DERBY - The long-standing football rivalry between Ansonia and Derby used to embody

everything that makes the Naugatuck Valley a unique place - two neighboring, blue collar
communities, rabid fan bases and players who are foes on the field but friends off it.

Yet the two schools, located a mere three miles apart, have not played each other for the
past five seasons due to scheduling constraints. Ansonia has been a member of the
Naugatuck Valley League for decades while Derby competed in the Southern
Connecticut Conference.

But that changed in the spring when Derby announced it was leaving the SCC to join the
NVL, the state’s oldest conference. One of Connecticut’s most storied high school
rivalries will resume on October 30, when Derby hosts Ansonia at DeFillippo Field.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a football fan in “The Valley” who isn’t thrilled. The
Ansonia-Derby rivalry dates to 1902, with Ansonia holding a 51-30-7 edge.

“I think in its heyday (1960s through early 90s), it was probably the best rivalry in the
state,” said Derby coach Carmen Dicenso, recalling a time when huge crowds were the
norm. “I’m hoping we could get it back to that. There was nothing like walking on the
field with six, seven, eight, nine thousand people watching two small schools play
football.”

Ansonia coach Tom Brockett, who has guided the Chargers to a 38-2 record and two state
championships in his three seasons, also is looking forward to the resumption of the
rivalry.

“I think it’s good for us to play them again,” Brockett said. “It’s a game that never should
have been stopped. It makes no sense.”

At the start of preseason practice, Dicenso noticed an increase in numbers. Forty kids
tried out for the team after the Red Raiders ended last year with just 28 players.

“The kids are excited all of a sudden,” said Dicenso, whose team is coming off a 3-8
season, its third straight losing campaign. “I have 40 kids. I don’t know if the excitement
is there because of the switch (to the NVL) or if this is the year more kids are coming
out.”

So exactly why was the rivalry discontinued following the 2003 season?

The addition of Woodland in 2004 gave the NVL two six-team divisions, and the league
adopted a policy requiring its members to play all 10 games against conference
opponents. No outside games were allowed.

SCC commissioner Al Carbone expressed disappointment when Derby announced its

intention to leave. The Red Raiders were charter members of the SCC, joining in 1994
after the old Housatonic League disbanded, and enjoyed success in other sports.
However, they found it increasingly difficult to compete in football against the larger
schools. Dicenso’s five-year record at Derby is just 16-35, including a 1-9 mark in 2006.
Derby has not had a winning season since 1996, managing a 5-5 finish in 2005.

“Over the past few years, most of our graduating classes have been under 100, (and)
that’s boys and girls,” he said. “We would have 26, 27, 28 kids on the team. A lot of
people felt the situation we were in was a little over the top as far as enrollment.”

According to Derby athletic director Joseph Orazietti, the decision to change leagues
boiled down to an enrollment issue. He feels the NVL will be a better fit while presenting
an opportunity for the Red Raiders to resume their “Valley” rivalries with Ansonia and
Seymour, also an NVL school.

With just five square miles of total area, Derby is the smallest municipality in
Connecticut and shares its football program with Ansonia’s O’Brien Tech.

“We are (a class) S school,” said Orazietti, whose team actually has moved up a notch
and will compete in Class M this season. “There are some small schools in our new
league, more so than our last league. We were the only S school.”

Grouped with some of the smaller schools in the SCC (Foran, East Haven, North Haven
and Sheehan), Derby did win its division in 2005, Dicenso’s second year as coach.

The problem, according to Dicenso, occurred when the Red Raiders were matched up in
“cross-over” games against large-school powers such as Hillhouse, West Haven and
Hand. The results were not pretty.

In 2007, the Red Raiders lost games to Hillhouse (37-0), Hand (32-8) and West
Haven (46-8) by a combined 115-18. Last season, Derby again was blanked by
Hillhouse (33-0) and suffered a 59-17 defeat to Notre Dame-West Haven.

“It was just brutal for the kids,” Dicenso said. “You get dinged up. You’re playing
with sophomores. It was tough for the kids. That might have held kids back from
coming out for the team.”

The NVL relaxed its scheduling policy this season, allowing its members one out-of-
conference game, which will enable Derby to continue its other historic rivalry with
Shelton, a member of the SCC. The Red Raiders host Shelton, a Class LL school, on
Thanksgiving in the 99th meeting between the teams.

Even with the enrollment issues, Derby might have stayed in the SCC if it was not
allowed to play Shelton, which has romped in the last two meetings – 56-12 last
season and 49-14 the year before.

“It’s David against Goliath,” Orazietti said. “But it’s a great event and a great venue.”
 Derby is the only “Valley” school to play Ansonia, Seymour and Shelton this season.
Ansonia and Seymour don’t face the Gaels because their out-of-conference games are
against Hillhouse (Week One) and New Canaan (Week Five), respectively.

While Ansonia and Derby will be playing again, the latter will have to hold up its end
of the bargain it to get the rivalry back to what it used to be in decades past when both
teams competed for state playoff berths.

Even before the rivalry was stopped, the programs were headed in opposite
directions. Ansonia continued to win championships and Derby struggled in the
rugged SCC, arguably the state’s toughest conference. Attendance for the most recent
Ansonia-Derby game in 2003 – a 48-0 win for Ansonia - had dwindled to no more
than 500.

Once upon a time losing seasons were a foreign concept for the Red Raiders. From
1968-1982, coach Lou DeFilippo – a member of Fordham’s famed Seven Blocks of
Granite in the 1940s - guided Derby to a 116-30-8 record, winning two state
championship and nine Housatonic League titles.

Even first-year Seymour coach Tom Lennon, a “Valley” native, would love to see the
Red Raiders get their program turned around. The hope in Derby is that resuming the
traditional rivalries will be a first step in that direction.

“If they can get back to where they were, that’d be great,” Lennon said. “Those Seymour-
Derby, Ansonia-Derby type games are always great to go to, for everyone.”