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DARIEN, Conn. Two Darien teams in the Fairfield County Football League that went undefeated in regular season play last year as seventh graders are undefeated again this year as eighth-graders.
Darien White, coached by Rich Joyce, went 11-0 last season and won the league championship. Darien Blue, coached by Jay Hardison, went undefeated during the regular season last fall before losing to Fairfield, 18-13, in the semifinals of the league playoffs.
Now the two are among four league eighth grade teams that are undefeated at the midpoint of the regular season. Weston, a first-year team, and New Canaan Red are also undefeated.
Its just a very talented grade, Hardison said. We have big kids on the line, fast kids in the backfield and good role players. Its a perfect storm.
Part of Dariens success comes from experience. There were five Darien teams when the players were in fourth grade. In fifth grade, Darien had four teams. Last year was the first there were fewer than three teams for the age group. Now that the talent is concentrated, its pretty good, Hardison said.
Joyces team has averaged nearly 30 points a game this year, while allowing just 10.5 a game. In Saturdays 35-14 win over the Fairfield team it beat for the title last fall, Darien White was missing five starters due to injury and had only a handful of subs. Fairfield scored on its first drive, but Darien responded with three straight scores to take control.
Were trying to put kids in position to make plays, and the kids are doing it, Joyce said. Were well-staffed across the board.
Even after last years success, assistant coach Joel Schutzman said, the players have maintained their work ethic. We have goals and we have some new kids on the team, Schutzman said. They know if they want to succeed, they have to work at it.
Joyce is regarded by some as the best coach in the league. The former Dartmouth co-captain was a first-team All-Ivy selection, and his father was a successful football coach in western Pennsylvania. Hes the most aggressive player I have ever coached, Jerry Chapman, a Dartmouth assistant at the time, said in a newspaper report in 1990 in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He gets it done on the field. He takes the game very seriously.
Their playing days are long over for Joyce and Hardison, a former high school player. But they have turned their tenacity on the field over to their players. The result is a 29-1 record between them over the past two years. Last years Darien eighth-grade teams went a combined 15-3 and shared the league championship. This years teams might finish even better.
Even our draft was very competitive, said Hardison, whose team whipped Ridgefield, 30-6, on Saturday. It took us 4½ hours just to divide up the class. Ive never seen it take that long.
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