that the first signature on the petition was Daniel LaRosa, then they sent it to their team group chat, and then it took off from there. “We never expected the petition to gain the publicity it did,” said Kevin. “The day after we started it, it had reached over 20,000 signatures.” As of Sept. 12, 2020, the petition has around 33,000 signatures.
“I think that football can be played safely,” Dan concurred. “If we only play our local schools, get tested, and follow rules, we can 100% play safely.”
Kevin wasn’t sure what to do next, so he asked his neighbor, Ed Munster (former State Senator) for advice. “He told me we should hold a press conference/rally with other players where we speak and state our grievances with the CIAC and Governor Lamont . . . and the idea took off.”
One of Kevin and Daniel’s teammates, Brien McNamera, moved to HK from East Haven, so he had some contacts in that part of the state. They created a group chat with over 30 seniors from high schools across Connecticut, and made plans for the rally at the Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 9. “I don’t think any of us slept for the next four days,” said Kevin. “We spread the message on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. In addition, we had several state legislators reach out to us and take our side, which was very big.” Over 1,000 people joined the rally at the Capitol.
Now the only thing left to do is wait to see if the CIAC reverses their decision. Governor Lamont did say he would meet with the Department of Public Health and the CIAC. The Department of Public Health would have to agree that it was safe to play.
Kevin’s father, Carl, is proud of what his son has accomplished. He said, “I was surprised about the number of signatures that they got but I was more impressed about what he did over the next few days organizing the rally, getting kids together, delegating responsibility, and pulling off a fantastic rally and over a dozen state legislators showed up to support them. They got the governor to call that emergency meeting on Friday just one week after they canceled football.”
“I hope the people making the decision can walk in our shoes before the choose,” said Daniel.
