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HPresident’s Letter
Ryan Frost Cardigan Mountain School
appy New Year! I hope everyone had a joyful holiday season and your 2025 is off to a great start. As we move into the heart of the winter season, I want to share some important updates and reminders with our incredible NEPSAC community.
First, I encourage everyone to review the updated NEPSAC directory and the new bylaws discussed, voted on, and approved at our annual meeting this past November. As noted at the annual meeting, these updates are needed periodically to keep our organization updated with legal changes and ensure NEPSAC remains a leader in interscholastic athletics. For those involved in winter athletics, please take a moment to check out the Winter NEPSAC Tournament Application page (nepsac.org/coachesassociations/postseason-applications) to ensure all necessary steps are completed.
As we continue through the winter season, I wish all schools the best of luck in their athletic competitions. I encourage everyone to ensure that student-athletes and coaches uphold our NEPSAC Code of Ethics and Conduct. The commitment to sportsmanship, integrity, and respect sets NEPSAC apart and strengthens our community. A key component of NEPSAC’s success is maintaining open lines of communication. I want to remind everyone that the first step in addressing any concerns, whether it’s a disagreement with a fellow school or a grievance with a peer school, the first step to resolving these should always be an Athletic Director-toAthletic Director conversation. These discussions are essential for fostering collaboration and maintaining the integrity of our league.
I want to thank Jim Smucker for his many years of service on the NEPSAC Board as our Treasurer. His contributions have been instrumental in the success and growth of our organization. As we look ahead, I am pleased to introduce Jamie Arsenault as the next
NEPSAC Treasurer, effective July 1st. We are excited to welcome Jamie into this role and look forward to his continued leadership at NEPSAC.
Thank you to all the Athletic Directors, coaches, and school leaders for the fantastic work you do daily in our schools, communities, and with your student-athletes. Your dedication makes a lasting impact, upholds the values that NEPSAC stands for, and facilitates all the amazing stories in our magazine.
Last, I also want to express my gratitude to Laurie Sachs for her incredible work in putting together this edition of the magazine and all the work she does behind the scenes for NEPSAC. Laurie’s dedication to highlighting the work of our schools, coaches, and student-athletes is invaluable to the NEPSAC community and only a fraction of the great work and leadership she provides our organization.
All the best for a successful winter season and another year of excellence in athletics!
Ryan Frost NEPSAC President
The following resources are behind the password at www.nepsac.org to serve you better and streamline communication within NEPSAC:
» NEPSAC By-Law and Policy Handbook
» NEPSAC NIL Registration
» NEPSAC Grievance Form
» NEPSAC Expulsion Documentation Form
» NEPSAC NIL Policy and Registration Form
TREASURER’S REPORT
by Jim Smucker, Berwick Academy, NEPSAC Treasurer
Thank you for your continued support.
REMINDERS/TIPS FOR MAKING PAYMENTS ONLINE:
To be most efficient it is important that schools only create one account when making their payments. If you don’t remember your login information, simply click on the “Forgot your username or password?” link to enter your email address to receive instructions to reset your password. Remember to check your spam/junk folder for these instruction emails.
Please be aware that there is a processing fee to offset our cost with every online transaction. We are not able to refund processing fees, so please be diligent about this process and your record keeping.
How To View Your Account
If you already have a Username and Password, go to ‘View My Account’ and enter your credentials to log in. After logging in, you will have access to ‘Payment History.’ Use the available filters to view ALL of them or choose any date range or period.
NEPSAC PARTNERSHIPS
NEPSAC continues to identify potential partnerships and sponsors to help ensure that the intentions of this organization are met, all while staying true to our mission and values. We will update the membership as new partnerships and sponsorships are secured. Please review our current partnerships here.
https://nepsac.org/corporate-partners/
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Tuesday, September 17
Remote 8:15
Tuesday, October 8
Remote 8:15
Thursday, November 21
Boxborough, MA 4:00
Friday, November 22
Annual Meeting, Boxborough, MA
Tuesday, January 7
Remote 8:15
Tuesday, February 11
Remote 8:15
Tuesday, April 29
TBD 9:00
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Thursday, March 27
Fay School 10:00
DISTRICT I
All meetings at Hyde School
Monday, September 9 10:00
Monday, November 11 10:00
Monday, February 24 10:00
Monday, May 19 10:00
Zoom meetings may be held if needed in October, January and April
DISTRICT II
Thursday, October 17
Holderness School 9:00
Thursday, February 13
Tilton School 9:00
Thursday, May 1
New Hampton School 9:00
Bi-weekly meetings on Zoom from August 2024 to May 2025.
DISTRICT III
All meetings at Phillips Academy Andover
Tuesday, October 1 10:00
Wednesday, January 22 10:00
Tuesday, April 30 10:00
DISTRICT IV
All meetings at Westminster School
Thursday, September 26 9:00
Thursday, April 24 9:00
SPORTS MEDICINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT
by Grady Congleton, SMAC chair
NEPSAC’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee is excited to start off the new year with new leadership. First, we want to thank Amy Wiggins for her 35+ year service to the profession, and her time serving as the previous Chair of SMAC.
Moving forward, Grady Congleton of Salisbury School has taken over as Chair, with Zac Kershaw of Andover stepping into the Vice Chair role. The committee is made up of 12 individuals ten athletic trainers and two physicians and will work to ensure NEPSAC reaches the highest health, wellness, and safety standards so that students have a positive and safe experience in secondary school athletics. We want to thank the NEPSAC Executive Board for their support. We look forward to continuing this partnership together.
At our annual meeting in November, we welcomed 67 athletic trainers and two excellent speakers who trained us on bleeding control, joint dislocations, emergency planning, and other scenarios. Not only did athletic trainers get valuable continuing education credits, they were also able to bring these skills immediately to their respective communities, showcasing the high-quality care athletic trainers around NEPSAC provide to ensure each student has a safe experience. We want to thank Sandy Snow of St. Paul’s School for serving our CEU coordinator and helping put this program together.
In the future, we’ll look to expand education opportunities and build relationships with all key stakeholders to ensure NEPSAC leads the way in the standard of care in secondary school sports medicine.
Got news to share with other NEPSAC schools? Send the details to communications@nepsac.org and we’ll put it in the next issue.
Scenes from the NEPSAC 2024 Annual Meeting
CELEBRATE
LEARN
Bruins Learn to Play Hockey at Pingree
Pingree School has partnered with the Boston Bruins for the “Learn to Play Hockey” program, an exciting initiative designed for first-time players between the ages of 4 and 9 years old. This program introduces young children to skating and hockey at an affordable cost. Participants receive full equipment and enjoy four practice sessions, providing them with everything they need to get started in the sport. Additionally, participants have the unique opportunity to visit a Bruins-contracted hockey store for a fitting, where they can get properly sized for their gear. Often, a former Bruins player is present to measure sticks and sign autographs, creating a memorable experience for the kids.
our young participants and our school community. The Bruins’ commitment to making hockey accessible resonates with our values, and we look forward to continuing this partnership for many seasons to come.
For more information about the Bruins’ “Learn to Play Hockey” program, visit their official website here
Our school’s ice rink serves as the venue for these activities, offering a supportive environment for students to enjoy the thrill of hockey. The program features engaging skill-building exercises, including fun obstacle courses and games, ensuring that every child remains motivated and excited about learning.
Students from Pingree’s hockey teams volunteer their time to lead activities and mentor participants. Tynan Moses ’26, Mikey Covelluzzi ’26, Max Kirianov ’25 (C), Joe Gaffney ’25 (C), and Cora Ready ’26 are instrumental in running the sessions, guiding younger players in essential skating techniques and hockey skills.
This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to promote growth, teamwork, and a love for physical activity among students. As we move forward, we are excited to see the positive impact this collaboration will have on both
Got news to share with other NEPSAC schools? Send the details to communications@nepsac.org and we’ll put it in the next issue.
NEPSAC ONLINE DIRECTORY
Please continue to update your school information in the online directory with any changes that you might have. It is extremely important that we have accurate contact lists of our athletic departments for a variety of communications. The online system allows for the most efficient way to collect information. Examples of use: Our coaches associations, athletic trainers, schedulers, sports information directors, and equipment managers all need accurate email lists for their important communications. Contact Laurie Sachs communications@nepsac.org if you have any questions.
Photos by David Goff, Pingree School
Mikey Covelluzzi ’26
Captain Joe Gaffney ’25
Tynan Moses ’26
Captain Max Kirianov ’25
Cora Ready ’26
St. Luke’s School Introduces the Captains Council to Empower Student-Athlete Leaders
by Dr. Frog Ogilvie
This fall, St. Luke’s School is proud to introduce a new initiative aimed at shaping the next generation of leaders on and off the field: the “Captains Council.” Held once a week during mini course time, the program brings together all varsity captains from the fall sports teams to foster a collaborative environment where leadership skills are honed, and real world issues are discussed.
In many ways, the Captains Council is an extension of the Leadership Workshop held this summer, which many of the school’s athletic captains attended. The workshop focused on strategies for effective leadership, conflict resolution, and communication, all critical skills for student-athletes who often play a vital role in team dynamics. Building on the momentum from the summer, the Captains Council is designed to be an ongoing support system for captains to continue developing these skills throughout the season.
As part of the Council’s weekly sessions, captains will have the opportunity to share the challenges they are facing within their teams, brainstorm solutions, and learn from one another’s experiences. This open dialogue allows captains to address real issues, such as team morale, communication breakdowns, or the pressures of balancing academics with athletics. With a shared understanding of their leadership roles, they can work together to cultivate a positive culture within their teams, which will undoubtedly have ripple effects across the broader school community.
The format of the Captains Council is interactive, with frequent guest speakers ranging from former St. Luke’s athletes to industry professionals who bring unique insights into leadership and teamwork. These sessions aim to provide captains with a broader perspective on how to navigate their leadership roles both on the field and in life beyond St. Luke’s.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for our student-athlete leaders to grow in a supportive, solution-oriented environment,” said Anna Knechtel, director of athletics. “The Captains Council ensures that our captains don’t have to shoulder the responsibility of leadership alone. Instead, they are part of a network of peers who are all working towards the same goal improving their teams and becoming better leaders.”
By creating a structured, consistent space for leadership development, St. Luke’s is setting the standard for how schools can actively support their student-athletes. With the inaugural class of captains now gathering each week, it’s clear that the school is not only committed to excellence in athletics but also to nurturing the leadership qualities that will benefit these students long after they leave the Storm fields.
As the fall sports season unfolds, the impact of the Captains Council is already being felt. Teams are seeing improved communication, stronger camaraderie, and captains who feel more confident in their leadership roles. The program is poised to continue enabling excellence, expanding to include captains from winter and spring sports, and cementing its place as a cornerstone of St. Luke’s athletic and leadership programs.
For now, the captains of the fall teams are leading the way, making a lasting difference on the field, in the classroom and beyond.
Photos courtesy St. Luke’s School
Lawrence Academy Hosted Third Annual ISL Changemakers Conference
by John Bishop
Lawrence Academy recently hosted the 3rd Annual Independent School League (ISL) Changemakers Conference, bringing together student-athletes and educators from ISL schools for a day of learning, growth, and community building.
The special event, held on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, featured speeches, workshops, and interactive discussions designed to inspire leadership and social responsibility among students.
“I am proud to be part of a league that values diversity and inclusion and is committed to investing time and effort in its students’ leaders,” said ISL Executive Secretary Bobbie CrumpBurbank (who in 2023 retired as Athletic Director from Brooks School after 38 years). “It is exciting to watch a program that was just an idea four years ago become a yearly reality that schools are eager to lead and participate in.”
In the conference’s keynote moment, LA’s Jaime Schulze captivated attendees with personal insights from her career as a high-level athlete in the ISL and collegiate soccer. Interviewed by Eden Jones ’25 and Dean of Students, Equity, and Campus Life Dennis Canty, Schulze held court in the Richardson-Mees Performing Arts Center (RMPAC), and emphasized the role of athletes as leaders both on and off the field.
“The 2024 ISL Changemakers conference was a huge success,” said Ms. Schulze, who joined Lawrence Academy in 2017, and currently serves as the Assistant Dean of Students, Director of Equity and Belonging, as well as girls’ varsity soccer assistant coach. “Seeing students across the ISL come together and work towards a common cause was incredibly rewarding for me.
“Having it at Lawrence Academy made it that much more special,” added Ms. Schulze.
Beyond the opening moments in the RMPAC, the day included a series of workshops, affinity spaces, and accountability groups, many led by Lawrence Academy faculty and students. Participants
discussed topics such as equity, inclusion, and the importance of community engagement, fostering collaboration and dialogue across schools.
“it’s always amazing, but never surprising, that when asked to reflect on how to improve team culture that our students can readily and easily describe the ways in which they can contribute to these efforts,” said Mr. Canty. “Our students are clearly ‘changemakers’ in every sense of the word: committed to advancing equity for all students on and off the field/court/pitch.”
The Changemakers Conference, envisioned by Melissa Lawlor, Upper School Director of Equity and Inclusion at Milton Academy, was established as a platform to empower students in the ISL. A former three-sport college athlete, Lawlor saw the potential of student-athletes to drive positive change in their communities and worked with colleagues to launch the event three years ago.
Lawrence Academy staff and students played an essential role in making the event a success. Special thanks were extended to Director of Campus Safety & Security Frank Mastrangelo and the Buildings & Grounds team led by Carl Anderson for managing logistics, the Flik dining team for catering, and an enthusiastic group of Spartan student volunteers who welcomed guests.
“For one day, we got to put our ISL rivalries aside and be one team working towards the goal of equity and inclusivity for our communities,” said Associate Head of School Raquel Majeski. “It is beautiful and we are so grateful to be a part of this.”
“It is particularly fun to see athletes who are adversaries in competition find common ground and friendship while doing this critical work,” added Ms. Crump-Burbank. “I look forward to being at Tabor Academy [for the 2025 conference] next fall.”
PHILLIPS ACADEMY ANDOVER | ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS
Tam Gavenas ’25 Wins XC National Championship in San Diego
Senior XC captain Tam Gavenas crossed the finish line first at the Footlocker National Championship at 15:23.9 to earn the title of NATIONAL CHAMPION! This extraordinary accomplishment has been years in the making with so much support surrounding Tam on
his journey. A special shout out to coach Patrick Reilly who has been there every stride of the way including at the finish line in Balboa Park, CA on Saturday.
See an interview with Tam here.
PROCTOR ACADEMY | ANDOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Trainer Griffin-Brown
Recognized by EATA
Congratulations to Proctor Academy’s Head Athletic Trainer Kelly Griffin-Brown for being named the Eastern Athletic Trainers’ Association’s Secondary School Athletic Training Award for outstanding contributions to the profession. “What an incredible honor for an amazing member of our community who always goes above and beyond.” Kelly was honored at a Recognition Ceremony in Philadelphia on January 12.
WINSOR SCHOOL | BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Winsor Squash Player Takes Top Honors
The Winsor Varsity Squash Team has long been a leader in the Eastern Independent League (EIL). In February they swept the league championship, not losing a single match as they landed their 14th championship win. In 2023, the team sent two students, Caroline Eielson ’24 and Judy Liu ’29, to the British Junior Open, a competition considered the world’s most prestigious junior squash tournament, attended by elite junior squash players from all over the world.
In November, Judy garnered additional recognition when she achieved the number-one ranking in the United States in the under-15 age category. This incredible accomplishment comes less than two years after she reached the numberone spot in the under-13 category. In sharing the news of her win, Winsor Squash Coach Szilvia Szombati shared, “Judy’s dedication and hard work year-round have truly paid off, and we couldn’t be more proud of her success.”
ST. THOMAS MORE SCHOOL | OAKDALE, CONNECTICUT
NEPSAC’s Chancellor of the Court
by Sean Kelly, Wheeler School Director of Athletics
Trips to St. Thomas More are part of basketball alumni lore here at Wheeler. For nearly 40 years, our student-athletes have ventured west from Providence on Route 6, turned south on 395 and drove the winding roads of Oakdale, Connecticut. All this before turning onto Cottage Road, the home of St. Thomas More, where we arrive at one of the most unlikely New England Basketball meccas. For those of you who have never played in or seen a game at the school, it is truly an experience
In the bandbox of a gymnasium, which presents as some combination of barn, church, and existential scene from a Northeast version of the movie Hoosiers, the fanbase is like no other. The all-boys school packs its student population into every nook and cranny between the four walls. This, of course, includes a stage under one of the hoops where the fans are as part of the game as long three-pointers, uncalled hand checks, and open-court dunks. Between the talent on the court and the raucous and energetic crowd in the bleachers and on the stage, it would be very easy to simply rename the venue Cottage Road Theater.
Pipes along the walls are rattled. The officials of the games are often rumored to live on campus. Playful banter is shared among players and fans. The most docile and controlled of coaches and players feel the environment with emotions leaving their bodies as profusely as the sweat. Within the boundaries of St. Thomas More’s homecourt, the strongest of egos are checked and the greatest of legends are made.
If this was the experience of the Wheeler boys basketball team as they battled the St. Thomas More varsity basketball teams on that first Friday of December each season, one can imagine the feeling in the gym when the Chancellors’ postgraduate team took the floor for the main event right after.
If our players were lucky enough they would catch a glimpse of the next best thing in college hoops. When the seniors on my team talked to me about the Class A team (now Class AAA), they talked about watching North Carolina’s Ed Cota. I remember watching Carl Krauser and following his success at Pittsburgh with a keen and almost familiar interest. In my first year coaching it was Andre Drummond who went on to play at UConn and currently plays in the NBA. Through the years, as often as we heralded the talents on the court,
there was also an accompanying and equally exciting aura around the team’s head coach who patrolled the sidelines.
Jere Quinn, who is often described by his peers as earnest, witty, intelligent, and occasionally animated, has always carried himself with a combination of confidence and approachability. Even then, back in 2001 when I was a senior in high school, there was this sense that Coach Quinn could exist at the top of the basketball mountain but have no problem pitching a tent at the base camp of the same mountain with those trying to ascend it. When he took a moment to go out of his way and congratulate me personally after a game when I performed well in that NEPSAC Basketball sanctuary now adorned with his name, it made for as emotionally fulfilling of a bus ride home as I’ve had in any game I ever played in.
Years later, as I entered the world of coaching after my college basketball career came to an end, that aura we Wheeler basketball alumni felt watching Coach Quinn was reaffirmed personally and regularly through every encounter and every conversation I’ve had with and about him. He is revered by all in the NEPSAC basketball community and well beyond, which makes his selection as the 2024 NEPSBBA Les R. McMillen Award recipient highly unsurprising.
The statistics accompanying Jere Quinn’s coaching career are both astonishing and staggering. The 2024-25 season is his 47th as head coach at St. Thomas More and each of the previous 46 seasons have produced winning records. During that time frame, there have been over 460 student-athletes who received scholarships to attend college under his tutelage. He’s coached in 21 NEPSAC championship games and has accumulated over 1,150 wins to date. As a former player, he was chosen for the Central Connecticut State University Hall of Fame, and as a coach, he is in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
The criteria for the McMillen Award emphasizes positive contributions to NEPSAC and the NEPSBBA mission. While personal statistics easily help with painting a picture for that point of reference, the subtext and stories beyond the win-loss column aren’t as easily seen.
How can you quantify the impact of someone who began his prep school basketball coaching career back when these primarily postgraduatefilled rosters competed against college JV teams before college varsity games? How do you fully describe the relationships that Jere Quinn formed over the years with NEPSAC coaching legends like Thomas Blackburn (Worcester Academy), Dee Rowe (Worcester Academy), Max Good (Maine Central Institute), John Carroll (Northfield Mt. Hermon), Whit Lesure (Bridgton Academy), Jamie Arsenault (New Hampton), and Jason Smith (Brewster Academy), and how this network of coaches helped each other with student-athletes and college placement off the court while simultaneously challenging each other in the best of ways competitively on the court? How do you explain the uncanny ability to remain successful, relevant, and mindful during five decades of coaching, while finding ways to grow and adapt through the changes of threesport student-athletes to the now-present sports specialization?
Part of the lore with Coach Quinn might simply be that we leave those answers to our imagination and continue appreciating the efforts of a man who was instrumental in putting NEPSAC Basketball on the regional and national map.
Coach Les McMillen was a longtime athletic director and three-sport coach at the New York Military Academy. His teams were known equally for their talent and success as they were for their sportsmanship. In addition to his success mentoring and teaching young athletes on the court and playing fields, Les was also known among the basketball coaching circles in the prep school ranks for his consistent positive contribution to the experience of NEPSAC Boys Basketball and the mission of NEPSBBA.
Wheeler AD Sean Kelly and his son check out the Jere Quinn court at St. Thomas More
Aliyah Boston’s Jersey Retired in Historic Ceremony at Worcester Academy
On December 14, 2025, Worcester Academy proudly celebrated a historic milestone as Aliyah Boston’s jersey, #00, was officially retired, marking the first jersey retirement in the Academy’s storied athletic history. The ceremony took place during the annual Thomas Blackburn Basketball Tournament and coincided with Worcester Academy’s celebration of 50 Years of Coeducation, adding even more significance to an unforgettable evening.
Aliyah Boston, a 2019 Worcester Academy graduate and current WNBA star for the Indiana Fever, left an enduring legacy during her four seasons on the Hilltop. She led her teams to an impressive 86-10 record and captured two Class AA NEPSAC Championships. Her accolades include three consecutive Gatorade Player of the Year honors, cementing her status as one of the most accomplished athletes in the Academy’s history.
Julie Berberian, Worcester Academy’s Director of Athletics, led the ceremony with heartfelt words:
“Aliyah, from the moment you stepped onto this campus, you not only represented Worcester Academy—you elevated it. Your skill, determination, and leadership set a new standard for what it means to wear the Worcester Academy uniform.”
The celebration was further enriched by representatives from the Indiana Fever, including Amber Cox, COO & GM, who praised Aliyah’s inspiring journey from Worcester to the pinnacle of professional basketball. Attendees also enjoyed video tributes from Fever Head Coach Stephanie White and University of South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley, both of whom highlighted Aliyah’s achievements and the impact of her character, both on and off the court.
Surrounded by family, former teammates, coaches, and the Hilltopper community, Aliyah expressed gratitude and reflected on the lasting bonds formed during her time at Worcester Academy. Her jersey, now proudly displayed, serves as a lasting symbol of excellence, perseverance, and inspiration.
Aliyah’s legacy continues to grow. From her collegiate success as a national champion at the University of South Carolina to her meteoric rise in the WNBA—where she earned 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year honors and was named to
the 2023 and 2024 WNBA All-Star Games—she remains a beacon of excellence.
The retirement of Aliyah Boston’s jersey not only celebrates her remarkable achievements but also serves as a guiding light for future generations of Hilltoppers to strive for greatness.
Breaking Barriers: LCA Lions Wrestling Program Welcomes
its First Female Wrestlers
The Lexington Christian Academy (LCA) Lions Wrestling Program has made history by welcoming its first female wrestlers to the team. This milestone not only signifies growth for the program but also represents a larger step toward inclusivity in high school sports. The team proudly features four young trailblazers: Amelia Semmes (12th Grade), Lois Kinyua (12th Grade), Linnea Sidell (12th Grade), and Olivia John (9th Grade). These athletes are setting the stage for a new era in LCA athletics.
Amelia Semmes: Making History on the Mat
Senior Amelia Semmes made an indelible mark on LCA’s wrestling history during her debut match. She shared her exhilarating experience, recounting the mix of nerves and triumph:
“My experience in my first match was definitely unique. The AC was packed and I was extremely nervous. Originally, I thought I would be wrestling in an exhibition match (which doesn’t count towards the team points), but it turned out to be a varsity match. We shook hands, and immediately she lunged at me; I had to play defense. After a few seconds, I now had control of the pace, and it became my match.”
Amelia described the pivotal moments where her training came to life, ultimately leading to her pinning her opponent and earning six points for her team. The emotional culmination of the match was unforgettable:
“Although I was out of breath and shaky, I was experiencing a feeling I had never felt before. It wasn’t like winning a lacrosse game or scoring a goal in field hockey. This was different. It’s a difficult sport and more work than I have ever had to do before, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything because of the supportive coaches, uplifting teammates, and the rewarding feeling of working hard and it paying off.”
Amelia’s groundbreaking victory is a testament to her perseverance and the supportive environment cultivated by LCA’s wrestling program.
Olivia John: Building the Future of Girls Wrestling
Freshman Olivia John brings a vision for the future of girls wrestling at LCA. With her passion and drive, she hopes to pave the way for future female wrestlers:
“I’d like to help grow the program by working to recruit more girls while improving as a wrestler myself. I’m also excited to see how the team develops over the next four years while I’m here.”
Olivia’s enthusiasm mirrors the determination of her teammates and coaches to establish a lasting legacy for girls wrestling at LCA.
Coach Getch and the Team’s Vision
The addition of female wrestlers to the program reflects the leadership and inclusivity championed by LCA’s coaching staff, led by Coach Getch. His dedication to fostering a welcoming and challenging environment for all athletes has been instrumental in making history for the program.
A Bright Future Ahead
The inclusion of Amelia, Lois, Linnea, and Olivia marks an exciting new chapter for the LCA Lions Wrestling Program. As these young women break barriers and inspire others, they exemplify the courage and resilience that define the sport. Their trailblazing efforts will undoubtedly inspire future generations of female athletes to step onto the mat and into the spotlight.
LCA is proud of these remarkable athletes and looks forward to watching the girls’ wrestling program grow and thrive in the coming years. This is just the beginning of a story that promises to be filled with achievement, camaraderie, and history-making moments.
Left to Right: Lois Kinyua, Olivia John, Amelia Semmes
Martin William Souders Award
Alyssa Naeher
Christian Heritage School ’06
For many, the dream of representing their country at the peak of their sport is just that a dream. But for Alyssa Naeher, the visions of playing for Team USA that began in the gyms and on the fields of Christian Heritage School in Trumbull, Connecticut have become a reality and seen her travel the world representing her country, her family and her community.
A two-time World Cup Winner, Naeher was the 2024 recipient of The Martin William Souders Memorial Award, presented annually to a graduate of a NEPSAC school who has made a distinguished record in sports and who has since made a distinguished record in life through high ideals, leadership and accomplishments.
Naeher’s athletic journey began at Christian Heritage where her father, John, was the Athletic Director and member of the faculty.
“Alyssa and her sisters have great memories of being four-, five-, six, seven-year-old little girls having carte blanche in the gym,” John recalls. “With all the keys and getting whatever equipment they wanted out during snow days. They grew up at Christian Heritage.”
Alyssa attended Christian Heritage from kindergarten through graduation and has found that the community that supported her for those formative years have remained present as her career has grown.
“There’s a group of six of us, including my sister, that we all went kindergarten through 12th grade all the way together,” Alyssa said. “We still will get back together and it is like no time has passed. Having those friendships to rely on and go back to means a great deal to me.
“I feel like so many people from CHS have felt so connected to my journey and they are I was basically walking around in diapers there! So many former teachers and classmates have followed along and supported me throughout my whole career.”
Alyssa was a multi-sport star at Christian Heritage, amassing more than 2,000 points on the basketball court in addition to earning All-State, All-Conference, and All-American honors on the soccer field. Growing up in Connecticut, basketball was her first love as she watched and attended countless UConn women’s basketball games, but at a certain point it became clear that her athletic future was on the soccer field.
“In high school we began to see soccer as a sport that they had a natural propensity toward,” John said. “But she had a goalie coach probably her seventh or eighth grade year that began to notice she had some special talent and wanted to work with her. We appreciated the vote of confidence but it wasn’t something we felt we could afford. Within a week he got back to us and said ‘she is too special to not get this training, so I would like to work with her at no cost.’”
With the specialized training as well as a training partner in her twin sister Amanda, who herself was a two-time Division III National Player of the Year at Messiah College and remains the school’s all-time leader in points Alyssa’s development took off, eventually earning her a scholarship offer to Penn State. She made 74 starts for the Nittany Lions, posting a 50-19-5 record with 24 shutouts en route to a pair of All-American nods.
An injury during her junior season that lingered throughout her senior year threatened to derail her ascent within the United
States Women’s National team setup.
Alyssa received the Golden Glove award for the top goalkeeper at the 2008 U-20 World Cup in North Korea, but following the injury found herself further down the pecking order at the National Team camps.
“At that moment in time before that injury, she was the Hope Solo heir apparent and then all of a sudden she’s number five or six and not getting the call ups,” John remembers. “During that time she was playing for the Boston Breakers and had the opportunity to play for Tony DiCicco, and he always saw something in her.”
Alyssa kept at it, playing for the Breakers and then for Turbine Potsdam in Germany before getting into the fold with the USWNT in 2014 and has remained a fixture ever since. After making the roster for the 2015 World Cup in Canada and 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil as a backup, Alyssa ascended to the number one spot and has maintained that role ever since.
Since taking the reins as the starting goalkeeper, Alyssa has appeared in two World Cups, two Olympics, and the inaugural CONCACAF Gold Cup in the summer of 2024. She has also been a part of the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League since 2016 and has had a front-row seat to that league’s growth and role in the dialogue around professional women’s sports at large.
“I think the dialogue right now about professional women’s sports has never been more present or larger,” Alyssa said. “It’s been an amazing last few years to see just the growth and evolution of women’s sports and the investment in the WNBA and in our league gives young women something to aspire to and dream of. For so long it was just the World Cup and the Olympics and that is obviously still the peak and everyone’s goal. But you now have the ability to play professionally and make a career and make a living that way as well, which is incredible.”
A fun development on that front has been the inclusion of the NWSL and many other women’s professional leagues in the annual EA Sports FC video game, the top-selling sports video game in the world.
“Yeah, I think it’s fun just to be able to be in a video game and be either your team or yourself. I have had some of my younger family members, cousins and different things talk about playing as me or our team, which I think it’s great. It may seem insignificant to a lot of people, but I think for us and just for the broader sports landscape, I think it’s huge.”
Alyssa and the Red Stars wrapped up their season as the No. 8 seed in the NWSL Playoffs where they were knocked out by top-seeded Orlando Pride. Back in March Alyssa became the first goalkeeper in league history to reach 50 wins with one club, adding another plaudit to her already full cabinet.
Reflecting on the journey Alyssa has been on since graduating from Christian Heritage in 2006, John is thankful she was able to have the experience she had at CHS.
“We got a lot of criticism as parents when she and Amanda were in seventh and eighth grade in regards to, hey, they shouldn’t be in such a small school,” John recalled. “But we felt very strongly about the foundation and values that Christian Heritage would give our girls and believed that if they were truly good enough something would open up for them, and it did.”
Alyssa concurred.
I THINK THE DIALOGUE
RIGHT
NOW ABOUT
PROFESSIONAL
WOMEN’S SPORTS HAS NEVER BEEN MORE PRESENT OR LARGER … YOU NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO PLAY PROFESSIONALLY AND MAKE A CAREER AND MAKE A LIVING THAT WAY AS WELL
“I think a lot of kids today feel the pressure to go to a bigger school or seek out a bigger program, but I loved my experience at Christian Heritage,” Alyssa said. “The value of a small community where people are invested in you and you can play multiple sports and learn the skills in time management that really help you at the next level and in your professional life.”
NEPSAC president Ryan Frost; Alyssa Naeher’s father John, who accepted the award on her behalf; and Tim Joncas, NEPSAC vice president
NEPSAC Distinguished Service Award Mark Conroy
Indian Mountain School, Williston Northampton School
There is a joke amongst athletic directors that the acronym “AD” really stands for “All Duties” and there is perhaps no person in NEPSAC who has filled their plate with more duties than former Williston Northampton School Athletic Director Mark T. Conroy, the 2024 recipient of the NEPSAC Distinguished Service Award. Conroy retired in June of 2024 after 39 years of service that all began with a tap on the shoulder.
“It was about two minutes before a spring District 4 meeting started when Kathy Noble, who was the NEPSAC President and AD at Miss Porter’s at the time, approached me and asked if I would be willing to be the secretary of District 4 the following year,” Conroy recalls. “I said ‘Sure, Kathy’ and the rest was history.”
Conroy rose through the leadership ranks of NEPSAC’s District 4, eventually becoming the District President and sitting on the executive board. It was in this capacity that he came to know Bob Howe, who had just started in his role leading the department at Loomis Chaffee School. Howe, who currently serves as the Athletic Director at Deerfield Academy and a Co-Director of Championships at NEPSAC, nominated Conroy for this award and presented him with the award at the 2024 NEPSAC Annual Meeting in November.
“Mark exemplifies the quintessential New England prep school AD,” said Howe. “When I was just starting at Loomis Chaffee, Mark and I had so many talks about being an AD and contributing beyond our own campus. He’s been instrumental in how I have looked at my role as an Athletic Director in New England in addition to being a mentor to myself and many other ADs.”
Conroy’s arrival on campus at Williston was a homecoming of sorts. He spent his college days at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he met wife and fellow independent school educator Monique, and began his professional career as a History teacher and coach at Indian Mountain School in Lakeville, Connecticut. After three years, the Athletic Director position opened up, Conroy was tapped on the shoulder, and a 36-year career as an administrator was off and running.
After six years leading the department at IMS, Mark and Monique went west to the Webb Schools in Claremont, California where he spent six years leading the athletic department and football program. In 2000, the opportunity to succeed Rick Francis after his 42 years at Williston arose and the Conroys found the place they would call home for the next two plus decades.
“I stepped into Rick’s shoes in 2000 and essentially inherited his entire job: AD, football coach and thirds basketball coach!” Conroy recalls. “I coached football for 16 years at Williston, including a period of time where I was also the President of NEPSAC. Definitely the busiest time of my career, particularly with so much change happening in hockey and basketball.”
In his 16 years at the helm of the Wildcats football program, Williston posted an 84-47 record and appeared in NEPSAC Bowls on three occasions. Conroy was inducted into the NEPSAC Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2019 and has been a namesake for one of NEPSAC’s Bowl games since 2018.
After serving as President of NEPSAC from 2008-10, Conroy shifted into a newly created role as the Director of Classifications which included much-needed overhauls to the boys’ ice hockey and boys’ basketball structures that have fundamentally changed the way those sports compete and have subsequently been applied to more sports across the conference. Those changes, as well as his oversight of the All-NEPSAC individual honors program are among the initiatives Conroy looks back on with the most pride as they enriched the student-athlete experience across New England.
“Having the experience I had at the time it just made sense,” Conroy recalls. “Working with individual coach association leadership, we were able to bring a measure of consistency of approach to the process of classification across all sports as well as establish a consistency to how we approached postseason individual recognition across all sports and coach associations what are we going to call these classes? How are we going to determine the criteria for appointment or selection? And with the All-NEPSAC, [former St. George’s AD] John Mackay and I saw everyone was calling it something different, so to be able to bring everyone in NEPSAC together on those two projects, I am really proud of the work we did.”
More than anything though, he looks back on many years of committees, meetings, and phone calls building relationships with colleagues.
“I have had the chance to meet some great people and the collaboration across schools and leagues and regions was something that I really enjoyed and I always looked forward to
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUAL COACH
ASSOCIATION LEADERSHIP, WE WERE ABLE
TO BRING A MEASURE OF CONSISTENCY OF APPROACH TO THE PROCESS OF CLASSIFICATION ACROSS ALL SPORTS AS WELL AS ESTABLISH A CONSISTENCY
TO HOW WE APPROACHED POSTSEASON
INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION ACROSS ALL SPORTS AND COACH ASSOCIATIONS
getting off campus to the meetings,” Conroy said. “Being on the NEPSAC board and driving out to the meetings with colleagues like [former Suffield Academy AD] Dave Godin or his predecessor Dennis Kinne; Bob Howe up at Deerfield. It gives you some relationships away from campus that provide an incredible perspective of what is happening at other schools, not just what we might be facing at Williston.”
Howe valued those check-ins just as much as Conroy.
“I’ve never called Mark and not been greeted with positivity, a can-do attitude, and a thoughtful approach,” Howe said. “He has been the most open-armed and thoughtful colleague I could ask for and I know that’s true for many other ADs throughout New England.”
For now, Conroy is enjoying the relative quiet of retirement and opportunities to cross some items off his bucket list, including visits to Notre Dame and Green Bay’s Lambeau Field earlier this fall. He has also taken the opportunity to spend more time with Monique, his children Kristina and Kevin, and his granddaughter Noa.
“I don’t remember the last time I was able to sit on a couch on a Saturday and watch football, or hop in the car to go visit my kids during the school year,” Conroy said. “The flexibility and gift of time and retirement, overall, is going very well.”
Conroy is the second Williston Northampton Athletic Director to win the Distinguished Service Award, joining his predecessor Rick Francis who received the award in 1999.
Keynote Speaker
Kacey Bellamy Gives Back by Sharing Professional Perspective with Prep Student Athletes
Berkshire School ’05
There has perhaps never been a harder time to be a student athlete than 2025. From the daily complications of social media to the constant changing of the landscape of the recruiting process, today’s student athletes are presented with hurdles each day on and off the playing surface that have gotten steadily harder to clear.
Kacey Bellamy remembers the unique pressures associated with her own experience as a student athlete at Berkshire School, where she was a standout ice hockey player before going on to a decorated career at the collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels before retiring from the national team in 2021. But more than that she recalls what the opportunity to play in such a competitive environment presented for her and her goals.
“There is so much pressure around kids these days so I always try to bring it back to the importance of setting a big goal a focus and having smaller goals along the way to help you get there,” Bellamy said. “Berkshire taught me how to build character, make the right decisions, and let your core values guide your way towards those goals.”
After graduating from Berkshire in 2005 Bellamy earned Hockey East MVP and All-America honors at the University of New Hampshire, helping the Wildcats to four consecutive conference championships and two Frozen Four appearances. Her career continued at the international level where she represented the United States at three Olympic Games and nine World Championships, earning nine gold medals including the 2018 Olympic gold. Professionally, she has won a trio of championships, including the inaugural Isobel Cup in 2016 as a member of the Boston Pride of the NWHL.
Over the last year Bellamy has been sharing that message of seizing opportunities with student athletes from a number of schools throughout New England and most recently addressed the NEPSAC Athletic Directors as the keynote speaker at the 2024 NEPSAC Annual Meeting in December.
“I look back on my experience at Berkshire and I was just so young, but I was an absolute sponge,” Bellamy recalls. “Any type of advice or tool I could use to take my game to the next level, I was there for that.
“So maybe these students are at one place right now, but hearing my story and my experience might spark some motivation for the future. If that happens for one student then I’ve done my job and it’s something I love doing.”
Bellamy’s message resonated with Brewster Academy Athletic Director Connor Wells, who first heard her message when she spoke to their student body as part of the school’s residential life programming.
“Her message specifically about leadership and perseverance was great, you could see that the students were really invested in the conversation and her story,” Wells recalls. “It was great that
she was able to draw the connection to her own athletic career, but the message resonated with the student body at large.”
Bellamy’s ability to relate her own boarding school experience to those at schools like Brewster, Berkshire, Wilbraham & Monson Academy, and Millbrook School has also helped her make an instant connection with her audience.
“She was able to share a bit about her own experience at Berkshire, and being homesick early on that really helped some students connect to her on a human level,” recalls Vinnie Sorriento, Director of Athletics and Boys’ Varsity Hockey Coach at Millbrook. “When you have someone who is an elite, elite player speaking to you, a student who doesn’t necessarily have those goals or that ability right now might struggle to connect. But sharing that human side, saying ‘hey, I was in your shoes. I know what it’s like’ helped bring even more of the students into her story.”
Wells agrees.
“I think it helps them to hear from someone like Kacey that the teachers or coaches that may be tough on them at times or may push them in ways that are out of their comfort zone are actually really good for them,” Wells said. “There are so many things that students have to overcome these days, so really focusing on surrounding yourself with people who have their best interests at heart can help guard against some of the anxiety that comes with the instant gratification of social media. I think the students really dialed in on that message.”
Social media is a topic that Bellamy touches on in her talks and advises students to avoid the negative corners of the platforms, but still leverage it as a resource in reaching their goals. Both Wells and Sorriento pointed to social media as one of the bigger hurdles facing this generation of student athletes as their access to and engagement with technology grows each and every year.
“It can be so easy for athletes these days to focus on the wrong things and I think a lot of that comes from social media and technology,” Sorriento said. “It shows up in the details and finer points of the game because they’ve got too much going on in their head, so we do what we can while they’re with us to stay off the phones and away from the immediate entertainment and gratification they get on social media.”
The social pressures, cliques, and drama that have always existed in high school, collegiate, and professional environments have been amplified by social media and led to a bit of a crisis of confidence with athletes both old and young, male and female.
“Social media can be such a good resource for education and promotion but you really need to steer yourself away from the negative parts where it is almost a popularity contest,” Bellamy said. “But if you can avoid that and persevere, get up every day and keep moving forward towards whatever your dream or goal is, that is what I hope sharing my story can do for these students.”
Bellamy already has plans to visit with students at Thayer Academy and Brooks School this spring and is hoping to continue sharing her story and her perspective with the next generation of students across New England. In addition to her speaking engagements, Bellamy published a book of poetry, Unbroken Heart of Gold, in 2018 and has plans to release a mindfulness journal.
Like Mother, Like Daughters
by Andy Potts
This article appeared on the International Ice Hockey Federation website on January 8, 2025 Photos courtesy of Alison Averill
Proud parents Alison and Will Averill with their gold medal-winning daughters Caroline and Maggie. Maggie and Caroline are students at Phillips Academy Andover, and their mother, Alison, is an Andover alumna.
For the Averill family, representing the U.S. in IIHF competition was a mission that took decades to achieve. Today, Maggie and Caroline are back with the American U18 women’s roster, seeking to defend the gold medals they won a year ago in Switzerland.
But 30 years earlier, their mother Alison was suiting up for the first-ever American U18 women’s select team on a tour to Canada.
That 1995 team won its series in Ottawa, and produced future Olympians including Angela Ruggiero, Jenny Schmidgall and current Team USA defensive coach Courtney Kennedy. It was a pioneering roster, playing in a completely different hockey landscape.
For Alison Coughlin, now Alison Averill, mother of four hockeyplaying daughters, watching the transformation of the women’s game inspires excitement, pride and just a touch of envy.
“I do envy the experience [my daughters] have a bit,” she smiled. “It’s so nice that they have these great friends, teammates and competitors. It’s an awesome thing for a young woman, to band together and learn teamwork and friendships.
“Just watching them have fun with it is the thing I love the most.”
Coming full circle
Not that Alison’s hockey career was short of friendships. There’s an enduring connection with coach Kennedy, who was a rookie on that 1995 team. Three decades later, they still reminisce about that tour.
“Courtney and I were just remembering what an incredible experience it was at that age to wear a USA jersey and make our way out of the U.S.,” Alison said. “A lot of us didn’t know very
many other players. We had our friends who played hockey but there just weren’t very many women playing at that time, so it was a smaller group. It was fun to get together and feel that we were doing something bigger than just playing for our boys’ teams back home.”
JUST WATCHING THEM
HAVE FUN WITH IT IS THE THING I LOVE THE MOST.
And the story comes full circle. After years of crossing each other’s paths when the Averill girls were playing for the East Coast Wizards in Bedford, Massachusetts, Courtney is now coaching Maggie and Caroline here in Vantaa, Finland at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship.
“To have them play for Courtney is a funny full-circle moment for me,” Alison added. “I’m two years older than her, so I was like the old woman on the U18 team and she was the newbie! Now she’s coaching my daughters, especially Maggie who plays D, it’s unbelievable.”
A family passion
The Averills have always been a hockey family. Alison’s husband, Will, was a college player at Northeastern. They met through playing the game. And as the family grew, sharing the joy of the game was natural. In the winter of 2010, just after the youngest daughter was born, they built a backyard rink “More work than the baby!” and a new chapter in the family sporting story began.
“We both just loved playing, and it was more about just enjoying ourselves in the backyard rather than getting on teams,” Alison recalled. “But it was a natural fit; we coached them, we enjoyed watching them, having them be active. They all took a liking to being with other kids and competing while having fun with it.
“The real driver was the family joy we got from sharing it.”
While in Alison’s childhood, there were only a couple of other hockey girls in her state, the next generation has a far bigger network to draw on. Big improvements in high school hockey, the establishment of a national program and the steady rise of pro women’s sport not just hockey, but also soccer and basketball are transforming the status and credibility of female athletes and their achievements.
“Last year there was a PWHL game in the Bell Center in Montreal and it was a sellout crowd,” Alison recalled. “I couldn’t believe I was watching my children watch that. I can remember how many fans came to my college games; sometimes it was my dad and maybe a couple of friends. So it gave me goosebumps to see the excitement for female sports.
“There aren’t many sports that have had the exponential change we’re seeing in women’s hockey.”
A joint journey
Now Caroline and Maggie are well-placed to make the most of the new opportunities open to women players. They were born just 20 months apart, Caroline the elder of the two. Their careers have gone hand-in-hand all the way to playing together in two World Championship events.
“It’s amazing for them to have this together, two years in a row as sisters,” Alison said. “They train together, they go to high school together, they’re on a club team together. While they are very different individuals, playing different positions with different styles, it’s just awesome how they’ve been able to align with one another in their goals and pursuits.
“It’s hard to say whether they would have been so successful without each other, but it’s been a real positive to have each other to push and support.”
Caroline turns 18 on 14 January and is already set to follow in Mom’s footsteps and go to Princeton in 2026. Defender Maggie could return for a third U18 World Championship. But both are likely to remain involved in hockey for many years to come.
“I just see hockey as being such a big part of their make-up and how they live their lives,” Alison said. “That love for the game makes me think they absolutely would want to continue, to give back to the sport and to play as long as they can.”
Brewster
BALLERS
How a trio of Brewster buddies became game-making sports entrepreneurs
by Neil Pond for
Brewster Academy
A mash-up of volleyball and pickleball, a Thruball game tests players’ skills by getting the ball through an opening with a paddle. The set of everything you need to play is available at thruballofficial.com.
Three former Brewster Academy students are having a ball…a Thruball, to be precise. No, that’s not a new cocktail. It’s the game Calder Billings, Jackson Callahan, and John Wadlinger—Brewster chums from the Class of 2011—put their heads together to invent, make, and market. And they’re enjoying the heck out of it. “As far as work goes, this is the most fun I’ve ever had,” says Callahan. “Working with your best friends, and it’s a game too, so you can have fun while working on it… That just makes it even better.”
Thruball is an all-ages lawn game in which players use paddles to swat a ball back and forth through a rectangular opening in an upright frame. The creators wanted it to be like other popular games, but also distinctly different. “The easiest way to explain it,” says Wadlinger, “is that it’s similar to volleyball” in that each side can hit the ball three times on a return. “But with paddles and balls like Pickleball, and instead of going over something, like a net, you’re going through it.”
The guys initially envisioned a circular “through” opening but ran into manufacturing issues with that shape, especially one in 3D that could be easily snapped together or popped apart. “We realized how expensive and difficult it would be to make it affordable, stable, and also collapsible” for breakdown and reassembly, says Callahan. Ultimately, they settled on a rigid plastic frame with a horizontal “window.” An entire Thruball set—paddles, balls, frame and boundary markers—fits handily into a zippered carrying bag.
Countless hours of testing, playing, and perfecting have made them close to Thruball pros. And they continue to play, play, play, regularly hitting the beaches of Boston (where they all live within just a few blocks of each other) with their Thruball bag, their girlfriends, and their buddies. They often see others playing volleyball on the beach, and “we’ll set up right next to them,” says Billings, thinking about a challenge that would be an irresistible lure for new players. “We should put up a sign that says, ‘Beat us and we’ll give you $500’.”
“When we get out and play, that’s the best promo,” adds Wadlinger, noting people are curious about the game when they watch it, and often sold when they see how much fun it is. And it’s open to everyone, from casual duffers to die-hard competitors. “It’s as competitive as you want to get with it,” he says. “You can play it with a beer in your hand just standing there.” Adds Billings, “We tend to be more on the competitive side,” jumping, diving for shots, and spiking.
They’re all involved now in another kind of competition: Marketing the game on social media, making it stand out among other recreational pursuits and convincing more people to try it—and buy it. The 30-year-olds still have individual careers, with hopes of eventually going all-in for Thruball. Billings is a real estate
broker; Callahan is a producer for an ad agency; Wadlinger’s a software consultant. “Starting a business is something we had always talked about,” says Callahan. “And we’d love to be full time one day,” adds Billings.
After Brewster, they all went their separate ways to college. Billings was a lacrosse star at the University of Vermont while getting his business degree, Callahan studied electronic media communications and marketing at High Point University in North Carolina, and Wadlinger went to St. Michael’s in Vermont, where he also played lacrosse and majored in business. After college, they fortuitously found themselves together again in Boston, where they became roommates anxious to apply their upper-ed smarts to an original idea.
They loved getting together to play Spikeball, which revolves around serving and returning a ball bounced on a small round trampoline. It was featured on the TV show Shark Tank, became wildly popular with kids and young adults, and
is now a multimilliondollar company. One day, after an intense Spikeball session, the Thruball Three hit upon an idea for their own game. “We got back to the house and just sat there for hours talking,” recalls Billings. “We thought, ‘If Spikeball can make such a simple product go viral and do well, why can’t we?’ ”
Brewster Beginnings
Back in their Brewster Academy days in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, seeds for Thruball were planted by other team sports, particularly lacrosse. Billings was the captain of Brewster’s soccer team. He and Callahan also served as captains of the lacrosse team. Callahan and Wadlinger (a fellow LAX player), served as managers for Girls’ Varsity Soccer.
When they weren’t on the field or in class, they were hanging out together on the big deck outside Bearce Dorm, or in Estabrook. Wadlinger and Callahan were both day students, living off-campus at their homes in Wolfeboro, while Billings,
from Woodstock, Vermont, was a full-time boarder. “The first couple of years, the day students thought boarding students were cool,” recalls Callahan. “They had freedom and got to live like college students.” But he noted how that perception shifted later, when the “boarding students were envious of us, because we got to leave campus and get away from school and go do stuff.”
They all have fond memories of the relationships forged at Brewster. “More than education, it was the friendships,” says Billings. “So much time together, at that young age, there’s a sense of family and belonging,” adds Callahan. “Our friend group never, never fell apart.” Even today, they’re still connected to other Brewster alums in the Boston area. “So many of my closest friends today are still my friends from Brewster,” says Wadlinger.
All three of their girlfriends enthusiastically support their Thruball project, but Billings admits: “They probably get a little tired of how much we talk about Brewster.”
They recall teachers and faculty who made
Top, from left: Calder Billings, Jackson Callahan, and John Wadlinger in their senior class photos from Brewster, where the three became friends and the seeds of their lawn and beach game were planted.
Bottom: The inventors of Thruball say getting out on the beaches around Boston, their shared hometown, is one of the best ways to showcase the unique game to new customers.
PHOTO
lasting impressions and modeled exemplary behavior. Bill Lee, their lacrosse coach, is lauded by both Wadlinger and Billings, who admires how he “always made sure we were staying in line and were smart about everything.” Billings adds that T.J. Palmer’s class got him hooked on history. Callahan notes his favorite course, B.G. Hodges’ computer graphics, set the stage for his later skills in video production and advertising.
They laugh about the great fun of Winter Carnival, especially the year their senior class decorated themselves like the Blue Man Group. Then there was the intramural two-hand touch football league, and the stealthy “spy game” called 007 with squirt guns “where you’d get a new target every week,” says Wadlinger. Callahan remembers revving up fans at hockey games with his oversized cardboard “Easy” button for players to skate over and “press” through the plexiglass every time Brewster scored. Billings recalls bathroom break singalongs, when “about 50 guys would leave class, go in the bathroom and have a dance breakdown,” he says. “It sounds weird, but it became a big thing.”
Thru-perbowl Dreams
They’re hoping Thruball also becomes a big thing as they work to grow the game and spread the word. They’ve even thought about who their celebrity spokesperson might be, when they get to that point. “We’re all from New England and Patriots fans,” says Wadlinger. “So Tom Brady is like a god to us.” Billings agrees, pointing out that
One online reviewer said Thruball “has the perfect combination of finesse and effort, where you can have a blast for hours and not be too tired. It’s easy to pick up and leads to some good competition. Anyone can beat anyone but everyone has a good time!”
Thruball is perfect for the former superstar QB, who stepped down from the NFL not too long ago. “It’s a good game for someone who just retired,” he says. “He can go just outside his house in Miami to the beach and play.” They also bring up Mark Cuban, one of the business-investor “sharks” on Shark Tank. “He’s trustworthy, and people know if he supports a product, it has potential,” adds Callahan.
The Thruball Three are clearly thinking big about their potential, even dreaming about their game becoming a major event, worthy of coverage on network television. “When we started it, we were trying to create a business,” says Wadlinger. “I think we accidentally created a sport.”
And when their sport becomes so big, so viral, and so popular, spreading far beyond the beaches of Boston with superstar players and diehard fans and teams in televised championship games, like baseball’s World Series or hockey’s Stanley Cup… well, Wadlinger’s even been thinking about a name for that.
“The Thru-perbowl!” he says.
Neil Pond is an award-winning Nashville-based entertainment journalist and movie critic who covers film, celebrities, music, pop culture, and now, Thruball! Find his reviews as “The Media Tourist” at neilsentertainmentpicks.com. When he’s not cranking it out on a keyboard, he plays drums in a Blondie tribute band.
Thruball Beginners
HERE’S A QUICK GUIDE FOR NEW THRUBALL PLAYERS. DIVE INTO THE ACTION AND HAVE A BLAST! (based on rules on thruballofficial.com)
When you’re playing with someone for the first time, don’t worry if it feels a bit tricky in the beginning. A little patience and practice are key. Within minutes you’ll be serving, volleying, and smashing like a pro!
Dive in, rule by rule! Forget points for now, and focus on getting comfortable with the game. Familiarize yourself with the rules, master serving through the gate, and hone the 2 v 2 gameplay. Power can wait, precision comes first! Hold off on those big smashes for a moment. There’s plenty of time to showcase your strength. Channel your inner ninja and focus on nailing accurate shots.
When you’re setting up the perfect shot for your teammate, think strategically. For the perfect set up for your partner, hit lofty sets within bounds, guiding your teammate closer to the gate— right where they need to be for the ultimate smash.
With these pro tips, you’ll be ruling the Thruball court in no time. Let’s Thruball, baby!
PHOTO COURTESY OF THRUBALL
TRUSTED AT OVER 80,000 INSTALLATIONS WORLDWIDE OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS
AT THE SURFACE OF WORLDCLASS VENUES & THOUSANDS OF HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS
INDUSTRYLEADING SYSTEM DESIGN WITH PROVEN DURABILITY & LONGEVITY
COMMITTED TO PROTECTING PEOPLE & PLANET THROUGH INNOVATIVE SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM
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Official Sports Surfacing Partner
Hyde School and Tarkett Sports Team Up for New Wolfpack Athletics Complex
Upgraded facility’s new artificial turf and running track make it a prime athletic destination
“At Hyde School, everyone gets to do everything.” A promise as much as it is a motto, these are the first words that many students associate with the nationally recognized boarding school located in Bath, Maine. This approach has led the school, in operation since 1966, to embrace the concept of the student-athlete and provide the facilities needed to accommodate three seasons of sports. To better meet those objectives, Hyde School contracted the team from FieldTurf, a Tarkett Sports Company, to help deliver its new Outdoor Athletics Complex, including state-of-the-art artificial turf and a running track.
Work on the new complex broke ground last spring to be ready for the start of the Hyde Wolfpack soccer season. The installation of the new artificial turf and track surface from FieldTurf and Beynon Sports, respectively, successfully met its deadline. Beynon, like FieldTurf, is part of Tarkett Sports, which also encompasses Tarkett Construction and Tarkett Design.
The project also includes a complete locker room renovation, the addition of a family viewing pavilion, and a new scoreboard. Through this investment, Hyde School, which offers grades 9-12, is positioning its campus to have some of Maine’s top athletics facilities moving forward.
“The team from FieldTurf were world-class from our beginning discussions to the execution of the final product. We are thrilled with the result of our efforts and are excited to add this beautiful complex to our school community,” said Laura Gauld, Hyde School’s Head of School.
“Thanks to the generosity of several Hyde donors, we were able to move forward with this important campus improvement,” added Will Bridgeo, Hyde School Director of Development. “We have been glad to partner with FieldTurf for what will be one of the top playing surfaces in Maine. Hyde student-athletes will greatly benefit from the new outdoor Athletics complex, and we are thrilled about the finished product.”
For FieldTurf, the main challenge in bringing Hyde’s existing facility up to current standards was the uneven elevation of the original surface, consisting of turf and natural grass. While the main field was synthetic, the D-zones between the field and the running track were grass, which gradually affected the overall playability.
“What ended up happening was that the grass sections were several feet higher than the turf in some spots, and then several feet lower in other spots,” said Chris Hulk, FieldTurf Director of Design and Construction, New England. “You would walk off
the track portion and walk down until a drainage ditch. But that drainage ditch would be a foot and a half lower than the field and the track, and the area in the middle of the field would be two to three feet higher.”
In addition, when the grass would get muddy and mushy, Wolfpack athletes often tracked mud onto either the field or running track or both. After collaborating with school administrators to better understand how the area would be used and where track competitions would take place, FieldTurf developed its strategy for the construction project. According to Hulk, Hyde’s main objective in confronting these challenges was to improve access and playability for its students.
“We ended up removing a bunch of the fencing around the sites and redoing it to improve security. This makes it so that teams can access the site from the southern side and begin warming up in the southern D-zone, which is now all artificial turf, until they’re ready to get on the field,” he said. “Then the northern portion of the field is all track surfacing, so all the jumping and throwing events and those activities will be on the northern side.”
Achieving the vision for Hyde’s new Outdoor Athletics Complex required a team effort involving leading professionals at every stage. To deliver a facility capable of meeting Hyde’s current and future demands, which are only likely to grow, FieldTurf teamed up with Shaw Brothers Construction, a local civil site partner. In addition, the team from Crafco, a leader in installing and maintaining track surfaces, was brought in to install the Beynon track system.
With solutions from FieldTurf and Beynon Sports, students and staff now have access to elite systems from two of the country’s top sports surfacing providers. This past fall, Hyde’s three soccer teams boys’ varsity, girls’ varsity, and boys’ JV soccer were the first to compete on the new turf.
The Wolfpack athletes did not disappoint. The teams combined to win 20 of 24 home games, with only one loss. That dominance translated into all three teams being crowned MAISAD Champions. The Boys’ Varsity team also captured their second NEPSAC Class D title in the last four years. Hyde’s track and field team will have a chance to get familiar with the new Beynon surface in the spring. At Hyde School, everyone gets to do everything, which means that everyone is a student-athlete. With the introduction of their revamped athletics complex, the student body that makes up Wolfpack Nation has a new den to call home, and the early indications are that they mean to defend it.
Official Championship Ring Supplier
of
Trophies for over 10 years
To a
St. Paul’s School and squash have been a perfect match for more than 140 years. Now, the School is poised to take its position in the sport to the next level.
by Ian Aldrich
ST. PAUL’S SCHOOL | CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Above: Calla Yim ’25 and Nathan Rosenzweig ’24.
In the fall of 2007, Chris Smith, then the men’s and women’s assistant squash coach at Harvard University, embarked on one of the most important recruitments of his young career: Will Ahmed ’08.
In Ahmed, who a few months later would captain the St. Paul’s School boys squash team to its first New England Class A Championship in 18 years, Smith saw a potential anchor for his Harvard team. The fact that Ahmed had cut his competitive teeth at the oldest and one of the most prestigious high school squash programs in the country was a significant aspect of Smith’s interest in adding him to his own program.
Over the next several years, as Ahmed played for and ultimately captained the Crimson squad, Smith began to lay the groundwork for a different sort of recruitment: his own, to coach at SPS. “This wasn’t a case of me looking at five different prep schools and finding St. Paul’s to be better than the others,” says
EARLY PLANNING IS UNDERWAY TO CONSTRUCT A NEW STATE-OF-THEART SQUASH CENTER THAT WILL BE AN EXTENSION OF THE ATHLETIC AND FITNESS CENTER.
Smith, who’d previously been the founding coach of the Northeastern University squash program and head of the U.S. Junior National Team. “It was a direct target. With its amazing campus, its academics, its place among the boarding school landscape and its squash program, this is where I wanted to be.”
In the summer of 2014, Smith and his family left their lives in Medford, Massachusetts, and resettled in Millville. “Most college programs have one coach for both the men’s and women’s teams for a unified vision and that’s what I wanted to bring to St. Paul’s,” says Smith. “My whole pitch was: It doesn’t make sense for me to just work with half of the kids. Let me work with everyone and build a one-program mindset.”
In the decade since his arrival, Smith, who is head of Middle House and now the School’s athletic director, has raised the SPS program to new heights. The school’s two varsity teams are regularly among the best in the country, winning a host of New England Team Sportsmanship Awards and New England titles along the way. In 2015 and 2016, Smith was named to the U.S. Squash Top 50 Coaches list, the only high school coach to gain that honor in either year.
During that same time, Smith has also guided the modernization of the McLane Squash Courts, the school’s 10-court squash center originally built more than a century ago. The upgrades have included the addition of ball and stringing machines, bigger scoreboards, 4K live video streaming and an overhaul of the building’s audio system for drill-change announcements and all-important pump-up music for practices.
But upgrading an aging building can only take you so far, and SPS is now plotting the next era of its decorated program. Early planning is underway to construct a new state-of-the-art squash center that will be an extension of the Athletic and Fitness Center. Beyond the School’s larger mission to centralize its sports facilities, the new building’s configuration will better accommodate the growing interest in SPS squash from players and fans alike.
The timing couldn’t be better. If the necessary funding is secured over the next year, the new center is expected to come online just as squash — which was recently added to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles — is preparing for its moment in the spotlight.
“We really feel good about the timing of this for St. Paul’s and for the sport in general,” says Smith. “It’s going to transform the spectator experience for us here. It’s going to change the coaching experience. And the players are going to get the best learning experience possible. There’s a level of passion for squash at St. Paul’s, including the amazing alumni who are behind the program, and we want this new center to build on that.”
Varsity Head Coach Chris Smith monitors multiple matches at the McLane Squash Courts.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: The balcony of the “new” Squash-Racquet Courts of 1915.
THE COUNTRY’S FIRST COURTS
The curious history of squash begins in mid-19th century London, when bored Fleet Prison inmates turned old rubber balls into whackable ovals and started experimenting with slapping one after the next against the prison yard’s towering stone walls. Versions of the game eventually migrated to other communities, most notably the Harrow School, an all-male British boarding academy founded in 1572, where students used rackets and added a growing set of game rules to the sport.
In 1881, the game arrived in Millville thanks to the efforts of The Rev. James Potter Conover, Form of 1876, a sports enthusiast who had returned to teach at his alma mater after attending Columbia University with Hyde Clark, a Harrow graduate and avid squash player. Conover’s own love of the sport propelled School leaders to build the country’s first squash facilities that year: a “Racquets Court” building near Lower School Pond where the first games were played, and to which four open-air courts were appended in 1883. As demand for the courts increased, Maurice Roche, Form of 1905, the son of an English Lord and the future maternal grandfather of Princess Diana, donated funds for the construction of a series of indoor courts along Library Road in 1915 that are today known as the McLane Squash Courts.
SPS’s early embrace of squash spawned a
dominance by alumni at the amateur ranks. Herb Rawlins of the Form of 1923, Larry Poole of the Form of 1924, Beekman Poole of the Form of 1928 and William Patterson of the Form of 1928 all won U.S. National titles — including back-to-back crowns for the younger Poole in 1932 and 1933.
Over the ensuing decades, SPS has remained at the center of amateur squash. In all, the program has captured 22 New England team and individual titles. Alumni have played for some of the nation’s most elite college programs, including Harvard, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, UVA, Columbia and MIT, among others, winning three college individual national titles and seven U.S. Squash national championships.
In “A Proud Tradition,” a history of squash at SPS by professional player Rob Dinerman that tracks the program from its earliest years to Smith’s arrival, the notion of legacy figures prominently. “The members of the current St. Paul’s varsity teams are torchbearers of an immensely proud tradition that has had, and continues to have, an enormous influence on squash as it is played and governed throughout the county and indeed the world,” Dinerman writes. “Everyone who has ever wielded a racquet while representing SPS, or who has coached and/or taught those who have, whether in the heat of a varsity meet against a prepschool arch-rival or in any other setting, has added to and enriched that tradition.”
BEARING THE TORCH
As a student at St. Paul’s, Myles McIntyre ’20 appreciated the special legacy of which he knew he was part. Before matches and practices, McIntyre often stationed himself in the Waterbury Room, a wood paneled space located in the middle of the McLane Squash Courts that serves as a museum of sorts to the history of the squash program. On its walls hang team pictures and plaques that highlight the achievements of SPS players going back 11 decades.
“I would spend hours in there stretching and looking around at all the history, all those guys in tiny white shorts and tall, striped white socks with Converse shoes,” says McIntyre, who graduated in May from the University of Virginia, where he was a four-year squash player at the school and captained the squad as a senior. “That meant something to me. When you’re surrounded by the old team photos, you quickly realize the legacy that you’re playing for. It’s something that’s been there much longer than you have. You’re not just playing to beat your opponent from the other school. You’re representing St. Paul’s and what it stands for.”
It was the kind of mission that perfectly suited someone like McIntyre, who arrived at SPS in the fall of 2017 as a Fourth Former already armed with a celebrated squash career. A Massachusetts native, McIntyre learned the game at the feet of his father, flashing an early talent and focus that was only sharpened at the Union Boat Club (UBC) in Boston, one of the oldest private squash clubs in the country. There, he had been a pupil of Chris Smith, UBC’s head pro for several years.
As he progressed through different age divisions, McIntyre was at various times the number one player in the country, competing in tournaments up and down the East Coast. During the summer before his freshman year of high school, he convinced his parents to allow him to take a year off from school and tour the world as a junior professional squash player, and tournaments across Europe and in Egypt and Malaysia followed. But after eight months of steady travel, McIntyre longed for the consistency and community of everyday high school life. In the spring of 2017, he reached out to Smith about what might be possible at SPS. McIntyre was especially excited at the chance to not just reunite with his old coach, but also to play on a team.
“I had made the junior squads and the junior national teams, but I was always playing as an individual player,” says McIntyre, who wants to become a Navy SEAL and is scheduled to begin the famously tough Basic Underwater Demolition/Seal School in Coronado, California, later this year. “To wear the School’s logo, to support one another and work toward something bigger than ourselves, meant something to me.”
McIntyre was the SPS team’s number-one player all three years, leading the program to a pair of top-five national finishes. His personal achievements included making the junior national teams for the Pan-American Games and the British Open and becoming the first player
in SPS history to qualify for the World Juniors squad. In 2020, he won the coveted DeRoy Sportsmanship Award, given to one female and one male high school senior in the country for their “exemplary behavior on and off the court.”
TEAM AND COMMUNITY
In recent years especially, SPS’s squash program has left its mark on college courts across the country: Over the last decade alone, 43 players have gone on to play at the college level. The lineup includes high-level recruits such as Lucy Bostwick ’14 and Lily Bogel ’14 at Middlebury College; Princeton captain Henry Parkhurst ’16; Yale University’s Jason Chu ’19; Ella Cohen ’20, a two-year captain at the University of Pennsylvania; and Sydney Bedar ’19, who captained the Cornell University squad her junior and senior years.
It also includes Nathan Rosenzweig ’24, whose career success has echoed some of McIntyre’s achievements. Before heading to UVA to play squash this fall, he was part of a US National Team to take third place at the World Junior Championships in July — only the second SPS player to make the squad. In 2022, he represented the United States in the Battle of the Border event, a highstakes junior tournament between the U.S. and Canada.
Like McIntyre, Rosenzweig arrived at SPS as an already elite squash player, but he says the levels he reached during his three years at the School — twice named an All-American, he climbed to #5 in the country in both the U-19 and U-17 divisions — were born from the work he did in Millville. On top of the technical skills and conditioning the team emphasized, Rosenzweig says considerable attention was also paid to mental discipline and understanding how to push through tough moments.
“I developed a much more mature approach to the game,” he says. “I used to get pretty emotional at times. I’d hit an unforced error and lose my head. The work we did on being able to move on from those things, to realize it was just a single point that I lost and that there was more to play, was important. And that’s translated into other parts of my
Myles McIntyre ’20
life. My mindset when it comes to approaching anything these days is that the small things aren’t worth getting upset about. Don’t let it affect you and just continue on.”
Building that focus and mental dexterity, say current and former players, has other ripple effects as well. There’s a grounding to the practices and coaching that helps them navigate their busy high school lives.
“It keeps me disciplined,” says Calla Yim ’25, a topranked player from the Washington, D.C., area who will captain the 2024-25 girls team. “Having that schedule of going to practice or even practicing in the off-season really helps me stay motivated throughout the year.
For Yim, the SPS squash team also offered the added benefit of helping her transition to the School when she arrived as a Third Former. Back home, few in her social circle played or even knew much about squash. At SPS, she says, her identity felt validated by the school’s longstanding embrace of the sport.
“It’s a social sport here,” she says. “It was a way for me to make friends along the way, both with people who are on the team and others who were just interested in it. I’ve had friends who’ve said to me, let’s go play, and they’ve never even picked up a racket before in their life.”
For many experienced athletes like Yim, the SPS program also represents their first significant exposure to playing as part of a team, where the outcome of an individual performance can determine whether the team continues on in a tournament or heads home. That in turn produces a special culture that fosters expectations, camaraderie and selflessness, says Shaoqian “Sam” Du ’25, while also doing the important work of lifting everyone’s game.
Du came to SPS from Shanghai as a Third Former in the fall of 2021. Within the close-knit Chinese squash community, he had risen to near the top of the ranks by the time he finished eighth grade, playing in many of the same tournaments as Rosenzweig. He joined SPS the same year as his onetime opponent for the opportunity to better integrate his serious squash training with his academics. Now arguably the best player in China in any age group, Du credits SPS for changing how he thinks about the game.
“Before coming to SPS, I only played for myself,” he says. “Playing for something that is bigger than myself
motivates me to work harder on and off court. We are great friends off the court, helping each other with classes and having meals together ... I think it is that support we show each other during school matches that bonds us.”
And those bonds cut across experience levels. One of the hallmarks of the SPS program is that even while it remains one of the best in the country, it also serves students who are new to the sport. As such, the lineups stay full. Today’s boys and girls teams each pack rosters of about 20 players across their respective varsity and junior varsity squads.
The number-one player on the girls squad during her four years at SPS, Sydney Bednar ’19 saw firsthand the impacts of the program’s welcoming culture. “Coach Smith’s whole thing is we are one team, the boys and girls,” says Bednar. “We travel together and we hang together. And that made it really special.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
If all goes according to plan, by the time the Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles on July 14, 2028, SPS’s new squash center will have already hosted its inaugural matches. It’s possible the facility becomes a place where athletes train in preparation for the Games, says Smith. Maybe Team USA even includes a few familiar SPS faces. In addition to Rosenzweig’s strong year for the boys team, the girls took seventh this past season, a record-high finish. This continued run and expectation of excellence is why Smith is excited about the prospect of a new squash center and what it may mean for the School’s next generation of players and its fans.
“We think a whole lot more people are going to know about squash in the coming years,” he says. “And we think a lot of people are going to know about St. Paul’s squash because of this center. The impact will be huge. We’ve got an opportunity to really build what we think will be a world-class venue that will continue the great legacy that’s been created here.”
Shaoqian “Sam” Du ’25
Sydney Bednar ’19
HOPKINS SCHOOL | NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
A New Era Begins for the Athletic Center
On Thursday, January 11, 2023, the Hopkins community packed the Walter Camp Athletic Center (WCAC) to watch the Boys Varsity Basketball team defeat their rivals Hamden Hall in a thrilling 63–60 win. With the victory, the team moved to 5–0 on the brand new wood
court installed this past fall. Along with the new floor came a brand new set of bleachers and a giant electronic scoreboard as an exciting new chapter has begun in the storied WCAC gym.
The original gym floor and bleachers were holdovers from when the Athletic Center was first built in the 1980s. Thanks to generous donors, which included alums and parents, the floor was given a fresh makeover.
“Walking onto the new floor for the first time, you can still feel the buzz and excitement from the athletes every day. It’s a privilege for them to play in a top flight facility on a daily basis,” said Athletics Director Rocco DeMaio, who oversaw the project.
Included in this spread are photos that show how the gym was transformed in just one month.
Originally appeared in the January 2024 issue of Views from the Hill, Hopkins School.
SIGNING THE FLOOR
Following the final assembly on the old gym floor before it was covered with the new wood, members of the class of 2024 stayed after to sign their names.
PROGRESS
The new floor system features press-dried beech wood from the company Junckers. This style of floor was recently utilized in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup and will be used at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. The floor has been engineered and measured for vertical movement, shock absorption, ball bounce, and friction.
KIERSTEN BRENNAN
’24, GIRLS
VARSITY BASKETBALL CAPTAIN
It’s been really nice because with the new layout, getting to play in the center court and having the bleachers be so much bigger, we’ve been able to get a lot more attraction to our games, getting a lot more fans to come. They’ve also been able to organize events like having a pep band there and having the dance crew come and play at our games during halftime, which gets a lot of people to show up and support us at our games.”
AXEL FINE ’24, BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL CAPTAIN:
“I personally love the new floor. When you run on it, when you jump, everything feels smoother. It feels better. You’re actually playing on a basketball court, and then on top of that, it’s a home game. It’s a home court advantage.”
BEN SIMON ’24 BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL CAPTAIN
“I think it helps us form a new identity, place, and play-style this year. Even when we’re not as skilled or we’re having a bad stretch, we’re still going to hustle down the floor. Having that big court has really helped us in pulling out those late games.”
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Dexter Southfield boys’ and girls’ soccer teams have both traveled with us to the U.K. and the girls are the current NEPSAC Class B champions. Meanwhile, Kate Dolan’s Phillips Academy Andover field hockey squad returned from the Netherlands and Belgium to become NEPSAC Class A champions.
HOW EASY IS IT TO TRAVEL WITH GOPLAY?
Steve Conway, boys’ head soccer coach at Dexter Southfield said: “These guys take all the worry and hassle out of travel. Our summer experience was first class. We stayed in great hotels, had excellent meals and played some great teams with excellent facilities. The communication and direct billing was also very good. I would not hesitate to recommend GoPlay Sports to other schools in the NEPSAC.”
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT ON A GOPLAY TRIP?
Kate Dolan, head coach field hockey coach at Phillips Academy Andover, said: “Please know the experience was beyond anything any one of us could have imagined. Going into it, I think we all felt it would be great, and after it was over, I think we all felt an incredible sense of awe and immense gratitude. It was learning in the world, being in the world, interacting in the world – it fulfilled its purpose in every way.”
Five Steps to Planning your Trip
1 TALK TO YOUR ATHLETIC DIRECTOR AND TRAVEL DIRECTOR
Eighteen to 12 months before your travel date is a good time to meet up with your athletic director and travel director to outline what you want to get out of the trip. Voice your ideas and plan for the tour and the potential destinations. Find out what the school is prepared to cover financially and determine the number of chaperones required per student.
2 MEET YOUR COORDINATOR
Skilled regional coordinators are not just sports enthusiasts, they are expert trip planners. Talk to them about your interests, goals and concerns, and they will help you identify the factors that will make your trip a success. Trip types, number of cities, length of tour and time of year are all discussions to have and they may even suggest options you may not have considered.
3 DESIGN YOUR TOUR
Whether you are looking for a sport-focused trip with some cultural experiences or whether you want a service-led tour with some sport sprinkled in, work with your Coordinator and trust their expertise to design the perfect tour.
Choose a Destination Coaches take teams throughout the world and if you have sports connections in a specific country, we can tailor-make a tour to visit those places. Europe is a very popular destination such is its diverse culture that is rooted in its sports, art, architecture, traditions, cuisines, music, folklore and religious customs. The United Kingdom and Ireland are our most popular destinations, and they never fail to deliver.
Select a Trip Type GoPlay tours can customize your trip to your needs, so think of the itineraries as a starting point to building your vision, and do not settle for anything less than the best.
It’s Your Decision We recommend that you take the lead in selecting the trip. Choose a trip you are excited about. And remember your enthusiasm will be contagious!
4 RECRUIT YOUR TEAM
Get the Students & Parents on Board Talk about the value of travel, your specific trip, safety and the cost.
GoPlay will Host a Zoom Meeting Describe the program and explain the benefits to the students as individuals and for your team as a whole. GoPlay will talk about the logistics on the tour, and what to expect. You can also publicize the trip by putting it in your team’s newsletter, social pages and on your website.
5 PACK YOUR BAGS & GO
Leave the rest to GoPlay! Your GoPlay Tour Manager will greet you at the airport and take care of everything from there. Bon Voyage!
See our trips and itineraries: www.goplay-sports.com
Contact us: www.goplay-sports.com/contact
Alumni Profile: James W. Jennings ’99
As is the case with every featured alumnus, the following article will give Avonians and their networks a brief synopsis of the subject’s time as a student and what they’ve been up to since graduating. A short collection of paragraphs could never encapsulate all that has occurred across multiple decades of someone’s life, but instead gives readers a small insight into who their friend or brother has become. Luckily, in the case of this month’s featured alumnus, James W. Jennings ’99 has written a much more detailed and complete composite of his life thus far, and anyone interested can read the full story in his book—in his own words.
That book, entitled Wings of Red, was published in 2023 by Penguin Random House, and is a semi-autobiographical tale of James’s life. The story follows a homeless substitute teacher in New York City who dreams of becoming a writer. He endures hardships and overcomes conflicts to ultimately realize that mentoring and teaching could be a path forward for him. It has
received positive reviews from notable sources including the New York Times Book Review who felt the protagonist of the book “navigates his circumstances and city life with grit and grace.”
The story in Wings of Red is one that James felt he had to tell. This was something he says he realized during his time at Avon Old Farms. James grew up in the north end of Hartford and was at risk of going down a bad path. He was being bred for gangs and frequently skipped school. Despite all of this, he was still doing his best in a bad situation. His grandmothers instilled in him the value of education, so when he had the chance to apply for admission to Avon Old Farms, he jumped at the opportunity. James puts it very bluntly, “Avon saved my life.” Unfortunately, this couldn’t be the case for some of his friends.
It was the death of his childhood friend Timothy—a role model for James who originally introduced him to the arts—that made James realize he had a story he needed to tell. “It was my sophomore year, and I got a call from my grandma telling me
ROSE MARGETSON/THE MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE
that Timothy had been shot to death in New Haven. I remember the monitor in my dorm, a guy named Steve, answered the call. That was part of the monitors’ job back then. I could just see his face, the way he was reacting, I realized that this wasn’t a normal situation. I realized the impact this story could have. That’s the role of the writer in society. If it’s a powerful story, someone has to tell it.”
Dealing with the loss of a close friend wasn’t the only struggle James had to overcome in his first few months at Avon. He says the grades didn’t come easy at first, but after working at it, he was named to the Honor Roll his sophomore year, Dean’s List his junior year, and Headmaster’s List as a senior. “It’s tough because Avon is pretty competitive, but I knew I had it in me. I take pride in working hard and figuring things out.”
I WAS LITERALLY WRITING IT AS I WAS LIVING IT
In fact, James excelled in all areas at Avon, not just academics. He played a sport every season but was a crucial member of the varsity basketball team. He wrote for the Avon Record and Hippocrene, as well as served on the yearbook staff. He also was the leader of the social activities club, organizing dances and other events for his classmates. He even received the Order of Old Farms at his graduation. However, what he is likely most remembered for is his impressive work in the art studio. “I was always a creative. Once I started taking AP art classes, I just lived in the art studio.”
Additionally, the Avon Old Farms campus is where James wrote his first book. His senior year he committed to writing 2000 words a day. He went to the computer lab every day to complete this selfappointed task. He says that story has since been sitting in a shoe box until he wants to revisit it, but it gave him the important first experience of writing a full body of work. He enjoyed it as well, and began working on other writing projects including a self-published book titled United Strays of America
After graduating from Avon, James went on to attend Emory University where he played basketball and studied English literature. He attended Brooklyn College for his master’s. James would then spend the next several years on a “fantastic voyage of really high highs to bone and soul-crushing rock bottom.” He taught, tutored, or coached in several different schools throughout New England and New York City. While his role as a coach and mentor for children remained a constant, his living situation was often in flux. It was during this time he wrote Wings of Red. “I was literally writing it as I was living it,” he says.
Although the book was completed around 2010, it wasn’t published until recently because James wanted to make sure he got the most out of his contract. James explains; “With regards to publishing Wings, it was a matter of equity and ownership. I knew I couldn’t allow my life’s work to be owned by someone else. It wouldn’t sit right with my ancestors or the people looking up to me. Not when I had the opportunity to speak my truth and stand up for what’s right, regardless of how it’s been. So, I took the risk and asked for what I deserved. I also assumed costs as well so I had full skin in the game in our equity partnership.” In the end,
AVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL
AVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL
with assistance from Soft Skull Press, James got the deal he was after, and is now in the works of publishing a second book.
Outside of writing, James continues to be a mentor for thousands of kids. Known primarily to many as “Coach,” James says he dedicates his writing to his mentees and fellow educators. He continues to coach and teach while working hard promoting his published work. He says he enjoys the marketing side of things as well. “I get invited to talk to book clubs, youth groups, etc. to talk about my book. I love talking about literature. If I can pair that with some self-promotion, it’s perfect,” James says. In 2016, he founded 49th Hour Workshop, a non-profit arthouse space that assists aspiring creatives with publishing, consulting, workshops, projects, artist residencies, and non-profit partnerships.
He remains involved at Avon as well. James co-founded and maintains a scholarship at Avon, and has often contributed time and effort to the Avon African American Alumni Association (A5). James was back on campus this past fall for his 25-year class reunion. “It was amazing being back. Avon itself—the natural area— you feel very lucky to be there. Then you add the school’s history into the mix, it’s incredible.
To learn more about James’s writing and non-writing endeavors, you can visit 49thhour.com
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AVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL
TEAM PLAYER: Riley Norwood ’20
A Commencement honor fuels a life of character and commitment to others
by Meredith Guinness
Each year at Commencement, Cheshire Academy bestows the Jennifer Hawke-Petit Recognition Award on a deserving senior who emulates the late nurse’s wisdom, expertise, caring, and kindness. The 2020 recipient, Riley Norwood ’20, was no exception.
“Riley accepted that award and made it her driving force to make Jennifer proud,” said Norwood’s mom Trisha.
And she’s well on her way: this year, Riley earned her nursing degree at Mount Saint Mary College and has embarked on her own career as a registered nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. She’s also a member of Yale’s Critical Care Nursing Residency Program.
Riley Norwood ’20 (left) came back to watch her cousin, Kaleigh Durkin ’25, help the Cats win the Division B title.
As if that weren’t enough, the CA softball standout started all four years on her college team, a rarity for students who take on the demanding schedule of a nursing degree. She’s eying opportunities to coach a youth or travel team in the future.
Decisions, Decisions
You might think Norwood was one of those students who was sure of her future career, laser focused from an early age. You’d be wrong.
“No, I was not one of those,” said Norwood, laughing. In fact, she considered careers in athletic training and physical therapy before settling on a nursing career at the very end of her sophomore year of college.
Once she decided, however, Norwood threw herself into the degree program and all the ways she could grow as both a nurse and a leader. She served as a nursing peer tutor and a peer mentor for Mount St. Mary’s Nursing Workforce Diversity Program and was president of the Student Nurses’ Association (SNA). She organized community blood drives and workshops, most notably teaching fellow students how to administer naloxone, the antiopioid overdose medication.
“I was very thrilled and ready for the challenge [of being SNA president],” Norwood told her college magazine. “I think it really helped me to become a great leader.”
Norwood was inducted into nursing’s Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society and Alpha Chi Honor Society for general academics and served as president of the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society for student athletes. She was also named an Aquinas Scholar, one of the most prestigious academic awards at “the Mount.”
Norwood enjoys the challenge inherent in nursing, something she first experienced as a Cheshire Academy student while
shadowing a family friend who was a nurse. She found the idea of helping others in stressful situations exhilarating.
“I walked into the OR and thought, ‘This is where I want to be,’” she said.
Finding Her Focus
As a new nurse, Norwood is considering a career in flight nursing, which would allow her to practice in different locales, and going back to school to become a certified nurse anesthetist. Yale has a CNA program, she said.
“I like nursing because it’s varied,” the East Haven resident said. “If you get bored in one area, you can switch and do something else.”
Norwood also appreciates her many opportunities to help others in the healthcare field. While at CA, she gained her EMT license and — in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy — helped her dad, a former firefighter, lead Stop the Bleed education for schoolteachers, including at Cheshire Academy. In recent years, the duo has taught at her college where the School of Nursing and athletics offices now have kits to help people save lives in an emergency.
“It left a lasting mark,” she said of the effort.
Covering Her Bases
When it comes to sports, Norwood excelled at Mount Saint Mary. She won the Female Knight of the Year Award from the Athletics Department for both 2022 and 2023 and All-Conference honors for 2023. She was thrilled to be back on the CA campus to cheer on the 2024 softball team as it won the Western New England Prep Schools Association Division B Final. Her cousin, Kaleigh Durkin ’25, plays on the team, making victory even sweeter.
Playing a sport through high school and college gave her two things that might seem diametrically opposed — discipline and freedom. As with her chosen profession, it was a chance for her to show how perseverance and hard work for others pays off.
“Softball was my out. I couldn’t procrastinate because I didn’t have time to procrastinate,” she said. “But it was also an opportunity to let go and be free.”
Originally published in the fall 2024 issue of Cheshire Academy’s 1794 Magazine
Five Ways Language Can Lead to Better Results
Think back to when you were in school: Is there something you remember a coach or teacher saying to you that’s stuck with you for decades? Is it a positive or negative memory? Likely, that coach doesn’t remember telling you that you were too lazy to be a good defender on the basketball court, but to you, that was a pivotal moment in your athletic career. The power of the words we choose is immense, but it’s often overlooked by a busy coach who’s just trying to get through practice. But the language a team uses can shift the likelihood of achieving goals.
Here, TrueSport Expert Betsy Butterick, a coach and communication specialist, explains simple shifts you can make when speaking to the team to bring out their best.
REMEMBER HOW MUCH YOUR WORDS MATTER
Choose your words carefully when talking to athletes, because you never know which moments will stick with an athlete for years to come.
“Everybody has a story about something a coach said to them, and most of them are not positive,” says Butterick, who is a former basketball player.
“I can remember when my junior college coach called me a defensive liability in front of the team.
I knew that wasn’t true given my playing history, but it always stuck with me.”
This can be difficult in the heat of the moment but remember your own experiences in youth sport and try to make your language reflect the way that you want to be remembered. Even when giving an athlete a critique, you can frame it in an encouraging, helpful way that will allow them to grow as an athlete, rather than diminish their confidence.
COMMUNICATE IN POSITIVES, NOT NEGATIVES
“When I’m talking about coaching today’s athletes—Gen Z and Gen Alpha—I speak about the importance of not just articulating the why, but the language that we choose when we do that,” says Butterick. “The language that we use very much influences what people feel is possible, and also our eventual outcome or likelihood of success because we know a fear-based approach
is not where high performance happens.”
Imagine this scenario: You’re a basketball coach, and in Saturday’s game, you get outrebounded and lose the game. On Monday at practice, you can present what happened during Saturday’s game in two ways.
Option A: “That was a tough loss on Saturday. I know that wasn’t the outcome we were looking for. We went back and we watched the game film, and we looked at the stats for the season. What we realized is that any time we get outrebounded, we tend to lose. We’re going to start today with a rebounding drill to make sure that that’s a stronger element of our game.”
or
Option B: “That was a tough loss on Saturday. I know that wasn’t the outcome we were looking for. We went back and we watched the game film, and we looked at the stats for the season. What we realized is that any time we out-rebound our opponents, we tend to win. We’re going to start today with a rebounding drill to make sure that that’s a stronger element of our game.”
There’s a minor shift in the phrasing—from a discussion about why the team is losing to what makes them more likely to win. The result is the same, but Option B leaves the team feeling more positive and capable, rather than negative about their abilities.
“In Option A, I’m creating a fear-based approach,” explains Butterick. “In the sport of basketball, rebounding is a naturally occurring part of the game. At some point, if a shot doesn’t go into the basket, somebody is going to get the rebound. When I’ve led with Option A and the other team gets a rebound at some point in the game, which is almost certainly going to happen, the team is going to start thinking that they’re closer to losing. But if I use Option B when talking about their rebounding, every time they get a rebound, they’re going to have a lot of confidence and feel closer to winning.”
TELL ATHLETES WHAT YOU WANT FROM THEM
The most simple shift you can make during a practice or a competition is simply telling athletes what you want them to do, rather than what they shouldn’t be doing. “You are much more likely to get the outcome or behavior you’re looking for when you tell people what to do instead of what not to do,” Butterick says. “There was a program I was working with, and the feedback from the endof-season surveys for this coach said that he was very negative. He was a nice guy, but when I went and observed a practice, I realized why everyone thought he was negative. Everything he was
telling the team to do was phrased in the negative. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t let them do this. Don’t do that. Make sure you’re not doing this.’”
Butterick worked with that coach to change his language to be positive, telling athletes what to do rather than what to avoid. “He started telling them what he wanted them to see: ‘Make sure you’re here, make sure you keep them out of here. And it immediately changed the atmosphere and the experience of the team.”
USE WHEN, NOT IF
“As coaches, we can’t play for athletes. Many coaches wish that they could!” says Butterick. “Because we can’t play ourselves, we use the language of ‘if,’ because it’s unknown. But it’s more helpful to say ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ when describing a future scenario that you want to happen. Saying ‘when’ paints a clearer picture of a future possibility.”
Consider the difference between ‘if we do this, then we’ll get this,’ versus ‘when we do this, then we will get this.’ It’s a small shift. But as Butterick explains, it takes whatever it is you’re talking about from a place of unknown or uncertainty to a higher probability of happening. You’re inviting the individual to think about what it looks like for them to do that thing, so that they get the desired outcome. “As coaches, we can move our athletes a little bit closer into the realm of possibility.”
HELP YOUR TEAM THINK LONGTERM
Young athletes tend to be fixated on the now and immediate gratification. But you can use your language to help them paint a picture of the future and make them more likely to achieve their goals. “I like to ask athletes what they can do today that will allow them to experience success sooner, or for one thing that you can uniquely control that allows you to experience more of
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what you want because you took that action today,” Butterick says. This helps athletes not only focus on performing well in today’s practice, but it also keeps them focused on their longerterm goal and directly connects the work they’re doing now to their future success.
TAKEAWAY
Your phrasing directly impacts how your athletes will respond to your message and the success your whole team can achieve. Try to phrase your directions to them in a positive way, telling them what you want them to do rather than what you want them to avoid. Remember that anytime you’re giving an athlete feedback, your words may stick with them for decades, so pay careful attention to what you’re saying and how you’re saying it.
TrueSport®, a movement powered by the experience and values of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, champions the positive values and life lessons learned through youth sport. TrueSport inspires athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators to change the culture of youth sport through active engagement and thoughtful curriculum based on cornerstone lessons of sportsmanship, characterbuilding, and clean and healthy performance, while also creating leaders across communities through sport.
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