M E G L LOY D ’ 98
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P. E . & A
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VALUING COMMUNITY: MEG LLOYD ’98 by Kristin Freedman, Park ASP teacher
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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 WelshmanStudley ’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
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THE PARK SCHOOL
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
