Over the past decade or so, Nick Albertson’s Deerfield Academy golf teams have been likened to a group of magicians: They turn tin cups into gold medals.

The Big Green has accomplished this stunt once this spring already, when it captured the Newport (R.I.) Invitational title for the third consecutive year and the fourth time in the six years it has been competing in the tourney.  Its second Magical Mystery Tour of the season is scheduled for Wednesday, when it travels to the Oak Ridge Golf Course in Agawam to compete in the Kingswood-Oxford Invitational Tournament.

“A lot of the kids call it the New England Championship,” explained Albertson, whose charges have won this event four times as well, dating back to the spring of 2000. “Despite the fact that a total of 23 teams annually compete in this tourney, geographically speaking, it’s more of a Western New England Championship.”

Oddly enough, all four of Deerfield’s Kingswood crowns have come during even-numbered years – 2000, 2006, 2008 and 2010 – but you can still count on the Big Green showing up Wednesday – just in case.

“After a stretch of winning three titles in five years, I think it’s time we got back to our winning ways,” said Albertson, whose golfers made it to the Kingswood podium the past two years, but got no higher than the low row, having to settle for bronze medals on both occasions. “What I remember most about the past two tournaments down there is the fact that we finished last year’s tournament (387) 17 strokes ahead of our score the year before,” added the Big Green mentor, “and we still finished third.

 “As I remember, last year was one of the lowest scoring Kingswood tournaments in quite some time,” said Albertson. “Everybody was on their A game that day,” including Avon, which won with a score of 380 … the lowest winning score since a 375 stood up at the 2004 tournament.

Deerfield will enter Wednesday’s showdown as one of the favorites, along with two-time defending champion Avon, Westminster and Taft. And all four teams have faced each other previously this season. The Big Green will haul a 22-1 record into the fray, having already bested Avon, 185-195, and Westminster, 200-214. Taft, meanwhile, owns the lone blemish on the Big Green’s scorecard, having pinned a 389-398 setback on it back in April. Deerfield evened the score four days later, however, as Taft was one of the seven teams Deerfield had to step over to earn its Newport title.

The Big Green, which also beat the likes of Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Salisbury, Tabor and Loomis when it stormed the Rhode Island seashore that day, did something during the tourney that, quite frankly, Albertson never thought he would see again. Deerfield won the crown by establishing a new record for team scoring: 299.

“We owned the previous record of 303, which we set back in 2008,” said Albertson, “and I figured that mark would stand for quite some time, but we beat it by four strokes … I guess I was wrong on that one.”

Deerfield’s Fab Five led the charge into the Newport record books as David Buoymaster (13) and Sam Lafferty (14) both finished one stoke off the medalist honors with 73s. Brandon Wu (15) posted a 75, while James Park (13) and Joshua Kim (14) carded a 78 and 80 respectively.

Park, who will be taking his golfing talents to Yale in the fall, will be looking to wrap up his prep career on a high note and on familiar territory. As a sophomore, Park finished fifth in a field of 115 golfers at Kingswood with a score of 75, while he edged up to fourth last year with a round of 72.

Kim, meanwhile, snuck into the top 10 as well last year, when he placed ninth with a 73. His previous Kingswood appearance saw him card a 76 to wind up sixth. Cam O’Connell (13), Dan Blohm (13) and Fritz Bowen (13) supplied the depth this season.

Deerfield Academy spent the past two months compiling the kind of resume the Central New England Baseball League Tournament Committee just couldn’t resist: a 9-1 record against league opponents.

Although a .900 winning percentage is nothing to sneeze at, the CNEBL tourney officials aren’t known for going overboard when it comes time for a shout out to its member schools to “come on down!” These guys, who oversee the seven-team league, hand out just four invitations a year, so think of it as a little like Christmas and Santa Clause — they always know who’s been naughty and nice.  And, as it turns out, Deerfield’s been great. It put up an overall record of 11-5 during its regular-season run and earlier this week, Christmas came early for our boys of spring. They not only earned an invite to this year’s Blackburn Tournament, but were named its number-one seed as well.

So, Deerfield will be heading off to Worcester on Saturday, in search of its second league title in the past five years and its fifth crown since the 2000 campaign.  The tourney, which will be hosted by Assumption College, is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., when Worcester Academy, the tournament’s second seed, takes on third seed Exeter. Deerfield, will then take the field at 12:30 p.m., to face fourth-ranked Andover. The two winners will then square off in the title game, which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

Irwin’s charges better plan on packing a bag lunch for their trek to Worcester, “because we’re hoping to make a day of it,” quipped Dave Irwin, the Big Green mentor, and with the way Deerfield has been playing this spring, don’t bet against it.

The Big Green shows a 3-1 record this season against would-be opponents come Saturday. It swept a doubleheader from Exeter in April by scores of 2-1 and 12-1, and has split a pair of games with Worcester, winning, 8-3 at home, and losing 4-1 on the road. Deerfield and Andover have yet to cross base paths this spring, however, as their doubleheader, which was scheduled for last Saturday at Deerfield, was cancelled due to rain.

The key to success this spring are those three magical words that never fail to bring a smile to a baseball coach’s face: hitting, pitching and defense, “and we’ve gotten all three from these kids this year,” said Irwin, through that inevitable smile.

“I must say that I felt confident about our chances of being a good team coming into the season,” added the Deerfield coach, “but I never quite expected this amount of success so far.”

That’s probably because he never expected the perfect storm on the statistic sheet: a team batting average of .314, a team earned run average of 3.86 — which takes into account a 24-4 loss to a Springfield College JV team – and a fielding percentage of .920.

Offensively, the Big Green has had at least five of its members consistently lugging some big sticks to the plate this season. The biggest of which belongs to shortstop Conor Quinn (13). He either leads or is tied for the lead in just about every offensive category there is. He’s tops in batting average at .515, having produced 24 hits, which is first on the team, in 24 plate appearances. He’s first in RBI with 17, as well as home runs, with two and doubles, with seven, and runs scored with 19. His three triples tie him with Justin Finan (13) with the lead in that category. Finan’s other offensive stats show him with a .350 batting average, after having collected 14 hits in 40 at bats, while he has also driven in 13 runs.

First baseman Nick Goss (13) has chipped in a .341 batting average with 14 hits on the season, while catcher Colton Dana (13) owns a .341 average as well, with three doubles, a pair of triples and has scored 18 runs to date. He also brag of having produced a pair of Deerfield’s biggest hits this season: a walk-off single that produced a 2-1 victory over Exeter and a game-winning single that finished off Cushing Academy, 9-7, in extra innings.  Centerfielder Billy Smith (13) has also been chipping in at the plate all season long, as he heads into tourney action with a .304 batting average on a 14-for-46 campaign and has scored 11 runs.

Irwin has also been blessed with an outstanding pitching corps this spring — in both the starting and relieving departments. Drawing the starting nods this spring have been Finan, Bill O’Neil (14) and Ben Wood (13). Quinn, meanwhile, has been the guy Irwin has handed the ball to in closing situations.

Finan, who has gotten the starting nod from Irwin to face Andover on Saturday, owns a 3-0 record on the season. That record has been highlighted by a stingy 1.52 earned run average, as he has allowed just five earned runs in 23 innings. During that span he has also fanned a team-high 27 batters and walked just five. O’Neil stands in at 4-1, with a 2.37 ERA, having issued eight earned runs through 23 2/3 innings. He has struck out 14 and walked four in that time. Wood, meanwhile, has a 1-1 record and a 2.80 ERA, having allowed eight earned runs in 20 innings. He has 18 strikeouts and eight walks.

When making his relief appearances, Quinn has a very short walk from shortstop to the mound, and he has been very effective whenever he has climbed the bump. Heading into tourney action, he has posted a 2-0 record with one save. More impressively, he has allowed just one earned run over eight innings for an 0.84 ERA. He has also averaged one strikeout per inning.

The crews will be training at Princeton University until they leave for the World Championships August 8. Results, video, and information will be available online.

Additional News from Deerfield Rowing:
Libby Murray ’14 was selected to be part of US Junior Rowing’s High Performance group, which competed at Club Nationals this past weekend. Athletes in the HP group are identified as having the potential to compete at the international level.

Warner Brown ’13 is spending his summer rowing during New Zealand’s winter!!! Read about adventures rowing with New Zealand’s U23 lightweight national squad on his blog.

Thankfully, there was just a hint of an easterly breeze (2+ knots) and the temperature on-shore cooled to 70 degrees. The course was fast, the crews were psyched, and the crowd was thicker than any other day of the series. You could taste the concentration of the men and women as they hunkered down to stake a claim on their last shot at the year’s national title.

All of the teams knew that whatever best time they posted in the previous two days, they were going to have to exceed it. Everyone was reaching deep, trying for that last-minute inspiration (the miracle of a third and fourth wind) to push them through.

The sky had just started to clear as Deerfield crossed the starting line at 1:00 p.m. with Los Gatos, Marina Aquatic Junior, Episcopal, and Saratoga, but everyone knew it was going to be a war of attrition between the Big Green and the Belmont Hill boat.

For the entire length of the course, it was a close race. All teams were well ahead of their previous best time(s), but the last 300 yards was the nail-biter. Deerfield ended up just stoking-through Belmont Hills’ pace to finish less than one half-second ahead and clinch the title with a best time of 6:40.967.

To add some perspective to the effort, the previous heat of Men’s Youth 4+ (Final B) was won by Bainbridge Island in a time that was a full 13 seconds off the pace set by Deerfield and Belmont Hill. That would have translated to a difference of 8+ (eight+) boat-lengths, an eternity in this type of competition.

This race series was not just a superior effort by the team and coaching staff, but a benchmark for Deerfield Rowing, showing that Deerfield has fully realized a strong program of national calibre that has every indication of reaching dynastic proportions. This team has not just “paid the rent” for the men and women that will follow–they have set a great example in the process. WELL DONE!

See you next year, race fans.

5th boat: Will Darling ’15, David Lucente ’14, Travis Russell ’14, Will Beck ’14, Hyun Yang’ 13
6th boat: Ryan Kola ’15, Bryce Klehm ’15 , Matt Hrabchak ’15, Clayton Cordsen ’14, Cyrus Moghadam ’14
Coaches: Peter Field, Alex Berner ’11

According to Coach Nick Albertson, it was a beautiful but extremely windy day when co-captains James Park ’13 and David Buoymaster ’13, along with Sam Lafferty ’14, Daniel Blohm ’13, and Josh Kim ’14 posted a 331 to best a strong Taft team by three shots.

“Given the venue and the strong competition, the Andover Invitational is the highlight of our regular season,” Coach Albertson said. 

Congrats, Deerfield golfers!