Wolcott High girls soccer coach Chris Riviezzo brings back Midnight Madness tonight to start the fall sports season. (Palladino/RA)
By JOE PALLADINO
The madness is back in Wolcott, and now it has spread.
The Wolcott High girls soccer team brings back its Midnight Madness training session to kick off fall season practice. Tonight, at midnight, while most of us are in bed, the Eagles will hold their first session.
But unlike Midnight Madness 2014, the Eagles will not be alone.
“When I mentioned it to other teams within the school, they seemed interested,” said girls soccer coach and Madness mastermind Chris Riviezzo. “This year the girls volleyball and boys soccer teams committed to it as well.” There is Madness aplenty on Bound Line Road.
The first — as far as we know, only — scholastic Midnight Madness practice in Connecticut was staged by Riviezzo and the Wolcott girls soccer team in 2014. No one used a whistle, there was no music blasted around Joe Monroe Stadium, and no neighbors were harmed in the making of that practice.
As Riviezzo added, “It was such a great thing, I thought it would become a great tradition at the school.”
Ah, but though there were midnights in 2015, there was no madness. The first day of practice, set each year by the CIAC, was moved to a weekday in 2015, and it was after the start of of school.
The Madness was no more.
“I assumed that my parents would be lukewarm to the idea,” Riviezzo said, “but it was amazing how last year my kids and parents were upset that we couldn’t do it again.”
But now they can.
When the girls volleyball team heard that they were now part of the madness, they “were incredibly excited,” said first-year coach Briana Daniele. “They have been asking why they couldn’t do it since soccer did it the first year. I thought it would be a great idea to do something new and exciting to start the season. I think it will start off on a lighter note with a less intense first day.”
Tonight at midnight, the three teams will gather on the football/soccer field for warmups and calisthenics. The volleyball team then breaks off and heads inside for a workout in John Morris Gymnasium, while the boys and girls share Monroe Field.
Rumor has it that the volleyball team will hold an ice cream social after practice. Hmm. What have I got going on at 2 a.m.?
It is a light workout, to be fair, as much about morale building as anything. It is important to note also that the practice is not mandatory. If Mom and Dad think that a practice at midnight is whacky, it’s OK. Everyone comes back again Thursday for the first day of the official grind.
“This is about creating an event to kick off the season,” Riviezzo said. “The kids will make it fun. They love it, and no matter what they remember about their time at Wolcott High School 10, 20, or 30 years down the road the kids will remember when Coach was an idiot, and how they did the Midnight Madness.”