Preseason Underway

The soccer team arrived on campus today excited and ready to get started. After a quick meeting the team headed up to the field for some hard work and testing for the upcoming season. Practices start early tomorrow morning.

Wolverine Strength adds staff

The Wolverine Strength program is proud to announce Michelle Sturgeon has joined the program and will be working exclusively with the soccer and lacrosse program.

Michelle joins Bridgton Academy after 10 years of coaching and training in the Boston area.
Michelle earned a B.S. in Kinesiology from the University of Maine, Orono in 1997 and a M.Ed. with a concentration in Strength and Conditioning from Springfield College in 2002.
Michelle attended school while designing and implementing strength and conditioning programs for Springfield College as well as American International College. As a previous employee of Mike Boyle’s Strength and Conditioning, Michelle coached athletes from the NHL, NFL, NLL, WUSA and USA Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team.
Michelle has earned a Club Coach Certification from USA Weightlifting, Performance Enhancement Specialist Certification from NASM, as well as her Schwinn Certification.

Joe Sawicki, Interim Athletic Director and Coordinator of Strength and Conditioning stated that, "We were very lucky to have Michelle join our program. She brings a tremendous depth of knowledge and will undoubtedly keep Bridgton Academy on the cutting edge of athletic development. I am eager to see how our soccer athletes will progress throughout the year."

Additionally, Michelle will also serve as Registrar as well as teaching in the science department.

Bridgton Academy Soccer

A video produced by BA Alum and soccer standout Dan Egan '83.

2010 Soccer Schedule

The 2010 Wolverine Soccer schedule is up. The season kicks off on September 8th, away against Southern Maine CC. The first home game of the season is set for September 15th against Central Maine CC.

Here is a link for the complete schedule.

New Head Soccer Coach Announced

Bridgton Academy announced the hiring of Alan Ashenfelter as the new Head Soccer Coach for the upcoming year. In addition to his coaching duties Ashenfelter will be teaching a mix of math and humanities classes. He will also serve as the Assistant Director of Mass Hall.

Ashenfelter was a student athlete at Wesleyan University where he earned a degree in History. Ashenfelter played four years for the Cardinals and served as Captain his senior year. In 2005 Ashenfelter and the Cardinals won the schools first ever NESCAC Championship. In 2005 and 2006 they played in the teams first two appearances in the NCAA Tournament, falling to eventual National Champions Messiah in OT. Ashenfelter helped build a program that is now regularly ranked in the Top 20 in the Country. In 2008 he was named to 1st Team All NESCAC and was also awarded the Raymond J. Walsh Memorial Award for exceptional leadership and outstanding ability.

Ashenfelter has been working at the Rivers School in Weston, MA since his graduation from Wesleyan. There he has worked as a teacher and coach, working with the soccer, basketball, and lacrosse programs at the school.

Class of 2010 Getting Some Press

Dillon Flynn is heading to Sewanee and they have a nice write up on Dillon here.

Rob Palumbo made the top ten in this video (his shot comes at about the 2min mark)

Enjoy.

Vieira Signs NLI

Ronaldo Vieira signing his NLI with Head Coach Kevin Mellon

Bridgton Academy Soccer standout Ronaldo Vieira (Framingham, MA)recently signed his National Letter of Intent to play soccer next fall at Radford University in Radford, VA. Vieira chose Radford because newly appointed head coach Marc Reeves showed a great deal of interest, "I was waiting to hear from some schools, and Coach Reeves made made an offer and I talked with my parents and decided it was the right place," Ronaldo said of his decision.

Vieira contributes a great deal of his success to the Bridgton program, but his individual hard work is not over looked. Vieira came into preseason weighing 222 lbs, he trimmed 20 pounds off midway through the season, and in the off season he is now down to 180 lbs. Ronaldo said, "Coach Mellon pushed us as a team hard, to improve our play as a team an individually. Playing with great players allowed us all to get exposure." Vieira set his goals on playing soccer at a D-I school coming into the school year, but he also knew he must get his grades up to achieve that. He has done just that.

Radford University competes at the Division I level, in the Big South Conference.