17 minute read
Village Green
SACRED GROUND
BY ROBIN DELNICKI
In the spring of 1975, George Trautman needed a teacher and a coach for the baseball team. He decided on a trial run. If it worked out, he’d offer the candidate a position for the next school year. The man he had found had a solid liberal arts education, so in George’s mind, he could teach anything. It was the flexibility he needed, never mind the coaching trifecta: football, hockey, and baseball.
It worked out. For a mere $5,600 a year, a roof over his head, and three squares, Coach John Gardner started full time at Avon that fall. His heart was exactly where George needed it to be: on the ice. Hockey had promise at Avon Old Farms. The rink had walls at each end to shield the wind, thanks to Evan Jennings, but the program had been bruised. The year before, Avon had suffered an embarrassing loss to Westminster, and George wasn’t having it. He needed a team builder, a program developer, and, as
From left to right: Reed Estabrook, Richard Gordon, Evan Jennings, and George Trautman check in at the rink in 1988.
with everything at Avon, some fire in the belly. George was determined to beat Westy.
It took three years, but with Coach Gardner at the helm, Avon got that win and many others. In 1978 and 1979, Avon Old Farms School banked winning seasons, and Avon hockey was on its way. The program needed to develop, and as it did, so did Coach’s partnership with George. Hockey became one of Avon’s signature sports, and that friendship was at its foundation.
“George was pragmatic,” chuckles Gardner. “He saw the value of the sport at Avon, but he needed more from it if Avon Old Farms was to succeed on a bigger scale.” So George started youth hockey as a feeder for admissions at Avon. He saw a business opportunity to enroll local boys who would be impressed with Avon’s facilities and program.
To do that, the growing stature of Avon hockey needed facilities to match, and Coach’s program was quickly outgrowing the largely open air of Jennings Rink. At the same time, the Hartford Whalers needed practice ice. Enter George’s exceptional leadership. “George met weekly with board members Bob Fairchild and Richard Gordon (then owner of the Hartford Whalers), the business manager, maintenance, and me to plan and build the new arena. He relied on all of us during that time to get it right. It was an important collaboration,” remembers Gardner.
Avon’s game changed when the new rink opened. “We were proud of it,” Gardner says. He especially loved the new wooden bleachers that shook during games. There were more fans, more energy, and more wins. Avon’s ice finally had walls on every side, locker rooms, and netting and higher glass to protect spectators. “It was ours, and George was proud of hockey at Avon. I felt good about that.”
With the rink serving as practice ice for the Whalers, the players also had a new set of professional mentors to look up to. Gordie Howe was a fixture on the ice, as was every visiting team with time to practice at Avon. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were among the many who graced Avon’s rink, and Avonians knew they were part of something special. “I’ll never forget when Bobby Orr came for lunch at Avon. The boys at my table hardly knew what to do. He brought Roger Staubach along, thanks to Richard Gordon, who was friends with the pair,” remembers Gardner. The Whalers eventually moved on, but the ice stayed, as did Gordon on the board and as a trusted confidant of the school.
Championships followed. From 2004 to 2010, Avon hockey brought home five New England Championships. It became a dynasty, nurtured by George, who proudly watched from the stands even after his retirement. But the reins were squarely in Coach’s hands. “George saw things in people,” says Gardner. “He believed in them before they did. I was one of the lucky ones to be made better because of that.”
Now coming to the close of a storied prep hockey career, John Gardner has exceeded his promise. He helped build Avon Old Farms into one of most highly regarded prep school sports programs in New England and turned out some of the best hockey players in the nation, such as Brian Leetch ’86, Chris Higgins ’01, Jonathan Quick ’05, Nick
Bonino ’07, and Cam Atkinson ’08, three of whom brought home Stanley Cups (five times in all) and two of whom are Conn Smythe recipients— Olympic athletes and medalists are too numerous to mention. Whether college hockey or NHL-bound players, the Winged Beavers collectively boast eight New England Championships, 12 Founders League Championships, and (at the time of printing) 799 wins under Coach Gardner’s watch.
But it's really about what sports can do for every boy. “At Avon, it is about the balance of athletics with everything that makes a boy whole,” comments Richard Gordon. “Sports develop leadership. They are the spirit of Avon. George knew that, and Coach Gardner lives it.” The 2019 renovation of the rink (now called arena to accommodate its more widespread use) elevated Avon once again, so it is no wonder that a group of alumni hockey players have come together to name the rink for John. “I am part of a legacy at Avon,” he comments. “Jennings Fairchild Arena has been my home for 45 years. I am humbled that the boys want to name the rink in my honor.” Hockey fans seek to raise $500,000 to make this a reality.
“I appreciate the rink being named for me,” Gardner says. “Every time I walk into that rink, I’m happy. I love it. Thank you.”
Students and faculty process to the dedication ceremony on January 26, 1990.
caret-circle-right HONOR COACH WITH YOUR MEMORIES:
www.avonoldfarms.com/HockeyMemories
caret-circle-right SUPPORT THE RINK: www.avonoldfarms.com/NameTheRink
NAME the RINK
The rink in the JenningsFairchild Arena at Avon Old Farms School will be named the John Gardner Rink in honor of our longtime head coach once we successfully raise $500,000 for the project. Gardner has spent 45 years behind the Winged Beaver bench and guided Avon to eight New England Championships and 12 Founders League Championships so far. Avon Old Farms alumni with personal ties to the hockey program are key advocates for honoring Coach Gardner, and they ask for your partnership and support to make this a reality.
NAME THE RINK EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Luke Archambault ’04 Nick Bonino ’07 Michael Callaghan ’83 Michael Fish ’95 Chris Higgins ’01 Brian Leetch ’86 Vincent Mancuso ’81 Todd Marr ’99 John McAuliffe ’95 John Mori ’05 Mike O'Neill ’00 Mike Perreira ’10 Carl Valimont ’84
FEATURED ARTIST
ALEXANDER SANBORN ’21
BY JACQUELINE KELLER
This fall, senior Alexander Sanborn returned to the Old Farms campus with aspirations to cram as much into his senior year as possible. Many students are happy to return to campus after the long hiatus, but for Xander, the desire to squeeze out every drop of experience during his remaining time at Avon reaches beyond the loss of spring term on campus. It comes from his feeling that’s he’s hitting a stride in his life that was missing before.
Xander has lived in Simsbury, Conn., since kindergarten. He attended local public schools through his sophomore year of high school. What inspired his decision to attend an independent school? He received a diagnosis that finally answered a lot of questions and quieted a lot of fears.
“The spring of my sophomore year at Simsbury High School, I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” Xander shares in the Know Your Brother podcast created by fellow student Millan Jain ’21. “Things finally made sense. After always feeling like I was a burden for asking clarification questions or for an opportunity to receive extra help, getting the diagnosis was a good first step. Then I was prescribed medication, and it was also recommended that I look at Avon Old Farms School.”
As a repeat sophomore, Xander transferred to Avon in the fall of 2018. He admits that his first year at Avon was a strange time in his life, and he felt adrift.
“The transition was a bit hard, but I wasn’t enjoying Simsbury High, so, honestly, anywhere in my eyes would have been better,” he says. “I really loved football and was able to attend pre-season practice prior to classes starting. That gave me an opportunity to meet new people and get comfortable on campus. But, I got two concussions playing early on, and on top of dealing with changing schools and being away from my friends that fall, my parents vetoed my playing football anymore.”
In addition to losing something that took up so much time, energy, and passion, being at a new school without a team extended the feeling of being a bit lost. In the spring, however, Xander caught on to something new. “I went out for the track-and-field team throwing the javelin, and for a newcomer, I was good at it. I started to really believe
that javelin could be my new passion. I thought if I practiced over the summer, I would continue to build my skill and as a junior could start gaining college attention.”
But once again, Xander’s road was not straight or easy: he injured his shoulder training hard over the summer, and when he returned to Avon in the fall, he was again looking for a place to focus his energies. His mother had a real talent for theater, and she encouraged him to try acting in the Old Farms Theater Company’s fall production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In the show, Xander was cast as Ed Boone, the father of the show’s protagonist, Christopher, a gifted boy who investigates the killing of a dog and in doing so has an adventure of self-discovery.
“It was something fun to try, and it challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone and pushed me to get into an artistic mindset,” he says. “Acting stretched my brain in a new way, and while it wasn’t physically demanding like football was, it was mentally demanding to memorize lines and cues. It was stressful in a new way. Once I left the Adams
Theater at the end of rehearsals, my brain was buzzing, and I began to look for a space to play that energy out.”
That place was the Estabrook Fine Arts Center. As a day student, Xander couldn’t retreat to a dorm but wanted a quiet place on campus to work through his thoughts. A student in Visual Arts Chairperson Cristina Pinton’s Drawing 1 class, he started going to the art studio during enrichment and study hall and began spending an increasing amount of time there.
“As soon as Xander joined my class, I witnessed unusual focus and interest … with the first assignment, a stippling pen drawing that gives boys practice in value drawing, Xander transformed it into a really meaningful and complex image,” shares Pinton. “This was the first hint of his willingness to take his own creativity seriously and take each project as a springboard to create a meaningful, personally valuable image.”
That piece, which Xander made for his older brother, went on to win second place in the Teen category at the National Arts Program exhibit at Capital Community College in March. It was also printed in the 2020 Hippocrene, Avon’s annual art and literary publication.
After the curtain closed on the last production that fall, and he completed his first piece of art, Xander returned to campus after Thanksgiving break with an entirely new perspective. He threw himself into the arts. Instead of feeling drained and spent, he was encouraged, fulfilled, and confident. “Ms. Pinton was so supportive of me while I began my journey with art,” he says. “She told me, ‘You need to stick with this. You need to keep coming in here. I know you can do really well.’ It was awesome to hear someone rooting me on. That fall, I had a lot going on with me personally that I was working through. With her support, drawing became an outlet for me. It got the energy and thoughts out.”
After winter break, Xander began to enter the studio with ideas that weren’t tied to any assignment. He came in with dreams and worked with Pinton on a plan to get his vision down on paper. “I drew out some sketches. I thought, what if I made
this into a big mural with a silhouette of me in it and surrounded that with an abstract pattern,” Xander explains. “Ms. Pinton told me to go for it. She told me to work on that and not to worry about the other classwork. She could see my passion and encouraged me to get my real art down, not the assignments.” The result was a beautifully intricate, bright, colorful piece that was also chosen for the Hippocrene. “His art is so personal,” Pinton comments. “He goes inward, and he taps into his subconscious. He's making work that is emotionally valuable.”
Today, Xander wishes he had found the arts earlier, but there might be something to be said for the pieces all falling into place. “Football is a big energy draw. Between practice and then hitting the weight room afterward on my own and then worrying
about homework, the last thing I think I would have done at the end of my day was draw. But because football was removed, I felt like I had so much more time and began to let more of my mind engage my artistic side. I’m really glad I did. Earlier, I was still finding myself. Today, I feel five years older than I was two years ago. I was a different kid. I was caught up in my own ego but somehow not focusing on who I really am and what I want to do. I was more focused on the perception of me than my own path forward. Art, and Avon, helped me take a step back and look at my future.”
This fall, Xander is one of a few elite students admitted to the Advanced Independent Project (AIP) program at Avon. It allows students who show exceptional skill in a niche area to work under the expertise of professionals, learning how to expand their gifts and desires to excel. Through the AIP for both the fall and winter terms, Xander will spend his afternoons in the art studio in addition to taking AP Studio Art during the day to fulfill the two-year course requirement in just one. In
addition, he was inducted as a 2020–21 member of the National Art Honor Society for his volunteerism in arts and his commitment this year.
“At Avon, I realized all the things I could do and have support in doing them, not just with art but with so many things. Now, I’m considering pursuing art in college. Taking the AIP will help me figure out if I love art enough to pursue it further. I want to see how far I can take it and see what I can create. See how I feel about it. See how it looks. If I’m creating 24/7 and loving it, I think that’s a sign. If I learn that it’s too much for me, maybe I’ll minor in art at a liberal arts college and pursue one of my other interests— environmental science or psychology.”
Although those alternatives might seem very far apart, Xander cites his father as his biggest inspiration: someone who started out in college as a chemistry major but switched after two years to business and now has a great career and provides for his family.
“I feel like a lot of my maturity and thoughts about the future began in my junior year because of the environment Avon provides. Because of the smaller class sizes, I was able to engage in the content. I was encouraged to attend enrichment and get help with assignments. Dr. Watt got me to like English, which is not an easy thing to accomplish, and Mr. Rice opened my eyes to the world of environmental science. Knowing there is support around every corner has allowed me to become who I am.”
One aspect of whom Xander has become is this: an excellent ambassador for Avon Old Farms School. “I heard Xander speaking to a potential AOF family once, and the boy had ADD. Xander openly engaged the boy, while working on a monochromatic color pencil drawing of his car, about how much art has helped him focus,” Pinton says. “He spoke about the openness of the studio, the flexibility of its hours, the ability to move around, sit in different spots, use it as a space to calm down and take a break, as well as put earphones on and just hyper focus on something that inspired him. I loved this conversation. It was Xander shining and expressing his appreciation for the space and the value of art in a really honest and enthusiastic manner.”
This fall, Xander’s art was featured in Avon’s Ordway Art Gallery for the entire community to enjoy.
Commemorating
THE CLASS OF 2020
For the members of Avon’s graduating Class of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited the commencement weekend they had eagerly anticipated and worked so hard to earn. There was no early morning gathering in the Pope Quadrangle wearing caps and gowns. There was no procession around the Village Green, no walking across the stage in front of the head of school’s house, and no passage through Alumni Gate. It was a heartbreaking reality for our 128 graduating seniors, but in true Avon spirit, they persevered through this historic challenge.
But there were celebrations. There were commemorative cigars. There were Avon-decorated cakes. There were even bagpipes at a few homes where parents were determined to give their sons the closest thing to an Avon graduation they could manage while living through a pandemic. There also was a tribute to the Class of 2020 that will mark its place in history: a class without a graduation.
At 10 a.m. on the Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend 2020, when the seniors would have been processing into their graduation
ceremony, a special message was also broadcast to the graduating seniors and their families around the globe: The Alumni Gate Senior Celebration. In the video, Dean of Students Brian Doyle and the Avon Boy reflect on all the good memories the Class of 2020 created while on campus. At the end, Head of School Jim Detora unveils a 24-inch by 28-inch cast bronze plaque freshly mounted to the wall of the Village Green apartments, just inside Alumni Gate. The brilliant finish literally gleams in the morning sun, a promise that each classmate listed on
the plaque will be forever a part of Avon Old Farms School. See the video at www.avonoldfarms.com/ classof2020.
To the Class of 2020: you aspired. You persevered. Your legacy will forever be a part of Avon’s history, and your plaque is a standing reminder of a class who rose to a challenge in the face of adversity. You left a lasting impression on our school, and we couldn’t be more proud. Best of luck at college, and we cannot wait to see you back at the farm!
