Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor
Sophie Tougas was already being recruited to play Division I college basketball when she scored her 1,000th career point for Glens Falls High School last season.
But after she transferred to Brewster Academy (N.H.) and reclassified herself as a high school sophomore again, the offers started pouring in.
“I have offers from Rhode Island, Boston University, Siena and Cal State-Bakersfield,” Sophie, 16, told The Chronicle.
“URI offered the first day after I reclassified, and then I visited BU and they offered.
“Now that I’m a 2020 [planned graduation], a lot of schools have an opening where I could come in and play right away. Before, those scholarships had already been offered to other players.”
Sophie, a still-growing 6-foot shooting guard and the daughter of Rich Tougas and Suzanne Spector-Tougas, said 26 other Division I schools have contacted her, including Boston College, Virginia Tech and Manhattan.
Kara McDuffie, her coach at Brewster Academy, said, “I’m certainly very excited to have her for three years, and I think the sky’s the limit with her potential for college. She is definitely a high level Division I prospect. With three more years of development and strength training, she’s going to have a lot of options.”
In her first game at Brewster, a 58-43 win over St. Marks on Dec. 2, Sophie tallied a team-high 19 points and added seven rebounds, five steals, four assists and two blocked shots.
And, she’s quick to add, “For the fall semester I got cum laude for academics!”
Coach McDuffie said Sophie “is an extremely competitive player who has great natural instincts. She uses her speed and length well on the court to get to the rim and find the open girl. She also plays stronger defense.
“Most importantly, she’s a great teammate who helps create opportunities for her teammates and puts the success of the team before her own.”
Sophie said she and her sister Lucy were looking to go to prep school together, but Lucy is a freshman at Queens College, and Brewster Academy “is a perfect fit for me. I need the extra year to get stronger and expand my game.”
She said her AAU coach Scott Hazelton “is big on prep school, and we looked at Proctor Academy and Brewster Academy, but we were at a tournament in Atlanta and he called me to tell me Brewster had a reopening on their roster, and I made the decision in the end of July to go.”
“Everyone here is just so nice,” she said. “It’s such a great community that welcomes you and makes you feel at home. I have been a little homesick. I miss my parents and my sister and my friends back in Glens Falls.”
Academically, Sophie said, “You live with your teachers. Most of them live right on campus. I live with my French teacher. She’s the dorm parent in our dorm.
“And I’m not the strongest in math, so I had a test coming up and I texted my teacher to see if he could help me go over some things, and he came to dinner with me to help me.”
Sophie said she’s on a scholarship. “I’m going nearly for free. This is the best place for me. It’s the perfect place for me. This decision has paid off, and I’m not done yet. I can’t wait for what the future holds.”
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