- Details
- Category: Current Issue
By Ron P. Coderre
Now that the high school and prep school seasons and tournaments have concluded, all star games have become the order of the day.
The Putnam Rotary Club Ray Brousseau Memorial Senior All Star Shootout, originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, was the victim of snow and rescheduled for the following Tuesday, March 26, weather permitting. A full reporting of both the girls and boys games will be featured in Putnam Town Crier Sports next week.
Fortunately, for the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Basketball Festival, both the boys and girls contests dodged the weather bullet. The games were held on separate dates and at separate locations.
The boys played on Wednesday at Maloney High School in Meriden and the girls on Thursday at North Branford. Both contests had a local connection.
The Class LL vs. Class L contest had Woodstock coach Greg Smith on the bench for the Class L unit as one of the coaches and Centaur standout Ian Converse was on the floor representing the area.
Converse as has been his habit this season didn’t disappoint scoring 10 points and providing offensive spark in a losing effort, as his team went down 113-93.
In the female game on Thursday, Putnam coach Willie Bousquet was on the bench for the Class S team with his star, Ashley Espinosa.
The team was beaten by Class M 81-71. Espinosa, who continues to nurse a knee injury, saw limited action, playing about one minute each half.
Notes
Woodstock Academy climbed back into the State rankings following its 52-49 win over Trinity Catholic in the Class L title game. The Centaurs, who were unranked the previous week, finished 3rd in the New Haven Register Media Poll and 3rd in the Hartford Courant poll …The Hartford Courant recognized Woodstock’s Ian Converse as the Best Male Individual Performer in the entire State Tournament playoffs.
The paper also recognized Woodstock as The Best Student Section, noting “the arena rocked with the Centaur fans who were the loudest and appeared to have the greatest numbers.
Surprisingly, Converse prior to the team’s State tourney run hadn’t received a great deal of attention from college coaches.
That changed on Saturday, March 22 for the 6’5” Converse as he received an invitation for a workout at NCAA Div. II Assumption College in Worcester.
On hand for the CHSCA All Star Festival at Maloney High School was former Centaur Dennis Kelly, who reports he thought Converse was equal to or better than all the players in the LL vs. L game.
News from Marianapolis Sports Department reports that senior, 1000-point scorer Sydney Latour was named the 2013 SENE Player of the Year. Her teammates, junior Jillian Bodreau and sophomore Julia Ford were recognized with second-team All Conference honors …Former Killingly High School three-sport standout Kirk Kaczor, who is the coach at Lyme/Old Lyme High School was one of the coaches in the CHSCA Class S vs. Class M contest.
Look for the Putnam Town Crier Sports high school and prep school all stars who’ll be unveiled next week.