Beyond "Gym Class " Park Athletics & P.E.

.

&

AT H L E T I C S

P. E

BEYOND “GYM CLASS”

14 THE PARK SCHOOL

AT H L E T I C S

&

.

P. E

As much as anything else we do at Park, the commitment to a PreK–8 Physical Education program speaks to that. Add to this the opportunity students have beginning in Grade 4 to try out the team sport experience while continuing to reap the benefits of physical education, and you have a wonderful formula to support Whole Child growth. “Academic excellence” in the classroom is just one component of meaningful education, while the skills, confidence, and relationship-building that happens on the playing fields and in the gym is also essential.

Park families may be inclined to take this for granted. The interweaving of P.E. into daily life and its impact on the evolution of growth mindset is just part of the oxygen that feeds us at Park. Yet at many schools, the commitment to P.E. tapers off in the middle school years. Upper Division Head Ken Rogers believes that’s a real loss. “We value Physical Education as part of what we mean by ‘academic

excellence,’” he says. “There are structures and habits and attitudes about being physically active that you don’t get from team sports. Valuing the ‘Whole Child’ as we do, we appreciate the importance of play. We appreciate the importance of learning how your body moves, and of creativity. And we believe it’s important that our students come to see themselves as active human beings.”

At many independent schools, the middle school P.E. requirement (which is, unfortunately, often viewed as just a “requirement”) is shunted to the after-school hours in the form of required athletics. Director of Physical Education Michelle Young notes that “There’s a lot of importance about being on a team, and at the same time, athletics and P.E. are two different things.” A mandatory athletics program may be great for those kids who thrive in that environment, but it would be inconsistent with the educational mission of a school like Park that believes every student should feel known and seen, come to know themselves and their passions, and have a deep sense of belonging.

As Ken Rogers observes, “It’s possible to be physically active and not be an athlete. Programs that require sports imply that everyone is an athlete.” And that exacts yet another price. Ken notes, “If

16 THE PARK SCHOOL

everyone is at sports at the end of the day, they don’t get to explore what else might really excite them. Our after-school drama program is a good example of that—while a student can participate in a theater elective during the academic day, the after-school drama program provides students who want be part of the cast of a drama production the opportunity to do so, after school, in a time slot that might otherwise be claimed by team sports.” Similarly, this allows students who want to prioritize music lessons or other enrichment programming time in their schedules to do so. Park’s strategy ensures that all students benefit from P.E., while each also has the opportunity to discover their own passions—whether it’s through athletic competition, or through another after-school activity like drama, music, or visual arts.

RESPECTING THE PACE OF CHILDHOOD “What’s great about P.E. at Park,” Michelle Young observes, “is that the student journey goes from basic movement to lifetime skills, taking risks and gaining confidence along the way. We do push your comfort levels a bit—and I think being pushed out of your comfort level a little bit is where a lot of that learning and that growth goes on. Our motto is, ‘Do Your Best and Forget the Rest.’”

While most teachers work with a relatively narrow age group, Park’s P.E. team works across divisions, across age groups, and is able to connect with them all. One day in April, Michelle worked with a group of Grade 5 students attempting to scale the West Gym climbing wall for the first time. The lesson started with safety—how to set up the harness, how to orient oneself to the wall, how to let the partner holding your safety line know that you’re ready to come down, how to let friends know that cheering out loud will rattle you on the wall—and then moved on to execution. Students approached the wall with varying degrees of excitement, confidence, and trepidation, and it was especially wonderful to see the kids who started out most timid proudly reaching the top as their friends cheered them on.

And then, not 40 minutes later, she led a threering circus of PreK students by the smaller climbing wall in the Main Gym. While Grade 5 students have the capacity to wait their turn on the climbing wall, the little ones need constant engagement. Michelle divided the students into three groups: while onethird of the group prepared for their PreK Marathon by running laps around the gym, another group invented elaborate ways to toss and catch colorful scarves, and the final group lined up, criss-crossapple-sauce, on the floor in front of the climbing wall. She then explained the climbing wall and guided the children along, with gentle words and encouragement and a supportive hand. Every climber—whether they made it to the top or just a foot off the ground—felt proud, and every child in the other two groups

couldn’t wait for their turn. Fear had no place here; discovery and accomplishment ruled. Meanwhile, they also learned sharing, and patience, and the importance of focusing on their own tasks even with the exciting climbing wall in the corner of their eyes when it wasn’t their turn.

On another day, Michelle led a PreK class in learning a very special dance—basically, for those who saw the ’70s first hand, it was The Hustle. The P.E. program may look like we’re all just having fun— which we are—but it’s also supporting a deliberate, thoughtful, developmentally appropriate progression. Michelle explains that the arc of the PreK through 8th grade Physical Education program starts with PreK–1 really thinking about moving their bodies—local motor skills, non-local motor skills, and coordination. She continues, “Then, for the 2nd–4th grade, it’s really reinforcing those skills you’ve learned, and how to combine those skills with more manipulative type skills with equipment. From there, our 5th through 8th grade students are learning about life skills and how physical activity can benefit you and translate into real life situations. And we’re trying to do that while at the same time respecting the pace of childhood.”

Scott Young is thrilled by the benefits Park’s new turf field will bring to our P.E. program as a

“

What’s great about P.E. at Park is that the student journey goes from basic movement to lifetime skills, taking risks and gaining confidence along the way.” —Michelle Young

Summer Bulletin 202217

&

AT H L E T I C S

.

P. E

“

It’s very important for students to learn how to win, and to learn how to lose. And to do it all with grace and poise.” —Dana Welshman-Studley ’85

space where, four seasons a year, our students can be outside, playing and engaging. He is equally excited about the ways in which the new adventure equipment coming to Park for next fall will expand these opportunities. “The Park journey focuses so much on the physical needs of our children, and the adventure equipment is critically important to that. It is a different way to be physical. It’s not sport, and it’s not training…it is problem-solving and engaging in a physical realm, working with friends, working with partners to tackle obstacles. It opens up a whole new realm for our students in terms of what they can do here at Park and how they are fed as a whole child.”

Michelle expands on this thinking, noting that “Trust is important, taking risks is important, getting out of your comfort zone is important, teambuilding is important, really for any age group. This is a chance for our students to say ‘I see you, I’ve got you, I’m with you, and we’re going to do this journey together.’”

GRACE AND POISE: EDUCATING STUDENTS TO BE GOOD PEOPLE Associate Athletics Director Dana Welshman- Studley ’85 teaches P.E. and is also a coach, and she’s a big believer in Park’s P.E. program. “We are lucky,” she says, “to have P.E. through 8th grade three times a week. It’s an amazing P.E. program. Students are learning how to cooperate with others and to make things work. The athletics piece is the ‘over and above,’ which so many of them are desperate to have.” Athletics, Dana believes, presents the moment when students can “really work hard and prove themselves,” reveling in the opportunity for competition.

The arc of athletics at Park begins in Grade 4, when students have the opportunity to join in intramural sports. “They begin to build their foundation, gain basic skills, and build a platform from which to build,” Dana says. Interscholastic sports begin in Grade 5, and students have the option to participate in competitions against other schools through Grade 8. Dana smiles, “Students really love that opportunity to represent Park School!”

Current students, especially the athletes, are already excited by the prospect of the new turf field coming for Fall 2022. As Scott notes, the new field will “elevate the ways we think about athletics. Our students who love athletics love teamwork and collaboration. They are inspired by competition, and

18 THE PARK SCHOOL

Top and above left: renderings of Park's new turf field.

having a world-class competitive space will elevate their sense of who they are and what athletics can be at The Park School.” Ken Rogers adds, “It’s a different experience, playing on quality fields, and it also prepares students for high school athletics.” Fundamentally, however, the athletics experience is about more than just skills. “It’s very important for students to learn how to win, and to learn how to lose. And to do it all with grace and poise,” Dana says. “The goals of our program really are about character building. We want them to learn the skills and we want them to be happy basketball players or field hockey players. But we also want them to be good people. We want them to learn how to be a member of a team. How to support other people and receive support from other people. We want them to learn how to be on time, to have all the belongings they’re supposed to have when they get where they are going, and to communicate well. All those skills come from team sports, and are super important.”

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT MAKES PARK “PARK” At Park, we’re so lucky to have the gymnasium space, the fields, and the creative, dedicated Physical Education and Athletics personnel that collectively support an exceptional, thoughtfully layered program that truly reflects Park’s commitment to educating the “Whole Child.” Sure, students grow in physical fitness, as athletes, and as teammates, but they also grow as well-rounded members of a civil community. This unique part of Park’s curriculum is deeply rooted in Park’s mission—simply put, it prepares them for life.

Summer Bulletin 2022 19

.

&

AT H L E T I C S

P. E

JACOB ADUAMA ’07

LEARNING THE BALANCE OF WORK, LIFE, AND SPORT: JACOB ADUAMA ’07

From an interview by Bob Little, Director of Athletics

I f Park had an Athletics Hall of Fame, Jacob would surely be part of it. He is among the Park athletes who have gone on to play sports at the Division 1 level in college, and continues to play soccer semi-professionally. But while his athletics accomplishments are extraordinary, he also exemplifies the values underscoring Park’s mission to cultivate the “whole child”: well-rounded students who understand who they are, who discover their passions, find their voice, and combine these experiences to make thoughtful, well-informed choices.

A 2007 Park graduate who attended Park from Grade 1 through Grade 9, Jacob was recognized at his Park graduation for his unique contributions to the community:

While you are a multi-talented student and athlete, it is the strength of your character that has defined your very special place here. Through your dignity and your quiet intensity, you have inspired others. Of particular note, in small and often unseen ways, you have been a caretaker and protector of younger students throughout the school. In your words and your actions, you consistently have demonstrated that pride in oneself is at the core of respect for others. Simply by sharing your strong sense of self, you have deepened and dignified the understanding of diversity that is so central to our mission at Park.

These days, Jacob lives in Gothenberg, Sweden, where he is group manager at Volvo Autonomous Solutions in charge of the team that conducts in-vehicle testing for Volvo’s self-driving vehicles and machines. He’s been in Sweden for five and a half years now, and when he isn’t working, he plays soccer at the semi-pro level, with three training sessions per week and matches on weekends. The balancing of work, life, and sport is

important to Jacob, and something he believes he first learned at Park.

Thinking back on his Park experience, Jacob says that the fact that he had the ability to play sports competitively at the middle school level, and the opportunity to explore, was significant. “Even if there were three sports I always played, I tried some other ones in between. You really had the flexibility to try different things,” he recalls. And, even though he and his teammates worked hard and played hard, there was also the freedom to have fun. “I think that helped me.” he says, “I played because it was fun, not because I felt I always had to prove something, or be pushed.”

While the soccer field, basketball court, and track may have been where Jacob found natural affinity, his Park Physical Education experience taught him all the more. “Everyone had to do it, even if you didn’t want to.” For Jacob, this became a lesson in community building. How might he help get peers who were less interested in an activity excited about joining? “As a group, the P.E. teachers always challenged those who were stronger athletes to help others on the team,” he says. “For me, this meant gaining a greater understanding of team sports. I learned that we were better if I passed to

20THE PARK SCHOOL

“MY FIRST TEAM CAPTAIN EXPERIENCE WAS AT THE PARK SCHOOL. BEING ABLE TO DO THAT AT A YOUNG AGE WAS A HUGE ADVANTAGE.”

other kids. I learned that the team was better if I helped others be better.” The broader lessons—patience, and the ability to respect and appreciate different talents—continue to resonate for Jacob. The skills he gained in working with others with different interests and perspectives, he says, have carried forward into his professional and private life.

Park was also where Jacob had his first real leadership opportunity in athletics. “My first team captain experience was at The Park School. Being able to do that at a young age was a huge advantage.” The lessons transcend the playing field in so many ways. In 8th grade, Jacob was spotted by a coach scouting for Northfield Mount Hermon, which launched the conversation that eventually brought Jacob to NMH, where he was a three-season athlete—soccer, basketball, and track & field. Jacob reflects that the opportunity to be a multi-sport athlete at Park was another big plus. Park always encouraged this, and yet when Jacob got

to NMH, he found he was the rare three-season athlete. “That was something I took with me from Park,” he says, “both physically and in terms of passions for different things I loved to do.”

These days, the trend toward specializing in a particular sport happens much younger. Even at Park, students sometimes find themselves caught in the middle between their club team and their Park team. Jacob believes this is unfortunate, noting that he had friends at university who studied Kinesiology, which reveals the great benefits to young athletes playing different sports while they grow. “While you are growing,” he says, ”your muscles and body can cope with different actions, but if all you are doing until you are 20 is kicking a soccer ball, there’s a risk that you won’t have trained the rest of your body as well.” It also expanded his understanding of the game. Playing basketball, for example, helped him be a better goalkeeper in soccer, not only because it trained his ability to jump, but because it taught him to “read the angle of the ball, and how to track it in the air.”

It was exciting, Jacob says, to play sports at a higher level at NMH, where he was soccer captain his senior year, and then to go on to captain the Division 1 soccer team at Northeastern, where he majored in Chemical Engineering. His commitment to athletics taught him valuable lessons in time management. “My parents were always ‘education first’ when I was younger, so I knew that if I wanted to keep playing sports, I had to keep my grades and performance up,” he says. “When I got to NMH, I saw that some of my classmates weren’t used to that, and they had a harder time adjusting to the challenging schedule.” By then, however, the need to set

Summer Bulletin 202221

.

&

AT H L E T I C S

P. E

MEG LLOYD ’98

VALUING COMMUNITY: MEG LLOYD ’98

by Kristin Freedman, Park ASP teacher

I f you attend a sports game at Park, you’ll undoubtedly see students receiving guidance and encouragement as they huddle around their coach. Moments like these had a lasting impact on Meg Lloyd ’98, who now coaches students of her own. Meg is the Dean of Students and an English teacher at Cardigan Mountain School in Canaan, New Hampshire. She is currently a soccer coach and has coached ice hockey in the past. “I teach and I coach,” Meg says, “because I love sharing what I loved doing.”

A Park “lifer” who attended the school from PreK through Grade 9, Meg identifies Physical Education as an integral part of her growth. “I feel like the groundwork was laid in having P.E. all the way through,” she recalls. “That was really helpful in the grand scheme of my development.” Through P.E. classes, physical fitness and activity were woven into the fabric of her life from an early age. “Looking back, I realize I thought about athletics and my physical health in a different way than my peers who didn’t have access to regular P.E. classes… like I did when I was at Park.”

While fitness and movement were crucial elements of Meg’s P.E. experience, the benefits extended far beyond her physical wellness. “There was so much social-emotional growth that went on in P.E.,” she notes, adding that P.E. “built the foundation for how to be a part of a team.” Students learned how to create a climate of mutual respect, cooperation, and healthy competition— all of which were Park’s “core values… how we operated.”

Starting in Grade 6, Meg played a sport at Park every season: soccer in the fall, ice hockey in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. Playing on Park’s sports teams allowed her to develop and hone her athletic skills within Park’s supportive, close-knit environment. She “loved the element of being in the classroom but also on the sports field” with her coaches, who were also her teachers and advisors. “They were a part of the web of adults that helped to educate and raise us.” Meg recalls having P.E. teachers Pat Zifcak and Dana Welshman- Studley ’85—who also happened to be mother and daughter—as lacrosse coaches: “This was not only community… this was our family.”

When Meg entered The Governor’s Academy as a high school sophomore, she didn’t make the varsity soccer team, but realized that playing on the junior varsity team could be equally rewarding. “I had learned at Park that it’s better to play and get better than to sit around and do nothing… at Park, everybody played.” As the

Jacob Aduama ’07, continued

priorities was second nature to Jacob. “If you know you have to go to school, train directly after school, and do your homework, just getting right onto the next thing, you build that routine from an early age.” While classmates struggled with managing their new-found freedom, Jacob simply kept his routine going. “I definitely think having to maintain that balance when you’re younger helps.”

Jacob looks forward to making it back to Park next winter—“It’s been too long,” he

says—and he’s very excited to see Park’s new turf field. Most secondary school teams are playing on turf, he notes. Soccer is faster on turf and you don’t worry about the ball taking a weird bounce. He believes it will help Park athletes to become accustomed to playing at that level. And, he observes, “Boston winters are so hard and turf opens up the opportunity for higher quality training for a longer period of time. You worry less about maintaining the fields. That’s a big bonus.”

The value of the athletics experience extends far beyond the playing field. On the one hand, Jacob knows that soccer has helped him find community and form connections in Sweden, not to mention improving his language skills. “If you play soccer in the park, you meet people. You share interests. It’s Europe…so at the least, someone will ask you what your favorite football club is, and you go on from there.” Beyond that, however, he observes, “Once you have been on a team, you are

22 THE PARK SCHOOL

INTEGRITY AND A SENSE OF FAIR PLAY WERE ALSO DEEPLY EMBEDDED IN THE ETHOS OF PARK ATHLETICS.

junior varsity team—of which Meg was now a captain— approached the end of their season, she was given the opportunity to leave her team and finish the season as a varsity player. She refused. “I was competitive,” she says, “but I was also playing for the community and being a part of a team, and that outweighed being able to compete at the varsity level that year.”

While playing sports at both the high school and collegiate levels, Meg held fast to the values she learned as a Park athlete. “We’re respectful of our opponents, but we also try our hardest… we’re going to be competitive but we’re also going to be respectful of the other team.” Integrity and a sense of fair play were also deeply embedded in the ethos of Park Athletics. “I would rather

compete against a team and lose by a goal than blow out another team,” she explains, “and I think that came specifically from Park.”

As a coach, Meg hopes to provide her students with the same levels of support, motivation and care that she received as a Park student. Though Cardigan is an all-boys school, she has coached girls teams in the past, which enabled her to “be a role model for women in sports… and be present for female athletes.” Above all, she emphasizes the importance of respect and camaraderie on the playing field. “I know that came from my understanding of sports… which came from Park and the Park sports experience”—an experience that enriches the lives of students and alumni alike.

programmed to understand that we are all different, with different skills and different levels of competence, but that we have a common goal that we strive towards together.” He reflects, “Each member of a team needs to work on their strengths, understand where they fit in, and work to coordinate a good team effort. At work, on the field, and in other parts of my life, I see this on a daily basis, and it’s fundamental to who I am today.”

“EACH MEMBER OF A TEAM NEEDS TO WORK ON THEIR STRENGTHS, UNDERSTAND WHERE THEY FIT IN, AND WORK TO COORDINATE A GOOD TEAM EFFORT.”

Summer Bulletin 2022 23

.

&

AT H L E T I C S

P. E

ALEX ’13 AND LANIE ’16 CHERRY

GROWING UP AT PARK: ALEX ’13 AND LANIE ’16 CHERRY

From an interview by Bob Little, Director of Athletics

A lex and Lanie Cherry both arrived at Park as tiny PreK students and so Park was where they found their first friends and their earliest mentors. Both grew as exceptional scholars on a journey that led them both to the Ivy League—Alex to Princeton, and Lanie to Brown—and they both reflect on the value of their Park athletic and Physical Education experience in helping support their way forward.

Lanie says, “Sports helped me get out of my shell.” She was naturally quiet and somewhat shy, but on Park’s playing fields, she found her voice, her confidence. By Grade 8, she was captain of her team, and when she entered Milton for secondary school, she was confident in herself, and in her abilities. Team sports was a place where she could be both competitive and social, and there was joy in that.

For Alex, his most powerful Park memories come back to his 6th grade undefeated soccer team. “We were just a powerhouse that year,” he recalls. “It was super cool to reach that high standard at such a young age, and to be playing with so many other good players.” Yet some of the very best experiences came about through P.E. and even recess, when he and his buddies would play together. “It was so joyous that we could just go out and play,” he says. Recess became the place where he and his friends learned to work together on competition without the guidance of coaches, figuring out how to collaborate and manage the games themselves.

The through line for Alex came down to the wonderful connections with classmates, teammates, teachers, and coaches. “It was really fun that after

games, the next day, my teammates were my classmates, and my coaches were my teachers. It was a close knit, tight group.” The value of that student-teacher/coach relationship at Park particularly stands out for Alex. “It felt comfortable going to those adults who knew you so well for guidance,” he says. The teacher who is also your coach gets to know you in a multidimensional way–and you can go to that person with anything.

Lanie recalls the empowerment that came out of the collective celebration of student accomplishment at Morning Meetings. “We’d get up at Morning Meeting and say ‘Our team has a game today,’ and then the next day we’d report the results. The school acknowledged and praised our participation.” The culture of athletics at Park was strong and supported by the community.

For both Lanie and Alex, a key takeaway from their experience as student-athletes at Park was the time management skills they learned. Alex recalls that even in 6th grade, he understood that, when he was “in season,” school-practice-homework-sleep became a structure that really supported him. He says, “You needed that time management—you didn’t have time to use time inefficiently. That continued beyond Park.” Lanie reflects

LANIE SAYS, “SPORTS HELPED ME GET OUT OF MY SHELL.”

24 THE PARK SCHOOL

FOR BOTH LANIE AND ALEX, A KEY TAKEAWAY FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE AS STUDENT- ATHLETES AT PARK WAS THE TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS THEY LEARNED.

that she learned at Park how to “look ahead,” because the demands of sports required it. Yet for both, the fact that their Park teachers were also their coaches, and understood that this time management skill was something they were learning, they had support along the way.

Team sports remained important to Lanie at Milton, where she played Varsity Soccer. Now a sophomore at Brown, she has come to appreciate the opportunity for team sports to be an ongoing part of her life, without needing it to dominate. She plays club soccer, which provides the social and “team” benefits she loves, while allowing her the time to engage with all sorts of aspects of college life, which she wouldn’t be able to do as a Division 1 athlete.

Alex was a three-season athlete all the way through St. Sebastian’s, playing football, ice hockey, and baseball—and is now in his junior year at Princeton, where he is a wide receiver on the Princeton football team that won the Ivy League in 2021. Even with his commitment to football, however, he continues to play other sports when he can. He enjoys pick-up basketball and, understanding that sports will always be a part of his life, he’s working on his tennis and golf games as well.

Both Lanie and Alex have grown throughout

FOR BOTH LANIE AND ALEX, A KEY TAKEAWAY FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE AS STUDENT-ATHLETES to thrive.

AT PARK WAS THE TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS THEY LEARNED.

their journey at Park and beyond, and the skills and understanding gained along the way have helped each of them find their place, find their passions, and understand how to find the balance they need in order

Summer Bulletin 202225

.

&

AT H L E T I C S

P. E

GEORGE FULTON ’17

THE POWER OF PERSONAL ENERGY

From an interview with George Fulton ’17 by Tim O’Brien and Bob Little

W hen George Fulton ’17 looks back on his Park athletics experience, he remembers “a lot of winning, and that was fun!” But what resonates most strongly was the team culture he enjoyed, something he feels really sets Park apart. “It’s the best team environment I’ve been a part of, even to this day. I loved the fun-natured, healthy team environment. That’s the most important thing.” He loved the fact that he and his buddies played together on teams across all three seasons, often with the same coach. He joined the soccer team because his cousin Oscar Burns wanted him to help the team, and Oscar, in turn, played lacrosse because George wanted him to help out there. “We came to understand that the expectation was that everyone chips in, everyone supports the community as a full participant,” he says.

Currently playing Division 1 lacrosse at the University of Virginia, George’s experience at Park, and subsequently at Middlesex, taught him how much impact the energy one brings to a team—or, really, to any collaborative work— has on the collective endeavor. He reflects, “I didn’t know it then, but I’ve come to notice how the energy and actions of older kids and team leaders affect the whole team.” Thinking back to his Park experience, he remembers “high energy people—Mr. Toussaint, Mr. Fries, Mr. O’Brien, and others—who brought a good attitude every single day. Not all coaches, and not all team captains can do that, but that’s the case at Park.” That positive team culture is something he still aspires to. As a first year player at Virginia, he can already see the opportunity ahead for him when, as a senior member of the team, he can bring that positive energy and shape the culture in good ways.

George knows that his love of sports first awakened in Park’s Physical Education program. “Park P.E….it’s obviously the BEST time of day. I remember all the different activities and sports we played.” On any given Tuesday at 9 a.m he’d play field hockey, throw javelin and discus, long jump, run distance, and, he says “It definitely introduced me to a bunch of different movements. I really benefited from the days in the weight room with Mr. Savage and from the running.” In particular, he applauds Steve Savage’s early lessons on foam rolling—a regular therapy he and his teammates rely on now. “I used to think it was the biggest waste of time.” Since his muscles were still so young and pliant then, “I didn’t feel anything. Now I foam roll every day. Also, the stretching, and squat mechanics…all those definitely carried over as life skills.”

Park also taught George the importance of sustaining focus and energy throughout the day, and he has come to see “energy management” as a key to success as a scholar athlete. “At Park we just went full out all day. We started at 8 a.m. in Morning Meeting, and then we ran a mile in P.E. and then we’re at lunch, then two more classes, and then we’re playing lacrosse. You get used to that.” In contrast, peers in college find themselves overwhelmed by the need to sustain their energy throughout the day and not become overwhelmed by the two added hours of practice.

Division 1 athletics are like a full time job, and everything else bends around them. “I had to take my microeconomics exam on the plane to Brown,” George reports about a recent lacrosse competition. An academic coordinator travels with the team to serve, essentially, as a proctor. “We had to take it at the same time as other students so no one could text others the answers, so there we were, six guys, in the airport and on the plane, taking

26 THE PARK SCHOOL

“PA R K P.E….I T’S OBV IOUSLY T H E BEST TIME OF DAY.”

the test.” He believes his early training at Park helped set him up well, however, to manage these challenges.

Significantly, this energy management applies not only to those jam-packed days, but to days when there is downtime. George explains that when he’s “in season” for lacrosse, just sustaining the energy to keep on top of everything is a challenge. In the fall, however, when practice hours are limited, he has three days per week with no team activities. “On those days, energy management is important because you need to do more than just the team activities. See your friends. Call your mom. Do your homework,” he says. The extra discipline that started at Park is all the more noticeable on those days because he sustains the focus to get things done.

George’s conversation with two of his former Park coaches was full of laughter and warmth— clearly, the team culture he inhabited at Park has had lasting effects, as has his appreciation for the inherent fun athletics can offer. He still loves playing pick up basketball, a throwback to recess at Park, and played pickleball with his parents in their driveway during COVID lockdown. Even now as Division 1 athlete, he appreciates the benefits of “fun lacrosse.” “Mandatory lacrosse,” he says, “is being in the middle of Delaware on a turf field with teammates you don’t really like,” a pretty apt description of elite youth club sports. “Fun lacrosse is Park lacrosse in the spring. It’s your prize.”

DANA WELSHMAN-STUDLEY ’85, AMY SALTONSTALL ’87, AND MERRILL HAWKINS ’96

COMING HOME TO PARK

P ark students learn what it means to show up with your best for Park under the guidance of coaches who, as Park alumni themselves, benefited from these same lessons growing up. Park taught them how to work hard, play fair, honor their teammates, and to be gracious in victory and in defeat. Now, they pass these essential values along to the next generations.

Dana Welshman-Studley ’85 discovered her passion for athletics at Park, and went on to play Field Hockey and Lacrosse at Thayer Academy, and Lacrosse at Roanoke College. She had a great mentor—her mother, Pat Zifcak, taught Physical Education and coached at Park for 32 years. Dana joined the Park P.E. department in 1996, and currently serves as Associate Athletics Director.

Amy Saltonstall ’87 was a three-sport athlete at Park, and went on to play field hockey, ice hockey, and lacrosse at Milton, and field hockey and lacrosse at Williams. Returning to Park to teach in 2013, Amy was glad for the opportunity to coach field hockey and lacrosse, and to remain deeply connected with the learning that comes through participation on a team.

Merrill Hawkins ’96 returned to Park as a Grade 6 Humanities teacher, and like Amy, is also dedicated to working with students outside the classroom as a coach. Merrill played soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse at Park, played soccer, ice hockey, and softball at Deerfield, and ice hockey at Colby.

Summer Bulletin 202227