By: Peter Wallace

Flying

Jason Bresson talked with us about the art of flying last week. Bresson and his co-flyer Ariel Lagasa, both Torrington residents, are members of a rarefied community of expert sky divers who use wing suits to stay aloft for up to four minutes before deploying their paracutes, compared with a sky diver’s average free fall time of 55 seconds.

NVL and Berkshire League moves?

There’s talk in the Naugatuck Valley League that Oxford, located between Naugatuck and Seymour, could become the next NVL school when its current commitment to the South West Conference ends next year. If that happens, the talk says the league could also divide into size divisions — small, medium and large. Several leagues in the state already follow that model, while others — notably the huge Central Connecticut Conference — go by geography.

While it’s still in the talk stage, what do you think of the possibility — an idea floated by nobody — of one day merging the Berkshire League with the NVL?

The immediate objections — smaller schools — might be solved by a mega-league divided by size divisions. The long distances, from Derby to Falls Village (Housatonic), could be solved by geographic division.

There could be advantage for both leagues, but particularly the BL. Small school state tournament “Cinderella” schools invariably just make the tournament after battling with larger schools in their leagues. The BL goes up to Class M, while the NVL spans the range from LL to S.

Meanwhile, the league’s traditional-power M schools, Lewis Mills, Nonnewaug and Northwestern, would have regular access to stiffer competition. Gilbert and Torrington boys basketball teams proved a couple of weeks ago that cross-over games between divisions (in this case Class L and Class S) can be ultra-exciting on both sides.

For the NVL, if another Class S school like Oxford joins, the Berkshire League might offer more credibility for a mega-league divided by size.

What do you think?