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caption, page 8:
Landon Pettigrew. Photo by Heather Stewart
PSA soccer
player: Look
at him now
Shortly after enrolling at Putnam Science Academy for the spring semester of 2021, Landon Pettigrew was talking with one of his teachers.
He told the teacher that he had been one of the better players in the ECC while at Plainfield High School, prompting the teacher to respond that he’ll be able to then help out on PSA’s soccer team.
“Um, no,” Pettigrew quickly answered. “With this team, I (stink).”
“I saw our captain (Aidan Muller) and he was the best soccer player I’ve ever played with, by a really wide margin. I was like ‘Oh my God, I’m not even going to play here.’”
It turns out that may have been a little bit of an exaggeration because look at him now. Last week, Pettigrew, who lives in Plainfield, announced that he was going to play soccer next year at Division II D’Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y.
“I really like the coach there,” he said. “The soccer facilities were really good. I know a couple of the players there (former PSA players Paulo Carvalho and Luis Felipe Santos) and they told me that I’d fit in and really have a chance to compete with the team and compete for a starting spot.
“Before PSA, I thought I was just going to screw off and get some random job and get money. I wouldn’t be going to college next year if I didn’t come here. So I’m excited to go. Now I’ve got a chance to shoot my shot and go to college and play soccer. I’m excited to go to college and get my degree and play soccer at the same time.
Mustangs soccer coach Ryan Dunnigan said Pettigrew, a reserve defender, didn’t (“stink”) but was rather getting used to playing at a higher level. The speed of play, the level of skill, the fitness requirements that Pettigrew was used to, all changed when he got to PSA. He was also behind the 8-ball because the rest of the team had been there for a while and was used to the expectations.
“When he came here in the spring, he was definitely farther behind,” Dunnigan said. “But this summer he really took into control what he could control, which was his fitness. He came in a lot fitter and I could tell that he was playing and working out and running throughout the summer. When we played against each other in the fall and would go 11 versus 11 in practice, there wasn’t a big drop in level between him and another kid who I would consider a ‘first team guy’.
“He might go through some of those growing pains again next year, but I think he’ll transition into it as well as he did here.”
D’Youville, a school of roughly 3,000 students, just completed its first season at the D-II level after moving up from D-III. The Saints, coached by Brendan Murphy, play in the East Coast Conference.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
..