Athletic seasons do not just happen, especially during Covid-19. Athletes and coaches do not simply show up and perform on game days, but instead spend countless hours watching film, working on strength in the fitness center, and refining both tactical and technical skills during practice. Teams navigate adversity, quarantines, injuries, and unexpected challenges. They fall short of goals one day and exceed them the next, and it is this built in uncertainty and the lessons therein that remind us the educational value of sport. 

A “normal” spring would have Proctor's baseball team traveling to the Dominican Republic for spring training and community service. A trip that has been a part of the program for the past five years, and one everyone looks forward to, this season, again, began without that foundational experience for players and coaches. Fortunately, a warm spring had Carr Field and Proctor’s pristine baseball diamond playable for the Hornets for their spring season starting in early April. 

This spring has brought one obstacle after another in the path of the Girls' Varsity Lacrosse team. With a few key players quarantining for over 30 days, just being able to get on the field the past couple of weeks has been a reward in itself. Led by head coach Jill Jones Grotnes and assistants Kate Austin ‘01 and Karl Methven, the team looks forward to finishing the season strong after a convincing 15-5 win over Brewster Academy last weekend. 

Thirty days. After bouncing in and out of quarantine and waiting for a full cast and crew to finally be available, Proctor’s Drama Department had less than thirty days to rehearse for this spring’s production of Mamma Mia!. But if you have the opportunity to watch the production live during the next four nights, odds are you would never know how compressed a rehearsal schedule this group navigated. The show is energetic, spunky, loud, funny, and clever, and as is always the case with Proctor’s theater productions, a reminder of how talented our students and faculty are. 

Proctor's Mountain Classroom shares two student journal entries from a few weeks ago as they begin their trek east after a term of adventures in Utah. Read more from Annie '21 and Luke '21 below!

And so we’ve come to our final week in the oh so wonderful pan flat, burning Hellscape of Casa Grande, AZ, and our final week of high school classes. There could have been no more perfect way to finish it off, everyone scrambling to complete a final project before leaving for Santa Fe on Sunday.

Now that I have been on Mountain Classroom for several weeks, I have picked up on a few tips and now know how navigate the obstacles the program throws at you. Mountain Classroom is about a mindset, and the way we go into trying all new things like climbing, hiking, academics, and living together. All these things can be stressful, however, being open to trying all these new things is what Mountain is all about. 

Taking an early evening tour around campus Thursday in the spectacular light of a mid-May evening, I happened to pass the woodshop where Greg Allen holds “extra help” sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. The pool of light spilling out, the sound of the bandsaw and table saw, the hum of the vacuum system for dust mitigation, exerts a kind of gravitational pull.