goals pg 4 9-14-23
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Goals a bit
different for PSA
soccer team
As an independent team that’s not playing for a league championship, the goals for Putnam Science Academy’s soccer team are a little bit different.
It’s about playing a good style of the game to help promote and grow the program. To that end, there are 47 players (with two more on the way) split into two teams in the program. And it’s about getting players in their final years placed in a college that is the best fit academically and athletically. To that end, all eight seniors off last year’s team and all 10 from the previous year are playing good minutes at the college level.
That said, this Prep team could be the Mustangs’ most dynamic to date, certainly since the 2019 team that has seen five players have success at the Div. I level.
“I can’t really speak too much on that team because I never saw them play in person,” said coach Ryan Dunnigan, now in his fourth year at the helm. “I am aware of them and the success they have had at college after PSA.
“What I can say though is that the culture of this year’s team from all the newcomers and a lot of the returners is really strong. That gives us as coaches a lot of flexibility in terms of what we can do tactically and teach them. We can get into different things right away. And it’s competitive. In terms of the overall quality and technical ability and ceiling for each of them, we are better than last year, by a decent amount.”
Last year’s teams had a lot of peaks and valleys, overperforming against some of its better competition while underperforming against some of the lesser opponents. Dunnigan, who is assisted by Atobra Ampedu, noted that even when underperforming in some preseason games this year, PSA got good results. And while they didn’t overperform in the preseason, if and when they do, that means “we’re playing really, really well,” he said.
PSA has terrific depth all over the field, starting up front with Thembani Phoya (Malawi), Fran Barcelo (Spain), Shima Rubeya (Burundi), Marcos Chantada (Spain), Alex De Lamoga (Spain), Vuki Jere (Malawi), Darren Kuyeri (Malawi), Airam Rodriguez (Dominican Republic), Shemeza Rubeya (Burundi), and Bernardo Vieira (Brazil) on the attack.
Team captain Joel Martinez (Spain) leads the midfielders and is joined by Geo Aniceto (Brazil), Mario Camacho (Spain), Renan Mafra (Brazil), and Jose Romero (Spain).
And in the back are Leighton Thomas (England), Lachie Quate (Scotland), KG Mathabatha (South Africa), Miguel Llorente (Spain), Marco Danini (Spain), Gabriel Gomes (Brazil), Nimal Kumar (United Arab Emirates), and Eduardo Moreno (Spain), plus keepers Erik Chang (Brazil), Marcos Ruiz (Spain), and Gabe Sacconi (Brazil).
Getting a team of international newcomers to gel on the field isn’t always easy. But Sacconi, who was on PSA’s second team in 2019 and has told every group since that the 2019 Prep team is the standard-bearer, said that this team has bonded well on and off the field, which can lead to a special season.
“When I came to the field this year, when I’ve seen this team practicing…I’ve seen that this team is different,” he said. “We are very strong in all three parts of the field. I think we can be a better team than even those 2019 boys. We have work to do for sure, but I think we can do some amazing things this year.”
PSA opens its season Thursday afternoon at Massasoit.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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new coach pg 4 9-15-23
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New coach
stressing
development
Kurt Lunzmann has been coaching soccer around the world for roughly 20 years. He has spent time in the academies of Chelsea FC in the UK among other professional clubs, and has a UEFA A license, which is the highest youth coaching qualification in the world.
His job has been to develop players to get a professional contract.
“It was quite ruthless because a lot of players, by the time they get to 18, they get released and they don’t sign a professional contract,” he said. “You have to be very hard and very direct because it’s their livelihood. Everyone is competing.”
Now Lunzmann, a native of South Africa, is coaching the Elite team at Putnam Science Academy. It is his first full year with the program, which is fielding a second team for the first time in four years, and his background will serve him well.
“The main job of the second team is to back the first team up, and the job of the coaching staff is to develop the players to get onto the first team,” he said. “Winning is fun, don’t get me wrong, but it is still about development. My mentality is – at times – a bit hard on these players because while they’re not competing to get a professional contract, there is still competition if they want to go to a good college and play at a good level. It’s not only on the field but in the classroom as well.
“So I push them to try to get the maximum out of them to be able to fulfill their potential. I really try to link sport with education, which is something I really like about America. A lot of players where I come from in Africa, that’s not the case. When they’re done as professionals, they have nothing to fall back on.”
Lunzmann, along with assistant coach Frank Taylor, has stressed from the first training session a culture of individual and team success that centers around six personality traits: honesty, respect, trust, fairness, mentality, and intelligence.
“They had to buy into those things at the very first training,” Lunzmann said. “If they felt those things weren’t part of their personality, then by all means they were allowed to go play wherever else they wanted to. If you don’t have that inside your personality, success is going to be limited. But they have all bought into that, which is great…the rest we can coach you.
“The culture, the discipline are both very good. We feel that’s more important than the technical skills and tactical skills. If they don’t have those things to perform as a team, then the rest of the stuff is irrelevant.”
Lunzmann is leaning on a leadership group that includes second-year players Bereket Hadgu, Hugo Torres, and Leo Uren, plus newcomers Jerry Da and Raul Escolano.
“I think everyone on the team understands what we want the culture of this team to be,” Uren said. “Of course, there are times when our minds aren’t in the right way, but when that happens, we remind each other of what it means to be part of this team and how we have to approach it.”
In addition to the trio of returnees in that group, Punit Elavarsu and Pranav Shetty are back for a second year at PSA. The team’s newcomers include: Da, Escolano, Rafa Altarriba, Hugo Cuevas, Luis Egea, Caleb Gasana, Angel Miguel, Assa Mora, Anton Lemos, Mario Navas, Carlos Paniagua, Luis Pedrosa, Leandro Romagnoli, Jaime Saenz, Aiden Basabose, and Joao Sousa.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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centaurs pg 5 9-14-23
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captions, page 5:
Left: The girls’ soccer team attended a UConn women’s soccer team match. Photo by Dennis Snelling/Woodstock Academy. Below: Senior quarterback Teddy Richardson looks to hand off to running back David Bunning. Photo by Abby Ditzel/Woodstock Academy.
It didn’t look so good at the beginning of the season-opening football game for the Woodstock Academy Centaurs Sept. 9.
The Quinebaug Valley Pride held on to the football for the first 10 minutes of the game.
“You start to get frustrated,” said head coach and athletic director Sean Saucier. “I’m looking at the clock tick..tick..and there was literally two minutes left in the first quarter. I was starting to get a little impatient.”
In this case, patience was a virtue.
His defense stopped the Pride on the Woodstock 7-yard line.
It turned out to be a key play in the game which ended in a 42-0 win for the Centaurs Saturday.
When the Woodstock offense finally stepped on to the field, it was evident that Quinebaug Valley’s best defense was going to be its offense.
Quarterback Teddy Richardson ran for 30 yards, passed twice to Lucas Theriaque (3 catches, 47 yards) for 29 more.
Richardson ran for nine more yards, an encroachment penalty moved it to the 20-yard line of the Pride and then Richardson found tight end Sam Clark open over the middle for a touchdown.
Quinebaug Valley then coughed up the ball on their own 19.
Two plays later, Richardson (6-for-7 passing, 131 yards) found Theriaque for a 19-yard score.
“Game over,” Saucier said. “Lesson learned there, stay patient, stay composed even for the coaches. Trust your team that it can do that.”
A big key was Richardson.
The results showed as he also threw touchdown passes of 36-yards to Henry Wotton and a 27-yard strike to Clark.
In addition to the passing, the senior carried the ball eight times for 107 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Saucier also credited the play of the offensive line which opened the holes for Richardson and also gave him time to throw to players like Clark who shined at tight end.
The defense did pick up the pace.
It allowed 95 yards to the Pride in their opening series.
Quinebaug Valley only got 32 yards in the last 38 minutes.
One problem for the Pride was that junior running back Deven LaMothe, who finished with 63 yards in 12 carries, was injured in the second quarter and did not return.
For the Centaurs, it was a good confidence builder going into an ECC Div. I game against East Lyme Sept. 15
Prep Soccer
The boys’ prep soccer teams opened their season Sept. 10.
The Centaurs Prep 1 team took on Milton Academy, the No. 2 ranked team in the New England Prep School Athletic Council according to the New England Soccer Journal, and prevailed 1-0.
Hendrix Mota scored what proved to be the game-winning goal midway through the second half off an assist from David Lee.
The Centaurs were denied on several other opportunities but the goal was all the Centaurs needed.
The defense led by keeper Alvaro Medrano Jr. and his defensive buddies, Max Maneke, Alessandro Zannoni, Lucas de Pedro Sanchez, and Harrison Vail combined to ensure the shutout.
The Prep 2 soccer team also played at Milton Academy as it took on Phillips Exeter Academy.
The Prep 2 team followed in their Prep 1 teammates’ footsteps with a 2-1 season-opening victory.
Phillips-Exeter was physical but the Centaurs were able to retain possession for long stretches and that helped them find the back of the net twice.
Jaiden Banton got Woodstock on the board early on a goal off an effective counter attack that was assisted by Charlie Bragg and Nico Ochoa.
Phillips Exeter rallied to tie the contest but the Centaurs won it when Matias Solano headed home a Jorge Castellanos corner kick.
Girls’ Soccer
The youngsters shined early for the girls’ soccer team in its opener.
The Centaurs had several freshmen contribute in a 1-0 win over Rockville Thursday on the road, according to coach Dennis Snelling.
That’s good considering the Centaurs lost eight players to graduation.
It was freshman Rita Rawcliffe who got the only goal of the contest with 25 minutes left in regulation, scoring her first career high school goal.
It was fitting for the Centaurs who did have the advantage in possession and shots.
Keeper Rebecca Nazer only touched the ball once in the second half for the Centaurs.
The domination of possession was also good to see as the Centaurs did lose their two center-midfielders to graduation, Lennon Favreau and Grace Gelhaus.
In fact, it’s the first time the Centaurs haven’t had a Gelhaus on the team in nine years.
Considering the losses to graduation, Snelling thought it was important to get off to a good start.
“We don’t call it rebuilding, it’s just a re-load. The players who graduated are replaced by players that are very good also,” Snelling said.
The team also persevered through the recent heat and humidity wave.
That meant late practices and a late opening game.
The match at Rockville was pushed back to 7 p.m. to let that heat subside a bit.
The Centaurs have three tough home matches scheduled for this week as they will host Ledyard, Wethersfield and Stonington,
“I think we still have to work on connecting the midfield with the forwards a bit more so the forwards don’t have to do their own attack. We had a lot of individual attacks, it should be a little more connected, not so spread out, and more support for the strikers when they have the ball,” Snelling said.
Volleyball
The Centaurs knew the season opener would not be an easy proposition in Newtown.
That was the case as the Nighthawks posted a 3-0 victory Thursday.
“They were a good club last year (15-4) and we knew they were going to be again this year,” said coach Adam Bottone said. “They are very well coached and have a lot of girls with a lot of experience. They have some solid outside hitters and their defense was good.”
Still, the Centaurs hung tough. Especially in the first set. Woodstock held a 23-19 advantage late but a couple of crucial service errors led to a Nighthawk rally and a 25-23 win.
Newtown won the second set, 25-18 and the third, 25-13, to record the shutout. Gronski did finish with 12 assists while Cassidy Ladd had 13 assists and Liliana Bottone delivered six kills. “We have to work on our receive a little more,” Adam Bottone said.
Boys’ soccer
Coach Paul Rearden liked his team’s ability to attack coming into the season.
That was proven to be true in the opener Sept. 9 when the Centaurs put three goals up on the board.
Woodstock only scored three goals in a match once last season. The unfortunate part of the equation was that it wasn’t enough as the Granby Bears had some firepower too and outscored the Centaurs, 7-3.
Granby scored early in the first half but Woodstock knotted it up with a goal from Austin Byer off an assist from Zach Armbruster.
The Bears would go back up just before the half with a tally and then scored four unanswered goals to open the second half and bolt to the 6-1 lead.
Goals by Matt Johndrow, his first career high school tally, and Trevor Gold made it closer but Granby added another to account for the final score.
Byer and Nate Faucher added assists for the Centaurs.
Field Hockey
The Centaurs hung tough in their opener on the road in Somers.
But the Somers/Rockville co-op put five goals on the board in the second half and posted a 6-1 victory.
The Spartans opened the scoring in the first half despite some nice work in the cage by goalie Madison LaVallee who turned aside four shots.
LaVallee finished with 11 saves in the game.
Somers/Rockville added five second half goals to put the game away.
The Centaurs did get on the board when Mikayla Bessette tallied off an assist from Grace Pokorny.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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cal pg 6 9-14-23
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Wed. Sept. 13
Art Exhibit
PUTNAM --- “A Cacophony of Greys” Exhibit and Reception by Steve Veilleux will be on display in The Corridor Gallery at the Putnam Municipal Complex through Sept. 30. Features a series of black and white and monotone photographs. All welcome. Free. PutnamCtArtsCouncil.com for gallery hours and info.
Art Exhibit
THOMPSON --- For the month of September The Friends of the Thompson Public Library will present, as part of its Art @ the Library, “Falling Water: Photography by Steve and Danny Veilleux.” In the display case will be: “Our U.S. Constitution by Ida Ransom.” 860-923-9779.
Thur. Sept. 21
Peace Celebration
PUTNAM --- The Greater Putnam Interfaith Council invites local residents to a Peace Day Celebration at 6 p.m. at the Daughters of the Holy Spirit offices, 508B Pomfret St. The event will feature music, readings, prayers and information.
Sat. Sept. 23
Celebrating Agriculture
BROOKLYN --- 2023 Celebrating Agriculture will begin at 9 a.m. at the Brooklyn Fairgrounds.
Harvest Fest
HAMPTON --- Fletcher Memorial Library hosts The Hampton Harvest Festival from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the town hall grounds on Main Street. The festival features local products and crafts, plus entertainment, refreshments, music, and displays. Free admission and parking. 860-455-1086.
Book Sale
THOMPSON --- The Friends of Thompson Public Library will hold their annual book sale from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Donations welcome during library hours starting Sept. 5, in Community Room 3.
Sun. Sept. 24
Concert
WOODSTOCK --- A free bonus concert! The St. Luke’s Steel Band will play from 2 to 3 p.m. at Roseland Cottage. Bring a blanket, buy some ice cream. Cosponsored with Performing Arts of Northeast Connecticut, The Three C's, and Historic New England.
Wed. Sept. 27
Fall Seminar
PUTNAM --- A free Fall Prevention in our Quiet Corner program will be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the Municipal Complex. Spots are still available, and there is a simple form required. 860-963-6800 ext 140.
Sat. Sept. 30
BBQ
WOODSTOCK --- The Bungay Fire Brigade will host its fall 2023 Chicken BBQ from 4 to 6 p.m. www.bungay.com.
Community Day
THOMPSON --- The Town of Thompson’s 19th Annual Thompson Community Day will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Riverside Park. Oct. 1 is the rain date.
Empty Bowls
THOMPSON --- The Empty Bowls fund-raiser will have two seatings, at 5 and 6:30 p.m., at TEEG.
Camp Day
WOODSTOCK --- The Windham-Tolland 4-H Camp Day fund-raiser at Bucks will be from 2 to 6 p.m. at Buck’s Soft Serve, 88 Kenyonville Road. Bake sale, ice cream eating contests, dunk the director and Buck’s famous soft serve ice cream treats. Portion of sales goes to support the Windham Tolland 4-H Camp Dam Restoration Fund.
Sat. Nov. 11
Dueling Pianos
THOMPSON --- The DKH Dueling Pianos fund-raiser will be held at 6 p.m. at the Raceway Restaurant and Banquet Hall. Benefits Day Kimball Healthcare At Home services of HomeCare, HomeMakers, and Hospice & Palliative Care of Northeastern Connecticut. Food, drawings and more. Tickets $45, must be purchased in advance. daykimball.org/pianos.
Yuletide Festival
PUTNAM --- The Daughters of Isabella will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary Church Hall. Vendors sought. 413-612-8358.
Meet the Author
PUTNAM --- The Putnam Public Library will present “Meet the Author: Nathaniel Philbrick” at 1 p.m. in Community Room 112/113 at the Municipal Complex.
Sun. Dec. 3
Tree of Life
The DKH 34th Annual Hospice Tree of Life Ceremonies will be held at 5 p.m. in 11 towns throughout northeastern Connecticut. The purchase of memorial lights on each community's Tree of Life benefits Hospice & Palliative Care of Northeastern Connecticut. For info: daykimball.org/treeoflife.
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