Football

By Kyle Brennan, Citizen’s News With normalcy on the horizon — or already here for many folks — we can all look forward to a...

By Mark Jaffee, Republican-American Five years have passed since Tim Phipps left the comfort zone at Woodland High he knew for 14 years and the...

BY KYLE BRENNANCITIZEN’S NEWSBEACON FALLS — It was almost summertime when Nate Bodnar realized that he might end his high school career without playing...

BY KYLE BRENNAN NAUGATUCK — After Naugatuck football coach Chris Anderson accepted the George Pinho Trophy through a persistent fog at Veterans Field, he handed...

The fire everyone knows about, the one that’s the flaming hub of a spirited Thanksgiving Eve pep rally, will take place Wednesday night, just hours before the Greyhounds host rival Ansonia. The one that players and alumni know about, the one that’s the flickering center of a pensive gathering, will take place just a few hours before the other. It’s called The Burning of the Shoe, a tradition Naugatuck head coach Rob Plasky brought with him from Springfield College when he took the reigns of this already tradition-rich program in 2001. And it’s just what it sounds like: The Hounds gather around a burning cleat and just talk … and listen.

For 28 years, Craig Peters was Naugatuck High School football. He did it all—he won league titles, state titles, awards, top rankings, and led the Greyhounds to the best seasons in school history. Simply, Peters is one of the greatest coaches in the history of Connecticut high school football. Since retiring after the 2000 season, Peters has quietly stayed away—mostly—from the game he seemingly had perfected for decades.