The past 72 hours have been among the busiest of the year! Proctor's Board of Trustees gathered on campus for their February Board Meeting, we welcomed alumni back for our annual Alumni Hockey Game, hosted a record-setting American Cancer Society Fundraiser in the Teddy Maloney '88 Hockey Rink, celebrated skiing at Proctor with the 10th Annual Proctor Ski Area Event, hosted back to back ski races, and hunkered down as Winter Storm Orson hammered campus all day Sunday. Today, we (thankfully) are able to downshift and enjoy Head's Day! Check out a recap of the weekend in images below! 

The athletic schedule for Proctor Academy during the winter gets very hectic with all the winter sports happening. One place that gets especially busy is the Proctor Ski Area. With ski practices and races happening several times a week, the Ski Patrol team carries a large amount of responsibility to care for the ski hill and teams. As Proctor’s USSA/FIS, Nordic, alpine, and freeride teamsrace, compete, and practice, often capturing most of the athletics headlines during the winter months, a dedicated group of ski patrollers are quietly supporting Proctor’s 200 on-snow athletes and their endeavors at the Proctor Ski Area.

Proctor’s girls varsity basketball team boasts a 10-3 record as they surpass the midpoint in their season and look ahead to defending their NESPAC Class C championship from last year. While the core of the team remains from last year’s championship run, roles have evolved and new additions to the squad have brought key new pieces to the puzzle. With a jam-packed February ahead of them, the team and its veteran leadership looks to continue its development under first year-head coach Junior De La Hoz.

After a slow start to the season, Tuesday’s fresh snowfall provided perfect conditions for Proctor’s Nordic ski team to host a NEPSAC race at the Proctor Ski Area Wednesday afternoon. With a roster full of newcomers to the sport, this season has been a learning experience for all involved as the team has worked together to get the most out of its training sessions, to learn the basics of the sport, and to prepare its veteran racers for success in the Lakes Region League.

Watching games last Friday and Saturday in the gym and the rink – basketball and hockey –players pivoted, sprinted, shifted from offense to defense, worked to set up and break up plays, communicated with each other through eye contact, gestures, and position. Sometimes a call, a shout, and when the timing clicked all was flow. Effortless on the surface. Professional. Sports are a natural setting (not the only setting) for collaboration to blossom, for different strengths to fuse together to create team, where the critical lesson of transition is taught. And given this week highlights transition on a national scale, where we witness the transition from one administration to the next, it’s in the back of our collective minds.

Proctor Academy’s boys’ varsity basketball team is off to a 7-2 start as it nears the midway point in its season. As a member of NEPSAC Class AA, the Hornets compete in arguably the nation’s strongest basketball league. After narrowly missing last year’s NEPSAC tournament, this senior-laden group is doing everything in its power to make sure it earns a chance to compete for a NEPSAC championship come the first week of March.

As students return to campus after a two week hiatus, Proctor’s girls’ varsity hockey team kicked off the new year with five games in three days including four games at the Phillips Exeter Tournament. Suffering two losses on the first day of the tournament, the team played better with a tie and then a convincing 6-0 win over Vermont Academy in their last game of the tournament before returning to The Ted with a 2-1 win over Tilton School on Wednesday. The team, which sits at 5-4-1 to date, continues to improve, meshing new players and old, into a unique chemistry that will serve the group well as they head into a very busy stretch over the next eight weeks. *Thank you to Zach Webster '18 for sharing his photography for this piece! 

One of the perks of vacation is taking time to look back through the 283 blog posts we published as a community over the past year (wow!!!). Each of these posts, written by faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni, represents a piece of Proctor’s story. As a whole, they provide a wonderful narrative of a school deeply committed to providing an education that operates at the intersection of individualized academics and experiential opportunities within a strong, nurturing community. Today, we share the Top 10 most read blogs of 2016!