Head of School

In the coming months, I plan to address the three distinct and equally important parts of a South Kent School education:  athletics, academics, and community life.  

This month’s topic is “Athletics”, partially because I am writing this on May 26, and on May 26, 1973 I was a skinny and proud member of the First Boat which won the New England Interscholastic Rowing Championships in Worcester, Mass, capping off an undefeated season. For David Fitch ’73, Sid Stockdale ’73, Richard Lawrence ’74 and me, this was our third New England championship, and third undefeated season. While this is just one example of many athletic accomplishments by South Kent School during its history, this success was only possible through many previous failed attempts, hard work and collaboration as a team. 

Athletics was a critical part of my personal growth at School, and the lessons I learned as part of this group will last a lifetime. South Kent School has found ways over the years to overcome the odds, and more often than not, we have been successful, punching well above our weight.

In a letter to his successor, Wynne Wister, founding headmaster Sam Bartlett wrote:

"I was always terribly afraid the School would lose the will to win. Be it a football game, getting a job done on time, or doing Latin. It is possible that it was overdone, but nothing cut me deeper than to have our crowd show that lack of will.

It always seemed to me that once we could get one of the young ones to go all out in anything, just so long as he went all out, he would then have had the experience for the first time in his life. And, once having had the experience, he found he liked it and was apt to build on that experience.

At the expense of seeming to over emphasize athletics, I always felt it was in that sphere that a boy had the best chance for such an experience and many is the boy who has gained his self confidence and respect on the athletic field….I felt the school would be grossly negligent if they did not give the boys the opportunity to learn how to handle themselves physically…."

Far more important than the wins and losses, however, are the lessons that athletics teach, at all levels.  There were some brutally competitive senior league (intramural) hockey games back in the day, with very good athletes who had never skated before, and less accomplished athletes who went out and worked just as hard.  Duane Stone’s ’69 legendary “Puckhandlers” dominated the league for several years running towards the end of the decade.  The “Midgets” (or the Fourth Football Team) produced many undefeated seasons.  Our wrestling team won the Western New England Championship in 1982, having been in existence for only five years and practicing in the basement of the Schoolhouse, with no ventilation or light and dodging the support columns. And the 24 girls enrolled at South Kent School in 1979 posted a 7-4-1 record in soccer, including wins over Hotchkiss and Berkshire. 

While our teams today play at the highest levels, this has not come at the expense of the other two important legs of the South Kent School stool:  academics and community life.  Three of the four seniors elected to the Cum Laude Society this year for their scholarship were athletes. Five of the eight prefects this year were athletes.  On Prize Day, athletes won: The George and Maggie Bartlett Cup, “awarded to the Sixth Form student whose daily example emulates the humanitarian and spiritual values with which George and Maggie Bartlett served and led South Kent School”;  The S.S.B. Cup for “the Sixth Form student who has consistently and enthusiastically volunteered his time to serve the South Kent School community”;  The James S. Johnson Cup, “awarded to the Sixth Form student who enriches our community by using all of his talents to their fullest”; and The Headmaster's Cup, “awarded to the Sixth Form student who exemplifies integrity, school spirit, and leadership.”

Perhaps most indicative of the ways our athletes contribute to the School community is that I simply could not decide who should win the The Paul and Terese Abbott Cup for “that post graduate student who, in his one year at South Kent School, most embodies the principles of the School,” and so I awarded it to all eleven of the Sixth Form and PG members of the Prep Basketball Team who graduated on May 9.  They were truly an exceptional group of young men.

The winners of The Paul and Terese Abbott Cup

All of this is to say that athletics at South Kent School provide one way in the  21st century to live into our mission authentically:

South Kent School prepares young men to succeed in college and thrive as thoughtful and engaged citizens in a rapidly changing and intensely competitive world.

Chief Advancement Officer Chris Farr ’84 recently explained all of this well:  

“Throughout its history, South Kent students have benefited from learning and living with adults who have devoted their lives to teaching lessons not only about literature and mathematics, but also about honesty, faith, humility, collaboration, persistence, and grit. Today's students are learning the same lessons and principles as the more than 4,000 alumni who have come before them. Through traditions such as Chapel, Jobs, Prefect Leadership, and Chaucer, as well as an innovative curriculum, athletics, and leading technology, today’s students will learn to succeed in college and thrive in a rapidly changing and intensely competitive world.”

Director of Hockey Operations Jamie Russell explains how he recruits, and what his values and expectations are for boys who come here to go to school and play hockey:

For families who choose South Kent School to combine academics with hockey, they are entrusting us to prepare their sons to be well rounded young men of character. For me, coming from a background in college hockey and working at institutions of higher learning, I know first hand that student-athletes need to be strong in the classroom as well as on the ice. If our graduates cannot excel academically as well as athletically we have failed to live up to the trust families have placed in us. 

Director of Basketball Operations Raphael Chilious writes:

The Directors/Coaches of our programs work tirelessly to promote academic excellence within our respective programs by encouraging the boys to take the most challenging courses, based upon their individual ability.  We actively recruit the best STUDENT-athlete we can find - in the classroom, on the court/rink/playing field - as evidenced by their impressive list of college choices and acceptances. We help our student-athletes who may have struggled in the past to embrace the rigors of the classroom while supporting them in their journey of discovering who they are and what they can be as students and citizens.  We insist on them upholding all of the values and principles of South Kent School.

Athletics provide opportunities for our boys to further develop their focus, determination, and the ability to create realistic but ambitious goals.  The entire South Kent School “experience” - athletics, academics and community life - provides them with true preparation for life as we teach leadership, values, and essential skills. Athletics are an important avenue to create memories and bonds that will last a lifetime, and today they provide even more access to educational opportunities in college than students might have had otherwise.

I know I could not play on our hockey teams now, despite playing for Mr. Richards on one of his best teams.  But I was certainly one of the boys who learned Mr. Sam Bartlett’s words:  “... many is the boy who has gained his self confidence and respect on the athletic field,” or in my case a crew shell.  

While the boys who are wearing the Cardinal and Black today are incredibly focused, ambitious, and goal-oriented, they are embracing their experiences here and learning all of the same lessons that we older alumni did, and I would even venture that they need it more. The myriad backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities in our student body, the fragmentation of the world, and the declining commonality of moral values and community engagement mean that South Kent School’s three legged approach to education is both unique and invaluable in 2021.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Lawrence A. Smith '73
Head of School

Head of School's Reading List:

Gifts of the Crows
by John Marzluff and Tony Angell

Partly because my mother was an avid student and admirer of crows, partly because George Bartlett was an expert on crows and often had one as a pet, and partly because my wife and I enjoy watching the SKS crows rule the Hillside every morning, I read Gifts of the Crow. This collection of anecdotes and stories, supported by scientific research, explains traits shared by both humans and crows - language, delinquency, frolic, passion, wrath, risk taking, and awareness - and is hence illuminating about the behaviors of both species.