Richie Palazzese ’14, Connor Martin ’14: In a league dominated by single sex schools like Malvern Prep, Haverford School, and Notre Dame, EA needs as much participation as possible out of its student-athletes. Trying to compete with half the number of athletes is practically impossible, and the diminishing number of championships on the boy’s side in particular is evidence of just that.
At EA, freshmen and sophomores are required to compete in two interscholastic sports with a fitness option for a third season. On the other hand, juniors and seniors are only required to compete in one interscholastic sport with a fitness option during the other two seasons, and in the seniors’ case, a senior cut option. Along with an increasingly lenient sports contract system in which athletes aren’t required to participate in anything related to the EA program, these requirements and the societal interest of specialization allow our student athletes to eventually compete in only one sport, something we cannot afford to do with such a small enrollment and minimal recruiting flexibility.
Aside from simply wanting to be competitive, the EA athletic department has always emphasized that our strict requirements, probably the strictest in the league, are more for the student athletes and their develoment of character. Being a part of an athletic team is essential to EA’s philisophy of Mind, Body, and Spirit. In addition to having a coach as another mentor, athletes encounter significant adversity. They win and lose as a team, learning vital life lessons of loyalty, resiliency, and determination.
With only two Inter-Ac championships through the fall and winter seasons, our success as an athletic program has suffered from decreasing participation. Only about ten percent of the current senior class competes for an interscholastic program in all three seasons, a proportion that has certainly decreased throughout the years according to the athletic shields in the Dixon Athletic Center.
Many student-athletes at EA tend to seek out contract or fitness options in order to better prepare and specialize in a specific sport. The days of everyone being involved in interscholastic athletics all year long are long gone. With an impressive weight room and an exceptional strength and conditioning program organized by a professional, Coach Steve Musacchio, fitness options are more appealing than ever before, but history has still proven that the most successful athletes compete at the highest level in all three seasons. Look no further than the recently graduated Class of 2013. Kevin Gayhardt ’13 (Penn), Adam Strouss ’13 (Penn), Kristen Hinckley ’13 (Dartmouth), and Meghan Hubely ’13 (Navy) in particular all played three varsity sports during their senior years and clearly excelled enough in one sport to earn a spot on such elite, prestigious collegiate rosters.
Even though Notre Dame Academy, with roughly 90 girls in the class of 2014, Haverford School with 102 boys in the class of 2014, and Malvern Prep with 127 boys in the class of 2014 may have smaller overall enrollments than EA, our co-education standard has left us at a significant numbers disadvantage with only about 60-65 boys and girls in each upper school class. With larger numbers, these other schools have more slots open to accept certain applicants specializing in athletics, theatre, or for academics, whereas our admissions committee must be more selective to well-rounded students. For every three sport athletic superstar that we admit, these single sex schools can admit two or three.
Because EA excels in academics, the arts, and athletics, there is no clear solution. Kids who star in music and theatre cannot fulfill a stricter athletic requirement, and therefore in reality, the odds will always be against us. By the end of high school athletic careers in this era, being a part of two varsity programs is considered a big accomplishment. Keeping this in mind, requirements must remain the same.