By Michael Letendre
The road to Uncasville for the Bristol Central boys basketball team was much different from the journey a run-of-the-mill sports reporter took to cover the squad’s Division II championship game against Northwest Catholic last Saturday night.
Now, back in the day, the CIAC held all its state championship contests from the Detrick Gymnasium on the campus of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
And for anyone who lives in Bristol, the venue at CCSU was the absolute best place to hold the championship games (if any of you used to read my columns in the Bristol Observer, you know my exact take on high school games commencing from a casino).
The Detrick Gymnasium, from my house near Restaurant 99, is just nine miles away – a mere 13-minute drive – to New Britain and CCSU.
And wouldn’t the showdown between Central and Northwest be perfect from the venue in New Britain?
Now, is that facility big enough for that clash of teams from the Central Connecticut Conference?
Probably not as the capacity for the Detrick Gymnasium is 2,654 – just about the size of the crowd that took in the Central-Wilton game from the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven in the previous round.
But a trip from Bristol to the Mohegan Sun Arena is 60 miles away and is at least a one-hour drive unless you hit Route 2 traffic at the wrong time.
At least Mohegan is a bit closer than Foxwoods (the blunder, whoops, I meant the wonder of it all).
The Mohegan Sun Arena is a bright, clean arena and with game-time at 8:15 p.m. – and a seat waiting for me in press row – I thought leaving Bristol at 5 p.m. would be the perfect time to get to the arena, park my car, and get a bite to eat.
My folks came along for the ride and, as some of you know, my dad is my photographer (don’t ever ask me for a raise again, pops!) and my mom was going to take in the contest with some friends from church.
I got to the Winter Parking Garage just after six p.m. and on the sign that gives the number of parking spaces remaining on each tier, ‘Level 6’ showed 57 spots to park.
Well, that was a lie as there weren’t any spaces and thanks to me taking a wrong turn out of the completely full garage, we had to leave Mohegan Boulevard, turnaround and then come back to the facility.
I’m not a mental giant, folks.
On my return to the main strip, I said the heck with the parking garage, and I found an outside lot for the car.
My family and I then trekked into the warmth of the casino and, as we had intended, went looking for a place for dinner.
It was Saturday night in Uncasville and the casino was jammed full, buzzing with excitement.
As I passed every packed eatery, I saw several people from the Mum City – some wearing their Bristol Central gear.
There was principal Pete Wininger, wolfing down a pizza or two (it looked like the cheese hadn’t melted yet).
Even Bristol Eastern principal Mike Higgins was at one of the many restaurants, enjoying some sort of tasty beverage.
After striking out with those sit-down restaurants, we went looking for the food court, couldn’t find it, and nor could the THREE employees we stopped along the way.
And there was a sign and arrow that said ‘food court’ that led to, well, nowhere.
My pops even bothered a security guy on the second floor who appeared to be watching a suspicious man playing poker (it was like something out of the movie ‘Casino’ with Robert De Niro…).
Finally, we decided to stop at a burger joint and as soon as my pops and I got into line, the cashiers shrunk from two employees to one.
And this poor girl, just a week into the job, was completely in the weeds.
Completely.
It took us about 25 minutes to place our order and across the way at a little bar, Mr. Brian Archibald and family, along with ‘Sargent’ Lance Pepper, were enjoying the evening with some beverages – some of the tasty variety.
When I finally got my burger and fries, it was my first time eating in public since the pandemic started which was kind of strange.
But the burger couldn’t eat itself and I quickly devoured the tasty thing.
After that $54 meal (I made my cameraman pay), it was about 7:45 p.m. and time to head into the arena.
Once my pops and I got our press passes, my mom found her friends and it was time to go down to press row.
When we got there, Rebecca Lobo was in the house and when she stood next to my dad, it was like me standing next to Donovan Clingan.
For some reason, the facility put us down at the far end of press row and that wasn’t going to fly.
So my pops and I found a nice little spot at center court where he could take pictures without having to leave his seat.
We eventually found TBE Sports Editor Jack Krampitz, but he was too busy to talk – drooling every time a hot dog or popcorn vendor sauntered by. (Editor comment, absolute slander)
And then, the game went according to plan.
Clingan collected 25 points and 24 rebounds, Steve Alseph had nine rebounds and caused havoc all over the court, Damion Glasper made a 3 from 35-feet away, Carson Rivoira was his usual self – gumming up the works – and Victor Rosa limited scoring sensation Matt Curtis into a 5-of-18 shooting night from the floor.
At halftime, the Unified Sports Programs from Bristol Central and Waterford took centerstage in a wonderful exhibition, and then Central turned the contest into a slow blowout, nabbing a 56-36 win to take the championship.
After the game, the interviews with the victors commenced.
I guess we were holding up Coach Barrette in the end because Mr. Greenleaf came over to grab the state championship coach away from the assembled media for some pictures.
But the night went off without a hitch, the rain held off until I was halfway home, and the boys basketball team from Bristol Central ended the evening as Division II state champs.
That’s not a bad way to end the night for the city of Bristol and, in the end, all the tomfoolery was worth it.
And you can bet on that.
