The winter athletic season has come to a close for the vast majority of Proctor athletes and coaches. However, Proctor’s USSA/FIS ski program season continues well into March with more than a dozen skiers competing at the Eastern Championships later this month. For the thirty skiers involved in Proctor’s elite level ski program, this season has seen unprecedented success alongside remarkable individual growth in all areas of boarding school life on the snow and off.
In his end of season remarks to the community at last Friday's athletic awards assembly, Gregor Makechnie '90 shared an excerpt from Mike Krzyzewski's autobiography, A Season is a Lifetime, recounting the remarkable journey an athletic season provides its athletes and coaches. As much as things may remain the same from year-to-year within a team, never does the same group of individuals share the same journey. With Sunday's 53-48 win over St. Andrew's School (RI), Proctor's girls' varsity basketball team arrived the same destination as they did last year (NEPSAC CHAMPIONS!), but the journey itself was wholly unique!
Mountain Classroom spent its final week and a half in the Sespe Wilderness east of Ventura, California. The Thacher School graciously allowed us to use a property they own in the wilderness area called Patton’s Cabin for our finals. The cabin meant that everyone was able to stay dry in the midst of a historic deluge that turned the Sespe Creek into a muddy, rapid-filled river.
Last Sunday afternoon I walked through the Norris Family Theater to the sound of power drills and pieces of the set for The Foreigner thumping to the ground. The living room, the fireplace, the windows, and the doors – everything was gone. Where the night before there had been the beckoning magic of Cooper and Amanda conjuring a separate reality, now screws clattered to the floor and lumber was being stacked. Jacob pushed through with a broom, a visual cue to the lessons of deconstruction. Moment passes to moment, season to season, term gives way to term.
This was our last excursion. It was the last time we were all going to be together in a house. We were never going to cook meals together again or go out for history excursions with Ryan. It was very bittersweet.
Head of School Mike Henriques shared a few words at the start of Monday’s assembly about the richness of the past weekend as he went from one event on campus to another. Student performances have been on display (in athletics, arts, and academics) over the past two weeks, with the center of attention at the Wilkins Meeting House and a celebration of the arts at Proctor!
It would be easy to write something sappy about how this week was our final week spent at our home in Aix and how sad it is that it is coming to an end. But it has been such an incredible week, filled with excitement and adventure, and we still have plenty of things to look forward to next week!
