WINDSOR – It was a good week for the Windsor football team and its coach Quinn Fleeting.
On Wednesday at 3:09 a.m., Fleeting’s wife Molly gave birth to their second child, a boy named Crew Carson, at home. Quinn got about an hour’s sleep before he had to prepare for Windsor’s Class MM quarterfinal game against Plainfield/Quinebaug Valley that night at Windsor.
Windsor won, 61-0, behind six touchdown passes from senior quarterback AJ Robinson. Robinson broke the state career record for touchdown passes that night. He also committed to play at Central Connecticut this week and on Friday, he was named the state’s Gatorade Football Player of the Year.
“I’m blessed,” Fleeting said. “Happy for the kids. We’re winning as a team, which is great. But for them to accomplish individual goals … all the recognition is awesome.”
Junior receiver Missoni Brown, who has 1,267 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns, also broke a school record from 2011 for receiving yards in a season. His fellow receiver Jayden Compton (1,240 yards) is right behind Brown and they are 1-2 in the state in receiving yards.
“It was a great day,” Fleeting said.
Top-seeded Windsor (10-1) will face No. 4 Newington (9-2) in a Class MM semifinal game Monday at 3:30 p.m. at Windsor High School. The game was moved from an original 6:30 p.m. start due to the cold weather forecast.
Last year, the two CCC teams faced off against each other in the semifinal and Windsor won 50-0. But this is a different Windsor team and a different year and Fleeting cautioned his team not to look at last year’s result.
“We can never take our foot off the gas,” he said.
Last year, Windsor had big-time weapons at running back John Manning (1,765 yards, 25 TDs) and receiver Cash Lewis (968 yards, 12 TDs) but both graduated. Then coach Rob Fleeting, who had been the coach since 2009 and brought his team to six state finals and one state title, was named an assistant principal and couldn’t coach so his son was named the interim head coach in July.
“Those stars from last year and our line was huge – and our line is not that huge this year – so for us to lose that and to lose our coach and to still be here is awesome,” Fleeting said.
Robinson is a big key to Windsor’s success. This season, he has completed 175 of 262 passes for 3,263 yards, which leads the state, and has scored 46 touchdowns with only one interception. On Wednesday, he broke the state record for career touchdown passes (113) set in 2013 by Woodland’s Tanner Kingsley, according to the Connecticut High School Football Record book, and now has 116.
“It was very exciting – it means a lot to break a record that hasn’t been broken in a long time,” Robinson said. “I couldn’t do it with my teammates and my coaches having my back.”
There is one thing left that has eluded both Fleeting, who was an assistant coach last year, and Robinson, the starting quarterback in the state championship game – winning a title. Last year, the Warriors lost in the final on a last-second field goal by Masuk.
“It took me a while to get over that,” Robinson said. “I always think about last year. It feels like something I have to go back and get this year.”