“I had to choose something,” he says. Some have skills and athleticism, but few have sound fundamentals, says Hoyt, and the range of strength and fitness is wide, to say the least. With an assist from Athletic Director Mike Kuta, Hoyt’s group begins each workout with “dynamic stretching,” and sessions include dribbling, passing, and shooting drills, plus time in the fitness center and 5-on-5 competition. Hoyt blows his whistle frequently to stop and instruct. He also encourages players to challenge themselves for personal improvement, not only in things such as free throw accuracy but also in the number of push-ups they can do or how fast they can run a “suicide,” a favorite conditioning drill of basketball coaches for decades.
Former collegiate national competitor Theona Harwood Scola teaches Jasmine Stovall ’10 the finer points of spinning during a regular skating class at the Harrison Ice Rink, where Scola is a full-time instructor.
Hoyt also sits with the group daily to discuss goals, the frustration of failure, and the social mythologies that prevent coed competitive teams from seeming normal and comfortable. “I was the one student who had never played basketball,” recalls Nicole Villar ’12. Initially embarrassed by her ineptness, she credits Coach Hoyt with helping her focus on her game and the process of learning the skills. After that term, at her first Boston Celtics game, Villar realized “it was a great feeling to know what a ‘pick’ was.” Only one instructional sport is tied to a graduation requirement—swimming. George Dix, instructor in Spanish, has spent more than 30 years
Serious Lifelong Fun! helping students learn to navigate two lengths of the pool to pass that swim test. Numbers have diminished somewhat over the years, but there are still youngsters who have not had access to pool or pond and swim lessons. So Dix must employ a patient yet persistent teaching style in the face of inexperience, sometimes compounded by genuine fear of the water. Along with a mix of fun activities and drown-proofing skills, Dix teaches rhythmic breathing and the basic strokes. The goal is not to win races but to be able to swim to safety should the need ever arise. By the end of the term kids are cheering for each other from the deck as, one by one, they tackle the physical and emotional 50-yard challenge. Several alums with impressive high school resumes have listed passing the swim test among their biggest accomplishments at PA. Math instructor Peter Washburn teams up with math department colleague Kathryn Green to teach rowing on a warm fall afternoon on the mighty Merrimack.
Tom Hodgson, instructor in philosophy and religious studies, sometimes jokes that he uses philosophy as a recruiting tool for squash and squash as a recruiting tool for philosophy. He quite seriously cites Plato’s value theory as it applies to the “goodness” of squash. Hodgson, who coaches the girls’ varsity team in the winter, loves teaching squash to beginners because it provides fun and healthy exercise, and the basic skills aren’t too hard to learn. Squash can be played in a relaxed, social context but also provides the challenge of competition and improvement. One squash neophyte who “caught the bug” was JeanMarie Gossard ’05. She eventually earned a spot on the varsity team but, even in the heat of competition, says Hodgson, never lost her sense of fun. In the New England championship tournament her senior year, he recalls, Gossard was playing in the number four draw—not the marquee match everyone came to see. But she played with such exuberance and contagious joy— congratulating her opponent after a great point, win or lose—that by the end of the match there were more than 30 spectators applauding from the gallery. “The real value of Andover’s instructional programs is that they offer kids exposure to a range of lifetime sports that promote long-term health and fitness,” Kuta says, “which is always our goal. But there is a risk,” he added. “They just might get hooked.”
Photos by G il Talbot
—Andy Cline Sports Information Director
Andover | Winter 2010
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