For many students, sports is an integral part of their Choate experience.
Athletics represent one of the oldest and most important pieces of Choate’s history, and, for the foreseeable future, they will continue to be an important piece of most student’s Choate experience. Our rivalry with Deerfield Academy alone creates a lifetime worth of memories for those who participate and even many who spectate, all the way from a brand-new freshman or teacher to the most veteran of students and faculty. I’ll remember the two overtime victories in my sophomore and senior years against Deerfield down at Remsen Arena that I was lucky enough to be a part of for the rest of my days, as well as numerous victories on the track and the cross-country course.
The bonds created through the extreme ups and extreme downs of a season are unique to athletics, and those bonds can create some of the longest friendships that any person could ever dream of. The benefits of participating in any sport, whether it be intramural or interscholastic, are well known: students lead healthier lifestyles, become stronger and more fit, carry less stress, among other physical and mental advantages.
But the benefits of sports extend well beyond the science of daily exercise. On the track alone, I’ve witnessed some of the most incredible instances of sportsmanship, respect, achievement, resiliency, and pure grit and determination that is rarely seen outside of athletics. This aspect of sports is what keeps students coming back each year to every level of Choate athletics, no matter an individual’s talent level.
Choate offers a variety of alternatives to sports—for instance, community service, theater, music, and art. No doubt, all of those are also integral parts of the Choate experience. Athletics are not everyone’s first choice, and that is okay. Certain sports can carry stereotypes, whether about the individuals or the team as a whole, that may turn someone off of sports. That’s certainly not unique to Choate.
However, as the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang remind us, sports are for everyone, regardless of the color of one’s skin, or one’s gender, orientation, ability, nationality, ethnicity, or any other identifier. Look at Choate athletics: for many students, this school and its sports represent the most diverse community that they have ever experienced, and yet, that doesn’t hinder or distract or alienate us from one another. It makes us stronger as a community, or in this case, a team. In a world that is devastated by racism, sexism, and hatred of all kinds, there are few things that unite people like sport is able to.
From the youngest kids that are just picking up a soccer ball, football, basketball, baseball or softball, or hockey stick all the way to the highest and most elite professional and international athletes, sports bring people of all kinds together. For that, I could not be more proud to be an athlete, and I hope anyone who participates in athletics in any way feels the same.
Sports represent one of the purest forms of acceptance. Take track and field. I’ll be one of four captains this spring, alongside Matt Lacey ’18, Lloyd Williams ’18, and Shamari Harrington ’18. We captain a team that due to its size is incredibly diverse, whether it be from an athletic standpoint in the form of ability and dedication or from a social perspective, where we have kids from many different races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and orientations. When it comes to leading this group, we have to take all of this into account, as well as be on the same page as our coaches, who also have a tremendous responsibility to take care of every student-athlete and understand each reacts to the hardships of athletics, as well as the triumphs.
And these aspects aren’t something that is unique to track and field; working as the Sports Editor for The Choate News this past year has shown me that these truths are universal throughout many different sports here at Choate, and working for the newspaper has been one of the biggest honors of my life, and has taught me so much about the Choate community as it relates to athletics. Thank you to the rest of the 111th Masthead, Ms. Stout, Mr. Peed, the 112th masthead, my reporters, and, well, anyone I’ve ever interacted with as a result of the opportunity of a lifetime.
Going forward, we here at Choate cannot let our differences divide us. Too often today, particularly in America, where hatred is perpetrated, perpetuated, and generated between all people, from the top to the bottom of society, our differences must not hinder us. Instead, we must utilize them in order to help to define us as individuals who are part of a collective. Whether in the classroom, on the sports field, on the stage, in the dorms, on the sidewalk, or anywhere in between, it comes down to the students to foster a place where the community trumps the individual. There is no “I” in team.
