Steve Savage

23 Years of Service

STEVE SAVAGE

Reflecting back on his 23 years as a member of the Physical Education team at Park, Steve Savage says, “I found my home when I came to Park.” Steve began his career as an educator in 1976, and served as a P.E. teacher and camp director at Beaver Country Day and then Thayer Academy. Through his entrepreneurial spirit, he doubled the Beaver camp in size, and quadrupled the size of the Thayer camp program. Arriving at Park, he immediately appreciated the warmth and diversity of the community. “I felt so welcomed here—it was like being at a wedding or a bar mitzvah!” While he knows there is still work to be done, he says, “I always feel safe here.”

Though he now works with Park’s Upper Division students, his fondest memories include the time he led kindergarteners in a step aerobics class to the theme song of Rocky. “It was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone to dance,” he says, but the kids and their parents loved it. Steve has continued to push himself as an educator, gaining the expertise to support students in building the good training habits that help them grow as athletes while also avoiding injury, with a focus on mobility, stability, and strength. For years after they leave Park, Steve

reports, he hears from athletes who tell him that “my friend got injured and I didn’t,” due to the solid mechanics of training they had learned at Park.

As coach of Park’s cross country and track teams, Steve has helped build Park’s running program, and was instrumental in creating the Larz Anderson Invitational, the first independent school cross country event for middle school students, which now attracts 16 teams and 350 athletes. Steve has been a role model for students as a runner himself, having completed three Boston Marathons. He often trained in the morning before school and students would report seeing him, running, miles from campus.

Steve looks forward to enjoying his Portuguese Water Dog, Cooper, to “cooking better meals for [his] wife,” climbing mountains with his daughter, and more time for cycling and mountain biking. But, he will never cease being a physical educator: Steve looks forward to his work at a personal training studio in Newton, where his passion for guiding health, strength, and cardiovascular fitness will continue to benefit others. We wish Steve all the best in his next phase, and hope he will come back to visit often!