SCC > News Releases

9/15/04

By: Hal Levy, Exectuive Sports Editor - Shore Line Newspapers

When Al Carbone was announced as the new commissioner of the Southern Connecticut Conference, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone who follows high school sports.

Carbone is rapidly turning into the new version of Bill O'Brien, who worked as the league's commissioner through its first 10 years.

"The reason I'm here is because of Bill," said Carbone, a Stratford resident (with wife, Tracey and daughter, Calyn). "This conference has evolved and Bill has evolved with it. There was no one better for the first 10 years to be involved than Bill O'Brien. I am just honored to be associated with him in this league. It has been a lot of Bill's efforts in generating a lot of attention for this league. Bill O'Brien's brand awareness is unbelievable in the New Haven area."

The Maoists called it "Cult of Personality"; the marketing folks settle for "brand awareness" but whatever it is, if it involved sports (or a lot of other things) in greater New Haven, O'Brien's name was attached to it. Now it is becoming Carbone's turn although O'Brien remains as the league's "commissioner emeritus" and will be heavily involved in sponsorships.

"Bill's done a tremendous job for 10 years. The focus is to maintain support for our athletic and non-athletic programs. We have nearly 23,000 students in 23 high schools. It costs money so a big focus is to maintain corporate sponsorships," Carbone said.

A marketing communications specialist at United Illuminating, a Trinity College grad and East Haven native, Carbone is the son of educators. An all-stater in baseball and an all-Housatonic League pick in basketball, his dad was the athletic director at East Haven for a spell. Carbone also was all-New England in baseball at Trinity and recently completed is MBA at the University of New Haven with a concentration in sports management at leadership. He's also worked as a sports information director or assistant at Trinity, Boston College and Quinnipiac.

His current voluntary jobs include publicity chair for the Walter Camp Football Foundation, chair of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Sports Council, vice chair of the New Haven Sports Commission, a member of the board of directors of the West Haven Twilight League and member of the board and development committee co-chair for Liberty Community Services.

Carbone is coming on board during an era of radical reconstruction in the SCC.

The league expanded, adding Foran and Jonathan Law, brining the league total to 23 including single-gender schools. It went from three divisions to four and created a separate setup for football. And now it is planning an extensive web-site which Carbone hopes will be up and running by January.

The new sports divisions include: Hammonasset, Hand, Guilford, Foran, Jonathan Law and Hillhouse; in the Quinnipiac are Hamden, Xavier/Mercy, Notre Dame/Sacred Heart, Fairfield Prep and West Haven; in the Housatonic are Amity, Cheshire, Lyman Hall, Shelton and Sheehan and in the Oronoque are Branford, East Haven, Wilbur Cross, Career, North Haven and Derby.

There will still be mandatory cross-over games will be two games against the team which finished in the same relative position in each of the other divisions (i.e. all the first-place teams cross over as do the second place teams, etc.). There are a few exceptions to make room for rivalries such as Derby-Shelton or Cross-Hillhouse.

All four-team playoffs will have divisional winners only. Volleyball has an eight-team playoff and will have the four divisional champs plus four wildcards based on divisional games plus mandatory crossovers.

For football only, Division I West is Shelton, Fairfield Prep, Hamden, Xavier and Amity and Division I East is Notre Dame, West Haven, Cheshire, Wilbur Cross and Hand; in Division II West are Branford, Hillhouse, Lyman Hall., Guilford and Jonathan Law and in Division II East are East Haven, North Haven, Sheehan, Foran and Derby.

Mandated cross-over games in football will include two more games against schools in Division I or Division II plus two games against the opposing division. That adds up to nine games and the tenth will be the traditional Thanksgiving Day opponent.

"That assures schools will be competitive in a majority of their games but we also will preserve the natural rivalries," Carbone said.

"The coaches decided not to have a league championship game in football and, at the moment, Division I hockey coaches definitely do not want a playoff and Division II coaches looked into it and decided against it because the CIAC is considering a move to three divisions," he noted.

The web-site is something Carbone belives strongly in. It will - hopefully - be funded by a grant from SBC (announcement of funding will take place later this month), but it will go forward no mater what with the help of West Haven High grad and former area sports information man Vincent DiCarlo, head of a company called Very Digital Communications.

"One thing is to develop a league web-site for use by students, parents, coaches, media. We have a great league, so it is important to get that out. The best way is through a website. I am looking forward to putting this all together. It is something the whole league can share and utilize. I'm excited about it. We need to do it. Where is the first place people go for communications - the web," said Carbone.

But the web isn't all.

"This league is great because we have great principals and ADs. Our job is to support them and to serve as advisory people. That's happened for 10 years. Our job is to continue that," he said. "The biggest challenge I face is to get to know the ADs and principals and to get to know what their strategic vision for the league it. It is also my job to be the conduit to the external stakeholders like the media, But the bottom line is what is best for our student-athletes in the league."

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