caption, page 3:
The Champs!
The Woodstock Middle School Wildcats won the Quinebaug Valley Junior Conference girls’ basketball Large Division championship recently with a win over Brooklyn. The team was coached by Brad Favreau and Kalianna Dingui. Photo contributed by Brad Favreau.
Wildcats
finish perfect,
girls take
QVJC crown
Late in the Quinebaug Valley Junior Conference Large Division girls’ basketball championship game with Brooklyn, Woodstock Middle School girls’ basketball coach Brad Favreau turned around. Several players on his bench were crying.
He looked at the scoreboard just to reassure himself that the team was winning.
“I was like, we’re winning, and they told me that they just didn’t want it to be over,” Favreau said. “This is, arguably, one of my favorite groups that I ever coached. They worked hard every day, but yet, we laughed. There were some tears at times and everything else in between.”
Woodstock Middle School won its QVJC Large Division tournament championship game with Brooklyn to finish off a perfect season.
The Wildcats went 10-0 in the regular season and won both tournament games.
The Wildcats have been to the QVJC finals in each of the last three years that have been played and have finished undefeated in the last two regular seasons.
“That’s a pretty good run,” Favreau said. “There are some good programs out there. Griswold is always a tough opponent, Plainfield and Killingly are tough and Brooklyn does a great job. Thompson, when we played them the second time, was way better than the first time.”
For a lot of his current team, it’s on to bigger and, hopefully, better things. Nine members of his team - Gabby Brown, Avery Danis, Campbell Favreau, Emma Forcier, Payton Leite, Gianna Musumeci, Kerrigan Reynolds, Kaylee Saucier and Wynter Worth – are headed to the high school ranks.
“Hopefully, they all play in high school. They have a lot of potential, but things change when they get to high school and, sometimes, they do other things. I’m hoping they all continue to play,” Favreau said.
There were two 7th-graders on the team, Charlotte Caisse and Rita Rawcliffe.
Saucier led the Wildcats in the championship game win with 20 points while Brown added 17 and Leite 14.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
The following charges were listed in the Putnam Police Department logs. The people charged are innocent until proven guilty in court. The Town Crier will publish dispositions of cases at the request of the accused. The dispositions must be accompanied by the proper documentation. The Putnam Police Department confidential Tip Line is 860-963-0000.
Oct. 6
Arthur W. Hubert, 46, Pearl Street, Webster; breach of peace.
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The pipeline is open and as strong as ever. Barry Evans, a postgrad player on Putnam Science Academy’s Prep team, announced last week that he was committing to St. Bonaventure University, making him the third Mustangs in the last four years to join the A-10 power. Kyle Lofton and Osun Osunniyi are seniors at the small Olean, N.Y., school.
“I talked to Kyle and I talked to Osun when I was up there,” said Evans, who visited the campus just days before his commitment. “They said that St. Bonaventure is built around underrated people and I felt that I was underrated, too.
“When I got there it felt like a family and where I belonged. I glued with the guys real well. We connected and it felt like I knew them, same as with here at Putnam. I just felt it, really. My mom felt it, my dad felt it. They’re the closest people to me and if I’m feeling it, too, why not make that decision.”
It’s a decision that the 6-foot, 8-inch 8 wing, who figures to be one of the most versatile players PSA has ever had, wasn’t planning to make. He had originally thought he would play through the season and wait until the spring to commit, once he had more offers to choose from. But the visit changed everything.
“I like small places,” the Baltimore native said, acknowledging the discrepancy between his hometown and his new future home. “I like small towns. I didn’t want a big school. If I’m in school and there’s 2,000 people, that means I can get more help when I need it.”
The recruiting process had become a long and stressful one, he said. But St. Bonaventure was different, and not just because they had only been talking for a little more than a month.
“The first day we had open gyms up here (Sept. 9) was when we started,” Evans said. “But we built a good relationship quickly, and I felt like I just had to do this. It feels good, really, to have all that pressure off my back. I just felt like I had to do this. Now I can just go out and play my game, play free.”
That could be trouble then for PSA opponents.
“Barry can do a lot of things really, really well,” said Mustangs coach Tom Espinosa. “He can play anywhere on the wing, and I can see him playing the 5-spot for us when we go small. He can defend any position. He can rebound, push it up the floor himself, and pull up and hit a 3-pointer. He can get to the rim and find the open man. We haven’t had many guys like Barry.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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PMS team falls to Ashford
PUTNAM — The Putnam Middle School boys’ soccer team fell to Ashford on the road, 5 - 0 Oct. 7.
With only 12 players available and only 11 players available after halftime the boys played extremely tough and physically exhausting game but never gave up, said coach Adam Heath.
Goalies Benjamin Mayo (7th grade) and Logan Walker (6th grade) continued to improve in net and split time. Mayo made 8 saves of the 11 shots on goal taken against him. While Walker made an additional 9 saves of the 11 shots on goal against him.
Defense continued to improve with 7th graders Avery Cruz and Lucas Carpio, alongside 6th graders Devin LeBeau and Caleb “OJ” Lafrance playing pivotal roles in clearing the ball out of the zone and preventing additional shots on goal.
Heath said: “Offensively we generated some decent shots on goal but couldn’t find the back of the net today. We had to have some of the boys in different roles and positions due to the lack of numbers we had today.8th grader Abdoulaye Mbye is normally a great defender for us and we had to use him more of a mid-field role. We moved 7h grader Nikoli Kostovski up into more of a striker position on the wing which took him away from his comfortability role in the mid-field. Up front we have 8th Grader Dillon Guilbault anchoring us, and really are helping bring along some of our younger players. 5th graders Liam Purdon and Miguel Vieira really flashed a lot of their skills in the game and did what they could to put pressure on Ashford’s defense and their goalie. And 6th grader Aidan Burgess has been making great strides.”
Heath said the team is young with a bright future. “These boys are giving us everything they have and I couldn’t be happier with their efforts. The scoreboard and record may not show it but these guys are coming along really well right now. Sometimes you just wish the season was longer so that everything could really get going.”
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