Gunn Athletics

The spring and fall seasons brought a return to playing athletic contests in person

following a long hiatus due to the global pandemic. Six of nine spring teams were able to compete, and in the fall, all teams resumed a normal season, with students and parents cheering them on from the sidelines.

“Students were craving as much of a return to normalcy as possible,” said Mike Marich P’23 ’24, Director of Athletics and Head Boys Lacrosse Coach. “For the spring athletes specifically, many of them lost their 2020 season, so they were looking at the better part of two years of not being part of a team and the sports that they love — tennis, golf, lacrosse, you name it. They wanted to get as back-tonormal as possible.”

A similar story unfolded in the fall. Students couldn’t wait to get back out on the playing fields with their friends. Interest in girls soccer was so high, the school fielded a JV Girls Soccer Team for the first time in recent years. Many of the requirements put in place due to COVID-19 in the spring were waived this fall, when students returned to campus fully vaccinated.

“I give our student-athletes a lot of credit for sticking with it,” Marich said. “Preparing for a high-level contest is hard enough. You want to limit distractions and COVID was just a giant distraction. They were able to do it and compete and play pretty well. Baseball had a great season. Boys lacrosse had a solid season. Girls lacrosse was competitive. They represented our community with class and the feedback from the students at the end of the year was mostly thankful for making the season happen. I was lucky to be able to work with the other schools to allow the students to have those experiences.”

A Return to Play

Four Student-Athletes Selected to Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Tournament

Eddie Rayhill ’22

Three members of the Boys Varsity Lacrosse Team and one member of the Girls Varsity Lacrosse Team were selected to play in the 2021 Under Armour All-America Underclass Tournament this summer in Maryland. Eddie Rayhill ’22 of New Hartford, New York, was named to the Upstate New York Boys Highlight Team, Parker Hoffman ’24 of Glastonbury, Connecticut, was named to the CONNY Boys Command Team, Owen Laatsch ’25 of Missoula, Montana, was named to the West Boys Command Team, and Julia Bella ’24 of Norwalk, Connecticut, was named to the CONNY Girls Command Team.

“It’s a national tournament,” explained Mike Marich P’23 ’24, Athletic Director and Head Boys Lacrosse Coach. “Each region has a tryout. The tryouts have 200 students or more competing for about 20 spots per region. Each of the regions then send their teams to play against each other in Maryland at the end of July. College coaches are there. It’s one of the biggest showcases on the summer lacrosse circuit. To have four students represent our school, it’s incredible. They were playing against the best players in the country.”

Players are selected into two divisions. Hoffman, Laatsch and Bella made the Command teams for their respective regions, which include rising high school sophomores and freshmen, and Rayhill made his region’s Highlight team, for rising seniors and juniors.

From his Upstate New York division, Rayhill, a defender who also plays soccer and ice hockey, was named to the 2021 Under Armour Boys Division All-Tournament Team. “It’s a great honor to be selected to the all-star team at the end of the tournament,” Marich said. In addition to that, Rayhill and Hoffman were named to the Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Senior Watchlist from the tournament.

“I am so proud of all of our students for all they have accomplished. It’s great for our programs and it’s great for the students. They have all put in a tremendous amount of effort, both prior to coming here and during their time here.” Marich said. “It takes a lot of commitment and it’s a credit to their parents for supporting them through these events. It was the first time we’ve ever had four players at the same time at that event. I’m super proud of them and everything that they’ve accomplished, and super proud of the way that they represented Frederick Gunn.”

Bella has been playing lacrosse since she was four years old. In 2020, she went to the Under Armour Underclass Tournament tryouts and got called back, but did not make All-American. “This year, my goal was definitely to make the team because I was one of the older girls this time. You know you made the team because everyone else that didn’t make it has to leave, and they basically get eliminated. This year, I did get called back and I made it, so it was pretty cool.”

Getting ready for tournament play took some effort following the global pandemic. “It definitely took a lot more practice to get back into the groove of things, especially playing with girls I’d never played with before from New York and other towns and cities in Connecticut,” Bella said. “There were girls from California and Oregon, from all the way across the country, flying in just to play against us, because we were one of the best teams. It was pretty cool knowing that they came just to try to beat us.”

Her dad and grandparents were there to cheer her on through games that were played in the heat, humidity and rain, but Bella, who plays defense, said she was well prepared. “I was with some of the girls who play on my club team. When it’s hot, we have to do a lot of conditioning so we can get prepared for the heat. We were prepared to be able to run two miles in a game. We were all ready to run in

Parker Hoffman ’24

It’s one of the bigger showcases on the summer lacrosse circuit. To have four students represent our school, it’s a big deal. They were playing against the best players in the country.”

– Mike Marich P’23 ’24, Athletic Director and Head Boys Lacrosse Coach

Owen Laatsch ’25 Julia Bella ’24

100-degree weather,” she said.

A three-season athlete, Bella rows crew and plays Girls Varsity Ice Hockey, and this spring, she hopes to play midfield and defense for the Girls Varsity Lacrosse team, a move that would help her score the 20 goals she is aiming for, to compete with a player from her old school, who scored 100 goals in her high school career.

In the upcoming season, Bella will play for the first time under the direction of the school’s new Head Coach for Girls Varsity Lacrosse, Rachel Hedden, who joined the Admissions Office this fall. “My goals are to establish a healthy team culture, an environment where girls can try new things and explore the lacrosse world for themselves, and see themselves as lacrosse players, even if that isn’t their first sport. I played soccer and it took a lot not to see myself as a soccer player who played lacrosse. There are a lot of girls that feel that way,” Hedden said, adding that Bella brings a high level of exposure to the team, having experienced a style of play from each region of the country, and the overall fast pace of the game, “which is what we want to bring here.”

“I’m excited to have Rachel step in as the head coach knowing this is what the program has deserved and needed for so many years,” said Assistant Coach Emily Abelson. “Like all of our girls, Julia brings such a dynamic force to the defensive line that we’re really excited about. Her lacrosse IQ, stick skills, and the way she moves her feet — it’s going to be awesome to watch her play.”

For Rayhill, who has been playing lacrosse since kindergarten, being named to the all-tournament team was a great honor. “It’s not really something that I aim for. My coaches encouraged me to try out for the team and I decided to do it and I feel very honored to be selected for that team, but it’s not the reason I like playing the game or why I do it. It was just a nice kind of accomplishment that came with playing the game.”

His goals for this year? “To have a lot of fun, to get better and prepare for the next level,” said Rayhill, who is committed to the admissions process at Cornell University.

Like Rayhill, Hoffman has been playing lacrosse since kindergarten and hopes to be recruited to a DI team. His coaches also recommended that he try out for the All-America tournament. “There were seven teams at the tryout and there was a callback game after you played every team. There were two teams at the callback game, and they would choose the full team out of the callback game, so it was pretty stressful,” explained Hoffman, who also plays varsity soccer and basketball for the school, and was cheered on by his dad at the tournament. His parents, he added, “were pretty happy that I made it because it was a pretty big deal.”

Mid-fielder Laatsch, who also plays football and basketball, said he spent about eight months during the pandemic practicing lacrosse in his backyard in Montana. Last summer he was able to practice in person with the Salt Lake City Lacrosse Club. “I drive down there every week from Montana and practice with them. That was the only in-person practice I had until this summer. I was really nervous going into the tryout,” he said, “and once I got there, I just played as hard as I could and it worked out.”

When he learned he had made the All-America team, he said: “It was awesome. I just felt great. That was the first big team I’ve made. I’ve made a bunch of little teams and I’ve always had that on my shoulder and this was the first big thing on my shoulder.”

His goals for the upcoming season: “To just keep working hard, keep playing, and just getting better.”

Marich Named NEPSAC District IV Vice President

Mike Marich P’23 ’24, Director of Athletics and Head Boys Lacrosse Coach, has been named Vice President of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC), District IV. Founded in 1942, NEPSAC is an organization of athletic directors from preparatory schools in New England with two members from Lower Canada. The Frederick Gunn School is a Member School in District IV.

“NEPSAC has four regions or divisions of Member Schools. Each division has representatives, or officers, and this past spring, Geoff Barlow, the Director of Athletics at Avon Old Farms School and President of Division IV, asked if anyone was interested in being an officer,” explained Marich, who stepped up and offered to serve. Although he was initially appointed Treasurer, over the course of the summer he was offered the opportunity to fill the role of Vice President for the region, which he accepted.

“It’s a great opportunity for professional development, for me to learn from people I trust within the athletic director community,” Marich said. “It allows me to get some experience and a bigger view of athletics in New England. It also gives our school a voice in some of these discussions, and maybe I can bring some of our experience of what it is like to be a smaller school within NEPSAC to these discussions, and give us a voice at the table.”

This is not the first time Marich has garnered regional recognition. He was twice named the Mike Fuller Head Coach of the Year by the Western New England Secondary School Lacrosse Association (WNESSLA), in 2016 and 2019. The honor is selected by coaches in the league.

Marich joined the Highlander coaching staff in 2013 and has served as Director of Athletics since 2016. A native of Long Island, New York, he played four years at defense for John Danowski at Hofstra University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He has remained actively involved in the sport since graduation. He has coached boys at all levels for John Jay Youth Lacrosse in Westchester, New York, and for 3D NE South Lacrosse here in Connecticut. In 2016, he led the boys varsity lacrosse team to win the Colonial Tournament and capture the WNESSLA Division II title, and this year three of his players were named to the Under Armour All-America Underclass Lacrosse Tournament. Regarding his appointment as a regional VP for NEPSAC, he said: “This is the first time for me stepping up as an athletic director to say I’d like to take on more of a leadership role outside of our immediate school community. I’ve been the Director of Athletics for five years now. I needed time to understand what the role was, what my role as AD within the community was. As I’ve grown in that I felt a little more at ease to put myself out there and represent the NEPSAC community and ours at large.”

In doing so, Marich is modeling leadership, which is something he tries to instill in all students at The Frederick Gunn School through our athletic and co-curricular programs. “Hopefully it’s an example to not only our students but to my fellow coaches to believe in yourself and volunteer your services for something that you want to make better, and to help out. When you volunteer to be part of a coaches’ association, whether it’s something here at school or in your own community, half the battle is raising your hand. I didn’t expect this. I expected to be Treasurer and work my way through. So I’m thrilled to help out, and it just goes to show you that sometimes you just have to raise your hand and say you’re willing to help.”

In August, Sal Lilienthal, Crew Team Operations Coordinator, completed a nearly 700-mile bike and kayak trip, from Newport, Rhode Island, to Yorktown, Virginia. By land and by sea, he followed the path of the French and American armies during the American Revolution, adhering closely to the WashingtonRochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.

“The reason it’s so important was this was the decisive military campaign that won the American Revolution. It’s the one that made the difference,” said Lilienthal , who originally conceived of the trip as a large-scale public event. He spent years planning it and received a $10,000 grant from the National Park Service to fund it. However, due to COVID-era restrictions, Lilienthal ended up completing the twoweek journey solo, aided by a single support vehicle, a few staff, and people who helped them as they made their way through nine states. “We only stayed in hotels for three nights. People put us up the whole way, they’d cook us dinner. We were like real revolutionaries supported by the people.”

Lilienthal started his trip at a statue of Rochambeau in King Park, at the edge of Newport Harbor. He kayaked through Boston Harbor and Chesapeake Bay, and cycled past the White House and on to Annapolis and Valley Forge. “His most notable stops were Morristown National Historical Park, where Superintendent Tom Ross, staff, and volunteers welcomed him to the park,” the National Park Service noted on its website. “Sal also stopped in the Village of Brandywine, in Wilmington, Delaware, where he performed a bike clinic and led about 30 inner city youth on a ride.”

A Greenwich native and graduate of Hobart and WIlliam Smith Colleges, Lilienthal was the team mechanic for the U.S. Cycling Federation and a mechanic for the Motorola Cycling Team, captained by Lance Armstrong. He now lives in Kent and owns the Bicycle Tour Company. His interest in American history was sparked on a cycling trip he organized for a client over 20 years ago. When they reached Washington Crossing State Park, along the Delaware River in New Jersey, he walked over to look at one of the historic markers and thought, “This is where General Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River.” He started researching the American Revolution, and in 2014, published a book, “Revolutionary Battles: Experience America’s Roads to Independence,” combining his passion for cycling and history.

Returning to campus just days after his historic ride, Lilienthal’s wheels were already turning with thoughts of his next trip. He noted that 2026 will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. Reprising his revolutionary ride as a public event will require the assistance of multiple support vehicles, local paramedics, and in some areas, road closures to guarantee safety. Until then, he will share his expertise with students through the Winterim course, “Revolutionaries, Spies and a Traitor.” The class will focus on the stories of America’s first spy, Nathan Hale, British Major John Andre, and fallen patriot Benedict Arnold, and include day trips to West Point and Groton Heights in New London. “We’re exploding with revolutionary war history where we live,” Lilienthal said.

A Revolutionary Journey