Henry Kovan ‘23
Roughly a third of EA graduates go on to play sports at the collegiate level every year. Some EA alumni have even competed professionally and internationally. These athletes have proven to be great assets to their respective college programs. This comes as no surprise given the particularly stiff competition these students have already competed against at the high-school level.
On the women’s side, some recent stand-out athletes include midfielder for the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Lacrosse Team, Olivia Dirks ‘19. In her first year of Division I competition playing for Penn State, Dirks was named Big 10 Midfielder of the Year. Josephine Konopka ‘18 rows for the University of Pennsylvania. Last summer, she raced internationally at the U23 World Championships in the Czech Republic, finishing in an impressive 15th place. The performances from both Dirks and Konopka are just two examples of the success of EA female alumnae athletes.
Likewise, former Episcopal male athletes have also continued to be successful at the collegiate level across a variety of sports. Jack Bush ‘19 plays defensive back for Lehigh University’s football team. In only his first two seasons as an underclassman, his talents have been recognized. He was selected to the First-Team All-Patriot League his freshman year and to the All-Patriot League preseason as a junior and has also accumulated varsity letters for his freshman and sophomore years.
Bush highlights how Episcopal equipped him with the skills he needed to find success in college, saying, “I learned to compete and work year round in order to be successful. I think that playing multiple sports really helped too because I was able to compete on various levels of competition all year.” He adds that, “I also learned how to take coaching at EA. The coaches taught me to listen to the message of the coach and take what they were saying and translate it to the field.”
Like Bush, EA record-holding swimmer Ben Baturka ‘16, continued to pursue sports in college. While swimming for Kenyon College, Baturka was an eight time Division III All-American. He also was a three time CSCAA Academic Scholar All-American for his accomplishments academically and in the pool.
Sharing similar sentiments to Bush, Baturka also feels that EA prepared him for the rigors of being a student-athlete in college, noting, “The most helpful thing EA did for me as a college athlete was get me familiar with the idea of balancing my schedule and making sure I did everything I could to get my work done on time… This was especially helpful with managing my time, because if you’re spending 20 hours a week in college training there are also a lot of other aspects of your time on a team that no one really prepares you for… Knowing how to budget my time was a huge benefit to me that really enabled me to hit the ground running as soon as I got there.”
Among the players to emerge from EA’s baseball program, Kyle Virbitsky stands out. A 2017 graduate of EA and 2021 graduate of Penn State, Virbitsky was recently signed to play professional baseball with the Oakland Athletics. Pitching for Penn State was a “dream come true” for Virbitsky and enhanced his entire collegiate experience. Virbitsky’ was captain of Penn State’s team his junior and senior years. His sophomore, junior, and senior years, he was named to the All Academic Big Ten Team for his athletic and academic accomplishments.
Virbitsky reflects on the avenue from highschool sports to a professional career, recalling how Episcopal laid the foundation for success as he shares, “Playing different sports and learning different skills at Episcopal enabled me to be able to handle anything that comes my way on the baseball field.” He continues, “When I went from playing all these sports, and also playing multiple positions in baseball, to just pitching, it was crazy how boring it seemed for a little while… [When I] learned how all those skills and lessons applied to just pitching, my career took off and I became the pitcher I am today.”
These athletes also provide insight and guidance to EA student-athletes. Bush says, “I would say that being confident is one of the most important things. If you don’t believe in yourself it will really show when the competition is elevated at the college level. Also have fun with it, you’ve worked incredibly hard to get to this level and you’re really living out your dream, enjoy it.”
As for Baturka, he urges any EA student considering a career in collegiate sports to look for the college program that is the “right fit” rather than simply focusing on it being the “best possible school.”
Virbitsky advises EA students to embrace all opportunities on the path to success, emphasizing, “I truly believe you can do anything you put your mind to and Episcopal gives you so many opportunities to learn a variety of skills that if you can harness, and apply to anything you’re doing in your life, you can be wildly successful. Chase your dreams.”
