The Loomis Chaffee School 2013 Fall Athletic Awards Ceremony Sunday
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The Loomis Chaffee School 2013 Fall Athletic Awards Ceremony Sunday, December 8, 2013 Boys Cross Country Girls Cross Country Field Hockey Football Boys Soccer Girls Soccer Girls Volleyball Boys Water Polo Loomis Chaffee Fall Athletic Awards Ceremony Sunday, December 8, 2013 4:00 p.m. Loomis Dining Hall Today’s Program Welcome Remarks: Bob Howe ’80, Athletic Director Boys Cross Country: Sally Knight Girls Soccer: Carey O’Brien Boys Soccer: Charlie Bour Girls Cross Country: Becky Purdy Football: Chuck Reid Field Hockey: Bobbi Moran Water Polo: Ed Pond Volleyball: Jeff Dyreson FALL 2013 AWARD WINNERS BOYS CROSS COUNTRY: Coaches' Award: Bobby Turner Coaches' Award: Ben Laprise Coaches' Award: Tate Knight All-Founders League: Dontay Downer, Tate Knight Bobby Turner, Lars Schuster All-New England: Dontay Downer, Tate Knight Bobby Turner GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY: Rookie of the Year: Erin Jones Rookie of the Year: Margaret Stover Coaches Award: Caitlin Farrell Unsung Hero: Michaela Colangelo All-Founders League: Erin Jones, Margaret Stover, Caitlin Farrell, Moriah Harris All-New England: Margaret Stover BOYS WATER POLO MVP: Jeremy Bogle Most Improved: Landon Thies Coaches’ Award: Dennis Joyce All League: Jeremy Bogle and Landon Thies FIELD HOCKEY Coaches' Award: Lily Rosenberg Most Improved: Anna Esposito Most Improved: Devon Ide MVP: Hannah Oganeku NEPSAC All-Tournament Team: Hannah Oganeku Western NE All-Star Team: Hannah Oganeku Sierra Semmel NFHCA* Academic All-Americans: Charlotte Blumenthal, Julia Crerend, Claire Kim, Lily Rosenberg *(National Field Hockey Coaches' Association) VOLLEYBALL Coaches’ Award: Kayla Schriebstein Coaches’ Award: Maxine Offiaeli MVP: Greer Davis New England All-Stars: Greer Davis, Maxine Offiaeli, Vanessa Young, Allison Yeh Boston Globe All-New England Team: Greer Davis and Allison Yeh BOYS SOCCER Coaches’ Award: Garrett Esper Coaches’ Award: Matt Gomes Most Improved Player: Cyrus Angel Most Improved Player: Ben Caccavale GIRLS SOCCER Co-MVPs: Danielle Snajder and Melanie Vangel Coaches’ Award: Elizabeth Weathers All New England: Melanie Vangel All State: Danielle Snajder, Abby Sotomayor Melanie Vangel All League – WWNEPSSA All Star Game: Danielle Snajder Abby Sotomayor Melanie Vangel FOOTBALL Most Valuable Player: Patrick Afiyie Batchelder: Errol Francis Erickson: Kieran Presley Persuader: Mustafa Anthony Unsung Hero: Jack Blatchford Unsung Hero: Greg Jarnutowski All-Eastern Eight Conference: Reinaldo Maristany, Patrick Afriyie, Sebastian Dovi and Kieran Presley All-New England: Patrick Afriyie and Kieran Presley OPENING REMARKS BOB HOWE Welcome everyone. Its nice to see you all again and its hard to believe our fall season ended three weeks ago today for some of you. So many of our teams had extraordinary seasons this fall. Football had its best season in many years and all remaining 7 varsity teams went on to compete at the New England’s. Outstanding accomplishments by all and you made this a fall to remember. One of our last events of the fall season happened down in our meadows as we once again played host to the New England Prep School Boys Soccer Finals. This year we hosted 3 all-star games and 4 championship games in Class A, B, C, & D. We are asked to host this event every other year and standing down on those fields on that day I thought, “it’s no wonder we are asked to host”. I enjoy being this host because of the beauty of our campus. Our physical plant is incredible and the people we have here working behind the scenes to make us all look good are extraordinary. None of us in this room would have had quite the same experience without their help in preparing our fields, our pool, our turf, our turf with lights, and our running trails. Please join me in extending our thanks to the many folks who work here to make our experience better and be sure to say thanks to them when you get a chance to do so face to face. There were many reasons to celebrate our success in athletics throughout the fall and very shortly you’ll hear from our coaches, but to start I’d like to share my top ten list of events and moments that put a smile on my face this season. At number 10 The Lights on Pratt Field. Athletics at Loomis will be forever changed in the fall thanks to the addition of field lighting. Never before have so many of you been able to see so many of your classmates play in big games. These lights gave our school spirit the unexpected shot in the arm throughout the fall. #9 We’ll never have a better weather situation than we had this fall. There was not a single rainy game day. Warm weather was with us late in the season, just as cooler weather surprised us in September. #8 The efforts put forth by Nana Minder and her SuperFan Club throughout the fall term. Nana organized and emceed the Pep Rally. Her efforts and love of school spirit has certainly made a difference in student life throughout the fall. She, along with her support group, understands and has worked hard to focus on positive cheering for our teams. They have set the right tone for the entire school year. #7 Fundraising Awareness events. Every fall several of our teams use athletics as a platform for raising funds and awareness for cancer, for the poor, and other causes. Field hockey and boys soccer both had games under the lights on Pratt field sponsoring a cause. Both events were meaningful and had great crowd support. Girls Volleyball had a cancer awareness game in Olcott Gym a few weeks later. The energy and effort put forth by students and coaches to make these events run smoothly is always very impressive to me. #6 Boys water polo returning to the New England Tournament. This is a group that has been slowly and steadily improving in the recent years and it has been nice to see the seniors in this program rewarded with the success they so richly deserve. #5 Girls cross-country winning the Founders’ League championship. Nobody knew the potential of this group with few returners and a lot of new faces. As the season wore on new names began to appear closer to the head of the pack. The same thing was happening with the Boys….With Knight and Turner established as front-runners and leaders of this team new fresh faces began to appear just below them. LCXC circuits in the fall are a staple on the Island. You know they happen every week, we just hope everyone survives. #4 Football finishing their season on a 5-0 run. During the run they defeated Choate for the first time in a long time. This team got better with every week. #3 Volleyball and their season. Exciting to watch and see this team come together. Their journey through the playoffs was an exciting one and it was really nice to see the support they garnered along the way from their peers and from the faculty. This type of support came because this happened to be a really nice bunch of people. #2 Both soccer programs enjoyed winning seasons with a combined won/loss record of 24-5-7. Both returned to the post season for the umpteenth time and had many remarkable moments throughout their seasons. But two things kept reminding me of the true qualities embedded in our programs. The first reminder came from watching players like Ben Caccavale and Cyrus Angel and John Fundock step into significant roles for their team. These players are proof that our soccer program cultivates talent still and allows younger players to develop and eventually, with hard work, have their turn on the varsity field. The other reminder came to me every time I heard Abby Pyne’s voice shouting encouragement from her team’s bench. Her injury may have kept her off the field for the year, but it never kept her from the game. I’d like to think we cultivate that type of enthusiasm and dedication to team with all our programs here. #1 I give a great deal of credit to our varsity coaches in this room. Without their love of sport and dedication to making you better athletes and better people we have no program. I get emails all summer from every one of your coaches making sure we are prepared to give you the best experience possible. I greatly enjoy watching their energy and creativity as they look for ways to have their teams compete at their highest level each and every day. You are lucky to have them as coaches and our school is fortunate to call them ours. Now I would like to call Sally Knight to the podium to begin our program with the Boys Cross Country team….” BOYS CROSS COUNTRY SALLY KNIGHT Though they are not able to be here tonight, I want to thank my fellow coaches---Andrew Bartlett, Joe Neary, and Pete Gwyn---for all of their contributions to LCXC. Without Andrew’s strategizing, Joe’s voice, and Pete’s Canadian cheer and brawn, the team would never move as far, as fast or as feistily as it does year after year. The varsity letter winners of the 2013 season, however, ARE here tonight, and I would like to introduce them to you. First, our captains--- Andrew Jones, Tate Knight, and Bobby Turner. ---and their fellow seniors--- Emilio Arellano, Ben LaPrise, Tim Mahoney, Ben Pipernos, and Alex Smith. Next, our juniors--- Dontay Downer and Frank Tucci, and our manager Erika Purdy. And finally, our sophomores: James Jin and Lars Schuster. While I have your eyes on this side of the room, I’d like to ask Dontay, Bobby, Tate, and Lars to stand again: these four earned All-League honors at the Championships at Avon Old Farms a month ago, with Tate, Bobby, and Dontay going on to earn All-New England honors a week later.