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In most games, Lucie Castagne doesn’t stuff the stat sheet. Heck, a lot of times she doesn’t even sprinkle that stat sheet.
She might score one point this game, hand out an assist or two that game, maybe grab a rebound. There are games when, if you only looked at the stat sheet, you wouldn’t think she has any impact.
And yet, she most certainly does.
“I just try to do the simple things,” said Castagne, a senior on the Putnam Science Academy girls’ prep team. “My role is to move around and open things up for the girls. That’s all right with me. As long as we win, I’m happy with that.
“I don’t think I’ve ever scored 20 points in a game. Maybe when I was smaller but I never get mad at it. Just as long as we win.”
“She’s hard to describe,” said teammate Niya Fields. “But you need players like her. She makes us better, regardless of what she’s doing.”
PSA coach Devin Hill had been around most of the Mustangs players prior to this season as their coach with the NY Gauchos on the AAU circuit. But this is his first time coaching Castagne, a 5-foot, 6-inch guard from Paris. Right away, he knew there was something different about her, even telling her in preseason meetings how impressive she is. She carries herself differently, he said, adding that you can see it in her warmup. She is college-ready.
“I just want to win, that’s my mindset,” said Castagne, who will play at Bryant College next season. “When I play, I just look to win.”
To think that Castagne can’t contribute something on offense would be a terrible mistake. She is a nimble penetrator, who looks to drive to the basket, then kick out to a teammate for an open look or an extra pass for the next open teammate. She works tirelessly at her game. She works tirelessly in general on the court. Watch her in a practice drill and she is going as hard as she can the entire time.
“Lucie runs everywhere. If you guard Lucie, which I try to, there is no standing still,” said Fields, who is a lockdown defender. “Lucie is everywhere in every spot trying to do every position. She is a hard, hard worker.”
Hill would actually like to see that hard work manifest itself a little differently.
“I’m telling her to trust her own work,” he said. “She works so hard, trust it. Take a few more. She can be a little more aggressive than she thinks she can. She works so hard, so why not show it? What’s wrong with showing what you’ve done?
“There’s no reason Lucie can’t be scoring eight, nine, 10 (points). And she’s had games like that, don’t get me wrong. But there’s no reason she can’t be consistent with it.”
Maybe there is a reason, and it’s not a lack of confidence. It’s just the way Castagne is. “I think she’s such a good person and teammate that she’s always looking for someone else,” Hill said. “She’d rather someone else get it. It’s just her mentality of just always being a giver and putting everyone else before herself.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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