Paris Kirk grew up in Kelowna, British Columbia, a city of roughly 223,000 that’s nestled into the scenic parks, pine forests, vineyards, orchards, and mountains in Canada’s westernmost province.
And when she walked around the campus of Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, a few weeks ago, it brought her back across 2,400 miles and national border.
“It’s right by Pittsburgh and West Virginia, so it’s got the balance of nature and city,” Kirk said. “I really like being in the outdoors, and on campus, you see the green hills everywhere and there is a lake nearby.”
Factor in the balance between academics and basketball to go along with the lifestyle, and Kirk, a senior on Putnam Science Academy’s girls’ Prep team, had found her next home. She announced her commitment to the Colonials late last week.
“It just really hit all the boxes,” she said. “I think I want to get into nursing but now that I’ve done this part and committed, I can really spend some time reflecting on that next piece. There are plenty of options for me there and high academic standards.
“And it’s got high-level basketball and the coaching staff is going to help me develop for my future goals as well, which is maybe play overseas or even the WNBA. I think I can go in and make an impact right away. It felt like it was the right place, so why wait? I didn’t want to seem like I wasn’t interested in them by waiting and seeing what other options I could also have. It’s the right place for me.”
One can expect Kirk, who has three older sisters but she is the only one who got into sports. to have a big impact on the Mustangs when they open their season in a few weeks. At 6-foot-1 she has good size to work in the post and be an imposing rebounder. But she also likes to – and can – shoot it from 3. Coach Devin Hill has liked what he’s seen so far in the preseason.
“She gives us some different things that we haven’t had in the past as far as her versatility goes,” he said. “But the thing about her…when people talk about Division I players, they talk about the talent, which is understandable. But when they have to run or do some type of small punishment, Paris will never complain, and she’s usually first or second.  “So she does stuff like that, where it’s like…professional. She’s going to do all the right things, she’s not going to cause any problems. Robert Morris is a great fit for her. Great fit.” The Colonials, who play in the Horizon League and is coached by Charlie Buscaglia, struggled last year to a 4-13 record but had won 20-plus games in each of the previous five seasons. They started recruiting Kirk over the summer. And now that she has committed, Kirk said, “It’s definitely relief and excitement. After going through the process for a long time, there is a lot of effort that goes into it, so just to know that you’re happy with where you’re going is really nice.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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The Pomfret School field hockey went 2-0 last week with wins over Kingswood-Oxford School (W. Hartford) and Ethel Walker School (Simsbury). Playing away against the Wyverns of KO in a league match-up, Pomfret scored two first-quarter goals which were all the Griffins needed for a 2-0 victory. Cate Gallagher scored on a Grace Long pass; then Long scored again to secure the win. Goalie Keira O’Brien ’25 (Stonington) recorded her third shutout of the season.
Oct. 8 Pomfret hosted Ethel Walker in another league game. Walker has won the recent games against the Griffins, but Pomfret won the 2021 game 4-3. Sporting a 4-1 lead with 3:43 remaining, suddenly Walker scored two goals to bring it to 4-3 before the final horn sounded.
A first for Pomfret was scoring a goal in each quarter. Tara Valas got the ball through to Grace Long for an early lead in the first. The second quarter was dominated by Pomfret with 15 shots on goal and at 4:14 Valas got her first career goal to give Pomfret a 2-0 edge at the half.  With 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Cate Gallagher snuck a Carter Lockwood pass into the goal for a 3-1 lead. Grace Long scored her second goal of the game at 6:51 in the fourth to finish the scoring on the afternoon.
The win brings Pomfret’s record to 4-4 overall and 4-3 in WNEPSFHA. In the Griffins’ eight games, Grace Long leads the team with eight goals followed by five for Cate Gallagher with 11 different players scoring goals. Carter Lockwood leads the team with four assists and seven teammates have also recorded at least one assist thus far.
By Louisa Gebelein Jones


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Honored
Woodstock seniors Ava Coutu (23), Stella Brin (4) and Addy Smith (10) were honored on Senior Day for the girls’ soccer team. Photo by Dennis Snelling.



The Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team still has five games to play. Unfortunately, those are all on the road. And the Centaurs still have some work to do.
A scoreless tie Oct. 9 with Ellington left Woodstock with a 3-6-2 record and needing some success to qualify for the postseason.
“We’re focused on how we’re playing and not so much on the result. I think 5-8-3 gets you into states too so this was better than a loss. It would be a lot harder to have to win three of five on the road rather than possibly sneaking away with a tie in one of them and win two,” said coach Dennis Snelling.
The Centaurs have to travel to NFA, Valley Regional, Fitch, E. Lyme and Killingly over the next three weeks.
It’s why the team celebrated Senior Day Oct. 9 and honored varsity players Addy Smith, Stella Brin and Ava Coutu.
It still hadn’t sunk in for Smith that she had likely played her last home match as a Centaur and had just celebrated her Senior Day
“Incredibly hard to believe,” the midfielder said. “Don’t remind me that it’s almost over.”
Snelling said, normally, Senior Day is not an easy day to play because of the emotions but he was pleased with the effort the team put forth against the Purple Knights (5-0-5). “It was a good game,” said Brin. “It was high intensity the entire time. We really kept it together.”
The Centaurs had some good chances. Junior Grace Gelhaus put one on Ellington keeper Kylie LaDestro (eight saves) early in the match. LaDestro stopped it, but the rebound almost trickled inside the right post. It missed by inches.
Coutu had a couple of chances in the second half. “We had a lot of chances. I thought we did real well, just didn’t put one in,” Coutu said.
Fiona Rigney had four saves in the first half for the Centaurs while Rebecca Nazer had to make only one save in the second half.
“I thought we had most of the chances in the second half. We made some changes defensively as to how we were going to line up against them and they worked except we didn’t get a goal,” Snelling said.
The Bacon Academy match was one Woodstock should have won, but didn’t. A late goal by the Bobcats gave the visitors a 2-1 victory over the host Centaurs on the South Campus turf field.
“I think the whole team wants this one back,” Snelling said. “I feel we had the majority of the chances, a lot of close range shots. Give credit to their goalie (Sammie Ciaglo). How does it get away? That’s the nature of soccer.”
The Centaurs pummeled Ciaglo (nine saves) for much of the second half. But the senior was up to the challenge, stopping all but one ball from getting through. Ciaglo also had a hand in putting the Bobcats up early.
Her punt from 40 yards out just 11 minutes into the game landed in front of a streaking Skyler Gustavsen who took advantage and put it into the back of the net.
It was the only tally of the first half. The Centaurs got the equalizer when Smith made a run through the Bacon defense and took a shot. She was denied by Ciaglo but the keeper had to go to the ground and could not contain the rebound which found Coutu’s foot.
The senior tied the game 1:14 into the second half. Bacon had few second half chances but took advantage of one of them.
Freshman Audrey Palmer beat Rigney to the ball and flicked it up and over the keeper’s head and into the right corner of the net for the game winner.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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