BISHOP CONNOLLY FOOTBALL: Co-op with Coyle & Cassidy close to finalized

Story updated

The latest Bishop Connolly football co-op plan would cut way back on travel time.

The Cougars and Coyle & Cassidy High School of Taunton are close to having their co-op plans finalized, Connolly Director of Athletics John Feeny said on Friday. Feeny said the Mayflower Athletic Conference, of which Connolly is a member, approved the co-op on Thursday, and that the Eastern Athletic Conference, C&C's league, had already done so. He said the schools are now awaiting approval from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Association's District D. He said he expects to get that approval.

The co-op would be in effect for the 2019 season. Coyle & Cassidy would be the host school.

Late last year, Connolly had announced a co-op agreement with St. John Paul II of Barnstable. Feeny said the schools have amicably dissolved that co-op.

"The co-op with St. John Paul, we were looking forward to it," Feeny said. "But anybody who knows the distance between the two schools knows that would make it a challenge."

The football agreement between Connolly and Coyle & Cassidy follows, Feeny noted, an academic alliance the schools had forged. "They've been working together on certain academic programs," he said.

Feeny said Connolly president and principal E. Christopher Myron noted Coyle & Cassidy's football numbers had dropped in recent years "so he looked into the co-op possibility. Distance-wise it makes a lot more sense for everybody."

The everybody includes players and coaches from St. John Paul II. The plan was for that co-op team to practice at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, roughly a mid-point between the schools. Feeny said that arrangement would have necessitated Connolly student-athletes having to do at least some of their homework on the bus.

Feeny said Myron met with the SJP II president/principal and they agreed to dissolve that co-op.

Feeny said Connolly has 10 student-athletes who have expressed an interest in playing. He met with them after the MAC approval.

Due to low numbers, Bishop Connolly football program (then a co-op with Westport High School) ceased playing early in the 2017 season. Continued low numbers necessitated scrapping the entire 2018 season.

Bringing football back has remained a priority.

"Chris Myron deserves the credit," Feeny said. "He was determined to bring football back, in one form or another."

Email Greg Sullivan@gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.