captions:
left: Noah Hall dribbles.
Riley Jean-Louis is taking a layup. Courtesy photos.

Tom Espinosa, Josh Scraba, Kevin Donovan, and Dana Valentine have coached dozens of Division I basketball players at Putnam Science Academy. They have coached teams that have won national championships, and others that are always in the hunt for one.
So, when the opportunity came for local kids to join them for two separate week-long hoops clinics this summer, the gym at PSA got jumping. After not being able to hold the Drills and Skills clinics last summer because of Covid, the staff was eager to open the doors and welcome in one of their favorite parts of summer – 42 boys and girls between the ages of 7-14 for a week in mid-July, and another 33 in early August.
“I think we have as much fun as the kids do,” Espinosa said. “We’re working these kids and they do such a good job responding. This second one especially was a hot week, but the kids were great. They showed up from all over northeastern Connecticut and right over the border in Massachusetts, and they wanted to learn something. I think they did.
“For us as coaches, we love coaching them. The kids love to play and we love to coach them. We had some local kids come and help us out too. These are really fun weeks for everyone.”
Camps were split into two age groups with the younger 7-10-year-olds forming the Big East Division, and the 11-14-year-olds playing in the NBA. Drills focused on development of game fundamentals such as ball-handling and shooting, and also included games, competitions, and a championship game on the last day. There were guest speakers as well, including Garvin McAlister (an assistant coach at Assumption College), Brock Erickson (Nichols College head basketball coach), and Donald Cushing (former high school and college coach with 400-plus wins).
Competition and award winners for July were: Elbow shooting (TJ Espinosa NBA, Bryce Espinosa Big East), free throws (Espinosa and Espinosa), one-on-one (Espinosa, Matthew Therrien), hot shot (Espinosa and Espinosa), Camper of the Week (Peter Yu, Dominic Kostovski), Mr. Hustle (Courtney Clemens, Oliver Andreotta), Most Improved (Nick Devlin, Tate Lefebvre).
Competition and award winners for August were: Elbow shooting (TJ Espinosa NBA, Bryce Espinosa Big East), free throws (Espinosa and Espinosa), one-on-one (Michael Therrien, Espinosa), hot shot (Sam Stone, Michael Gottleib), Camper of the Week (Ethan Hall, Matthew Therrien), Mr. Hustle (Ryan Chabot, Anthony Joyner), and Most Improved (Roan Donovan, Myles Jean-Louis).
“It was a great couple of weeks,” Espinosa said. “We obviously couldn’t have done it without all the campers and volunteers. They all did a great job, and we look forward to continuing to do these camps.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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