The Hill News - V107, Issue 1

November 4, 2009

Volume 107, Issue 1

Wake Up, Read This

The

Aporkalypse Is Here!

By Kelly McNeil Editor-in-Chief Now that Hill has been back in session for almost two months, a plague is sweeping across campus. Complying with this year’s theme of ‘A Common Humanity,’ it is blind to the creeds of race and gender, as well as indiscriminant towards class-load, form, and extra-curricular activities.

Already we are seeing symptoms of this plague, such as listlessness, yawning, and dark circles under the eyes of students unfortunate enough to catch this dreaded disease. No, it’s not the swine flu, but if you believe Doctor James B. Maas, professor at Cornell University and recent speaker at The Hill, it’s just as detrimental to your health. Sleep deprivation is the new hot topic at Hill.

Dr. Maas set a murmur of dissent through the student body once students realized why the teenage ideal of 9.25 hours of sleep a night was not being achieved (answer: four straight hours of homework a night), and also when students realized what effects lack of sleep were having. Decreased attention, mental clarity, and motor skills can all be attributed to not enough sleep, according to Maas.

The Worst Part of the Day

After school president Alex Hero made a promise of more sleep during last year’s campaign, sleep has been a snowballing issue here at Hill. “I had faith that with the help of the SGA and faculty, I could deliver on my promises,” says Hero, an optimistic leader.

See Sleep on page 3

By Kelly McNeil Editor-in-Chief

New Kids on the Block

Girls Inhabit Upper School

Vertical Housing Mixes Forms

By Zoey Erdenebileg

By Joshua Ko

Executive Editor

Editor-in-Chief

The smell of paint still lingers in the corridors of Hunt Upper School – perhaps one of the few reminders of the change that has swept the Quad and extends across campus. The long corridors have been bisected, new dorm parents have moved in, and if you walk by the giant stone ark, you’ll probably hear a Taylor Swift song out a window – on the east side of the building, anyway.

It took mere 159 years, but there are now girls – 67 of them -- living in Upper School.

In some ways, it’s a revolution – the final piece of the transformation of a boys’ school that went co-ed 11 years ago. Integration has been in the works for five years; the Trustees approved the move two years ago. At that point, though, the future of Upper School was still murky. “We even talked about tearing it [Upper School] down to make place for new dormitories,” explained Jennifer E. Lagor, assistant head for student life. Eventually, the school took the less controversial route: the re-opening of the fourth floor, which had long, lay dormant.

So girls and boys now live side-byside, girls to the east boys to the west.

The school has taken special pains to make sure that’s as close as they get.

Girls aren’t the only new residents of Hunt Upper School. That baby-faced kid living next door to you might be a fourth former. He’s there because of a thing called “vertical housing,” which has scattered boarders from the fourth, fifth, and sixth form all over campus and brought with it a slew of problems and adjustments.

The previous model was more horizontal, keeping members of each form living together for the most part.

Under the new set-up, however, only third formers reside with one another.

For everyone else, it’s a new neighborhood.

The biggest change may be in Foster, which was home last year to sixth formers and post-graduates. Dell Village now consists of two fourth form dorms and two third form dorms.

Upper School and Rolfe, previously reserved for fifth and sixth formers, now include fourth formers.

The change was spurred mostly for admissions reasons. Before, if the school had an opening during the summer, it was restricted as to whom it could take by where it had an open bed. That is, if there was room in Foster, then the school had to take a sixth former or a PG. Vertical housing ended those restrictions, allowing the school to take the best candidate available.

See Upper School on page 3

See Vertical on page 3

A month into the fall term, Hill has entered the Season of Swine. With more than 200 flu-related deaths in the United States as of last week, the H1N1 virus – known commonly as the Swine Flu – has cast a dark shadow across Hill’s campus at a time students should be gearing up for Lawrenceville Weekend instead of filing off to the Health Center or going home.

Jennifer E. Lagor, Hill’s assistant head for student life, outlined the steps the school is taking to prevent a wide-scale outbreak of H1N1.

Obsessive-compulsive use of hand sanitizer, avoidance of large gatherings, and keeping good hygiene are all steps recommended by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Hill administration.

Mrs. Lagor also advised students to go directly to the Health Center if they are experiencing coughing, sneezing, a headache, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, muscle aches, and a multitude of other symptoms.

On each of the past two Fridays the Deans’ Office has circulated a list of students who had gone home with the flu or flu-like symptoms, and whose return to campus was uncertan. Each list numbered more than 20 students. The number of students feeling under the weather has ballooned.

Mrs. Lagor also said in her update she assures that “the preventative measures that began [recently] including minimizing all-school gatherings” will continue. The “all-school gatherings” have included chapel and seated meals, whose cancellation has left students and faculty with a happy abundance of unregulated time.

Some students have predictably found humor in it all.

See Swine on page 3

the hill news

Inside

This Issue

November 4, 2009 << Opinion

Sleep is not the Issue Page 2

<< Sports

A Team on the Sidelines Page 4

The Hill News

2

Page Two

OPINION STEVEN GU

REMs and GPAs

Vol. 107, Issue I Editors-in-chief Kelly McNeil Joshua Ko executive editors Steven Gu Zoey Erdenebileg News Editor M. Dinora Smith Photography Editor Ryan Erenstein Staff Writers PJ Mara Cassie Borelly Garvin Chan Maura D’Amico Sam Hernan Felix Kim MJ Kwon Kara Beckman Melissa Lee Emma Woodcock Eddie Lee Christine Oh Ji Young Park Max Spector Jin Limb Kathryn Walsh Faculty advisors Tony Reid Nate Yinger Headmaster David R. Dougherty The opinions and attitudes expressed in this issue do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hill News, its editors and staff or the Hill School.

Volume 107, Issue 1

T

o sleep or not to sleep? – that is the question many Hill students ask themselves when they face a stack of homework that will take them way past the end of study hall.

This conundrum plagues almost all of us each day: Do we get some shuteye and put off work until tomorrow or do we keep trudging through the homework swamp? Many new students realized by the first week that the course load at Hill is not easy, and many returning students are learning that honors and AP classes are not that friendly either. This is why many students seem to be plodding through one day and then with their eyes half shut.

The school has not seen the whites of our eyes and responded. It brought Dr. James Maas, a renowned sleep

expert from Cornell, here to speak to students and faculty the first week of school and invited him back to talk to parents on Parents Weekend. A change in the schedule is obviously imminent. The question is, will this solve the problem? And will it lead to better performance in the classroom and on the playing fields.

To get all our work done and get good grades, we have to sacrifice sleep Not likely. Why? Because the root of the problem is still the same: To get all our work done and get good grades, we have to sacrifice sleep. The cure for this is not to set the school clock forward by, say, an hour, but rather to allot more time during the day for us to do our work.

Most teachers give about 45 minutes of homework a night, which includes written homework and studying. Since the Hill requires students to take at least five classes, students have up to four hours of homework each day on average.

Study hall provides boarding students with two hours to work. Which

means students have to find at least another two hours during the day.

Many squeeze the time into their busy after-school schedules. Though most sports practices end at 5 p.m., students usually use that hour before a seated dinner to get showered and dressed. And if there’s a required evening event, forget it.

Those events – speakers and the like – are usually more stressful than beneficial. Because by the time they’re over, say 8:15 or 8:30, you’re faced with an entire night’s work ahead of you. While some teachers give less homework on these special nights, most teachers don’t think about it, leaving students with hours of work to do and only about an hour left on the schedule to do it.

Letting us sleep an hour later won’t do anything about that, and forcing some of us to turn our lights out earlier won’t either – because it won’t work that way. The school has devised a simple, surface response to a complex problem. It’s looking at the two ends of the schedule when it needs to look at the middle. Meanwhile, I need to go. I have a lot of work to do.

Postscript

Tad Montgomery

Your Letters How to submit The Hill News welcomes e-mail from its readers. Anyone wishing to com ment on any story in the paper should send an e-mail to:

hillnews@thehill.org Letters may be edited for content or shortened to fit the allotted space.

HML Hill my life Today, I got a headache so I went down to the Health Center. Turns out I have swine flu. HML. Today, I went into the Grille to get a mookie. I came out with swine flu.

HML. Today, I went to the dining hall for dinner. I was served by someone wearing rubber gloves, I didn’t touch any food, I sat alone, and I used hand sanatizer. I still got swine flu.

HML. Submit your own HML at:

hillnews@thehill.org

I

t’s the cigarette that identifies Tad Montgomery as a man from an earlier time. The Hill’s eighth headmaster, who died in October at his home in Gladwyne, was the last headmaster to smoke cigarettes. It was a time when people of Mr. Montgomery’s social strata still puffed away blithely, and he was also known to like a cocktail in the evening and to occasionally amble up the road to dinner ferrying a half-full tumbler.

These were the roiling days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the social order that Tad Montgomery personified was up for scorn and under assault. Even as he arrived at Hill in the fall of 1968, Montgomery appeared to be an anachronism. The pocket squares, collar pins, rep ties, and horn rims he favored looked passé. Long hair, jeans, and flannel shirts defined the style of the youth revolution. The Ivy League look was out. Way out.

In his recent note on the Web site announcing Mr. Montgomery’s death, Mr. Dougherty lists 1968 to 1973 as Mr. Montgomery’s years in office. That’s accurate, but misleading.

Mr. Montgomery didn’t last a month into 1973. These were turbulent times at Hill – now often called The Dark Years by the alumni office -- and to some degree, Mr. Montgomery was a victim of events beyond his control.

But he was also the author of his own undoing, and we come now to praise him for that. It turned out that the man who liked to smoke and

drink, who wore a pocket square and a collar pin, wasn’t the traditionalist he appeared to be. Beneath his Brooks Brothers exterior, Tad Montgomery was a raging progressive.

Mr. Dougherty, quoting Paul Chancellor’s 1976 history of the school, pointed out that Mr. Montgomery wanted to run an institution that would “demonstrate relevance to our times.” So, as Mr. Dougherty pointed out, he championed forwardthinking programs like community outreach. He inaugurated independent study for 6th formers, and he pushed for courses in the history of minorities and drama production and acting. Students here called for an end to mandatory chapel and the dress code. Mr. Montgomery didn’t budge on these issues, but on others, he negotiated.

He was also negotiating with the trustees and the faculty, and the result of those talks was his departure in the middle of 1972-73 school year. Mr. Montgomery had been

the headmaster at Garrison Forest, an elite girls school outside Baltimore, for eight years before coming to Pottstown, and that experience instilled in him the conviction that The Hill needed girls among its student body. He was trying to save the school from irrelevance, and he was foolish and/or brave enough to press the issue.

History isn’t clear about the events that lead to his departure, but whether he resigned or got pushed out seems beyond the point now. He put word “co-education” into the dialogue here, and when the reactionary mandarins who signed his paycheck ­had heard enough, they moved his successor into place and then, essentially, gave him their verdict: Clean out your desk. It only took them 25 years, and the insistence of Mr. Montgomery’s once-removed successor, to acknowledge their misjudgment.

-- Tony Reid

The Hill News

November 4, 2009

UpperSchool, School from PaGe 1 Upper

Vertical, from PaGe 1 Though the change solved one problem, it may have created others. Last year, as the spring term came to a close, many rising male sixth formers were looking forward to living in Foster with their fellow classmates.

Talks of future plans, “bro sessions,” and form bonding filled the conversations of the soon-to-be top dogs of campus. But vertical housing ended those plans. Angry fifth formers complained about losing the chance to live with their classmates on their last, and biggest, year at Hill.

But a new year has brought a new attitude with it, at least in some quarters. Some students, who were thrown into an angry, disappointed panic last spring, are now either indifferent or positive about vertical housing. Some who thought this change was wrongheaded have now embraced it. “I actually like this,” said Trevor Mack, a third-year boarder living on Upper School 3 West. “If I were to be with all my friends, I wouldn’t do my work and probably not graduate. I mean, a lot of young bulls are running around, but they are nice, quiet and show me the

Swine, from PaGe 1 Several people have been spotted wearing surgical masks in jest, while others cough violently on their friends to illicit a chuckle. “You have the swine flu!” is a common taunt for students who as much as sneeze. The changes and paranoia that have come to Hill over the past week are reminiscent of the same panic that accompanied the SARS and avian flu scares over the past several years, so it is understandable why H1N1 has its skeptics among the Hill Community. Although these playful actions are meant in jest, for others they are anything but.

While some students are laughing the swine flu off, more are concerned about what measures the school is taking to protect against a widespread outbreak of the Piggy Plague. One issue is the efficacy of Purell and other hand sanitizers to protect against any sort of viral infection, since they are merely anti-bacterial. Mrs. Lagor acknowledged that problem in an interview last week and said that the school was awaiting a large order of Clorox wipes, which have been shown to kill viruses.

Meantime, the school has spent its money “hand san” at the rate of 54 dollars for a case of 12. Some 750 containers have already been purchased and an additional 100 have been ordered for classrooms, and each hall on campus will soon be the proud owner of their own, massive, 32 ounce behemoth of a Purell bottle.

“I’m afraid of the swine flu,” said a bashful fourth form girl. “It could be nothing, but who knows. I’m bothered when I see people sneezing and wiping their hands on another person or coughing on them and then laughing about it. They could be spreading something they don’t know they have.”

3

proper respect.”

Due to such separation of sixth formers, many have been able to concentrate and focus on their priorities.

Under peer pressure, many sixth formers would perhaps have been tempted to digress from their work if they had been living in Foster of Rolfe with the rest of their form.

The group of students most negatively affected by the switch might be the new fifth formers. With everyone thrown into the same housing pot, some say this group of students has had a harder time adjusting to the school and bonding with members of their class.

Prefects are also feeling the effects of the change. As every form has a different lights-out schedule, prefects have to check in with their students numerous times. And what about a situation where a sixth former is playing music quietly or chatting with a friend or roommate after the time that their fourth-form neighbor is supposed to be asleep? Unable to do work or sleep, the fourth former is left in a situation where he or she wastes time

Sleep, from PaGe 1 “I wanted to deliver on my promises for the betterment of all the students whom I represent. That’s the job of the president: to make students’ lives easier.”

Students and teachers are heavily opinionated and divided on this matter. “I’m all for it, but I’m wondering how the amount of homework I have will fit into this new schedule,” worries Melissa Lee, 6th former and participant in seven classes. Adds a 5th former who doesn’t wish to be identified, “I don’t think the new schedule will change things for the better because of how many problems it will create.” A teacher who wishes to remain anonymous also brought up the homework issue, pointing out that if each class has 40 minutes of homework to go with their 40 minute class period, a student who takes six classes will have, on average, four hours of homework a night. AP students usually have more than 40 minutes per AP class a night, so this can drive their total up to five hours or more. “In fact, the only way this schedule could ever work is if teachers agree to give reduced amounts of homework. But considering AP classes have to cover a certain amount of material before May, reduced homework, while helpful, may not be the answer.”

But reduced homework is exactly what Alex Hero is pushing. “…we are cognizant of the fact that students have too much homework, and a plan to assign more effective and less homework is grouped with our proposal,” he promises. “We have a voice here at Hill, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.” In fact, some teachers like Mr. Rigg stepped up and offered to lighten their syllabus if students really took this change of schedule seriously and didn’t use it as an excuse to stay up later.

lying in bed. In these sorts of conflicts, a prefect is left in a dilemma: Should I tell my fellow sixth former to quiet down, which could cause bad feelings, or should I tell the under former to stop complaining and leave the situation unresolved? One prefect on Upper School West, who faced such a dilemma, said: “It was an uncomfortable situation to be placed in. I really didn’t know what to do.”

And the problem for prefects isn’t only other people’s sleep schedules.

Many prefects have been disgruntled by the fact that they are required to stay up late in order to keep order in their mixed-form dorms. Even if a prefect had the opportunity to catch up on some sleep, he or she would still have to stay up until about 11:45.

Of the enforcement problem, one faculty member who requested anonymity said: “How does it work? It really doesn’t. There’s really no way to police different rules for three different forms on one hall.”

The security system in the dorm has been upgraded, so like Berlin in the Cold War, it isn’t easy to get from east to west, or vice versa. A new monitoring system is in place, there’s a faculty access card entrance (which faculty are discouraged from using), and alarms on both sides that clang when either door is opened.

But an area where girls, and even women, felt vaguely uncomfortable now seems entirely relaxed. If you walk by during nice weather, you can see boys and girls lounging around in the patio or the in Adirondack chairs.

The addition of girls is not the only new feature of the building, which was constructed in 1910. There are female dorm parents in residence for the first time – Heather Olney lives on the first floor and is the head of the east side of the dorm; Olivia Ciacci ’01 is on the second floor and Dana Hunter-Watt is on the third floor.

The fourth floor has been opened for the first time since it and the fifth floor were closed in more than 25 years ago. All of the faculty apartments were renovated over the summer with money diverted from the dormant Green Street faculty housing project. Each floor has new common rooms, and new storage and laundry facilities. Previously, anyone living in Upper School had to lug their dirty clothes to Wendell or Dutch Village.

Aside from consequences in school, lack of sleep can have more serious consequences. According to a recent article in The New York Times, which quoted a study done for The Archives of Internal Medicine, lack of sleep and susceptibility to colds (and other more serious diseases) go hand in hand. The study showed that people who get on average less than seven hours of sleep a night are three times as more likely to get sick as people who average eight or more hours of sleep a night. When it comes to immunity, sleep is one of the most important factors. Being able to get more sleep increases the pro- Some new residents on U.S. 2 East. duction of white-blood cells which in turn fight disease, and in the day and A big worry was the reaction of parage of the ever-present threat of the ents and alumni, but the school says H1N1 (Swine Flu) Virus, decreased that has been mild.

Boys’ reaction has also been muted, immunity can be possibly deadly. perhaps owing to a newly gained dominion over a long cherished girls’ The school grapples dorm: Wendell. with finding the proper The push for the integration of Upbalance between sleep per School came from another big push, residentially and socially. Resiand homework. dentially, opening the fourth floor The new SGA-proposed schedule created more rooms for students, and starts at 8:40, eliminates 20 minutes the reconstruction up there has yieldby cutting the pre and post-lunch ed the nicest digs on campus. Socially, break and shortening the lunch pe- it gave girls a claim to a Hill landriod itself, and school will end at mark as well as equal territorial rule around 3:35. Hero hopes that the new over the Quad. Recalling the days of schedule will be applied as a trial run segregation, one Upper School 4 East during the winter. While some worry resident recalled: “There were just a about winter sports practices and ath- lot football players and other jocks letic contests, others worry about the playing on the Quad … and it was rearts. Many people in afternoon arts ally intimidating to walk by a bunch this term and in terms to come are of big guys … so I would walk around concerned about the arts suffering se- to avoid that area.” rious cutbacks, just like many are fear- Mrs. Lagor said the school wanted ing about athletics: something that, to create “a natural place for positive interaction and good friendships befor some, is simply not an option. tween boys and girls.” The new inhabitants say that’s what has happened. “It has definitely become more comfortable,” said one female Upper School resident. “We can all hang out.”

The Hill News

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Volume 107, Issue 1

SPORTS

The Season So Far

Key Results: Haverford School (0-0) Blair (1-0) Key Loss: Peddie (0-1) Key Wins/Invitational Finishes: City Upcoming Games: Hun, @LawChampionship, 3rd place at Canterrenceville bury Invitational, 3rd place at States From the coach - “Playing five fourth Key Losses: Blair (35- 24), Mercersburg formers on a regular basis means (34-21) growing pains, but the sixth formers Upcoming Meets: MAPL Championare truly helping them adjust to varships, @ Lawrenceville sity level play.” – Coach Drowne From the coach: “We’ve had a difficult season with illnesses and other issues, but we have been training well and Girls’ Soccer are still on track to peak at the apRecord: 6-5 (1-2 MAPL) propriate time. We will be counting on our top 5 for solid performances Key Wins: St. Andrews (5-1), Mercersin the end of the season championburg (1-0) ships.” – Coach DeLucia Key Losses: Blair (0-2) Upcoming Games: Hun, @ Penn Charter, @ Baldwin, @ Lawrenceville Girls’ Cross Country Record: 7-5 Girls’ Tennis Key Wins/Invitational Finishes: Blair Record: 9-1 (2-0 MAPL) (27-30), 3rd place at the Canterbury Invitational, 3rd place at States Key Win: Episcopal (4-3) Key Loss: Mercersburg (30-27) Key Loss: Notre Dame (2-4) Upcoming Meets: MAPL ChampionUpcoming Games: Peddie, Hun, Lawships, @ Lawrenceville renceville From the coach: There are 9 runners From the Coach: “We are having an who have gone under 23:00. I think awesome season despite losing seven the best is yet to come. We are train- starters from last year’s team because ing hard for the end of the season and we are a much stronger team this have a very good chance to capture year. We are in the running to win the our first MAPL title and beat L-Ville MAPL.” – Coach Ortega for the second year in a row.” – Coach Pine Boys’ Water Polo Record: 11-7 Field Hockey Record: 11-1 (3-0 MAPL) Key Wins: Lawrenceville (11-10), Episcopal (12-5) Key Wins: Germantown Academy Key Losses: Episcopal (14-15 OT), (1-0), Episcopal Academy (3-1) Penn Charter (9-14) Key Loss: Notre Dame (2-3) Upcoming Games: @ Malvern, @ Upcoming Games: Hun, Baldwin, @ Eastern Prep Tournament, @ LawLawrenceville renceville From the coach: “It has been an From the coach: “The season was reexciting season so far and I’ve been vived with exciting wins over EA and impressed with the work-ethic and Lawrenceville in all-deep pools on mental-toughness of this year’s team. the road. This bodes well for a season We have our sights set on the MAPL which concludes with 10 of the final championship as we try to claim the 12 games in all-deep pools.” – Coach title for the third year in a row.” – Jones Coach Watson Boys’ Cross Country Record: 4-3

Football Record: 5-1 (3-0 MAPL) Key Wins: Peddie (32-14), Mercersburg (29-0) Key Loss: Chestnut Hill Academy (13-21) Upcoming Games: Hun, @Lawrenceville, From the coach: “We are in contention to win the MAPL for the first time if we can win our last three games.” – Coach Vollmuth

Boys’ Soccer Record: 6-7-2 (1-2 MAPL)

Girls’ Water Polo Record: 17-6

Meg Watson, head field hockey coach, and assistant Ned Ide, watch a recent practice. Watson was an assistant coach on Ide’s boys lacrosse team last spring.

Sideline Sidekicks

By PJ Mara Staff Writer Last year, many of the varsity boys lacrosse players were wary when they heard Meg Watson was going to be their assistant coach. Not because she is female, but because she is a notorious run-aholic.

The Hill lacrosse team, in the words of Coach Ned Ide, is comprised of a bunch of “prima donna, hot-sock punks” who possibly appreciate the game more for its aesthetic qualities.

Hair flow, proper sock length, and number of behind the back goals accumulated during practice are things on the forefront of every lax player’s mind during the season. Therefore, the team was a little unsettled when they discovered that their spring term conditioning was going to be at the mercy of a former Georgetown University field hockey player who occasionally goes for runs during free periods.

COACH WATSON

When the season finally came Key Wins: Lawrenceville (11-3), around, people were anxious to see Episcopal (9-7, 7-6, 7-4), Germantown how Watson’s presence would factor (12-4, 13-6) into the team dynamic. In addition, Key Losses: Lawrenceville (5-6), Penn players were curious why she would Charter (7-8) waste her time with a bunch of hotUpcoming Games: @Eastern Prep shots like Eric Davidheiser (’09) and Tournament, @Lawrenceville Chris Howell (’10). Watson says, “The From the Coach: “Our entire focus challenge wasn’t the fact that I was now is on Eastern Preps on Novemcoaching boys: that didn’t bother me. ber 7th and 8th, and trying to bring It was because I had no personal exa 4th Title back to The Hill. None of perience with the sport. I jumped at the girls on this team have ever won the opportunity because I enjoy worka title, so they are hungry for it.” ing with athletes to reach their poten Coach Johnson tial.”

About halfway through the season there was a noticeable shift in Mrs. Watson’s presence on the team. She was more vocal and was more likely to point something out she noticed to a player. By the end of the spring, she was one of the boys.

And the boys’ lacrosse team was not the only students to acquire a new assistant coach. This past year, with the absence of Coach Amanda Dougherty, Watson was in need of an assistant for the varsity girls’ field hockey team and turned to none other than tough guy Ned Ide. Ide accepted, and the rest is sure to go down as Hill Athletics history.

COACH IDE

Many of the girls on the field hockey team were probably wondering what this man with the weathered Boston Red Sox hat and lacrosse stick was doing on their sideline. Ide, a former football and lacrosse player at Trinity College, may even have been wondering the same thing. But pretty soon the players realized his value: inspiration. Ide has a supernatural ability to motivate, encourage, and bring the best out in people. Although he may not understand all of the rules and dynamics of field hockey yet, he does realize when the girls need motivation.

Ide and Watson are the “Yin and the Yang” of Hill Athletics. Their character differs on traits such as intensity; however they both share the same goals and values. “The players tend to know when I am anxious or frustrated where as Ide is usually subdued,” says Watson on their coaching dynamic.