Bob Hetu ignites PSA Mustangs baseball
for the Fall 2022.
Bob Hetu has been wearing out his own path over the highways of southern New England recently.
From Putnam to Hartford to Fairfield County. From Fairfield County to New London County and then up the 395 corridor. And from there to Providence and Worcester and back to Putnam. All in the name of building the baseball program at Putnam Science Academy, set to launch this fall and ready to play home games at Dodd Stadium next spring.
“We are really excited about this,” said Hetu, PSA’s head coach who has coached at the amateur level for more than 30 years and who counts major leaguers George Springer, AJ Pollack, and Matt Barnes among the 78 draft picks he has directed at some point with his TCB travel baseball club in his career. “We’re a year-round program that is going to quickly be on par and competitive with anybody in New England. It will take us time to grow our numbers and be the size of the other elite programs…but we’ll immediately be competitive with them. And we’re looking for those blue-collar kids who want to grind and who have something to prove and want to get after it.”
The international feel of PSA’s other athletic teams will carry over to baseball as well, Hetu said, as he expects student-athletes from Taiwan, Japan, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico.
The Mustangs will work out Monday-Thursday in the fall and play some games. But since that is a huge showcase time for summer clubs, the fall portion of the season will focus heavily on strength and conditioning, skills and discipline. PBR, a showcase company, will also come in and evaluate all of PSA’s players and give them exposure on social media.
Come winter, the team will move indoors and train in Hartford at the Connecticut Baseball Academy, which Hetu co-founded and will give players access to all of the latest technology and tools vital for their growth. “It’s a great facility,” Hetu said. “We have eight indoor cages, plenty of indoor mounds, a speed/strength area. And we have all the analytical stuff that has become so mainstream and such a major part of player development.”
CBA has HitTrax and Rapsodo, both of which allow players – batters and pitchers alike – to enhance their performance through immediate quantitative and visual feedback. “Pro guys want the same analytics, so colleges are using the same systems,” Hetu said, “and the college coaches like the summer premier clubs that have those too. And we’ve got them too.” And once the weather warms up, that indoor training at CBA will continue, but the Mustangs’ focus will shift to its schedule of roughly 28 games. PSA will be a member of the Tri-State Wood Bat League with teams like Winchendon, Marianapolis, Pomfret, Springfield Commonwealth, St. Thomas More, and MacDuffie. PSA will also square off with teams such as Avon-Old Farms, Salisbury School, Bridgton, Brunswick. “We’ll have Top 10 opponents on our schedule,” Hetu said. “It’s definitely an exciting time at PSA.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
