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Prep Team

Tony Bergeron, left, coaching the new team. Above: Woodstock Academy Prep Basketball Team. Courtesy photos.

 

 

Academy

announces

prep team

roster

WOODSTOCK — The Woodstock Academy prep basketball program is quite the eclectic group.

The 32 members hail from 10 states and seven countries, but all possess high academic skills and, according to coach, Tony Bergeron, all can play basketball.

“Extremely talented,” Bergeron said.

The former head coach of Commonwealth Academy in Springfield, Mass., isn’t the only one who thinks so.

“People are threatening to put us anywhere between one and five (ranked among prep programs in the country). I keep trying to talk people out of No. 1. How can we be No. 1 when our uniforms aren’t even printed yet?” Bergeron said with a laugh.

Bergeron said with those expectations comes the pressure to succeed, but if that wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t be having any fun.

He is also not making it easy on himself or his first-year program.

Ducking tough opponents in the regular season is not in Bergeron’s vernacular.

“I need that pressure, it fuels me. There is no doubt in my mind that we have, far and away, the most challenging schedule of any team in the United States,” Bergeron said. 

Bergeron started the Commonwealth Academy program five years ago.

Last season, it was invited to the National Prep championship and finished ranked fifth in the country.

But 17 of those 23 students that Bergeron began coaching are now headed to college. It was the perfect time for Bergeron to move on and he found the perfect place to do so.

The Woodstock Academy - after its Trustees agreed to purchase Hyde School in October gave it the ability to house more students and more gymnasium space – decided to host its own prep basketball program.

It’s the first of its kind in the state: A hybrid of a high school and prep school with Bergeron’s program ready to compete with two teams on the prep level together with Woodstock also offering a full complement of high school basketball offerings.

Bergeron was immediately attracted to the challenge and the positives at The Woodstock Academy.

Commonwealth Academy was located in downtown Springfield.

It’s a little less metropolitan where Bergeron now resides.

“It’s very different at Woodstock,” Bergeron said. “The facilities at Woodstock are phenomenal. At Commonwealth Academy, we had one gym floor and two hoops. That was the list of our resources. At Woodstock, every resource that you would find at the collegiate level is available to our athletes here.”

The Academy, in addition to the two prep programs, has added the infrastructure to assure those programs thrive including a weight room, a full-time strength and conditioning coordinator, a film room and other necessary support systems.

“We did not miss many of the kids who came to campus and toured. It’s very, very impressive,” Bergeron said. “When my Commonwealth kids found out I was coming here, they asked ‘Why didn’t you do that a year earlier and take all of us.’”

Bergeron’s biggest task is not only to make sure his new players are not only successful at Woodstock this season, but in the future.

“I’m very confident that those 20-plus 2018 kids are all going to college for free. All of them have a shot to go Division I, one or two might slip to Division II, that’s kind of the nature of the business, but I’m not sure that will happen,” Bergeron said.

 

2017-18 WOODSTOCK ACADEMY PREP ROSTER

6-8 Dimon Carrigan (Cambridge, Mass.)               2018

6-1 Jakigh Dottin (Cambridge, Mass.)                    2018  

6-7 Jemearil Wilson (Chicago)                          2018

6-9 Tre Mitchell (McKeesport, Penn.)                        2019

6-9 Aleksa Ilie (Serbia)                                              2019

6-1 Chaylyn Martin (Hartford)                        2018

6-2 Joe Kasperszyk (New Haven)                    2018

6-3 Elijah Buchanan (Bronx, N.Y.)                           2018

6-4 Courvoisier Mccauley (Indianapolis, Ind.)      2018

6-7 Dion Harris Jr. (Philadelphia)                     2018

6-4 Selim Fofana (Switzerland)                                2019

6-4 Gedi Juozapaitis (London, England)                 2018

6-6 Luis Rodriguez (Los Angeles)                  2018

6-6 John Mitchell (London, England)                      2018

6-5 Marquis Moore (Los Angeles)                  2018

7-0 Ryan Omslaer (New Jersey)                                 2018

6-10 Skylar Kooyenga (Chicago)                          2019 

6-5 Dibaji Walker (Columbus, Ohio)                           2018

6-4 Anthony Tyree (Cleveland, Ohio)                          2018

6-3 E.J. Dambreville (Bridgewater, Mass.)               2018

6-2 Tyrone Perry (Brighton, Mass.)                           2018

6-0 Daniel Dade (Springfield, Mass.)                         2019

6-3 Robert Kravlicek (Bronx, N.Y)                              2019

6-7 Anil Kubalic (Turkey)                                             2019

6-2 Kamiri Smith (San Francisco)                    2019

6-7 Maksim Karvanen (Russia)                                   2018

6-5 Tom Van Westerndorp (Netherlands)               2018

6-4 Sam Majek (Woodstock)                              2018

6-2 Chris Childs (New York, N.Y.)                               2018

6-5 Elijah Winston (Oswego, Ill.)                                 2018

6-1 Luke Magree (Australia)                                       2019

6-4 Paul Kingsley (Chicago)                                   2018

 

 

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