Campus Voices
Upper School
As has been the case throughout my independent school career, many of the happiest memories of my time at BB&N revolve around athletics and the pride I feel in seeing our scholar-athletes compete wearing the school colors. These experiences range from standing at the boathouse and watching our crew teams pass by at the Head of the Charles on a spectacularly beautiful Sunday morning, to celebrating what used to be referred to as the “thrill of victory” when our football team carried off the New England trophy last year, to suffering through the “agony of defeat” when our soccer team lost in the closing seconds at Middlesex this fall as the sun set, and to my commitment to try to see every team play at least once in a season. My admiration for our students who play on our teams is unbound, as it is for all of our students who represent the school in co- and extra-curricular activities. We ask them to do so much in so many different classroom settings, and they respond so well.
Why, I am asked, do we compete at the level we do in athletics? For an answer, I frequently turn to National Association of Independent Schools surveys of alumnae and alumni. When graduates of schools such as BB&N are asked what they value the most looking back at their secondary school experience, the first item cited is always some aspect of traditional classroom activity: a favorite teacher, a favorite subject, the awakening of intellectual curiosity about this or that. But clearly second, and blending into the first is some variation on the theme that “I got a chance to play at BB&N that I wouldn’t have had somewhere else, and the lessons I learned on the playing field have remained valuable ever since.” It is important to see these responses as complementary one to the other.
A game of field hockey is really just another learning experience, this one taking place in an open classroom. The lessons taught about cooperative teamwork, shared hardships, technical expertise, and graciousness in victory are extraordinarily valuable in negotiating the ups and downs of life. And we should raise our voices in praise of the teacher-coach, who has such a highly visible role to play. When I walk into my freshman history class and close the door, I am in my own domain; a mistake made can be privately corrected. Not so with the student-athlete or the teacher-coach, whose classroom is so public: “Why would you try to pass the ball cross-court?” spectators ask. Or, “Wasn’t that the dumbest time-out call you ever saw?”
The key is to appreciate the whole, and not to draw lines of distinction between this and that contribution to school life. Athletics and academics exist in a symbiotic relationship to each other. Opportunity and success reinforce each other, creating occasions for student-athletes to make contributions to school life and be appreciated for those contributions in addition to the values and ideas they bring to the classroom. This is as true of the student who plays volleyball as it is of a theater performer, a Vanguard reporter, or an aspiring artist. All contribute to the mosaic that is the beauty of the school community. And it truly is a mosaic, individual talents and skill that, when brought into combination form the school community of which we should be so proud. We learn from each other every day in many different ways. The clean-up batter in baseball who lays down a perfect sacrifice bunt when he or she could just as easily have swung for the fences has been taught and is teaching a lesson of great worth.
We play and compete to do much more than win, although that is important. We play to express pride in the school, to give an avenue of expression to individual talent, and to teach the lessons of life. Athletics at BB&N should be a source of pride to all of us.
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