The True Measure of Success

Competitive excellence is not just a goal at Collegiate. It’s an expectation, and it appears in many forms.

In the fall of 2022, the School’s varsity athletic teams combined for five league and three state titles. Twenty-nine athletes earned All-League of Independent Schools or All-Prep League recognition, and 18 of those also made All-VISAA.

Sustained Dominance Across Programs

This time around, both tennis and girls cross country won their third consecutive VISAA championship, and soccer won its second in three years. Girls cross country, field hockey, and soccer repeated as league champs, and boys cross country won the Prep League for the first time since 2008.

 
“The story of this year was about team, about depth, and about how we fought and battled,” said Andrew Stanley, Collegiate’s director of athletics. “I was super-impressed.”
 
Examples? There were many. Stanley offered a sampling. “I think about the volleyball match at St. Catherine’s where we were down 0-2 and came back to win in 5,” he said. “I think about Liam Harbour’s speech about cross country in the assembly about how this year the boys found the fifth and sixth runners they needed to win a championship.
 
“I think about the number of guys in football who played different roles for that team to compete, and the way they battled, especially defensively, to hold good teams to small numbers, even when undersized.
 
“Some of the biggest goals scored this season in soccer — Cooper Winston-Evans’s game-winner that put us into the (VISAA) finals, Joshua Parker’s game-winner in overtime in the finals, some of the biggest goals against St. Christopher’s in the Prep League — were scored by people not named Charles Nolde (the league and state player of the year, who scored 28 goals, including seven game winners, and contributed 21 assists). You can only have role players doing that when your best players do their jobs. That’s a statement about growth, teamwork, character, and confidence. When we were at our best, our depth was showing, and we were able to excel across the board.”
 
There’re more, for sure.

 “The fifth [and deciding] point we got to win the state [tennis] championship was a win by Abby Rosenstock in No. 6 singles,” Stanley continued.
 
“Our hockey team lost 7-1 to Norfolk Academy the first time we played them and then played them again in the state finals. They accepted a game plan and executed a game plan against the No. 2 team in the nation. We were down 4-0 and scored three straight goals (before losing 4-3). Growth was on display. Teamwork was on display. The character of the competitors was on display. That’s what we want sports to be here.
 
“We knew our girls could win the cross country state championship. We finished second, third, and seventh. You have to have five. There’s character required to win that race in the 24th and 28th spots. That, to me, is the beauty of the cross county, track and field, and swimming type sports.
 
“I was impressed by the way our athletes almost universally accepted and embraced their roles to give our teams the best chance to compete day in and day out.”

Leadership from the Sidelines

Stanley, a longtime varsity boys lacrosse coach before he stepped back two years ago to focus on his duties as AD, commended the leadership provided by the varsity head coaches.
 
“We have exceptional coaches in the fall season,” he said. “Because they were willing to do the right thing, the kids were willing to do the right thing. We punched above our weight a number of times. Whether we won or lost those games is almost irrelevant. You knew you’d seen something.
 
“One of the best stories of the fall was the fact that we lost the LIS tennis tournament (by one point to St. Catherine’s) because it gave us a chance to show how dominant we could be if we decided to be. There’s value in losing. It stinks, but it is part of the process.
 
“I really enjoyed watching our girls react to that loss in the moment and watching their response the whole next week. That was a really cool lesson in teamwork, because the kids who didn’t play had to show up to practice ready to rally the kids who did. That team came together and smoked their competition 5-0, 5-0, and 5-0 in the state tournament.”
 

The True Measure of Coaching Success

While winning is great, Stanley said, the true measure of coaching success is providing athletes the tools to succeed, then humbly stepping back and taking quiet pride is seeing them become the best versions of themselves, both individually and collectively.
 
“We’re so fortunate that our head coaches, our program leaders, have an absolutely high level of expertise in their sport, which is a gift,” he said. “They have a commitment and passion for their sport. They also have the presence, the awareness, the acumen, the ability to detach from their own knowledge and emotion and see the moment in front of them and the students in front of them and make good decisions, make the right tactical maneuvers, support the children emotionally in the right way, and put the right kids in the right spots more often than not.
 
“The kids had room to breathe and become themselves because the coaches allowed that to happen. We’re in a really good spot with fall coaches and fall sports.”
~Weldon Bradshaw