GLASTONBURY – The first game the Glastonbury boys soccer team played without their head coach was tough, especially with the players knowing that it would be this way for the rest of the season.
Coach Chris Vozzolo had been suspended for the season the week before due to an incident in the parking lot after an Oct. 2 game involving referees. The players and their parents had gone to a Board of Education meeting Oct. 7 to plead their coach’s case and vouch for his character, to no avail. The Guardians had to play Northwest Catholic the next day without Vozzolo.
“There was a little bit of a dip in focus,” said long-time assistant coach K.C. Warren, who has taken over in Vozzolo’s absence. “They put their hearts out there (at the meeting) and their tanks were a little bit empty for that next game.”
But Glastonbury won that day. And the Guardians (17-2-2) have only lost one game since then, in the CCC championship game against Berlin 1-0 (4-3 on penalty kicks). They beat Staples 1-0 Tuesday in a Class LL second round tournament game and the seventh-seeded Guardians will travel to fourth-seeded Xavier Friday for a quarterfinal game. Glastonbury, which last won a state title in 2018, lost to Greenwich last year in the quarterfinals.
Warren said the two senior captains, striker Tim McGuire and goalkeeper Patrick Butler, have been exceptional leaders for the team since Vozzolo was suspended.
“Their leadership sets us up to fall forward when we stumble,” he said. “And maybe still have a positive result on days we don’t perform at our highest level, instead of stumbling and falling back.
“There was a week where we were probably emotionally taxed and spent. But other than that, not much has changed.”
Vozzolo was coaching his team at home against Avon on Oct. 2 and Glastonbury led 2-0 with less than a minute left in the game. Alan Bookman, the Glastonbury superintendent of schools, said that Vozzolo argued with officials about a call that resulted in a penalty kick and wanted to know why it was called. Vozzolo was given a yellow card and subsequently another yellow card and was ejected from the game. Avon scored on the penalty kick and Glastonbury won 2-1.
“He went into the locker room and then he went into the parking lot and started asking the ref all over again, ‘I deserve an answer to why there was a penalty (kick),’” Bookman said in early October. “He is a coach of great quality; he has a great demeanor. This is completely out of character. So I have no idea why he would do this.”
The penalty for a red card for coaches is a two-game suspension. The CIAC has mandated this year that ejected coaches also must take two online courses regarding sportsmanship and behavior and the school has to pay a $50 fine. But when Vozzolo spoke to the officials in the parking lot, that crossed a line, Bookman said, and prompted further punishment, which is new this season.
“I think the additional penalties came because he went into the parking lot to challenge the refs again,” he said.
Vozzolo, who has been the head coach for four years after serving as an assistant for a dozen years, was suspended by the school after the incident. He also coaches girls basketball and is a physical education teacher at the school. The CIAC, which has stepped up its efforts to protect officials due to a nationwide shortage, would have had a hearing to determine further punishment, but Glastonbury athletic director Trish Witkin said at the Oct. 7 school board meeting that the school decided to impose its own extra penalty because the CIAC would likely have done the same.
Everything happened so quickly for the players. But McGuire and Butler, who were captains last year, stepped up.
“We’ve been put in a tough position,” McGuire said. “I know me and Pat have tried to lead this group a little more than we did last year. I think we’ve dealt pretty well with it.
“There was that period where it felt a little weird not having our head coach with us, but I think all of us realized there is going to be a time for us to feel sorry for ourselves and feel that feeling, and there has to be a time for us to accept it and move on. We have bigger things to achieve.”
Both Butler and McGuire spoke at the school board meeting about Vozzolo’s character.
“I said that he’s a great gym teacher, a great advocate for his students – that’s what I tried to focus on, his great qualities and how everybody makes mistakes,” McGuire said.
“We didn’t feel that that punishment fit what had happened. But what can you do? It’s out of our hands.”
Warren and the players all talk to Vozzolo, who is still teaching and who comes to many of the games and watches from the stands.
“Obviously there’s a history nationwide of referee shortages due in some situations relative to the way they’re treated,” Warren said. “So the CIAC and other governing bodies decided to try to curtail or eradicate that behavior.
“I hate for (Vozzolo) to be a guinea pig in a brand-new process; I’m sure there will be other conversations moving forward after the season’s over, statewide. If we have input, that would be great because we are somewhat of a test case but other than that, we’re trying to stay in our lane. We play Xavier Friday, a super talented team. We’re mostly just thinking about soccer right now and after that ends, we can figure out the other stuff.”