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WOODSTOCK— The Woodstock Academy field hockey team finished fourth in the Eastern Connecticut Conference last season.
The Centaurs would like to take more than just a step up this season.
“I would love to take three steps up, that would be fine by me,” coach Lauren Gagnon said with a laugh. “We’re just looking to improve every year and we’ve done it. They’re here, working hard every day and spreading the love of the sport to dozens of other kids.”
Indeed, the numbers were, once again, very good.
Some 54 student-athletes turned out for the program including the first two international students that Gagnon has had come out.
“I don’t think either has played, but it’s a nice cultural experience for the kids,” Gagnon said.
With the numbers comes the natural competition.
In practice, the Centaurs split into four teams.
That doesn’t happen in a varsity game and everyone wants to play.
“Team cohesion can be a struggle for us because we have so many players who are fighting hard for their positions. It’s tough to be battling for your spot all the time, but love your neighbor. It’s not that they don’t love each other; it’s just tough to get a solid midfield line going for a long time when you have so many kids changing in and out. Or when you have 12 kids who can rotate into the four forward line spots. It’s a good problem to have,” Gagnon said.
Senior Hannah Wotton said there is also only one ball.
“We have to learn to communicate better. That’s always something you have to work on when you have new players in new positions. It’s definitely tough when everyone comes together and all go at the ball at the same time,” Wotton said.
The Centaurs didn’t lose all that much offense from a year ago.
While many players are interchangeable, some are slated to be playing up front. Seniors Hannah Chubbuck, Emma Strandson and Sam Mowry, junior Lily Brin and sophomores Eliza Dutson and Rachel Canedy are the returning forwards.
Dutson moves up from the back.
“She is going to be very helpful shooting and scoring more goals this year,” Wotton said.
Avery Jones returns as a junior midfielder who is a fine distributor.
She also clearly loves the sport as her summer was spent on the field.
“She played Futures – the Team USA development program – and learned a lot from that. She went to the UMass camp and did some clinic stuff with the Woodstock Field Hockey Association. She is looking strong and she has a shiny new stick,” Gagnon said.
Brin, Wotton and Abigail Kruger will also be in the midfield.
The Centaurs did lose Haley Armstrong from the mid and both Wanjiru Gatheru and Hannah Reynolds from the defense to graduation.
“I know it looks like we’re not in great shape defensively, but we come back with some really strong, key players. Last year, I was able to start two freshmen in any game and feel comfortable (Dutson has been bumped to forward). I know Sydney Cournoyer would love to be up on the forward line and tossing in goals for us, but she’s a workhorse in the back field and comes with a lot of experience. She will power the defense,” Gagnon said.
The Centaurs also have goalies Olivia Stanikmas and Rachel Roberts, both of whom took in some camps this summer, back in the cage.
Newcomers to the varsity will include juniors Paige Kasacek, Anya Farutin, Tessa Houlihan and Madelyn Lecuyer; sophomores Megan Preston and Alex Vaida and freshmen Hannah Clark, Eliza Simpson and Brigid McNearney.
The Centaurs made both the ECC and state tournaments a year ago and finished 7-10-1.
“We really thought it was one or two key games that if we had won, we could have gone into the ECC championship by not being matched up with Stonington in the first round. We did really well in the first half of that game (versus Stonington). Ideally, we want to make the (league championship), that’s a definite possibility, and it’s what we’re striving for,” Gagnon said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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caption, page 2:

Cross Country
The Woodstock Academy girls’ team gets ready to race at the Haddad-Windham Invitational Sept. 8 at Windham High School. Matt Roethlein finished second for the Centaurs and 112th in the race at the Haddad-Windham Invitational on Saturday at Windham High School. Marc Allard photos.



One-two
punch
runners
WOODSTOCK — Stella DiPippo didn’t have a running partner as a freshman at Woodstock Academy.
She does now.
The sophomore and freshman Linsey Arends will likely make some noise this girls’ cross-country season.
“It’s awesome now that we have a 1-2 punch, hopefully, we will do really well in the regular season meets and in the (Eastern Connecticut Conference championship) as well,” said DiPippo.
The two showed what they could do Sept. 8 at the 40th annual Haddad Windham cross-country Invitational at Windham High School.
DiPippo placed third in the Varsity 2 race while Arends was seventh.
The two led the Centaurs to a fourth-place finish in the race.
The Woodstock Academy boys’ cross-country team placed 18th in the boys Varsity 1 race.
It was supposed to be opposite.
The girls were the ones slated to be in the Varsity 1 race.
But when first-year head coach Joe Banas arrived with the team in Willimantic, he found the situation was flip-flopped.
In the end, it may not have been a bad thing as Banas considered the strong finishes, both individually and as a team, a possible confidence boost.
“We’re a young team in respect to who is scoring,” Banas said. “This team is really built for next year, but I’m not putting any type of goals up until the end, I think we will be in the thick of it come Oct. 18 (for the ECC championship).”
The results could have been even better for Arends.
The freshman was running second midway through the race when leader and eventual winner, Rhiannon Richmond of Avon, began to put some distance between the two.
The problem with being a freshman is that the race courses are longer and unfamiliar.
Arends found that out quickly.
“The girl pulled ahead a little so I couldn’t see her and I thought that we had to go straight because that’s the way we went the first time in that loop. I forgot there was supposed to be an extra turn when we come out of the woods. I thought I just had to go straight, but then I saw girls coming out from the path. I was confused, but then I realized I had gone the wrong way. I was kind of bummed because it was the first race of the season,” Arends said.
Arends tried to fight back but could only get to seventh place.
DiPippo said she saw Arends and the leader up ahead and almost went the wrong way too, but a competitor behind her corrected her.
“I definitely feel bad because she took the longer way,” DiPippo said.
The nice thing about it is that it was a learning tool.
The Windham Invitational is nothing more than a measuring stick.
“(Arends) is such a competitor. She is also a Black Belt and she strives for perfection,” Banas said.
The good thing about the two is that Banas now has a little competition from within and that’s a good thing.
“They can train off each other and, in the end, this is only going to help them both. It’s a friendly rivalry because they are basically neighbors and are friends on and off the course,” Banas said.
DiPippo agreed. “We’ve been running together since middle school so it’s awesome. I’m kind of pacing off her in races. It’s definitely nice to have someone from your team around you,” DiPippo said.
DiPippo finished in 20 minutes, 52 seconds on a course which she considered a bit difficult, in part, because of how she started.
“It was three miles but it felt so much longer,” she said. “I definitely went out a little too hard because I was in front. It was kind of intimidating, but then I settled into a spot. There are a lot of hills, but it was a different cross-country race because there weren’t too many trails.”
It is possible the Centaurs could see the course again at the end of the season as it is the alternate course for the ECC championship should the Norwich Golf Course not be usable.
Arends finished in 20:58.
“I’m happy that, as a freshman running varsity, I did pretty well,” Arends said.
The Centaurs top five runners all placed within the top 50.
Shannon D’Alessandro, the team’s only senior, was 43rd with Emily McClure in 47th and junior captain Megan Gohn in 49th.
“We had five in the top 50 which is beyond what I had hoped for. It may be musical chairs in spots, but that will keep everyone honest, on their toes, to know that their spot isn’t safe. I welcome that decision that I will have to make when I sit down at the end and pick the seven who will go further on. In the meantime, this is good. It’s a very friendly atmosphere for them,” Banas said.
Boys’ race
The Centaurs boys’ team was not as attuned to the results as much as the development of the team.
“You have to get the first race in,” said coach Peter Lusa. “I have kids coming up to me saying ‘Coach, we have to do more hill work or we need to do this kind of workout.’ I told them so when we do these workouts, you will understand why we are doing them and you have to stay focused and will do a good job on them.”
In other cases, a couple of runners came up to him and said they had a lot of energy left at the end of the race which means some fine tuning in race strategy.
“It’s not just show up and run. It’s actually being focused. This is a real focusing mechanism. Even if we didn’t do well or they didn’t think they did well (Saturday), it serves a purpose for the rest of the season,” Lusa added.
The Centaurs finished 18th as a team in the Varsity 1 race with sophomore Ethan Aspiras leading the Centaurs with a 95th-place finish.
But Aspiras and the Centaurs were not focused on that number, they were more worried about individual time. Aspiras was about 30 seconds shy of his intended goal of 18:40, coming home in 19:10.
“The goal was to try and overcome the big hill here, which will probably be the longest hill of the season. I didn’t do that well so it showed I have to work on hills,” Aspiras said. “This is a tough race. It’s only three miles, but it’s hard. The hills are just crazy.”
What made it even worse is that it was only three miles.
Cross-country courses are 1/10th of a mile longer in most cases so whatever their times were Sept. 8, the runners have to add about 45 seconds to get a true total.
In the case of Aspiras, Lusa said he doesn’t want him to get down after just the first race.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — A new municipal complex — with space to grow for the library, senior services and historical records and research — and new athletic fields are all on the agenda for the town’s Sept. 18 referendum.
Voting will be from 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sept. 18 at 61 Keech St. at the Murphy Park Building and at 151 Fox Road, the Highway Garage. Those who are qualified to vote in town meetings who are not electors will vote at 61 Keech St.
The referendum asks voters if the town should appropriate $19,940,697 for the design and construction of a municipal complex that will be built on side of the Owen Tarr field. The question also asks voters to authorize the issuance of bonds and notes in the same amount.
The municipal complex will contain a two-story town hall. Attached to the town hall will be a one-story building with a new library, a large community center with moveable walls, a kitchen and a historical records and research space.
The referendum also asks voters for approval of $756,480 for the design and construction of athletic field projects and to authorize the issuance of bonds and notes in the same amount.
Town Administrator Mary Calorio said the town’s athletic fields at Owen Tarr would be replaced with green space. The town proposes building two areas of recreation fields. One is behind the St. Marie Greenhalgh Sports Complex and will include a softball field, large multipurpose field, small soccer field, and throwing area for track, field lighting, and a small parking lot. Construction would take place in one construction season, but it would have to sit a year for the grass to truly “take.”
In addition, a multipurpose recreation field, gravel parking, a walking trail and an 18-hole disc golf course would be built on less than 10 of 22 acres of town-owned land off Sabin Street. Like Owen Tarr, that property is restricted to recreational use. The Sabin Street project will be very rustic, Calorio said. The walking trail will be very rustic, not paved and very scenic. Natural boundaries will be maintained and will provide “a substantial portion to buffering,” she said.
The DEEP is very involved, is intent on protecting the Little River. “We want to partner with DEEP in protecting. Putnam has a vested interest in that since some of our water supply comes from this river.”
Both recreation areas would be funded with the proceeds of the sale of gravel from the Sabin Street site. The gravel removal would be done over the course of five years so the town would front the money and be repaid by gravel revenue, Calorio said. Gravel trucks going in and out would not be driving the length of Sabin Street. They would be required to go the other way.
After speaking to many groups with Putnam Mayor Norman “Barney” Seney, Calorio said that many have “great questions” and are concerned about the cost and financing.
Other sentiments are “It’s time,” she said. The town’s choices are either renovate or build new. The estimated cost of renovating the current Town Hall would be $7.4 million and would not provide enough space for all departments and storage.
“A lot of people say we just need a new one. This community is very active in government, library and historical services,” she said. “They have lots of respect for services we do.” She added she believes there will be a good turnout for the referendum.
The complex’s town hall section would contain almost 40,000 square feet and would occupy two floors. The current town hall has about 10,000 square feet. The new one would offer room to grow and safe storage for documents for the town clerk and other offices including the building and zoning office, assessor’s office, tax collector and more.
The current library has barely 7,000 square feet and most of its programing is in the basement — down a flight of stairs. “It’s not feasible to access it,” Calorio said. While the staff tries hard to break off pieces of programming and bring them upstairs, there’s just not enough room. Proposed in the new municipal complex, the new library would be on one floor and would contain 12,500 square feet.
The community center across the hall would offer even more usable space, she said.
The library project is out of extensions from the State Library for its $1 million grant. If a new library is not OK’d by Nov. 25, the state takes back the $1 million.
The community center portion of the complex has moveable walls that can be configured to serve any number of groups/programs. Calorio said there are many organizations looking for space. There is also a kitchen so senior lunches are a possibility, she added. “Putnam is a multigenerational community,” she said.
In addition, the complex would house historical records and research. It would contain a vault for the storage of precious and fragile historical documents.
The old library and the Town Hall would be put on the market.
The total cost of the Municipal Complex is $19,940,697. A $1 million grant for the library would reduce that total by $1 million. The town is proposing an appropriation or loan of $7 million from the Ash Landfill Fund, Calorio said. The landfill fund has about $10 million in it. Whether it’s an appropriation or a loan, a separate vote is required. The remaining $11,940,697 would be funded with municipal bonds which do not have to all occur in one year, as a USDA loan would. It’s difficult to say, with changing financial climate and “no crystal ball” what the effect on the mill rate would be in the future, she told the Putnam Rotary Club.
If the projects are approved, Calorio said there would be a “roughly 18-month design period.” The Board of Selectmen would create a committee for the project. After design, construction would take about three years so “we’re looking at a five-year window to move in,” she said.
Many people “recognize we need to make this investment,” Calorio said.

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Then
This is Manhasset Village and mills during the 1955 flood. The area included mills and about 56 duplex houses. The Lowell Needle Company and the Stilu and Rucki family stores were torn down during the redevelopment program in the 1960s.

& Now
Pallflex now occupies the area where the needle company and the family stores were located.