Team puts
the pieces
together
It’s a question that Woodstock Academy coach Adam Bottone gets asked a lot.
Can his Centaurs volleyball team make a run to a third straight Class L volleyball state championship match?
“We don’t have a lot of experience in the grand scheme of things so I think, right now, even getting there for a third time is kind of a wish list item, even though we have Paula,” Bottone said.
Paula Hernandez, the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Player of the Year last season, is back.
But a lot of the other pieces that helped turn the Centaurs into a powerhouse with a 24-1 record are missing.
That will make it difficult even for a senior as talented as Hernandez to not only lead the Centaurs back to a state championship but also bring home the plaque this time.
Hernandez guided Woodstock Academy to the last two state championship matches.
Unfortunately, the Centaurs lost to RHAM, 3-0, two years ago and fell to Joel Barlow, 3-2, a year ago.
To make it even tough, Woodstock Academy won the first two sets of the match last year.
It’s a memory that still lingers with the players and not in a good way. “It still hurts to think about it,” senior Katie Papp admitted.
Still, the Centaurs have to believe the third time could be the charm.
Let’s start with the positive. The Centaurs have Hernandez. She finished with 493 kills last season, 370 digs and 261 service points.
The problem is they have lost a lot of the starters around her. The biggest of those losses being the two setters. Sammie Orlowski (689 assists) and Emma Green (85) have both graduated.
That leaves Bottone in a quandary. His best setter is Hernandez.
“Do I use her because I know she can run an offense and still be offensive-minded as a setter or do I try to develop someone who will not be as proficient with the set but that can, at least, get the ball up,” Bottone said.
There is a problem with the latter.
It would mean everything is being run around Hernandez.
“Last year was a great example of how one person isn’t going to make the team for you,” Bottone said.
So, it is likely that, at least at the beginning of the season, Hernandez will be the team’s setter, capable of spreading out the offense while Bottone continues to develop his hitters.
Hernandez, for her part, said she’s all in.
The team also lost Libero Maddy Gronski who provided 484 digs, 199 service points and 21 assists. Junior Marissa Mayhew will have to likely step in there. Outside hitter Natalie Low (306 kills) is also gone, another player who had a good grasp of the game.
Junior Amelia Large (45 kills) and Aurissa Boardman look to be the next outside hitters.
Bottone said while both hit the ball well, he has to work with them on defensive position, transition, approach and hitting angle.
The strength of the team, for now, rests behind the line.
“We’re a pretty good serving team,” Bottone said. “Paula can pretty much serve wherever I ask her to and she looks to me to see where I want her to serve it. I don’t pick spots for the others, but they’re giving me those flat, clean serves with no spin on the ball. Shepherd Hill (whom the Centaurs scrimmaged last week) had trouble with a lot of our serves. That’s something we need to amp up just because of the uncertainty in our lineup.”
And he has the rest of the week to figure it all out as The Academy opens Sept. 13. “It’s really tough. We were looking for good competition. RHAM and Joel Barlow didn’t want to play. I don’t know if their schedules were full but they declined,” Bottone said. “I had to reach out further and got Darien and Greenwich, Newtown is always a tough challenge and so is Division I of the Eastern Connecticut Conference. It’s a tough schedule. I wouldn’t want it any other way, but how will we match up?”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

Volleyball schedule:
Fri., Sept. 13:   at Coventry   5 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 14:        at Greenwich         1:30 p.m.
Mon., Sept. 16:         at Waterford   5:30 p.m.
Wed., Sept, 18:   vs. Lyman       5:30 p.m.
Fri, Sept. 20:           vs. Bacon Academy       5:30 p.m.
Mon., Sept. 23:        at Conard          6 p.m.
Wed., Sept. 25    at East Lyme      5:30 p.m.
Fri., Sept. 27:           vs. Fitch               5:30 p.m.
Mon., Sept. 30:        at NFA                5:30 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 2:      at Ledyard          5:30 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 4:           vs. Killingly             5 p.m.
Mon., Oct. 7:    at Griswold        5:30 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 9     vs. East Lyme    5:30 p.m.
Mon., Oct. 14:         at Fitch            5:30 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 16:    vs. NFA               5:30 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 19:        vs. Darien       Noon
Mon., Oct. 21:    at New Canaan   .m.
Wed., Oct. 23:   at SMSA            5:30 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 25:        vs. Newtown         5:30 p.m.
Tues., Oct. 29:        vs. Waterford          5:30 p.m.
 

caption, page 2:


Mbongeni Kanyane. Photo by Steve Nalbandian


Kanyane's
'got it'
As far as first impressions go, this one is pretty impressive.
Think of a positive way to describe a person, and someone at Putnam Science Academy has likely used that same way to describe Mbongeni Kanyane in the first week of school. Humble, respectful, sincere, old soul, gets it, genuine, funny. They just roll off the tongue of teachers, staff and students.
“He’s just such a nice kid,” Athletic Director Tom Espinosa said. “He’s got ‘it’.”
But people also use terms like ferocious competitor, cold-blooded, and driven to describe the soon-to-be 18-year-old native of Johannesburg, South Africa.
“He just wants to beat you every time,” said teammate and fellow countryman Jermaine Mentoor. “And he usually does.”
Geni, as he’s known around school, is one of many talented players on the boys’ First Team soccer roster. The Mustangs open their regular season Sept. 11 at Williston, looking to improve upon last year’s success that included a national ranking as high as No. 8. This year, in just their second season, they have designs on a national championship. If that is to happen, Kanyane will play a leading role.
“When you look at him physically, he has the tools to succeed at a high level,” coach Sam DeMello said of Kanyane. Kanyane packs a solid 166 pounds onto his 5-foot, 8-inch frame. “He has a cannon of a left foot. So from a physical standpoint, he has all the tools.
“And then from the other side of it, he has a high understanding of the game. His ability to interpret space, to find the ball — all of those things — he’s at a very, very high level. Mentally, technically, he’s all there.”
Kanyane was introduced to soccer at age 10, when he went to train with the soccer club of his older brother, Mbongani. There was no awe-inspiring thing where Kanyane just wowed everybody and was clearly some whiz kid, making all the older boys look silly. Eventually, he fell back into playing against his own age group. “I was not better than any of the older players, no,” he laughed. There is no divine intervention here.
“I believe it’s hard work, I honestly do,” he said. “Even back at home there are a lot of players I come across who are very good. They’re talented, but they don’t push themselves as much as they could, and that’s why they fall short. That’s what I think. It comes with work.”
It also comes with discipline, which came from his father, Mbuso, though he wasn’t an overbearing, iron-fisted disciplinarian. In fact, “he’s not strict at all,” Kanyane said. “But there’s just something about him; he’s so nice to you that when you get on his bad side, you feel bad. You never want to disappoint him. You get that bad feeling when you disappoint him. He’s never mad at me, but when he’s disappointed … ugh. Disappointing him is the worst thing.
“My father gave me a lot of leeway to do things. You know how when you haven’t had a taste of something, you want it more? While I was at home, my dad actually gave me the taste. He gave me those freedoms, so I never needed or wanted to do something behind his back. My parents trusted me to make the correct decisions. I respected that and I never wanted to disappoint them.”
That discipline also makes him humble. Despite the fact he could likely earn a scholarship to play at an ACC college, and that he is a member of the South African U-20 National Team, and that he has a legitimate chance to play for the country’s National Team and play in the World Cup or Olympics, and that his PSA teammate (and another South African) Aiden Muller describes his game as “amazing, like nothing else you’ve seen when he has the ball. He’s like a real South African player. He is a real South African national player,” despite all that, no one would know it.
“The game will humble you, and it has humbled me,” Kanyane said. “If you talk too much, eventually someone is going to make you stop talking. I would rather people watch me play and decide for themselves what they think of me as a player than for me to tell them what I think.”
Said DeMello: “If you have that ability, you don’t have to feel like you have to talk about it. People can see it. I don’t think he feels a need to go around talking about it.”
One thing he will talk about though is the comfort of being one of four South African natives on the team, with Hadly Bell rounding out the quartet.
“I don’t think I would be settled in the way I am right now without Jermaine, Aiden and Hadly,” he said. “The more I think of home, the more I miss it.”
He misses his friends there, as one would expect. He got a message from one the other night, giving him a hard time about not being there to go see “It 2” at the movie theater. He is a big fan of horror movies, much to his father’s dismay.
He misses his family more, and talks to them just about every day. “My mother especially. I call, she calls. She calls me more,” he said with a laugh. “She asks if I miss her cooking. There’s a basic meal, it’s like mielie-meal and chicken. But there’s no one who makes it as good as my mother. I do miss that a lot.”
Sounds like first impressions, and lasting ones, run in the Kanyane family.
Steve Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy


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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM ---  Given his approachability, it's no wonder that new town administrator Joseph Higgins' choice for a photo was taken in front of Cargill Falls --- complete with sunglasses, shorts and sneakers.
Approachability, plus practicing good listening skills, are anchors of his management style.
Higgins said he applied for the town administrator job because "I find Putnam a great town to work in. I am familiar with the town and the travel is nice as well. I am also pleased with the direction the town is going."
Higgins replaced Mary Calorio as town administrator. Calorio left to became the town manager of Killingly.
Raised in Brooklyn, Higgins had a civil engineering degree and then earned a master's of public administration degree. Both degrees were from UConn.
He was an engineer and liked the challenge, but then became interested in town administration. He came to Putnam after serving as town administrator of Andover. "I like the challenge and varied work that aligns with town management," he said.
"My favorite part is that you never know what to expect in a day's work and I'm always learning." Asked what his least favorite part of the job, he said "I can foresee that it would be challenging to take extended vacations and fully disconnect from responsibilities given the nature of the job."
After joining Putnam this summer, Higgins spent time listening, assessing what challenges face Putnam and putting together plans to address those challenges.
He said: "Putnam does have similar challenges to other small towns. We have a great staff of department heads here that help facilitate meeting those challenges."
Higgins sees the new municipal complex, correcting audit findings with the finance department and addressing blight are current priorities in Putnam.
"We are currently addressing all three. We have regular municipal complex design meetings; we have a schedule and plan to address finance department concerns and I meet with the assistant finance director regularly. We also have formed a blight committee that meets monthly and we are creating a procedure to implement on our list of properties," he said.
What has he learned about Putnam so far? "I've learned that Putnam is a generous and caring community.

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