Schloat VARSITY BASKETBALL

Coach Julie Schloat was overjoyed when two alumnae who had graduated just last year came back over their holiday break to watch the girls’ basketball tournament and join the team dinner. “This is always a place where they can return,” she says warmly. Coach Schloat is intentional about building a team culture that is imbued with positivity. At the end of each game, the team ends their huddles with the “Hustle and Heart Award,” which recognizes that member of the team who played their heart out, win or lose. The recipient holds the trophy and passes it along to another teammate at the next game, keeping the focus on the team’s strengths and ending their huddles with a positive tone. Recent recipient of the Hustle and Heart Award, Georgia Sackrey ’23, feels empowered by the constructive culture Coach Schloat has cultivated. “[Coach Schloat] not only strives to create a successful basketball program but works just as hard to facilitate an inclusive and extremely positive space for all her players,” she notes.

Julie is careful not to diminish her players’ love for the sport. Her own lifelong love of basketball began in her biddy ball days in the small, upstate town of Westport, NY. Basketball was a family affair, and her father— a local basketball legend from his high school days—encouraged Julie and her older brother in the family sport, erecting a giant hoop that he built out of two by fours in their backyard. Julie remembers playing basketball with her brother before the school bus arrived in the mornings, hours practicing at the gym court next door to her home, gathering with the family to watch their favorite college teams play, and making it to two state championships (as the smallest school in the state) before leaving home to play for Middlebury College.

It was her love for the sport that led her to her first role as the assistant girls varsity basketball coach fourteen years ago when she arrived at Deerfield with her husband who had accepted a teaching position. Having taught and coached basketball prior to that at Blair Academy and The Browning School, Coach Schloat knew that she had to jump at the opportunity to coach when it presented itself—even though the timing could not have been worse with a newborn at home. She recalls how her husband would drive their two-month-old son to her away games just so that she could nurse. “One of the things I like most about Coach Schloat is her passion for basketball,” says Director of Athletics Bob Howe. “She loves the game, and she loves the players she coaches. Coaching and teaching at a place like Deerfield can be challenging; both require a ton of time. To do both well, a person needs to be organized and committed to excellence. We have this in Coach Schloat.”

Julie’s infectious positivity and passion have attracted a great support network of people who want to be involved with the team. “She leads with the utmost integrity. Her care for our players and the sport of basketball are always clear in each and everything she does,” says Assistant Coach Ashani Petrizzi, who coached alongside Julie in the most memorable game in recent history: The first win against rival NMH in a decade!

For Coach Schloat, team sports are an essential preparation for life. She hopes that her players realize that they can accomplish so much more by working alongside people than they could alone. “Being on a team will mimic so much of what life is going to be like. You’re going to have to compromise and lean on other people and step up for other people,” she says, reflecting on the life lessons she hopes her players take with them. “Of course, winning is the goal, but it’s not the only thing,” she says with a glimmer in her eye, as she goes on to recount how the team turned a losing game around. It was the last game of the day at the Eight-Schools tournament against Exeter, down by three and needing a three to tie the game to get to overtime. The previous week, they had just put in a special play for their best outside shooter to get a three-point shot but had barely practiced it. “I called a timeout and said, ‘Girls this is when we need to run this play and we need to run it perfectly,’” which they did, she says, as she relives that moment when the player hit the shot that took them to an overtime win. “It was a great moment for the girls to believe in themselves and to believe they can make things happen.”

Coach Schloat hopes that all her players will always want to come back to visit and that their team experiences were positive and memorable in all the right ways. “I went to the state championships twice. We lost both times. Does that ruin my memory of my basketball team? Absolutely not. What I end up remembering are all the times in the locker room, the bus rides, screaming at the top of our lungs to our favorite songs. You only get your high school team once, so enjoy it.” //

As the saying goes, “timing is everything,” and this holds true for basketball. A bit cliché perhaps, but not for Coach Connor Merrill who truly believes that if you work to your fullest potential, if you put effort into your relationships, if you’re unselfish, then opportunities will open up for you at the right time—both on and off the court. From the outside, looking in, opportunities do seem to arrive at just the right time, opening doors for Coach Merrill. Fresh out of Skidmore College, a contact asked him if he’d want to return to Vermont Academy—where he’d spent a post-graduate year—as their assistant boys varsity basketball coach. With nothing else on the immediate horizon, save for a youngster’s dream of playing basketball in Europe, he thought, why not? He’d always wanted to end up a coach if not a player. From there, personal connections brought Coach Merrill’s next two coaching opportunities: assistant mens’ varsity basketball coach at Springfield College and then subsequently at Middlebury College where he spent four years.

While at Middlebury, Coach Merrill approached Deerfield’s then head coach Conrad Pitcher (whose son Coach Merrill had recruited to play basketball at Middlebury) to express his interest in perhaps one day taking over the Deerfield program as he had learned that Coach Pitcher was looking to step back in the near future. The introduction to Deerfield Director of Athletics Bob Howe was made in the summer of ’21, and from there, Coach Merrill kept in close touch, consistently expressing his vision for the future of the program. “I was very persistent. I probably annoyed Bob a little bit at times,” he chuckles. “But I had to share my vision and my belief in what this basketball program could become. I said, ‘look, I could be your guy. I’ll take the program in the direction it needs to go in.’ I look at what all our peer schools have done in basketball, then I look at Deerfield, which has everything, if not more, to offer across the board.”

In the spring of ’22, Deerfield formally moved forward with a search for a boys’ varsity basketball coach. “When we conducted a national search for our basketball coach, our biggest priority, in my mind, was to find a person who could understand our boarding school culture, motivate student-athletes, and be a terrific team player with all those other assignments that go along with being a committed community member,” says Bob Howe. “Connor checked all those boxes, and the work we are seeing him do today in all areas of Deerfield life is further proof that we hit our mark with the search!” Coach Merrill’s former colleague and current mens’ varsity basketball head coach at Middlebury College, Jeff Brown, believes that Deerfield has found an “excellent role model” for students in Coach Merrill. “[Connor] is committed to coaching athletes in a positive manner. His energy and passion for the game are so evident. He cares deeply about his student-athletes, and builds trust through thoughtful communication and accountability,” says Coach Brown.