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.
Nov. 12
Ceejay Morrison, 26, Rosedale, N.Y.; violation of protection order, first-degree criminal trespass, disorderly conduct.
.
caption:
Back row, from left: Mouhamed Dioubate Tarique Foster Miles Rose Connor Dubsky Alberto Cantalini. Front: Sophia Fontaine Genevive Wedemeyer Jada Mills.
.
Miles Rose took the microphone and thanked, looked to his peers sitting throughout Putnam Science Academy’s auditorium, and delivered a message.
“I want to say, ‘congrats’ to everyone else who is committing,” he said. “I know how much I had to sacrifice to get here. I know how hard you had to work.”
Rose was one of eight PSA student-athletes whose years of time and hard work paid off Wednesday when they signed their National Letters of Intent, making official their earlier commitments to colleges next school year.
Joining Rose, a member of the Prep basketball team who is headed to St. Bonaventure University, are his teammates Mouhamed Dioubate (University of Alabama), Connor Dubsky (University of Rhode Island), and Tarique Foster (Virginia Commonwealth University); girls basketball players Sophia Fontaine (Stetson University), Jada Mills (James Madison University), and Genevive Wedemeyer (University of Alabama-Birmingham); and baseball player Alberto Cantalini (Southern New Hampshire University).
Dioubate and Dubsky both drew laughs, first Dioubate for thanking “myself for staying focused and heading off every distraction I had,” then Dubsky for thanking his girlfriend – “I had to, she’s the one,” he said. Foster thanked a teacher at his former high school in the Bronx, N.Y., for teaching him many life lessons, including the advice to stay true to himself. “I’m quiet, but when you get to know me, I’m a really good person,” Foster said.
Fontaine thanked her parents, first her dad for “putting me first and going above and beyond for me when he didn’t need to,” then added “I appreciate my mom for making the effort to come to some of my games and pushing through her own struggles and still finding a way to support me.”
Mills thanked her coach and NY Gauchos AAU program “for taking me in seventh grade and allowing me to showcase my talent at a high level, and for being the reason I got to network and meet girls chasing the same goal as me, and building some everlasting bonds.”
Wedemeyer paused to collect herself as she thanked her coaches from the Natural Basketball Academy in Hamburg, Germany, where she grew up for “helping me develop the skills I have today because before that, I didn’t have any.”
Cantalini, PSA’s first baseball player to commit and sign his LOI, thanked his family, including “my dad, too, who got my involved in baseball but he’s not here now. Everything has been for him, all the hard work. It’s all for him.”
Cantalini’s teammate Enger Paulino recently committed to Assumption University but did not sign his letter Wednesday. Likewise, men’s basketball player Blake Barkley a Northwestern University-commit, did not sign his letter. Both intend to do so at a later date, however.
According to statistics, roughly 2 percent of high school athletes receive college scholarships and play at the next level, regardless of whether it’s Division I all the way down to NAIA.
“I don’t want anyone to take this day for granted,” PSA Athletic Director and prep basketball coach Tom Espinosa said later. “There is a lot of hard work and sacrifice that goes into this. It’s the kids, it’s the parents, it’s the coaches. And only 2 percent ever get to do what these kids did today. It’s a testament to them and to their discipline, and they should be proud. They worked hard for this. And now the work continues to thrive at that next level.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
.
'I get to play'
Will Lovings-Watts said he woke up early last Tuesday morning, music playing and a big smile on his face.
“I was excited about it, knowing that 7 (p.m.) was coming and I’d get to play with my teammates and play for PSA for the first time,” Lovings-Watts said after scoring a game-high 23 points in his season debut to lead PSA to a 118-61 win over We Believe Academy that night. “Missing the first couple of games was tough. I tried to stay involved even though I wasn’t playing but knowing there were things I could do that the team wasn’t doing, that was tough.”
Lovings-Watts and three other teammates were held out of the Mustangs’ first two games, in which they went 1-1. His return in particular provided a spark off the bench, energizing his teammates and the home crowd with a flurry of jumpers, drives, and in particular, a missed dunk over a defender that would have blown the roof of the gym. “I was trying,” he said. “I thought I had that one. I almost lost my mind.”
The Mustangs were in control throughout, leading 56-27 at the half.
“It was great to have everyone back,” said coach Tom Espinosa. “Will should be a force on both ends of the floor. He’s 6-foot, 6-inch with a 6-11 wingspan or something crazy. He’s a special player. He had a great preseason. We’re going to really need him to step up and play a huge role for us.”
DJ Dormu and Duane Thompson (also making his season-debut) both finished with 15 points, while Connor Dubsky added 14 points, four assists, and four steals. Blake Barkley and Ben Ahmed also played well for PSA. Barkley ended with 11 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals, while Ahmed chipped in with six points, eight rebounds, and four blocks.
The Mustangs won two more games over the weekend, first knocking off Evangel Christian 133-74 Saturday night. Loving-Watts led eight Mustangs who scored in double figures with 19. Thompson added 16 points, five rebounds, and four steals, while Barkley finished with 15 points, five assists, and three steals.
“There was maybe a little bit of a lapse at the start of the second half, but we feel like this was the first time everyone came out and played with energy,” Espinosa said. “We’ve got guys who can score, obviously, we put up 133 points. But we played with good energy on both ends of the floor.”
Also scoring in double figured for PSA were: Darryl Simmons (14 points, seven assists), Miles Rose (13 points, five assists), Ty Foster (12 points), Ahmed (10 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks), and Dormu (10 points, five assists, four steals).
PSA (4-1) then beat Ridley Prep 92-70 Nov. 16 behind 14 points from Barkley, 10 points and five assists from Dormu, 13 points and nine rebounds from Mouhamed Dioubate, and 10 points from Dubsky.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
.
Ryan Dunnigan, the boys’ soccer coach at Putnam Science Academy, saw some kinks in the armor that tempered his enthusiasm when his team played well in the preseason and carried it over to the first handful of games that counted.
As the season played on, what Dunnigan saw early, reared its collective head.
“I think we learned what our level was, particularly in terms of teams that we should be able to perform pretty well against, versus teams that are definitely a level above,” he said. “You can see a big gap in quality and experience.”
The Mustangs finished the season 8-7-1, which really was better than expected considering the overall youth and lack of depth. But both caught up as the games piled up.
“Our form dipped just purely from fatigue,” Dunnigan said. “A lot of it goes back to the fact that we didn’t put chances away in games that would have allowed us to rotate at times. So our top guys had to keep playing more because the games were still close, rather than get them some rest and get some of the younger guys some valuable minutes and experience for them. I would try to get them in, but our level of play just wasn’t the same, and we would end up leaking goals. So that was frustrating on that end.”
As compared to last year’s team, this group had better top-end talent in terms of attacking and defensively. But the drop-off from the top to the middle-level talent was much wider than last year, which resulted in the disparity in minutes.
Still, there were some very encouraging signs as the Mustangs move forward to the spring season and beyond.
“I certainly learned what younger guys I know will be able to contribute moving forward,” Dunnigan said. “We were able to find starters like Geo (Aniceto) and Unai (Castillejo) and Marcos (Chantada) and Fran (Cuñat). So from that perspective we were able to do well, really well.”
Dunnigan doesn’t anticipate playing 15 games again in the spring, but he does anticipate having a wider rotation of players. Because there is no league play during the spring, there is no title to play for, and the games can be more about player development, to some extent
“From an expectation standpoint, wins and losses won’t really matter,” he said. “Yes, of course I’m going to try to win them, but it’ll be more about getting guys minutes that need them and trying different things. We’ll have that flexibility to do it where the risk-reward is very low. “We’re not looking at league standings or looking at making the playoffs or different tournaments where there’s an emphasis on results. It’s going to be more so about getting guys better prepared. Getting the seniors to go make that next jump and also trying to continue the growth of our younger players.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
.