GROWING UP AT PARK: 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

Alex 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.”

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 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 to thrive.