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caption:
Ryan Dunnigan, PSA coach
captions, page 10:
Kel Merckel
Mani Lopez
The ringing bell signaling the end of class is a giveaway sign that school is back in session.
And at PSA, so too are the squealing sneakers, the blowing whistles, and the pinging of bat on ball.
Students moved into the dorms the last weekend of August, and within hours of doing so they were meeting up with old friends and new teammates on the courts and fields.
“This is always an exciting time of year,” said Tom Espinosa, the school’s dean of Athletics and coach of the defending national champion boys’ basketball team. “Everybody is starting to figure out the routine of the school day and getting to know their peers and teammates. And the gym and the fields are always busy.”
There is plenty to be excited about again this year for the Mustangs’ athletic teams. In addition to the boys prep basketball team reloading and chasing championship No. 4 with six returnees, the girls basketball team brings back five players from its Final Four team and has enough to lead coach Devin Hill to say it is the most talented team he has had in his four years.
“So many of us played together last year, and a lot of us played AAU together this summer,” said guard Jada Mills, who returns for her second full season (third overall). “We’re obviously a long way from where we need to be and want to go, but we’ve got a lot of chemistry and work well together already.”
The boys’ soccer team, while younger than in years past, nevertheless has some incredibly skilled players (new and returning) and excellent leadership from the top of its roster. The Mustangs opened its preseason with a 1-1 draw against Woodstock Academy last week and will play its first regular-season game this Saturday against High Mowing in New Hampshire.
“I think we’re going to have an amazing team,” said returning midfielder Tomas Melon. “We’re going to score a lot of goals. We have a lot of speed in our forwards. And we’re still missing people, who will join us in the coming weeks. So it’s going to get even better.”
And creating as much buzz as anything on campus this first week has been the official addition of the baseball team, coached by Bob Hetu and Brandon Fowler. The plan was to be out on the field this week, after the team spent last week hitting in their new outdoor batting cage.
“We’re just trying to get to know each other,” Hetu said. “We’re trying to get to know their swings, looking at their mechanics and style of their swings so we can know what they can do. And then as we get on later in the fall, we’ll make adjustments and improvements. We all come here to get better.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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