Avon football to play in Division III in CCC debut this fall

Avon’s Sean Del Gallo (4) and the Falcons face Rocky Hill in their CCC debut in September.

A new era in Avon High football begins in September as the Falcons begin their first season in the Central Connecticut Conference. Avon will play 10 games and eight are against teams that the Falcons have played over the past 50 years. 

With the formation of a co-op football team with Bulkeley, Weaver and Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy, the league realigned its divisions and Avon slipped down into the CCC Division III East Division against schools of similar size. Weaver was in Division III and Bulkeley/HMTCA was in Division II. The Hartford-based co-op team will now play in Division I. 

For most of the past decade, Avon, 7-4 last fall, has been one of the larger schools in the Pequot Conference. Now in the 33-team CCC, Avon is the No. 23 largest school in the league, according to the number of boys in grades 9-12 as published by the CIAC last fall. 

Avon will renew rivalries with former Nutmeg Conference rivals Rocky Hill, East Catholic, Berlin, Plainville and Northwest Catholic. They will resume a competitive rivalry with Tolland from the Pequot Conference. And they will challenge Simsbury on Thanksgiving week on Tuesday, two days before the holiday. The only new opponents on the schedule are Rockville and Fermi-Enfield. It will be Fermi’s last season. Next year, they will merge with Enfield High, which will join the CCC in the fall of 2017. 

Avon will be in the CCC Division III East with Fermi, Rockville, Tolland and Berlin. Plainville, East Catholic, Northwest Catholic, Bloomfield and Rocky Hill make up the CCC Division III Eastern Division. Thanks to the formation of the Bulkeley/HMTCA and Weaver co-op which moved into Division I, Avon dropped down into Division III where they will be the largest school among the 10 Division III schools. Also benefiting was Farmington, which slipped back into Division II.

Division alignment announced last October had Avon scheduled to play in Division II with games against Middletown, Windsor, Wethersfield, Maloney, Platt and Newington. Avon would have been the smallest school in Division II. But that alignment had separate teams for Weaver and Bulkeley/HMTCA. 

The Falcons plan to play their home games on Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. No night game has been scheduled at home at this time but there has been a game under portable lights at the high school for the past 11 years, organized by the Booster Club. 

NOTES: Avon will play nine of its 10 games against Division III opponents. The only game against a larger school will be a contest against Division I Simsbury on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving under the lights in Simsbury. … Berlin and Northwest Catholic advanced to the playoffs a year ago. Berlin went 1-1, losing in the Class M Large final while Northwest Catholic lost in the Class S Small semifinal to North Branford, 10-6. … Northwest Catholic won the CCC Div. III West title a year ago while Berlin won the Div. III East pennant. 

Avon football 2015
Tentative schedule with 2014 records
Week 1: Sept. 11/12: Avon (7-4) at Rocky Hill (5-6)
Week 2: Sat. Sept. 19: East Catholic (8-3) at Avon, 10:30 a.m.
Week 3: Sat. Sept. 26: Tolland (4-7) at Avon, 10:30 a.m.
Week 4: Sat. Oct. 2: Fermi (0-11) at Avon, 10:30 a.m.
Week 5: Oct. 9/10: Avon at Bloomfield (5-6)
Week 6: bye
Week 7: Oct. 23/24: Avon at Berlin (11-2)
Week 8: Oct. 30/31: Avon at N.W. Catholic (10-2)
Week 9: Sat. Nov. 7: Rockville (1-10) at Avon, 10:30 a.m.
Week 10: Sat. Nov. 13: Plainville (6-5) at Avon, 10:30 a.m.
Week 11: Tues. Nov. 24: Avon at Simsbury (4-7), 6:30 p.m. 

CCC Divisional alignment with average enrollment figures for boys in grades 9-12 from the CIAC’s 2013 and 2014 football packet.

Division I
East Division: Glastonbury (1008), East Hartford (780), Manchester (768), Hartford Public (793), Bulkeley/HMTCA/Weaver (728)
West Division: New Britain (1302), Southington (1023), SImsbury (796), Conard (772), Hall (709)

Division II
East Division: South Windsor (674), Middletown (618), Windsor (591), E.O. Smith (590), Farmington (686), RHAM (587)
West Division: Bristol Central (679), Bristol Eastern (665), Newington (660), Wethersfield (612), Maloney (620), Platt (595)

Division III
East Division: Fermi (463), Avon (514), Rockville (440), Tolland (406), Berlin (485)
West Division: Plainville (379), East Catholic (374), Northwest Catholic (291), Bloomfield (286), Rocky Hill (360)