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CHAMPIONSHIP NOTEBOOK With its artificial turf playing surface and professional-quality press box and scoreboard, John Burns Park is an outstanding place to host Championship Sunday. Maybe one of these years the weather will be as good as the facility. For the third time in as many years, Mother Nature wrecked havoc with Championship Sunday in Massapequa. A light rain arrived around halftime of the Touch Bowl and gained in intensity throughout the afternoon until the Malverne Bills and Hempstead Tigers were completing the Super Bowl in monsoon-like conditions. Last year’s title games were played in rain and freezing rain while snow fell throughout most of Championship Sunday in 2007…The Bills’ four straight Super Bowl wins by a total of 21 points means Tom Feliney has finally gotten payback for the heartache he suffered as the Bills’ QB from 1973-76, when the Bills lost four straight Super Bowls by a total of 15 points…Old-time football fans remember Chuck Howley as the only Super Bowl MVP to play for the losing team (Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V). The Tigers’ Deron Minor did his best to become the Howley of the NCTFL during a remarkable Super Bowl in which the DE recorded five sacks and eight tags and recovered a fumble…The Wantagh Regulators became the third team this decade to win the Touch Bowl after a 5-5 regular season, following in the footsteps of the 2002 East Meadow Titans and 2003 Rockville Centre Storm…The losses by the Tigers and Franklin Square Falcons in the title games made this the first year since 2003 that both the Super Bowl and Touch Bowl were won by teams seeded lower than first. The top-seeded Manhasset Steelers (D-I) and New Hyde Park Jaguars (D-II) each fell in the semis that year to the eventual champions, the Falcons and the Storm…The Tigers’ loss means the curse of the unbeaten top seed remains in Division I. The last four teams to enter the playoffs unbeaten—the 2007 East Meadow Seasons, 2005 Merrick Mavericks and 2004 Bills—have all failed to win the Super Bowl. The last perfect champion was the Steelers, who went 12-0 in winning their third straight Super Bowl in 1999…Conversely, the previous four teams to enter the Division II playoffs unbeaten all won the Touch Bowl: The 2008 Plainview Panthers, 2007 Mineola Colts, 2005 Manhasset Vikings and 2004 Jaguars…There was no in-between when it came to the competitiveness of this decade’s Super Bowls. Five were not decided until the final play of the game, while the average margin of victory in the other five was 27 points…The Touch Bowl, meanwhile, was generally lopsided this decade, with only two games decided by seven points or less. The Manhasset Vikings beat the Herricks Hellcats 21-14 in 2005 and the Bellmore Pirates edged the Panthers 38-33 in 2000…The quote of the day came from Falcons QB Sean O’Connor, who eloquently promised his team would be back next year despite their advancing age and annually lean roster. “We realize that the hourglass, the sand is running out and we want to make sure we’re there for that last spackle of sand that falls through the silhouette,” O’Connor said…Time to look ahead to a new decade. The obvious question is will the Bills open the ‘10s the same way they ended the ‘00s? They’ll return the same experienced, title-tested core bursting with positive chemistry, but there will be plenty of hungry contenders aiming to end the Bills’ historic run, including, of course, the Tigers, who came up just shy of the perfect debut season. The Levittown Lions were the highest-scoring team in Division I for the second straight year while the Westbury Haulers mounted their usual late-season run. The Mineola Colts continued to make strides in their second Division I season while the East Meadow Seasons, Plainview Panthers and Herricks Hellcats—all of whom have an unbeaten regular season on their resumes—will retool in hopes of improving upon their ‘09 performances…Watch out too for the Falcons and Regulators, who will almost certainly jump back to D-I after their successful one-year return to D-II…Division II will be wide-open if the Falcons and Regulators move on. The Bethpage Chaos, who won the Division III title last year, and the Valley Stream Bengals, who put together one of the great turnarounds in memory in winning six games this year after going 2-27-1 in their first three years, would be the early favorites, but the four teams that finished 4-6 this year—the Freeport Fire, Elmont Seminoles, Lynbrook Buckeyes and Hicksville Havoc—all enjoyed bursts of impressive play this season and the Valley Stream Wolverines, who missed the playoffs at 2-8, are one of the most established franchises in Division II…As always, thanks to all the team reps for sending to me, in prompt and thorough fashion, the highlights that appear in the NCTFL Report…We wish you a happy holiday season and a safe, happy and healthy 2010. See you in the fall. |