Kent School: Academic Life

Postgraduate Nate Jones had a stellar debut with Kent Football--rushing for 215 yards on 17 carries--in the season-opening victory for the Lions over Brunswick. Taking advantage of opportunities created by Kent’s offensive line, Jones scored three touchdowns. He also contributed on defense and special teams. His versatility will be welcome as the Lions look to a stiff challenge versus Choate in the coming week.

Jordan Pyers has been the “power source” of Kent’s girls varsity field hockey team, said head coach Mrs. Linda Perkins. Pyers scored almost half of Kent’s nine goals in a game against The Gunnery on Wednesday, September 17. The following Saturday she scored two of Kent’s three goals against Miss Porter’s, including the sudden-victory tie-breaker. Still, Mrs. Perkins called other of Pyers’s contributions more important than her goal production. Said Perkins, “She has been the engine of our team, exhorting the players and leading them to achievements they didn’t know they could manage.”

Emma Bast is “the quiet surprise” on the team this season, according to head coach Mr. Jeremy Sokolnicki. Citing her hard work in practices and rapidly improving times, he called her performance at Westminster on September 27 “well deserved.” Bast finished third on the team as Kent defeated the Westies. This is only her first year running cross country, and she is already, in her performance and demeanor, “exemplary.”

Matthew Heslop has been finding the back of the net for Kent with a regularity that is sure to please his coaches. Heslop's two goals against South Kent might look like icing on a 6-2 win Kent earned on the first of October, but his was the go-ahead goal in a game that was tighter than the final outcome. He also scored the game-winner a week earlier against Berkshire; that matched ended 2-1. Assistant coach Mr. Tim Booth calls Heslop “a crafty player.” Heslop has been playing outside mid-field; his scoring production is largely the result of “getting to the right place on the field at the right moment,” according to Booth.

Josh Neuman, who will be co-captain of boys swimming this winter, started running cross country because his fellow captain is on the cross country team. He felt that it was something that he just had to do. The coaching staff of Kent's cross country team is more than pleased. Head coach Jeremy Sokolnicki noted the personal attributes that have already made Neuman such a successful swimmer. In short, said Sokolnicki, Neuman "never complains and always goes the distance. And, he also happens to be good. His intelligence and wit are a great addition to the team as well." Neuman, often resplendent in his trademark fez, is a member of the sixth form.

Kerry Williams scored two key goals in Kent's recent 2-1 victory over Deerfield Academy. Her speed and tenacity in pursuing a loose ball created a breakaway 15 minutes into the first half. After Deerfield answered with a goal early on in the second half, Williams returned the favor by scoring off a cross by captain Candace Turnbull. Williams has scored six goals this year; the team has scored 19 goals total while the defense has kept opponents to only four. Head coach Anne O'Keeffe called Williams "the spark that has ignited this quick and dexterous team to its laudable 5-1 record." Assistant coach Ben Nadire shouted excellent advice at the Deerfield match: “Everyone play like Kerry!”

Marcus Wenz scored all four goals in Kent's 4-1 defeat of Millbrook on Wednesday, October 15. That kind of goal production is more than remarkable. Head coach Rob Ober, whose teams are perennially among the best in the league, recalled that no player in his nine-year tenure had ever scored the hat-trick-plus-one. Ober praised the "poise and determination" of Wenz's play and called his shots "laser-like."

With both forward-playing captains out with injuries, Christa Miller-Shelley had to step up both literally and figuratively for Kent School’s varsity field hockey team. Called by her head coach Linda Perkins “fleet of foot and deft of hand,” Miller-Shelley moved from the middie position and played both center forward and wing for almost every minute of two recent games, including Kent’s 3-2 overtime win over Pomfret on Saturday, October 11. Said Perkins, “She scored important goals in both games and had numerous assists. Her creative play was an essential component in our victories.”

In Kent's 28-27 victory over a talented Salisbury team, Bruce Elia completed 9 of 13 passes for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns. In that game, played on Kent's Parents' Weekend October 11, he also ran for a touchdown and directed Kent's offense with precision. Head coach Todd Marble also credited Kent's talented receiving corps, comprised of Brian Melvin, Antonio Brecevich, Louis-Philippe Descoteaux and Nkolo Nyada, as fine targets for Elia's arm, as well as the offensive line that has been giving Elia time to throw. Marble said recently that the corps "appears on the verge of breaking out during the final stretch of the season," and that will mean even more opportunity for Elia.

Marc Bucks has been the best male runner on the cross country team all season. He has finished first in many of Kent's dual meets this season, and quite respectably within the top two or three in the remainder. On Saturday, November 1, Bucks finished 12th in the Founders League against many strong and fast individuals. His time was stellar. Said head coach Jeremy Sokolnicki, “His potential as a runner is high, and [the coaches] respect his ability to push himself to the limit so often.”

Antonio Brecevich set a Kent School record for defensive production. On Saturday, October 25, he tallied 59 points in Kent’s 31-20 victory over Taft. Brecevich recorded eleven unassisted tackles and four assisted tackles. He also caused a fumble, recovered one, blocked a kick, and had an interception. He has been a stalwart two-way player for Kent throughout the season, also excelling on offense.

Rarely can one player be single-handedly responsible for a soccer team's victory over a worthy opponent. This is that case. On Wednesday, October 15, the wind howled fiercely in the Lakeville hills as Kent took on Hotchkiss. Every shot behaved like a knuckle ball; every shot put on net had a reasonable chance of going in. Kent was facing an undefeated Hotchkiss team that would put many more shots on goal than Kent usually sees. It was all the more impressive, then, that nothing got past Kent’s goalkeeper, Brittany Allen. Diving to her left and right and punching dangerous high balls away with perfect timing, Allen had 31 saves in Kent’s shutout of Hotchkiss. That Kent managed two goals on six shots against a talented Hotchkiss keeper only underscores Allen’s accomplishment.

Keeping the nets for Kent School’s varsity field hockey team, Betsy Ray managed a feat her veteran coach, Linda Perkins, called “absolutely unheard of.” Against the formidable Loomis squad on November 8, she successfully defended three penalty strokes. Coach Perkins noted that “usually 80 % of such strokes result in a goal,” and that Loomis’s strokes were by no means easy shots. Ray’s stonewalling allowed Kent to play Loomis to a 3-0 win.

In the final game of the season, Kent School's boys varsity soccer team faced Loomis Chaffee, ranked #4 in Western New England. Loomis had averaged nearly three goals per game this season and had outscored their opponents by a 4-to-1 margin throughout the fall. Undaunted by the task at hand, Kent’s defense, led by Chris Taft at sweeper and Rod Barboza in net, turned back attack after attack. Everywhere the Loomis players tried to pass on the field, they were pressured by Kent’s relentless pursuit. The team, cheered on by a spirited group of Kent fans, played with intensity, tenacity and heart for 90 minutes for an unforgettable tie for these players.

In games against Canterbury and Choate, Rodrigo Barboza averaged 10 points and 11 rebounds while "showing no regard for life and limb," according to head coach Gene Campbell. The rebounds were characteristic of his work all over the floor. Barboza's defensive work saw him repeatedly sacrificing his body for loose balls and deflected passes. Even on a team on which hard work and dedication are the norm, Barboza's attitude and effort stand out. Coach Campbell recently said of him, "he is what Kent athletics should be all about-a great attitude and all-out effort, all the time."

Morgan Collins, recently selected co-captain by her peers, validated that trust with her leadership in Kent's opening game against Canterbury on December 13. Head coach Jesse Klingebiel called Collins "the difference." In a scrappy game against a tough opponent, Collins led the charge on offense, scoring three goals, which brought Kent back from two one-goal deficits.

On Saturday, January 10, Sara Gordon, a freshman at Kent School, filled the role of a starter most ably. While one of Kent's usual starters was performing at a music festival, Gordon stepped in and played all 32 minutes of the game against Loomis. She had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

Alex Goez
Boys Varsity Swimming
01/11/2004 - 01/18/2004

According to head coach Tim Carey, this one was the pay-off for work Alex Goez has done all season. Against Westminster on January 17, Goez finished in first place in the 100 free, touching out the previous number-one 100 freestlyer on Kent's team. Carey called that one "a pleasant surprise." In addition, Goez finished his 200 freestyle in his season-best time, dropping about 2 seconds, and helped to bring a victory to Kent’s team by swimming on the 200 and the 400 freestyle relays.

Sonia LeGoff
Girls Varsity Basketball
01/11/2004 - 01/18/2004

Sonia LeGoff is currently the points and scoring leader for Kent’s girls varsity basketball team. Recently she notched 16 points against Canterbury and 10 against Hopkins. As the point guard, LeGoff controls Kent’s game. Head coach Kendra Galusha credits her with leading Kent to victory and called LeGoff’s work ethic “flawless.”

Drew Davis
Varsity Diving
01/18/2004 - 01/25/2004

Drew Davis began the season with a list of athletic goals. He has already achieved most of them. Even the most ambitious, breaking the Kent School record, is now "very much within reach" according to head coach Carlos Cruz-Abrams. In one week he performed three new dives, and he competed each of them successfully in Kent's meet against Williston on Saturday, January 25. In the process, Davis beat by more than 20 points his previous personal record, which he had set the prior week. Said Cruz-Abrams, "Drew has taken his performance to the next level: he has gone from being a decent diver to being a force to contend with in the league."

Katrina Kucher
Girls JV Ice Hockey
01/18/2004 - 01/25/2004

A bright spot in a tough week for the girls JV team was the steady play and hustle of captain Katrina Kucher. Coach Jesse Klingebiel said of the sixth-former, "Her ability to keep focused while down many a goal helped the rest of the team stay positive this past week." Kucher is an aggressive defender noted for her intelligent decisions with or away from the puck. Her refusal to quit in adversity was just one of the ways she has led by example this season.

Matt Heslop
Boys Thirds Basketball
01/25/2004 - 02/01/2004

To say that Matt Heslop was instrumental in Kent's recent vengeance of an earlier loss to Berkshire would be understating the case. Head Coach Jim MacLeod called the rematch on the last day of January "the game of his life" and said Heslop's hustle ignited his teammates at key moments, especially on defense. Heslop was assigned to Berkshire's best player, who held a significant advantage in height and weight; he held him in check and kept him off the boards. He also ran down a number of Berkshire fast breaks. Finally, in the closing minutes of the game, his rebounding and passing set up numerous baskets that allowed Kent to open up what had been a tight game to win 54-36. Heslop scored 8 points for the game and grabbed "nearly every rebound," according to Mr. MacLeod, who went on to say, "It is privilege and honor to have him on this team this year."

Cari Trappe's goaltending earned an appreciative hug from an impressed referee on a recent Wednesday and raves from Kent’s opponents (both players and coaches) the following Saturday. Though she was the weather on Wednesday, January 25, Trappe gamely suited up against an outstanding Choate side. Despite fine efforts by her teammates, she was shelled with 60 shots-saving 54 of them. Healthy by Saturday, Trappe brought her game up another level, stopping all 34 shots by Taft and helping the Kent girls to a 0-0 tie (including overtime). To put those numbers in perspective, goalies rarely face 25 shots in a game. Head coach Jesse Klingebiel has said of Trappe that "she looks to be challenged every day." Facing ninety-four shots in two games might not have been what she had in mind, but the hard work and focus for which she is known helped her meet those challenges admirably.

Point guard Jon Ruiru, the boys varsity team's leading scorer, had 21 points in Kent's win against Avon on Wednesday Feb. 4. He made 5 three-point baskets in the game and sealed the victory with six clutch free throws in the final minutes. In previous games, he scored 18 points against Canterbury and 17-all in the second half-against Hotchkiss. Head coach Don Gowan called him "unselfish, extremely hard working, and very coachable" and praised Ruiru's interest in the success of the team as a whole.

Caroline Thomas has been the go-to defensive player for Kent’s varsity girls team. Most recently she was assigned to guard the top player in the Western New England League, a three-year New England All Star. Thomas cut her production dramatically: her opponent scored 8 points, less than half of her average. Thomas also outscored her, notching 10 pts of her own. Head coach Kendra Galusha said that Thomas’s “consistency on the court this season has been a key to our winning record.”

In Kent’s final home meet against Miss Porter's, not only did McKenna perform a brand-new dive that she had learned the day before, but she achieved her highest score of the season. Since then, she has redoubled her diving efforts and has been working on a new, difficult dive that she hopes to compete at the Western New England Championships. Here the progress has come more painfully: she has struggled with this dive, landing time and again on her back, but last week finally landed it on her head, and, said coach Carlos Cruz-Abrams, "she executed it with a textbook take-off." Her tenacity is one of the reasons coach Abrams nominated her for Athlete of the Week.

Brendan Lavery had 4 goals and an assist to lead the Kent boys JV hockey team over Trinity-Pawling 9-6 on Valentine’s Day. The road win marked the team's third victory of the year. Lavery, the team's leading scorer, had one goal in the first period, two in the second, and added another in the third. He also won several key face-offs down the stretch to help preserve the victory.

Not all athletes are natural racers. When coach Tim Carey called Brooks “a born athlete,” he was praising Gerli’s ability to adjust to difficulties and gut out the win. Time and time again, he has gotten into the pool at least a body-length behind, only to pull off a win within the last five yards. Said Carey, “Whether swimming the 100 fly, the 100 back, the 50 free, the 100 free, the 200 free relay or the 400 free relay, Brooks has continually proven his ability to race.”

In its final game of the season, Kent's boys varsity hockey team battled a stubborn Choate squad Saturday, February 27. Fifth-form goalkeeper Ben Silver faced 38 shots in the game, stopping 35. Coach Paul Brown called his play "nothing short of spectacular throughout the game." Brown continued, "He made several outstanding saves in the first period to keep us in the game, played solidly in the second, and came up huge in the third to give us a chance to win the game." Kent's Lions did win it, 4-3.

With the team score tied 3-3, Taylor Karns and Ali Carroll won a tight, three-set #1 doubles match, giving Kent School a 4-3 victory over Millbrook. Head coach Rob Ober lauded both players for their "remarkable poise and courage" in the third set. The victory started Kent's season at 1-0.

In its varsity baseball team’s 19-3 victory over Cheshire Academy, Brett O'Neill hit a two-run homer for Kent School in the first inning, a three-run homer in the second inning, and then later followed with a double and single. He finished the day 4-for-5 at the plate with 6 RBI. In addition, O'Neill anchored the defense with a solid performance at shortstop.

Christa Miller-Shelley
Varsity Softball
04/12/2004 - 04/18/2004

On a day on which the team was shorthanded, Christa Miller-Shelley had the finest day of her Kent Softball career and led the team to a 14-7 victory over Hopkins. Going 5-for-5 at the plate with a triple, three doubles, and a single, Miller-Shelley had seven RBIs and scored four runs. Head Coach Gene Campbell called her leadership "a key component to the team's early season success."

Head coach Jim MacLeod nominated Thompson for honors after Thompson got the deciding win in a match against the perennially strong Loomis. Though the Pelicans returned this year with their top two players and the reigning league singles champion, Thompson helped Kent to a come-from-behind 4-3 win. He teamed with Nick Wijnberg at #3 doubles to win 8-2 and then came from way back to win in the third set in his singles match. The whole team had the pleasure of watching him play what MacLeod called Thompson's "best match of the year." Hitting solid ground strokes and attacking the net during the middle of the rally, Thompson closed out the day as the team cheered him on.

With the teams tied 3-3 and down 2-4 in the third set of the deciding match, Shannon Dickson won the next four games and the last eight points, punctuating the end of the match with two aces. Her remarkable comeback gave Kent School a 4-3 win over Miss Porter’s April 10 and a 3-0 record for the season.

Greg Furshman
Boys Varsity Lacrosse
04/04/2004 - 04/11/2004

Greg Furshman, a sixth former at Kent School hailing from Miami, Florida, has tallied 19 points in the first three games for Kent's boys varsity lacrosse team. Furshman notched 7 goals and 1 assist in a 19-8 victory over Kingswood on Saturday, April 10. The preceding Wednesday, he had 4 goals and 3 assists in a 21-7 win over Millbrook. From the beginning of the season, he has been a dominant offensive player from the midfield position. Head coach Randy Hobbs attributed some of Furshman's success in the early going to the hard work he did in the off season, saying, "the rewards have been quite evident."

Ben Cook
Varsity Golf
04/19/2004 - 04/25/2004

Ben Cook was the overall match Medalist in the varsity golf match held at the Taconic G.C. at Williams College on Wednesday April 21, 2004. Cook shot the lowest individual score, 82, of the 24 golfers competing in the tournament. Kent's overall score of 432 missed top-placed Deerfield Academy by 3 strokes, tied for second place with Hotchkiss, a team that had beaten Kent by 36 strokes on Hotchkiss's own course three weeks earlier, and defeated Berkshire by 33 strokes. The score, aided by the 85s shot by captain Alden Cook'04 and Gavin Sweitzer'06, was the best showing on the very difficult Taconic course by Kent's young varsity golf program.

Caroline Thomas
Girls Varsity Lacrosse
04/19/2004 - 04/25/2004

Caroline Thomas has been a leader of Kent's girls lacrosse team from the beginning of their 4-2 season. On April 21 she turned in a fine performance, including 3 goals, in a close loss to Hotchkiss. Later that week she added 5 goals and 3 assists in an 18-3 win over Cheshire. Said head coach Liza Davis, "She has continued to be a standout on and off the field."

Lindsay Lawten was responsible for three goals in Kent's heartbreaking 10-9 loss to Choate Wednesday, April 28. She contributed another 9 goals in Kent's come-from-behind 14-7 win at Berkshire the following Saturday. Head coach Liza Davis has been more than pleased with what Lawten brings to the team: “her speed, skills and knowledge of the game." Continued Davis, "She has also been an excellent leader on attack, particularly in the last few weeks."

By May 1, the Kent thirds team had a record of 5 wins, 0 losses. Head coach John Lintner attributed the success to the players' energy and diligence. Said Lintner, "All the boys have worked hard to improve their skills: running laps, drilling, and playing spirited challenge matches within the team." Their positive attitude has also made them fine ambassadors for Kent School. Lintner happily recalled that after one match in particular the team received several compliments about the good manners and exemplary court etiquette they displayed as they were trying their hardest to win.

Countering the notion that defensive players win games anonymously, Jo Glass was nominated by her head coach, Liza Davis, as Kent School’s Female Athlete of the Week. Said Davis, “She can always be counted on to be at the right place at the right time to intercept passes on defense and is a strong presence and leader on the field.” Glass came up with several important turnovers in Kent's victory on Saturday over Miss Porter’s, holding them to five goals.