I get pg 7 11-17-22
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'I get to play'
Will Lovings-Watts said he woke up early last Tuesday morning, music playing and a big smile on his face.
“I was excited about it, knowing that 7 (p.m.) was coming and I’d get to play with my teammates and play for PSA for the first time,” Lovings-Watts said after scoring a game-high 23 points in his season debut to lead PSA to a 118-61 win over We Believe Academy that night. “Missing the first couple of games was tough. I tried to stay involved even though I wasn’t playing but knowing there were things I could do that the team wasn’t doing, that was tough.”
Lovings-Watts and three other teammates were held out of the Mustangs’ first two games, in which they went 1-1. His return in particular provided a spark off the bench, energizing his teammates and the home crowd with a flurry of jumpers, drives, and in particular, a missed dunk over a defender that would have blown the roof of the gym. “I was trying,” he said. “I thought I had that one. I almost lost my mind.”
The Mustangs were in control throughout, leading 56-27 at the half.
“It was great to have everyone back,” said coach Tom Espinosa. “Will should be a force on both ends of the floor. He’s 6-foot, 6-inch with a 6-11 wingspan or something crazy. He’s a special player. He had a great preseason. We’re going to really need him to step up and play a huge role for us.”
DJ Dormu and Duane Thompson (also making his season-debut) both finished with 15 points, while Connor Dubsky added 14 points, four assists, and four steals. Blake Barkley and Ben Ahmed also played well for PSA. Barkley ended with 11 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals, while Ahmed chipped in with six points, eight rebounds, and four blocks.
The Mustangs won two more games over the weekend, first knocking off Evangel Christian 133-74 Saturday night. Loving-Watts led eight Mustangs who scored in double figures with 19. Thompson added 16 points, five rebounds, and four steals, while Barkley finished with 15 points, five assists, and three steals.
“There was maybe a little bit of a lapse at the start of the second half, but we feel like this was the first time everyone came out and played with energy,” Espinosa said. “We’ve got guys who can score, obviously, we put up 133 points. But we played with good energy on both ends of the floor.”
Also scoring in double figured for PSA were: Darryl Simmons (14 points, seven assists), Miles Rose (13 points, five assists), Ty Foster (12 points), Ahmed (10 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks), and Dormu (10 points, five assists, four steals).
PSA (4-1) then beat Ridley Prep 92-70 Nov. 16 behind 14 points from Barkley, 10 points and five assists from Dormu, 13 points and nine rebounds from Mouhamed Dioubate, and 10 points from Dubsky.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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psa pg 8 11-17-22
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caption:
Back row, from left: Mouhamed Dioubate Tarique Foster Miles Rose Connor Dubsky Alberto Cantalini. Front: Sophia Fontaine Genevive Wedemeyer Jada Mills.
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Miles Rose took the microphone and thanked, looked to his peers sitting throughout Putnam Science Academy’s auditorium, and delivered a message.
“I want to say, ‘congrats’ to everyone else who is committing,” he said. “I know how much I had to sacrifice to get here. I know how hard you had to work.”
Rose was one of eight PSA student-athletes whose years of time and hard work paid off Wednesday when they signed their National Letters of Intent, making official their earlier commitments to colleges next school year.
Joining Rose, a member of the Prep basketball team who is headed to St. Bonaventure University, are his teammates Mouhamed Dioubate (University of Alabama), Connor Dubsky (University of Rhode Island), and Tarique Foster (Virginia Commonwealth University); girls basketball players Sophia Fontaine (Stetson University), Jada Mills (James Madison University), and Genevive Wedemeyer (University of Alabama-Birmingham); and baseball player Alberto Cantalini (Southern New Hampshire University).
Dioubate and Dubsky both drew laughs, first Dioubate for thanking “myself for staying focused and heading off every distraction I had,” then Dubsky for thanking his girlfriend – “I had to, she’s the one,” he said. Foster thanked a teacher at his former high school in the Bronx, N.Y., for teaching him many life lessons, including the advice to stay true to himself. “I’m quiet, but when you get to know me, I’m a really good person,” Foster said.
Fontaine thanked her parents, first her dad for “putting me first and going above and beyond for me when he didn’t need to,” then added “I appreciate my mom for making the effort to come to some of my games and pushing through her own struggles and still finding a way to support me.”
Mills thanked her coach and NY Gauchos AAU program “for taking me in seventh grade and allowing me to showcase my talent at a high level, and for being the reason I got to network and meet girls chasing the same goal as me, and building some everlasting bonds.”
Wedemeyer paused to collect herself as she thanked her coaches from the Natural Basketball Academy in Hamburg, Germany, where she grew up for “helping me develop the skills I have today because before that, I didn’t have any.”
Cantalini, PSA’s first baseball player to commit and sign his LOI, thanked his family, including “my dad, too, who got my involved in baseball but he’s not here now. Everything has been for him, all the hard work. It’s all for him.”
Cantalini’s teammate Enger Paulino recently committed to Assumption University but did not sign his letter Wednesday. Likewise, men’s basketball player Blake Barkley a Northwestern University-commit, did not sign his letter. Both intend to do so at a later date, however.
According to statistics, roughly 2 percent of high school athletes receive college scholarships and play at the next level, regardless of whether it’s Division I all the way down to NAIA.
“I don’t want anyone to take this day for granted,” PSA Athletic Director and prep basketball coach Tom Espinosa said later. “There is a lot of hard work and sacrifice that goes into this. It’s the kids, it’s the parents, it’s the coaches. And only 2 percent ever get to do what these kids did today. It’s a testament to them and to their discipline, and they should be proud. They worked hard for this. And now the work continues to thrive at that next level.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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police pg 8 11-17-22
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The following charges were listed in the Putnam Police Department logs. The people charged are innocent until proven guilty in court. The Town Crier will publish dispositions of cases at the request of the accused. The dispositions must be accompanied by the proper documentation. The Putnam Police Department confidential Tip Line is 860-963-0000.
Nov. 12
Ceejay Morrison, 26, Rosedale, N.Y.; violation of protection order, first-degree criminal trespass, disorderly conduct.
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rollie pg 4 11-17-22
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Rolland “Rollie” Johnson
Rolland “Rollie” Johnson served his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean war from October 1952 to October 1954, serving 18 months of his 24-month hitch as a ‘machine gunner’ with the 43rd Division in Berlin, Germany.
His unit was stationed in the Russian sector of Berlin at a time when the situation, following the end of WWII, was very tense.
His hitch in Germany followed his ‘basic training’ at Camp Breckenridge, Ky.
While in Berlin, his unit did much of its training at Tempelhof Air Force Base in Munich, primarily preparing for riot control activity should it erupt with the Soviets. While in Germany he graduated from NCO School. He was honorably discharged from active duty with the rank of corporal.
Prior to enlisting in the Army, Rollie tied the knot with his wife, the former Alma Lucier on April 19, 1952. Rollie and Alma have been married for 70 years. Rollie and Alma were married for eight years before the birth of their first child. In the next eight years they had five children, Michael (63); Wendy (62); Christopher (60); Brian (57); and Gary (55).
Rollie is a 1950 graduate of Putnam High School, the last class to graduate from the former high school at the corner of Providence and School streets (now the Putnam Municipal Complex). Following a brief employment at the John M. Dean Co. in Putnam, Rollie went back to school at H.H. Ellis Technical School (in Putnam then), and received a degree as an electrician in 1958. He then embarked on a 37-year career at Electric Boat, retiring in September 1995.
In November 1954, shortly following his discharge from the Army, he was recruited by his friend Stanley Scraba to join the 43rd Division of the Connecticut National Guard, initially a ‘light infantry’ unit and later an engineering company. In July 1966 after 12 years in The Guard he retired at the rank of Master Sgt. E7 --- to spend more time with this wife and children.
He is a member of the Putnam Elks, and although he’s not a Roman Catholic, he is an Honorary member of the Knights of Columbus Council #64. He’s a member of the VFW and American Legion Post #13. A person who gave back to his community, he spent 28 years doing all the electrical work for the St. Mary’s Circle of Fun, coached Little League and even found a little time to play golf.