Academy
names new 
head coach
It was as Woodstock Academy athletic director Sean Saucier described, “kind of organic.”
The Centaurs boys’ basketball team did not have a person to coach the program in summer basketball and Tourtellotte High head coach Greg Guillot offered to help out.
A couple of weeks later and Guillot is the new head coach of the Centaurs boys’ high school basketball program.
Woodstock Academy was left without a boys’ high school basketball coach when Donte Adams decided to depart at the end of the school year.
 “Donte has been an important part of our community for four seasons now and I think it’s been great to see him grow as a coach but there is always a time for transition and it was time for Donte to move on to something new and exciting for him. I thank him for contributions to the program and wish him well,” Saucier said.
Guillot is in charge of security at Thompson Schools and was asked to take over the boys’ basketball program a couple of years ago.
He led the Tigers to a 15-11 record in their first campaign and dealt with a rebuild last year with three freshmen starting. He was not slated to coach the Tigers this summer as a parent has taken on those duties.
However, the town of Thompson took over the program when Putnam decided to no longer do so.
It hosts schools from Northeastern Connecticut including Woodstock Academy and some Massachusetts border schools with eight boys’ teams and seven girls’ teams participating.
Guillot was still working with the summer program as a whole when he got wind of the Woodstock Academy situation.
“Woodstock Academy was going to back out because Donte had left and I called Sean and told him that I was not coaching the (Tourtellotte) summer team so I told him I could coach Woodstock Academy this summer so they could play,” Guillot said.
In that short period of time, Guillot also decided to tell Tourtellotte High athletic director Deb Spinelli that he was stepping aside as head coach of the Tourtellotte boys’ program.
He had also grown fond of the Centaur players that he was working with.
“The boys started to play well together. It’s a young team, a bunch of little hard scrappers on defense and some offensive threats,” Guillot said.
Saucier, meanwhile, was beating the bushes for a new head coach.
“I called Sean and said, if you still need someone and can’t find anyone, let me know,” Guillot said.
The two met early last week and came to an agreement.
“It’s kind of grown over the past couple of weeks and it got to the point of ‘well, what do you think? I think he really likes our kids and he was intrigued after getting to know them through the summer league. I don’t think either of us saw it coming but it felt right,” Saucier said.
Guillot is no stranger to Woodstock Academy. He assisted Brian Murphy with the baseball program for five years. 
But it wasn’t on his radar to return. Until recently.
“We’ve had the same eight or nine kids playing this summer and it’s a different team from a year ago. But I think they like each other and they play hard and it looks like they have been together for awhile but it’s kind of a mixture between a couple of kids who got some varsity time here and there and some junior varsity players who were role players on varsity. They are gelling together defensively and offensively, we have some work to do there but we do have some pretty good shooters,” Guillot said.
The Centaurs finished 11-11 last high school season but lost 10 players to graduation.
The change is the second major development in the sport of basketball at Woodstock Academy since the beginning of summer.
Late in June, the school announced the addition of an elite prep basketball program that will be coached by Tom Espinosa and Josh Scraba.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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