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Volume 26, Number 24
Friday, September 11, 2020
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
Plug pulled on tackle football By Bryant Carpenter Record-Journal staff
CHESHIRE — Traditional 11-on-11 tackle football games will not be played this fall in Connecticut. Girls volleyball games will, but with players wearing masks. The CIAC’s Board of Control voted Friday, Sept. 4 to pull the plug on a fullcontact football after the state Department of Public Health, in a Thursday, Sept. 3 letter, reiterated its stance against higher risk sports such as football and indoor volleyball being played this fall. A solution was found for volleyball, but not for 11on-11 football.
The CIAC will look for lower-risk alternatives for football, such as combines, which means teams can continue with conditioning and non-contact skill workouts, which have been under way since Aug. 29. The CIAC is hoping to come up with those options by Sept. 21. That’s when the other fall sports are slated to move to fullteam practices. The DPH has recommended the 7-on-7, nontackling version of football seen in summer passing leagues and being played this fall in Vermont. That option, though, has not been popular among coaches, players or the CIAC.
“We don’t think that 7-v-7 football is a replacement “Without DPH support, for 11-v-11 football,” CIAC the CIAC cannot move Executive Director Glenn forward with a full contact Lungarini said Friday, notseason as it would place ing that the National Fedsuperintendents and eration of High School Asboards of education in the sociations has taken the impossible position of actsame position. “I am hopeing against the recomful that we will come up mendation of a state agenwith the coaches and the cy,” the CIAC said in a athletic directors and our statement issued last Frifootball committee a numday. See Football, A15
Pack 33 ‘Scouting on’ during challenging times If there is one thing that 2020 has taught us, it’s that we need outlets to feel connected and involved now more than ever – even if it’s through socially distant or virtual interactions. Since mid-March, members of Pack 33 from Durham and Middlefield have continued to “Scout on” both in person and virtually. Our Scouts have earned numerous belt loops for scouting adventures and some special awards relating to conservation and the impact of invasive plants and animals on See Scouting, A10
Study: More Connecticut families struggling financially By Matthew Zabierek Record-Journal staff
the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
A new study examining 2018 data found 38 percent of Connecticut households lacked enough income to afford basic necessities before
The United Way of Connecticut’s biannual ALICE report, released last week, found that of the state’s 1.37 million households, 146,552,
or 11 percent, earned below the federal poverty level in 2018. Another 367,175 households, or 27 percent, were considered “ALICE” houses, meaning they did not fall below the federal poverty line, and therefore
did not qualify for public assistance, but did not earn enough income to afford basic necessities. The acronym stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.”
The 2018 data also showed that a growing number of households in Connecticut, 13 percent, are on the cusp of becoming an “ALICE household.” See Study, A9