Gracey Austin ’12

The Ben Heyward Memorial All Sports Trophy is an award given every year to the school with the most successful boys’ athletic teams in the Inter-Academic League.  Episcopal has won the Heyward Cup eleven times, making us the second most winning school behind the Haverford School, which has won thirteen times.  However, Episcopal has not won the Heyward Cup in twelve years. While many boys’ teams such as squash and cross country are extremely successful, boys’ field sports, namely football and lacrosse, have not had a consistent winning record in almost two decades.  Head of School Hamilton Clark said, “[The field sports] are the sports the alumni remember competing in, and they still want our teams to be able to compete with Haverford.”

James Farrell, Associate Director of Athletics, said, “I was a member of the last undefeated, untied, football team in 1981.”  Since then, the last time the boys’ football team has won the Inter-Ac title was in 2004.  Likewise, the boys’ lacrosse team has not won the Inter-Ac title since 1998.  The Strategic Plan dictates that remaining competitive in the Inter-Ac is an important goal for Episcopal, stating in strategy seven, “At Episcopal, we believe that athletic competition provides life-long skills and perspectives in shaping the character of children. We also believe that it is our responsibility to give our athletes and teams every chance to win.”

In an effort to promote athletic success, the Committee on Athletics, headed by Michael Letts, Director of Communications, and Whit Powell, tennis coach, was formed in the spring of 2010.  The voluntary committee is comprised of 25 Upper School faculty members and coaches. “The committee was put together to implement strategy seven of the Strategic Plan. We put policies and directives in place to achieve that directive,” said Letts.

One of the issues that the committee discussed was the growing class sizes of other schools and its adverse effects on male sports competition.  Geoff Wagg, Head of Upper School, said, “Haverford went from having 80 boys in each class, to 120 in the freshman class this year. How does Episcopal compete against schools like Malvern and Haverford who have two times the male population?”

One solution proposed by the committee was joining the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), which places schools in brackets based on size.  In the PIAA, Episcopal and Haverford would be in different brackets, and thus would not compete against each other.  “The Inter-Ac schools have been looking at joining the PIAA but do not know if it is possible for Inter-Ac schools to join the PIAA and still compete in the Inter-Ac,” said Clark.

Competing in schools closer in size to Episcopal could help the school’s athletic success. “When you compare our programs to Penn Charter and Germantown Academy, we fare well because we’re equivalently sized co-ed schools,” said Wagg. However, regarding the possibility of joining the PIAA, Letts said, “No decision has been made on the matter…it was merely a discussion.”

The committee also discussed recruiting more student athletes.  Letts said, “We discovered that the Admissions Office needs more support in finding talented student athletes and this year, an athletic liaison was hired to help recruit possible student athletes.”

Collin Wright ’12, a member of the boys’ varsity baseball and basketball team said, “I think Episcopal is taking the right steps to remaining competitive in boys’ sports.  They’ve hired new coaches for basketball, baseball, and football who are looking to recruit scholar-athletes.”

Commenting on the school’s renewed focus on recruiting more scholar-athletes, Clark said, “I like to think of it as a broader issue; some of the kids who are good scholar-athletes gain leadership skills through sports and tend to be very successful.”

Another initiative of the committee was to focus on sports at a younger age.  Practice time for Middle School sports was increased, and a new after-school sports program for fourth and fifth graders was created.  This Lower School program is run by Upper School coaches who teach young Episcopal athletes the basics of various sports.  The program “builds in-house talent,” said Wagg.

Some coaches are initiating their own talent-building programs at Episcopal.  Shane Malenfant ’12, captain of the football team said, “Coach Fairlie created the Meehan All-Stars program that a lot of the freshman went through.  It’s a good recruiting tool that will help up be able to compete with Haverford.”