Lola Quigley ’20: While varsity athletes at Episcopal are typically in high school, in some cases, middle school students in eighth grade have the opportunity to participate in varsity athletics. Gina Buggy, Director of Athletics, referred to Gerald Henderson ‘06 when describing how to determine if the student is suited to play with the varsity team: “When G was in eighth grade, he could stand at the foul line, take two steps and dunk the ball. It seemed silly for him to be playing at the Middle School level.”
Buggy elaborates on this saying, “[This situation] really depends on your school and if there is an interest. It’s a large process to talk about with the child and the team to see if it’s the right scenario.” At EA, there have been various cases where either the player or the player’s parent has addressed the varsity coach of their specialty sport and asked where they think the child should be placed.
After the initial conversation, the varsity coach of whatever sport the Middle Schooler is interested in trying out for must talk with Doug Borgerson, Middle School Director of Athletics, and Steve Morris, Head of Middle School. Buggy says that the coaches “make sure that socially, academically, and otherwise, this wouldn’t be too much for the child.”
Along with rules of individual schools, there are also rules within PAISAA, the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association. The rule within PAISSA is that a student is not allowed to play in a PAISAA tournament game unless that student is in high school. There have been problems with this rule in the past, as the Varsity Girls Lacrosse team was disqualified from the tournament in the 2014 hampionship game for playing then eighth grader Katie Crager ‘18.
Crager played on varsity lacrosse during her last year of middle school in 2014. She states that the jump was easy because the team was “very welcoming,” and her twin sisters, Jane Crager ‘15 and Lily Crager ‘15, were also on the team in their junior year of high school. Crager explains, “My main focus during this experience was to gain experience for the future. That year gave me confidence knowing that I was on the team for the next tryout year.” Now, with her confidence, she is able to be one of the main leaders on the girls varsity lacrosse team. She gives advice to the student-athletes following in her footsteps. “For anyone else who could try, it’s difficult. But, I wouldn’t have changed anything because it made me stronger and pushed me out of my comfort zone.”
Vlad Puskovitch ‘20 participated in Varsity Diving while in Middle School. He enjoyed “the feeling of being on a high school team a year early.” Going into the season, he had his brother already on the team and had a few relationships with some of the underclassmen. One of his biggest takeaways from being a part of such a close group was that it “taught me to be more respectful to to the people that were older than me.” He mentions that he “sometimes didn’t have the same opinions as my teammates but because I was the youngest, I had to learn how to be respectful to them.” Puskovitch claims, “I missed a year of being able to dive with my Middle School friends, but I wouldn’t have taken it back because the overall experience was great.”
Amanda Jones ‘20 played for Varsity Girls Golf in her eighth-grade year while her sister, Lauren Jones ‘21, played up as a seventh grader. Their experience was at first nerve-racking; but, the captain at the time, Bella Echevarria ‘16, texted them and welcomed them to the team. During their experience while playing up, the upperclassmen were able to “give us so much advice about high school, and prepare us for things like Outward Bound,” A. Jones ‘22 remarks.
In past years, a number of Middle School athletes have participated in varsity sports. This list includes but is not limited to: Amanda Jones ‘20 (Golf), Lauren Jones ‘21 (Golf), Kathleen Mark ‘21 (Golf), Skyler Schork ‘18 (Water Polo and Swimming), Jon Perry ‘18 (Golf), Jacob Zeng ‘20 (Golf), Michael Zeng ’19 (Golf), Eliza Aldridge ‘21 (Tennis), Nadiyah Browning ‘16 (Tennis), Jovana Sekulic ‘21 (Water Polo), Lily Haupt ‘21 (Water Polo and Swimming), Bridget Egan ‘21 (Swimming), Maia Golub ‘18 (Diving), Vlad Puskovitch ‘20 (Diving), Ivan Puskovitch ‘19 (Swimming), Case Hummer ‘20 (Golf), Eric Kim ‘18 (Squash), Declan McCarthy ‘18 (Squash).