There were times when Woodstock Academy Gold prep basketball player, Dibaji Walker, felt like his dream of playing Division I basketball would never become reality.
But early last week, the 6-foot, 7-inch native of Columbus, Ohio, made a phone call to Cleveland State coach Dennis Felton to give him his verbal commitment to play for the Vikings next season.
“It’s a big dream, something I’ve been thinking about for a while,” Walker said. “There were highs-and-lows and sometimes I didn’t think I was going to make it, but safe to say, I did.”
One of those times came early in the season. It was the seventh game of the year for the Centaurs. They were playing Hargrave Military Academy on Nov. 17 at Albertus Magnus College. “It was our first real big game and I probably played two or three minutes of the game,” Walker said. “I had missed a lot of practices because of injury. (Coach Tony Bergeron) felt I wasn’t quite ready. I hadn’t been playing that much. I thought I wasn’t playing because I wasn’t good enough. Come to find out, (Woodstock Academy coach Tony Bergeron) wanted me 100 percent for the rest of the season.”
Walker has picked up his game. He admits he wasn’t ready to when he first came to The Woodstock Academy campus late in the summer.
He came from a small-ish school in Columbus - Independence High School. “I was probably the least experienced player, basketball-wise. Everybody had played a lot more basketball than me. I had to put in a lot of extra work. I had to pay attention to the game and learned some stuff from my teammates and the coaches here,” Walker said.
What he meant by that, is that he didn’t feel his basketball prowess was up to par with his teammates. “We didn’t press in high school. We never play full court defense. I was in a zone all the time. I became one of the best on-ball defenders here,” Walker said. All that work paid off. He came into Woodstock Academy without any interest from a Division I school.
He made a commitment in the classroom, the weight room and on the court and he earned himself five committable scholarship offers,” Bergeron said.
“I didn’t know about Woodstock. I heard about it through an AAU coach. My mom and I did our background on Bergeron and he sounded like a really good coach – the type that I needed. I was inexperienced, I needed someone to learn from,” Walker said. Wyoming was the first to show interest. Cleveland State followed and never left.
Walker is a building block. “(Felton) was completely honest about recruitment. He wanted me so bad that he recruited no one else for my position. Normally, coaches recruit multiple players for a position and the first that accepts, goes. The class I will be coming in with want to work and develop the program because it’s not doing too well this year. But there are a lot of seniors going out,” Walker said.
The Vikings were 6-19 as of last week this season. “He wants me to come in and score. Even though there is 1-5 (positions), (Felton) likes everyone to be versatile in their position, everyone plays wing, everyone plays inside, including me,” Walker said. He becomes the fifth member of the Gold squad to commit to a Division I program. Two, Chaylyn Martin and Jeameril Wilson have already signed their National Letters of Intent.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
Legal Notice
Town of Putnam
Zoning Commission
The Town of Putnam Zoning Commission will hold a meeting on February 21, 2018, at 7:00 P.M. at the Putnam Town Hall located at 126 Church Street, Putnam, CT. A public hearing will be held on the following:
Docket # 2018-03: Charles H. Puffer — Request for a text amendment to Section 304 of the Town of Putnam Zoning Regulations Schedule of Uses and Districts in an Industrial zone. The applicant seeks a change in the regulation to permit motel/hotel with a conference space use in an Industrial Zone on lots containing five or more acres by Special Permit.
Patricia Hedenberg,
Chairman
Feb. 15, 2018
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Wrestling
Woodstock Academy's Daniel Ntamwemezi wrestles Evan Highley of East Lyme in the consolation quarterfinal. Courtesy photo.
When Daniel Ntamwemezi came to The Woodstock Academy from the Ukraine late in the summer, he wanted to participate in athletics.
He just didn’t know what sport.
So this past fall, he tried running cross-country.
The dorm student then had to figure out what he was going to do in the winter.
It was a choice between indoor track and wrestling.
“I like to wrestle. It was a good choice,” Ntamwemezi said with a smile.
Feb. 10 Ntamwemezi placed fifth in the 220-pound division at the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship wrestling tournament at Fitch High School in Groton.
“He wrestled as well as he could have in the tournament,” said Woodstock Academy coach Wes Jenkins.
Kellen Horst also placed in the tournament.
The freshman finished sixth in the 106-pound weight class.
Ntamwemezi was not completely foreign to the sport.
“I wrestled for a couple of months when I was a kid, about eight or nine-years-old. I don’t remember much about it,” Ntamwemezi said. “We didn’t use the headgear in the Ukraine. We just wrestled. There were some different rules, too.”
But he, like the rest of a young Centaur wrestling team, grew during the season.
Evidence of that growth was seen in the consolation quarterfinal.
“I really wanted to see (Ntamwemezi) against Killingly’s 220 (Rene Bernier) which he didn’t see in the very beginning match of the season,” Jenkins said.
It went about how Jenkins anticipated.
The two finished in a 1-1 tie in regulation.
In the second overtime, things went awry.
“I didn’t even know a double technical violation existed and I’ve been doing this for 11 years. I never have seen a double hand lock. Usually when the hands are locked, (the official) blows the whistle, they stop, and reset. It prevents a double jeopardy scenario. But because it was overtime, (the official) didn’t want to blow the whistle, he allowed it to continue because (Ntamwemezi) separated (his hands), but then he locked again and it put him at a two-point deficit,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins felt like Ntamwemezi could have won the quarterfinal because in the third overtime, he would have been on bottom and he was able to get up against Bernier throughout the match.
He settled for the 3-2 overtime loss.
Ntamwemezi tossed aside the disappointment and carried on, winning the fifth-place match, 5-1, over Ben Grottole of Bacon Academy.
“He handled that one well. He wrestled tough, he wrestled smart (Saturday), nothing stupid. Sometimes, he gets funky and puts himself in weird positions but he was smart and stayed behind,” Jenkins said.
“I didn’t do any stupid things, saw the opportunity and did my best. I’m excited,” Ntamwemezi said of his finish.
Horst wasn’t all that happy after he lost to Rylan Grant of Bacon Academy in the fifth-place bout, 14-5.
“I think it’s great. He wrestled a kid who either pinned or beat him pretty badly previously so it was a much closer match, just some critical mistakes. It’s not the end of the world. He will be an awesome wrestler,” Jenkins said.
The two were the highlights of the weekend event for the Centaurs.
Jenkins could only shake his head when he thought about the cases of flu that ravaged his team and a concussion suffered by Tyler Mathieu in the consolation quarterfinals.
“We’ve been hit with wave after wave of sickness. It seems like (wrestlers) come back and get other wrestlers sick who go out and come back and then they get sick again. It’s an endless cycle. I, myself, am sick right now, I just hope it’s not the flu,” Jenkins said. “We’re plague-ridden.”
Jenkins said, overall, it has been a good year.
“The coaches last year laid the ground work for a building season and I came in and took it to the next level with the help of (assistant coach) Brandon (Thuotte) and the support of the school,” Jenkins said.
The highlight being the Jacob Bowen Invitational tournament on Feb. 3 which he considered to be a huge success.
“It’s one of those sports where you don’t need the big, beautiful wrestling room. You’re OK with the dingy. It can be used, whatever, you don’t care. You get the hand-me-downs, the last to get uniforms so whenever you have something that you can take a lot of pride in and the whole community together behind it, that’s definitely something that made me aware of the spirit of the school.
“The building that we have done this year makes me hopeful that next year will be even better. Some of our losses were just bad luck. That’s cyclical. Sometimes things fall in your favor, sometimes they don’t. Recruitment will be a big thing between now and next year especially with a rising class of seniors among my group, seven will be seniors next year,” Jenkins added.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
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Starting 5
The starting five for the PMS Wolfpack. Courtesy photo.
By Shawn Bates
The Putnam High School Lady Clippers went to play the Lady Wolverines in Griswold Feb. 8 and showed Griswold no mercy. Putnam held Griswold to a total of 9 points in the first half of the game and would go on to beat the Wolverines 42-25. Freshman Abby St. Martin and Kayleigh Lyons would each net eight points to lead the Clipper ship.
The ladies are now 13-4 and are ranked fourth in the Class S rankings for the state. The Clippers played one more game at home against Wheeler on the 12th and the next two will be on the road against Windham Tech and Grasso Tech. Putnam has defeated all 3 teams and can possibly win out!
Putnam Middle School
Boys
It’s hard to believe the year is complete and for the Wolfpack they took a talented 8th grade heavy team to the finals against Ashford. In the first game of the tournament, they would face Eastford and would win easily 65-40 on the Wolfpack‘s home court. Karson Bates would net 13 and Carter Morissette dropped in another 13 to lead the team-high scorers in the convincing.
But Feb. 8, in front of a packed house, Putnam would fall short losing 51-45 against last year’s defending champs Ashford. Putnam would fall behind early and would be behind the entire game but with key baskets by Cooper Livingston, Karson Bates and Carter Morissette, Putnam would climb back from a 20 point third-quarter lead to be in striking distance by 6 .
But Ashford couldn’t miss the hoop in the final minutes of the game to take the championship two years in a row from Putnam. Karson Bates had 12 points and Carter Morissette 11. Putnam ended their season 9-5
Girls
The girls took an early exit from the tournament with a first round loss to Ashford.
The ladies finished up the year a successful season, according to coach Miller. He said, “I’m very pleased with play this year and the hard work that the ladies put in over 2 and ½ months. Hopefully like the boys they came away better then they started off to give the high school and Coach Hogan some more reserves for the Lady Clippers.”
Putnam High
Boys
The Clippers hosted ECC foe Griswold Feb. 8 and walked out with a loss. Putnam would come out and match point for point with Griswold for the first half of the game and would go into the locker room with a 3-point lead at half time.
With the start of the 3rd quarter Griswold would start to pull away and would lead the Clippers going into the 4th quarter, 38-30. But in the 4th the Wolverine’s would take advantage of some key turnovers and would walk out of the gym with a 64-36 win over the Clippers.
Putnam is now in a four-game slump with 5 to go in the season. Putnam is two shy of the magic number of eight for tournament play. Putnam has three games coming up with Cheney away, Wheeler away, and Grasso Tech home for the last game in Putnam for the year.