Staff Editorial
“A tradition of excellence, The Episcopal Academy is known for its dominant athletic program,” reads EA’s website, boasting to any prospective student-athletes, parents, or opponents our state-of-art facilities, coaches, talent, and trophies. Athletics and Episcopal are simply inseparable, from the early years of all-boys sports and the formation of the Inter-Ac league, to the dynastic wins of the girls’ teams in more recent years. Though EA has found noteworthy success in its athletic programs, there is a hidden element that has also contributed to many of our athletes’ successes: club sports.
As put by Todd Fairlie, Head Athletic Director, club sports, or “travel teams” as they are sometimes called, weren’t always around. “From even five years ago, clubs have really grown, and we need to be aware of them because our athletes do them,” he explains. The modern club sport is a sometimes expensive opportunity for athletes to train and compete year-round in a particular sport. They exist in different manners for most of the sports at EA; baseball, field hockey, soccer, tennis, water polo, basketball, swimming, football, lacrosse, softball, ice hockey, and wrestling all have versions of clubs that students at EA engage with.
EA itself also engages with club teams. Our fields and facilities are rented out to clubs to host their own practices and games, and EA even occasionally hires club-affiliated coaches to train our athletes. With the abundance of clubs in the area, allegiances to one particular club over another can create serious tension and accusation amongst teammates and coaches.
Though Fairlie assures, “Personally I have a high expectation of our coaches to be available, and that this [EA] should be their top priority,” many students feel wronged by the favoritism at play when it comes to Episcopal and club athletic overlap, on both the team and coaching end of things.
“At the end of the day, clubs really do create divides on our EA teams,” says Grace Schynder ‘22, committed to University of Scranton for lacrosse. She adds, “Each club teaches differently, so everyone’s at different skill levels, which contributes to someone deciding whether someone’s good or someone’s not good.”
Olivia Corrato ‘22, a field hockey captain committed to play at the University of Richmond, agrees that clubs affected EA team morale. She comments on the large number of transfer students that teams like field hockey get, saying clubs created, “division because those girls knew each other before.” Corrato believes these preconceived alliances among club teammates ultimately benefited the team, “because them playing together before was one step closer to us all playing together and passing, but was hard at first because you had to break those barriers.”
Photo Courtesy of powerhousefieldhockey.com
“People who do play club already have those relationships in place,” agrees Bella Piselli ‘22, a soccer, basketball and lacrosse captain committed to Villanova University for the latter sport. “And coaching styles and different principles have a big impact,” she adds.
CJ Jones ‘22, committed to Ithaca College for football, notes the disparity that exists when it comes to paying for club sports. “If you really think about it, it doesn’t make you any better just because your parents paid for you to be on a team and you got past try-outs,” he explains. Some athletes at Episcopal financially cannot afford to play club sports in addition to our high school teams. It costs a lot of time, money, and effort for players to make it to all of the practices and tournaments of an extra team, and to purchase additional equipment or uniforms.
Evidently, athletes at Episcopal are quick to recognize isolated groups on our teams based on outside-of-school club commitments. But another issue caused by EA and club team overlap comes when a club coach is hired as an Episcopal coach. Fairlie recognizes the tension that arises when a player belongs to a different club than that of their coach. He comments, “A club coach allegiance could be easily pointed to when an athlete doesn’t get what they want.” He adds, however, that during the hiring process, “we’d proceed with caution if an EA coach being affiliated with a club would affect team morale, or their allegiance to that club would change their perception of the kids.” However, as put by Olivia Warchol ‘22, committed to Fairfield University for field hockey, “They [club coaches] clearly prioritize their players, and I’ve seen it in multiple sports. I don’t think that’s fair, considering it’s a high school sport and they shouldn’t have the advantage over other kids.”
There are many solutions, ranging in severity, of how EA athletics could address the problems that arise with club conflicts on our teams. The first, and inherently most severe, is to restrict student athletes from playing for clubs and or not hiring club affiliated coaches. “In a perfect world,” comments Fairlie, “whatever students or athletes are trying to get, they’d be able to get here.” This is not an unheard of idea, as some clubs don’t allow their athletes to play for their high school teams and vice versa. Given this unrealistic idea for EA, Fairlie continues, “They’re [clubs] not going away. We don’t want to deter kids from them, but we do need to find a balance.”
And so instead, it is of the utmost importance that our EA athletes, coaches, and administration continue to promote harmony amongst teams. We call on our Episcopal teammates to limit their prejudices against their teammates because of club allegiances. The player who might be your opponent in a club match could be your best friend on EA’s team. As explained by Chris Bates, Head Coach of the Boy’s Lacrosse team, students should find a common pride in playing for Episcopal, “The boys look down at their jerseys and then look around the huddle at their teammates’ jerseys to see their school’s name. We hope that resonates with them, that they’re not just playing for themselves, but also their teammates and their school.” Athletes should have the mindset of using clubs to improve themselves for interscholastic play, even with the added benefit of collegiate recruiting exposure.
Bryce Cooper ‘22, football captain, notes, “In football, for example, we can play 7 on 7, which is non-contact, to help us get better so when we come back in the fall, we’re coming back better than we were a year ago.” This should be the goal our student athletes have in mind when approaching their club seasons, alongside any personal goals of improving for college play. When it comes time for Inter-Ac seasons to begin, the responsibility of looking past a coach’s or teammates’ club prejudice ultimately belongs to the athlete themselves. If we can do that, it is certain that our teams will benefit from the togetherness and be able to capitalize, grow, and dominate.