Interact Club on Hand
Oct. 16 found the Putnam Rotary Club’s Interact Club members helping at the TEEG Fall Festival. Club members helped with the book distribution table, costume distribution and at the Halloween candy giveaway table.  President Emily St. Martin called the festival a success and thanked Caitlin and Eoin Mercer, Jordyn Butler, Eric Levesque, Talia and Kaelyn Tremblay, Maeve and Callum Lusignan and Jacqueline Dearborn. The club is now working on its “Ornament for Shut-ins” project and they look forward to celebrating 25 years of bell ringing for the Salvation Army. The Kickoff celebration for the bell ringing will be at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 17 in front of the Municipal Complex Building in Putnam. The public is welcome. From left: Eric Levesque, Jordyn Butler, Emily St. Martin, Eoin Mercer and Caitlin Mercer. Courtesy photo.

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The players change (though not as many as in years past) but the goal does and always will remain the same.
“We play to win championships,” said Putnam Science Academy point guard Darryl Simmons, who could become the only Mustang in history to win three rings. “We want to get better every day, play hard, play with energy, all that. And if we do, we’ve got a chance. Because that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Simmons is one of five Mustangs players who were on last year’s undefeated national championship team, an unusually high number for them. And all five are expected to play major roles in the quest for title number four, as opposed to last year when two, maybe three, of them did.
Simmons, looking to bounce back from a season and summer that was stunted by injury, is nearly back to form and in place to lead, particularly on the defensive end, where the Mustangs are notorious for creating so much of their offense. He is joined by Alabama-bound Mouhamed Dioubate, who now has so much more to his game than just rebounding. Dioubate was a force on the offensive glass in particular last year but has expanded his repertoire and can now affect the game off the dribble and with his shooting.
“I don’t think there are many other players I’d rather have at the prep school level than Mouhamed Dioubate,” coach Tom Espinosa said. “You could throw a lot of names at me, and I don’t know if I’d trade him for anybody. He’s a beast.”
Miles Rose, Duane Thompson, and Jabal Adamu will all see their roles expand. Rose, who has committed to St. Bonaventure, will this year get consistent minutes as opposed to last year when he could get 18 one game but just three the next. Thompson and Adamu both played sparingly, mostly garbage-time minutes long after the outcome had been decided. This year, they will determine when the game is decided. Thompson – who could lead the team in scoring – returned to campus 20 pounds lighter and taking his responsibilities much more seriously, while the 6-foot, 10-inch Adamu is now the team’s leading big man.
“Miles, Duane, Adamu,” Espinosa said. “These guys have waited their turn for this, and now it’s their time and they have shown they’re ready to make the most of the opportunity. They’ve been great in the preseason, not just performance, but as leaders.”
The returnees are joined by a host of talented newcomers that give Espinosa and his staff a roster they think is deeper than last year and that has more consistent shooting.
“Last year, we got probably 75 percent of our offense from our defense,” Espinosa said. “This year, when teams play those junk defenses we’re really going to punish them because of how well we shoot it.”
Two key pieces to that are Rhode Island commit Connor Dubsky and Northwestern-bound Blake Barkley. Will Lovings-Watts and Tarique Foster shot it better in the preseason than the coaches expected. Guards DJ Dormu, who is lightning-quick, and Ramsay Checo give the Mustangs even more shooting depth, in addition to Simmons, Thompson, and Rose as well.
Big men Ben Ahmed, Jimmy Cami, and Pop Wadeng round out the roster. Ahmed is big and strong and will have an impact on this team despite being just 15 years old, and down the road.
“The guys who have been here talk about it, we talk about it as coaches, and the new guys want it too,” Espinosa said. “Last year was a special year for a lot of reasons, but winning a national championship was the biggest one. We want another one. That’s always the goal here.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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PUTNAM – The buildup and anticipation was a whole lot for Ines Goryanova to deal with last week. After all, her PSA girls’ basketball team had to wait nearly two weeks to play since their last game. And this one was the home opener.
“We knew everyone was going to be pumped, there was going to be a good crowd,” Goryanova said last Thursday. “The home opener is always like that.”
The Mustangs came out and played off that emotion early, then coasted to a 110-53 win over CCRI. Goryanova was one of six Mustangs to score in double figures, finishing with 15 points, five rebounds, 4 assists, and four steals as PSA improved to 3-1 on the young season.
KC Cedano added 19 points, seven steals and five rebounds, while Jada Mills had 18 points and seven assists. Genevive Wedemeyer recorded 15 points and five rebounds, Janeya Grant chipped in with 15 points, five boards, four steals, and three assists, Astou Ndiaye added 10 points for PSA, which led 72-34 at the half behind a barrage of 3-pointers.
“Some people were off, but most of us – Gen, Jada, Mani (Lopez, nine points on three 3s) – were knocking shots down and were hot the whole game,” Goryanova said.
The Mustangs had 28 steals and forced CCRI into countless other turnovers and bad shots.
“We played good defense in the first half; we got a lot of open shots and made our shots,” Wedemeyer said. “It was our first home game, so we were really excited and had a lot of energy.”
Added Goryanova: “The first half was way better. We were getting all the traps, steals, deflections. The second half wasn’t as good. We could have been a lot more active on the ball, off the ball. Sometimes it is (hard to maintain intensity with a big lead), but we have to hold ourselves accountable to it.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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