This is A.J. Huston’s first year as the Oxford High athletic director. Already, it’s off to a challenging start.
Sunday’s devastating flood damaged roads, bridges and houses and caused the deaths of two people in Oxford. Other nearby towns such as Southbury, Monroe and Newtown were also affected by the flooding.
Schools are set to open soon and fall high school sports practices were slated to start Monday. But in Oxford, many roads are closed, and at Oxford High, one of the practice fields is still underwater.
“We have people who can’t get in and out of their homes, we have people whose homes have been completely displaced,” Huston said. “To think about athletics right now, it’s very difficult. But I have no choice but to think about athletics.”
Huston, who was able to get to the high school Tuesday, initially wasn’t sure when practices would start but said later Tuesday afternoon that he got the OK from the district to be able to start practices at the school Wednesday.
CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini said that most of the schools in towns impacted by the flood damage have been able to adjust.
“It seems like everybody will have their 10 days of practice in before the first contest,” he said.
Oxford’s artificial turf field, used mainly for football and soccer, Huston said, was in good condition but another practice field was unusable, and the baseball and softball fields had been damaged as well, but that was a later concern. Huston said all the sports team’s practices will take place on the artificial turf.
Huston, who lives out of the town, wasn’t aware of the flooding when it was occurring.
“I got a text Sunday from our soccer coach, and he said, ‘I don’t think (the practice field) is going to be playable for at least a week,’” Huston said. “I looked outside my window, and it was hardly raining. He sent me the video of the flooding on (Route) 67.”
In the surrounding area, Pomperaug High did not have sports practices Monday but did have practice Tuesday. Seymour High and Derby High also missed practice Monday but practiced Tuesday. Newtown shifted its athletics practices from morning to afternoon and evening on Monday.
“The school grounds are fine,” Pomperaug football coach Tony Pereira said. “The school is right on the Middlebury line so that part of the town is OK.”
Pereira lives in Southbury but said his house was OK.
“It was pretty bad here,” he said. “Our town has done a great job the last two days, getting roads cleared, but there are some roads that are still impassable. There’s a couple bridges out.
“The aftermath is crazy to look at but most of the roads are passable. The field at the high school wasn’t really affected but the community town park, the tennis courts there are gone.”
Brian Hourigan, the athletic director at Masuk High in Monroe, said that some teams were able to practice Monday until thunderstorms forced the cancellation of the rest of the practices, but all the teams practiced Tuesday.
“We had some roads out in town, but our superintendent talked to the roads department and there’s nothing where kids can’t get to the school,” Hourigan said. “We let kids know if your road is dangerous, you don’t have to try out – they’re not going to be penalized for not making it. It looks like most of our kids are showing up.
“We were lucky in that we weren’t too affected by it.”