Hill stresses little things
“That’s twice now, Damoni. That’s two turnovers now. Hey, I’m gonna coach you, I’m gonna coach you.”
That was Devin Hill to Damoni Tucker near the start of Tuesday’s practice, Hill’s second as the coach of the Putnam Science Academy prep girls’ basketball team following his promotion from assistant over the recent holiday break.
A few moments later, it was clear he was annoyed when his players didn’t go to the right spots while running a drill he explained to them just seconds earlier. Yet, as with the direction to Tucker, he admonished them calmly. “Pay attention to the little things,” he said. “That’s why we’re a good team, not a great one.”
Never once did he raise his voice. It’s big enough to carry across the relatively quiet gym as it is, but nevertheless, he never got agitated enough to yell.
“He stays calm,” said guard Shawni Cornfield. “He keeps the team under control. He stays on you for the fundamentals and the little things and details that will make the player. You don’t have to have all these handles and all these moves to be a good player. He always says if you have the fundamentals and pay attention to the little things, you can be a great player.”
Hill himself was a pretty good player not too long ago (and probably still is). He played at DePaul for three years, then transferred to Loyola-Chicago. He never played there though, announcing in December 2011, that he didn’t have the passion for the game to compete at the Division I level. He ultimately graduated from Arizona State, then started coaching. He’s been doing that at all levels ever since his first gig at Mount Vernon (N.Y.) High School.
Hill, 30, has also coached at a public high schools, a Division II college, a prep academy, a community college, and now Putnam Science Academy. And every summer, he coaches the NYC Gauchos on the AAU circuit, where he coached roughly half the Mustangs’ current roster.
“He’s very particular,” said Niya Fields, one of those PSA-Gauchos crossovers. “He pays attention to detail. If we don’t say ‘dead’ in the drill when the ball is dead, we’re not going to say “dead” when the ball is dead in the game, which we need to so we know to lock up on our man. Little things like that. We prepare for the little things.”
PSA lost its first game with Hill in the first seat, 68-63, to St. Andrews School on Jan. 10. It was the little details that cost them. Hill’s scouting report hit on everything (“We weren’t surprised about anything they did”) but it wasn’t always followed. Hill’s biggest thing is defending without fouling, which PSA didn’t do well.
“I think they’re frustrated because (St. Andrews) didn’t do anything that surprised us,” Hill said. “That doesn’t mean that it’s easy to win, but there were no surprises. So, if you knew what to do and you didn’t listen, then you just didn’t listen. So maybe now you’ll listen. That’s the mentality now.  “The bad thing is they don’t get it yet. The good thing is they want to get it. And I’ll take that.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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The Woodstock Academy girls’ hockey team didn’t lose last week — unfortunately, it didn’t win either.
The Centaurs had to settle for a pair of ties including a 1-1 deadlock with Oakmont Regional Jan. 11.
It was not only that the game ended in a tie but also how it ended that left an empty feeling for the Centaurs.
The Spartans scored the game-tying goal with 31 seconds left. There is no overtime in high school girls’ ice hockey.
“I’m still processing it,” Woodstock Academy coach Jeff Boshka said. “Under a minute to go and a goal goes in; it’s a heartbreaker. I felt like we controlled the (third) period and played a good game. It was just a rough bounce.”
The Centaurs had the better of the shots in the first two periods by a whopping three-shot margin, 11-8.
Oakmont outshot the Centaurs, 13-6, in the final period and did see a good chance go for naught when Centaurs senior goalie Marie Gravier was shelled with three straight shots that she managed to turn away.
The Centaurs got the lead off the stick of Eliza Dutson five minutes into the third period.
The fleet skating Dutson got past the only defender in her way and headed toward Spartan goalie Ashley Bourn skating past her and putting a backhand between her pads into the net.
“We call that a ‘deke’,” Boshka said. “Sometimes, you don’t shoot, you just move the goalie one way and drag it across and you have an open net and that’s what she did. It was pretty good.”
The Centaurs came up empty on a power play for over a minute in the final three minutes of the game.
Dutson said a reason for that could have been that it was hot inside the rink which cost the team precious energy.
The temperature outside was almost 70 degrees which also made the ice a bit mushier and harder to skate on.
It also took away the normal 10-minute break between the first and second period as it was decided due to conditions, that the ice would only be cut once in the game.
The Centaurs were caught a little flat-footed on the defensive end in the first period of its game with Leominster, Mass., earlier in the week.
But Woodstock Academy made the adjustment and fought back from an early two-goal deficit to forge a tie with the Blue Devils, 2-2, in a Central Massachusetts League game.
The Blue Devils scored two but the Centaurs regained their composure.
The Centaurs halved the Blue Devils (0-3-1) lead when Julianna Buoniconti scored off assists from Dutson and Jade Hill with 7:27 left in the period.
It was the first goal of the season for Buoniconti, a middle school athlete.
Woodstock Academy tied the game with 7:23 left in regulation when senior Chelsea Willis scored her fourth goal of the season off an assist from Sydney Haskins.
The games with Leominster and Oakmont means the Centaurs have gone through their first round of games with their Central Massachusetts League “B” Division opponents with a 1-0-2 record.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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caption, page 11:

Lani Cornfield. Photo by Vaso Brodeur.


PSA girls drop
pair of games
Devin Hill is a realist who never expected he would come in to Putnam Science Academy and lead a run of dominant wins all the way to a national championship.
But the new girls' prep coach at PSA probably also had a more ideal outlook than the results of his first two games.
The Mustangs dropped both contests they played, by a total of nine points, first 68-63 at home to St. Andrew’s of Rhode Island Jan. 10, then 49-45 at Immaculate Heart (N.J.) two days later.
“You’ve just got to learn from each game,” Hill said after the Friday night loss. “I think they’re frustrated because (St. Andrews) didn’t do anything that surprised us. (We) knew what (they) wanted to do. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy to win, but there were no surprises.
“So the message is, you lose, you get punched in your mouth, you say ‘you got me’, and then you punch back. That’s it. You don’t put your tail between your legs. This is what high-level basketball is.”
Lani Cornfield had 13 points, Aaliyah Brittian 12, and Delaney Haines 11 but PSA couldn’t overcome foul issues and trouble on the defensive glass.
“From the warmup we didn’t have the energy that we usually have,” PSA guard Lucie Castagne said. “I think the three-week break hurt us a lot. Our shots didn’t go in like usual. And we fouled too much and we didn’t get rebounds. They killed us on offensive rebounds. We just stayed on the perimeter and watched. It was just effort.”
Shots weren’t falling again against Immaculate Heart, as Cornfield was the lone PSA player to reach double figures, scoring 17 points in the loss. Ness William added nine points, and Haines six for the Mustangs (10-6).
The girls’ varsity team fared better, winning its only game of the week (a second scheduled game was cancelled), when Zanashia Croft dropped 27 points in a 66-40 win over Bradford Christian Academy on Jan. 8.
May Santiago added nine points, Bri Mead and Sofia Marcos eight apiece, and Alex Hutchins finished with seven for the Mustangs (6-1).
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information
 Director
Putnam Science
Academy

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