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Senior ‘Dependent’
The Woodstock Academy boys’ basketball team will rely on the talents of seniors. Back, from left: Everett Michalski, Ethan Davis, Huck Flanagan. Front: Jackson Goetz, Parker Anderson and Hamilton Barnes. Photo by Marty Hart/The Woodstock Academy.
Four of the five returning varsity players for the Woodstock Academy boys’ basketball team have something in common.
Ethan Davis, Jackson Goetz, Parker Anderson and Huck Flanagan return for their high school senior seasons in 2021-22.
All are familiar names from this past fall when Davis was lofting passes to Goetz and Anderson on the football field and Flanagan was getting after opposing quarterbacks.
That chemistry will, hopefully, pay dividends this winter.
“This team is confident in its ability to play basketball and its ability to play together,” said coach Marty Hart. “I think that is the thing that impresses me the most is how connected they are and how well they know, like and enjoy playing together.”
The Centaurs are coming off a successful football season where they finished 7-3 and won the ECC Div. II title.
That’s in addition to the confidence already built a year ago when the Centaurs finished the abbreviated 2021 basketball season with an 11-1 record and won the ECC North title.
That said, this team will be different from last. Logan Talbot, last season’s leading scorer with a 17.2 point per game average including 23 3-pointers, is now playing for the Academy’s Blue prep basketball team.
Also missing will be the determined play of Andrew Johnson (10. 7 ppg, 4.7 rebounds per game), the inside presence of Dmitri Zinchenko (9.8 ppg, 5.3 rebounds) as well as Liam Blanchflower (4.1 ppg), Jacob Hernandez, Daimler Aleksjuks and Rich Hickson.
Games against Putnam. Tourtellotte, Lyman and Wheeler will be replaced by games against ECC Div. II opponents Waterford, St. Bernard, Ledyard and Bacon Academy. Add to that games against the likes of NFA, New London, E. Lyme, Fitch and Killingly and it’s a pretty formidable schedule.
Hart doesn’t hesitate when asked what has to go right for his Centaurs this season. The Centaurs have to hit the boards.
Davis, a 6-foot, 2-inch senior forward, is the leader of the group. He averaged 8.6 points per game last season and was the team’s best rebounder, pulling in 9.3 caroms per game. He also dished out 28 assists.
He and Anderson are the two returning starters.
Anderson is a 6-1 shooting guard, missed some time due to injury last season, but still finished with 10 3’s and averaged 6 ½ points a game. Point guard Brandon Nagle, a 6-foot junior, will also be relied upon to put the ball in the basket.
Goetz, a 6-foot senior, is also a good shooter and the fifth returning varsity player, Hamilton Barnes, is a tenacious 5-10 senior who finds a way to get things done a la Hernandez of last year.
That rebounding will have to come from the likes of Davis, Flanagan and Everett Michalski, both of whom are physical 6-4 seniors, and 6-5 junior James D’Alleva-Bochain.
The Centaurs will have juniors Carter Morissette (6-2 forward); Braiden Saucier (5-9 guard) and Jackson Gallagher (5-9 guard) and sophomores Hunter Larson (6-1 guard) and Keon Lamarche (6-3 forward) on the varsity bench.
Boys’ Basketball Schedule: Dec. 16: vs. Waterford, 7 p.m.; Dec. 18: at Bacon Academy, 2:30; Dec. 21: at Stonington, 7; Dec. 23: at New London, 7; Dec. 28: vs. Killingly, 5; Dec. 29: at Griswold, 7; Jan. 4: vs. East Lyme, 7; Jan. 7: vs. St. Bernard; 7; Jan. 14: at Ledyard, 7; Jan. 18: vs. Windham, 7; Jan. 21: at Waterford, 7; Jan. 24: at Killingly, 7; Jan. 28: vs. Bacon Academy, 7; Feb. 1: at Fitch, 7; Feb. 8: vs. NFA, 7; Feb. 10: at St. Bernard, 7; Feb. 14: vs. Ellis Tech, 7; Feb. 15: vs. Ledyard, 7; Feb. 18: at E. Lyme, 7; Feb. 21: vs. Griswold, 7.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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