In his four years at Choate, Mr. Jonas Akins has made his mark on the Choate campus in and out of the classroom. During the class day, he can be found in a variety of HPRSS classes, teaching everything from history to Contemporary Issues. But when the class day is over, he can almost certainly be found on the football field.
Choate is Mr. Akins’ third stop in his multi-sport coaching career. In September of 2001, he began teaching at the Sedbergh School in England, where he coached the school’s youngest boys on the rugby pitch. Prior to Choate, he spent four years coaching American football and squash at the Kent School. This fall marks his fifth season coaching football and squash at Choate.
Mr. Akins’s involvement with athletics didn’t begin as a coach. He began playing football at the Milton Academy in ninth grade. In his senior year, he won the New England Championship as a starter on an undefeated Milton team. He went on to play for Harvard Football as a walk-on athlete for all four years. “The opportunity to be a small part of such a proud tradition was deeply meaningful,” he said. Mr. Akins’s favorite part of football is the team unity it fosters. “That it takes eleven players to contest the possession and position of the football is, to me, one of the great joys of the game. There’s a particular satisfaction in being part of a larger effort, a team that transcends any individual effort,” he said.
Mr. Akins came to boarding school for the opportunity to connect with students in all their different roles — as students, players, and people. He believes that being a coach has made him a better teacher, inspiring him to emphasize the concepts of shared effort and purpose in the classroom. Reflecting on his time as a teacher, a coach, and a player, he shares this advice with the community: “Embrace every opportunity to represent your school. Learn the history of your school or your team or your dorm and take seriously the chance to build on that legacy,” he said. “The warp of the rich tapestry that is our school may have already been set in the preceding 131 years, but the weft is still up to us.”
