Heather Converse is a three-sport athlete at Woodstock Academy.
The senior was a key component of the defense for the Eastern Connecticut Conference champion girls’ soccer team.
She was the leading scorer and rebounder for the girls’ basketball team.
And now, she’s batting cleanup for the softball team this spring.
As the season has progressed, the senior’s bat has begun to heat up.
She went 4-for-9 last week, drove in five runs and helped the Centaurs to a three-win week including a 9-0 victory on the Woodstock Commons field Saturday over Lyman Memorial.
Converse started the season hitting further down in coach Jason Gerum’s lineup.
“Playing three sports, it’s hard to go from basketball to softball. I think I’ve started to get used to it and just getting more hits in,” Converse said.
In this era of specialization where high school athletes try to pick and concentrate on a sport in the hopes to earn a college scholarship, Converse is the increasingly rare all-around outstanding athlete.
“She is a great athlete, very smart and has played varsity for us for four years,” Gerum said. “Heather has some catching up to do, sometimes, because she doesn’t play year-round. She plays a bazillion other sports and she hasn’t seen a lot of softball pitches. Sometimes, early in the season, just getting back to seeing the ball and speed of the ball is an adjustment. Once she gets rolling, she starts hitting well. We were on a little roller coaster last week with our hitting so I shook the lineup up, I looked at her numbers and how she was getting her hands on the ball and moved her up. She’s been getting it done.”
Converse, after the win over the Bulldogs, is now hitting .360, third-best on the team, and leads the Centaurs with 10 runs batted in this season.
Woodstock Academy, for a change, had it easy against Lyman Memorial.
Five of the nine games the Centaurs have played this season have been determined by one run, two of those ended in the win column.
“It was nice and in our league (the Eastern Connecticut Conference), it doesn’t happen often. A game against Lyman isn’t usually a shoe-in like that. (Lyman coach Ron Vigue) does a great job, but this is a transition year for them, they lost a lot of players from last year. Usually, even Lyman is a big fight. To win three in a row and finish the week where you are in control of the game is nice,” Gerum said.
The Centaurs (5-4) struck for three runs with two outs in the third inning.
Cami Corrado walked, Hannah Burgess singled to right and Julianna Nuttall added an infield single to load the bases. Corrado was forced out at the plate but Converse drew a bases-loaded walk to put Woodstock Academy on the board.
Winning pitcher Megan Preston followed with a two-run single to right to give herself all the cushion she needed.
Preston pitched a six-hitter with four strikeouts and got out of jams in both the first and second innings.
“She seemed to get a little stronger toward the end of the game (Saturday) which I like to see,” Gerum said. “The end of the games against some of the better teams we’ve played, she has looked a little tired, which I can understand. Now, we’re going two or three weeks in and I think she’s building some arm strength.”
Preston was pressed into full-time service in the circle when Mackenzie Leveille suffered a sprained ankle sliding across home plate in a spring break game versus Fryeburg, Maine.
“Mackenzie is walking around, swinging the bat a little; she has got the OK to start trying to do stuff. We will see because pushing off and pitching is a whole ‘nother animal, but we’re going to hope to work her in a little this week,” Gerum said.
The Centaurs sealed the deal against Lyman in the fifth inning when they sent 11 batters to the plate.
Burgess walked to lead off the inning and scored. She also drove in a run with a single in her second trip to the plate. The Woodstock Academy shortstop is now hitting .687 with 22 hits in 32 trips to the plate.
Nuttall, Preston and Maria Scandalito also added RBI singles but the highlight was Converse’s two-run triple to straightaway center field.
The Centaurs were coming off a 7-4 win over Tolland April 25.
While that may seem easy, it wasn’t.
The Eagles just missed a grand slam in the bottom of the fifth when a Charlotte Gerow rip to left field just went foul.
“It hit the top of the fence and the left side of the foul pole, pretty much at the same time, and it was only about 4-to-6 inches away from being a grand slam and tying it up,” Gerum said.
Burgess (3 hits) and Nuttall both drove in two runs in the win.
Scandalito added two hits and two runs scored.
Amanda Bond drove in Nuttall in the top of the seventh with a single to give Woodstock Academy a 3-0 lead over Killingly earlier in the week.
The Centaurs needed that as the Redgals scored two runs in the bottom of the inning but fell short in a 3-2 win for Woodstock Academy.
Maia Corrado added three hits for the Centaurs.
Ashley Kaseck scored the first run for the Centaurs when she stole home on a double steal in the first inning.
The Centaurs added another run in the fourth when Converse (2-for-3) singled home a run.
Converse said it was nice to go 3-0 on the week and sneak above the .500 mark.
“We’ve been playing really good defense, little or no errors every game, which is really big. We’re starting to get our hits in, getting used to all the different pitchers. I think everyone is playing really great overall,” Converse said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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Congrats
The Woodstock Academy girls’ lacrosse team congratulates goalie Kileigh Gagnon after Saturday’s 5-4 win over East Lyme. Photo by Marc Allard.




As the clock ticked off the final seconds, members of the Woodstock Academy girls’ lacrosse team on the sideline were ready to pounce.
The Centaurs were eager to celebrate their first-ever victory over East Lyme in the sport and each tick seemed like an eternity.
But the three zeros did appear and the Centaurs leaped into each other’s arms, joyous over the 5-4 win April 27 on South Campus.
The happiest of them all were the 11 seniors in the program.
“It’s so special,” said senior Ivy Gelhaus who led a spirited “Woodstock” chant after the win. “We didn’t get to play (East Lyme) last year which was disappointing, but this year we came back and came out so strong. We had all the chemistry from last year plus more and I thought this was the year that we could beat them and we did.”
Woodstock Academy coach Kathleen Johnson was among those basking in the moment.
“Regan Stuyniski said it best, ‘We’ve been waiting for this for four years.’ They are just great kids and they want to win,” said Kathleen Johnson. “(East Lyme is) a phenomenal lacrosse program. They’re well coached, great athletes, great lacrosse athletes. I think that’s why, win or lose, we wanted to be competitive. We wanted to show them how far we’ve come. No more are the days of 20-2 (losses). We can compete with you.”
The Centaurs struck fast.
Senior Arielle Johnson scored in the first minute of the game to give the Centaurs the lead. Just a few minutes later, Arielle Johnson found Rachel Canedy who rifled a shot past East Lyme keeper Maya Rose.
“For Rachel to come out and play under this pressure as a sophomore, she was a JV player last year, and to catch that pass and rip it was unbelievable,” Kathleen Johnson said.
Julia Bates cut the lead in half but Emma Ciquera scored her 34th goal of the season and the Centaurs owned a 3-1 halftime lead.
Gelhaus went to work at the beginning of the second half, using the advice of her coach to put one into the cage.
“I had a lane to drive and Coach said at halftime to drive to get the free position,” Gelhaus said.
She didn’t need the free position for the goal three minutes into the second half, but that would be the case just 3:18 later when Gelhaus earned the free position and scored to make it 5-2.
“I guess those goals were pretty important because it was such a low-scoring game, but all the goals were important,” Gelhaus said. “It was because everybody was so spread out and it gave me a lane to run into, like we discussed at halftime, so it was really everyone working hard that made those goals happen.”
Gelhaus now has 32 goals on the year.
“Those goals were very important and put the pressure on (East Lyme) to score,” Kathleen Johnson said.
The Vikings (6-2, 1-1 Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I) did rally.
Natale Taylor scored 2:05 after Gelhaus’ second goal and 6 1/2 minutes later, Bates added her second to make it a one-goal game.
That’s where another sophomore, keeper Kileigh Gagnon, stepped in.
Gagnon, who made 15 saves in a 13-2 win over Ellington April 26, was solid in the closing 10 1/2 minutes, protecting the slim lead with a couple of stellar saves.
“She’s has been just amazing, being just a sophomore and taking that pressure. I couldn’t be more proud of her,” Kathleen Johnson said.
The Centaurs took some of the pressure off Gagnon as they were able to dominate possession of the ball.
“It’s so difficult,” Gelhaus said of the task to keep the ball in their sticks. “We work on that during practice because we know they can score super-easy, they’re a very talented team. Having possession really means a lot because it keeps them from scoring. We gave it up a couple of times but, thankfully, we finished with the ball and the win.”
It was the eighth win of the season for the Centaurs in 10 games (2-1 in Division I of the Eastern Connecticut Conference) which also guaranteed them a Class M state tournament berth.
“That’s pretty big for us. We knew we were going to have a good season this year since we did last year. We lost a couple of players, but with all the chemistry, we’re so much stronger. I think we will make a very good run.
It was the finish to a very successful week for the Centaurs.
There were tornado warnings and threats of heavy rain April 26.
But the Centaurs game with Ellington was squeezed in between bouts of inclement weather.
The Centaurs were happy they did as they handed the Purple Knights the lopsided loss.
Gelhaus led the way with five goals and seven draw controls in the win.
Ciquera added four goals for Woodstock Academy and both Peyton Saracina and Julia Schad finished with two goals each for the Centaurs.
The day before that, the Centaurs peppered Bacon Academy’s cage and left Colchester with a 15-9 victory.
Ciquera scored six goals, Gelhaus added four and Arielle Johnson three.
“It’s pretty impressive but we’re all pretty tired,” Gelhaus said of the three games in three days.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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New Coach
Jacque Rivera is the new coach for boys' prep basketball at The Woodstock Academy. Woodstock Academy photo.


Excited and humbled is how Jacque Rivera described his emotions after learning that he was the choice to be the next head coach of The Woodstock Academy prep boys’ basketball program.
Rivera will replace Tony Bergeron at the helm of the Centaurs.
Bergeron stepped aside recently to become an assistant coach with the University of Massachusetts men’s basketball program.
Rivera has been the head coach of the prep basketball program at the MacDuffie School in Granby, Mass., for the last five years.
He has taken MacDuffie to the New England Prep School Athletic Council AA postseason tournament in three of those seasons.
“We’ve had some really good kids. We have guys heading off to UConn (James Bouknight from the 2018-19 team), Ismael (Massoud) is going to Wake Forest. Omari Spellman (now with the Atlanta Hawks) played for me,” Rivera said. “I don’t keep track of my personal record, I care more about the success of my players.”
The 31-year-old Rivera grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., and played for Bergeron in high school at Wings Academy. He moved on to Elms College in Chicopee, Mass., where he earned his bachelor’s degree in social work and his master’s degree in education. His first head coaching job was at Dean Vocational Technical School in Holyoke, Mass.
 “He’s an outstanding guy. A very passionate coach and person,” said Woodstock Academy Sean Saucier of Rivera. “I think he will be a great fit here. He’s a community-oriented, family guy. We’re very excited to have him.”
Saucier said Rivera’s close ties to Bergeron will help with the program’s transition.
Rivera understands the task ahead of him, comparing it to the person who will eventually succeed Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“I’m following a guy who has had 20 years of success and will continue to have success in college. Everywhere he has been, he has been successful. It’s big shoes to fill. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Coach Bergeron who took me under his wing when I was playing for him,” Rivera said. “I think I have some of the same qualities that he has. I’ve learned some things myself along the way. Hopefully, I’m just going to build on the success he had.”
Bergeron guided the Centaurs to a 73-7 record in their first two seasons as a prep program, winning the Power 5 Conference title in both years and earning two invitations to the National Prep Championship tournament at Connecticut College.
“We had the vision of creating a program that was one of the best in the country and provided great opportunity to student-athletes who were involved in getting into college. In the two years that Tony was here, he far exceeded what our expectations were,” Woodstock Academy head of school Chris Sandford said. “While we’re sorry to see him go, we are honored and happy for him and his family that he has accepted this promotion, essentially, to UMass.”
Rivera said Bergeron has already recruited some very good athletes for the Centaurs next season. His job will be to make sure they end up at The Academy in the fall.
“I really believe the guys we have will fit in our community, going to fit in what we’re asking them to do as people and they will do what we ask them to do athletically. I think we have some really good guys who will be excited to be a part of Centaur Nation as a whole and we have some kids that people will be impressed with,” Rivera said.
Rivera will be the head coach of the program and The Woodstock Academy Gold team. Denzel Washington, who has worked as an assistant with the program for its first two years, will be the head coach of The Woodstock Academy Blue team. Washington takes over for Nick DeFeo who left recently to begin a similar prep program at Notre Dame-West Haven High School.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy