by Charlie Hall ’27
April 2024
Overview:
Over two weeks, I visited most all of the sports offered by USN in the spring. Many sports — lacrosse, tennis, frisbee, among others — have both boys’ and girls’ programs, so I just went to whichever coach emailed me back first.
I went to experience what all of their practices were like and wrote about my experiences. Hopefully, this will help some people get an idea of the range of team cultures and sports offered in the spring.
Baseball:
On Tuesday, February 20, I visited the baseball team. I caught up with old coaches from middle school and some old teammates. The players started with some stretching while talking and laughing. I couldn’t point out anyone who looked like they were they were just there for sports credits. It was also immediately evident who the leaders were. The team had practiced for less than a week, but they talked like they’d been together for much longer, including the freshmen.
I was putting a lot of trust in the team when standing behind them during warm-up throws. Looking back, it wasn’t the smartest thing to be there with my camera! Additionally, after a long school day, they had lots of energy left for 5:00 PM. Something theat became very obvious to me while writing this was that the smaller teams had more chemistry between them, which makes sense.
From 4:00 to 5:00 the team ran defensive drills and game simulations. This is when the athleticism of players became visible. It was evident who was good in certain spots and who needed work.
Catcher Dylan Washko ‘24 throws back to pitcher Grant Reilly ‘24 at practice on February 20. (via the Peabody Press)
Around 5:00, players switched into batting gear and headed towards the cages. I must add that the new cages were not here when I played on the middle school team. While waiting for his turn in the cage, one of the players (whom I could not identify because of his hat and Pit Vipers) came up to me and made sure to talk about how buff he was. Some other boys talked with me about what I was writing about in the paper and I had to leave shortly afterwards.
Boys’ Soccer:
I visited boys’ soccer on Wednesday, February 21, a very windy Wednesday.
A few kids immediately asked me what I had the camera for and what I was doing there in the first place. After that, the team quickly split into group drills, unlike the baseball team with their simulated game. There was also less messing around than the baseball team. There wasn’t much social time at the start of practice: no stretching, no warm-ups, Right into the drills. I tried to make sense of what they were doing but I couldn’t figure it out.
Head Coach Earle Davidson would make sure that there was no one standing or walking during this and encouraged all the players to put in maximum effort. Soccer is a game like baseball where communication is vital; however, the soccer team is much larger than baseball, so it was important for short, yet complicated, drills to encourage communication.
I could tell everyone was slowly getting their energy back after the school day. As practice went on it looked like more effort was being put in. Some people were giving their all from the start and some needed time to warm up. At the first water break, I was speaking with the kids and jokingly suggested what a good photo it would be if one of them could do a backflip. Atticus Pflaum ‘25 stood up from the bench and did just that, resulting in my favorite photo of the day.
From there they went into game situations — initially corner kicks. If someone messed up or did well, the boys on the team would let them know. They were all coaches to each other in a way.
Boys’ Lacrosse:
Thursday, February 22 was lacrosse. This was my favorite to shoot, despite being cold, wet, and windy. The helmets made for some really good photos but because it was so cloudy and getting darker the lighting was hard to shoot in.
Like soccer, they separated into two groups, which I assume were random. The drills reminded me of football, where a few people went deep for a pass, and someone stayed behind to throw. It could have very well just been a normal lacrosse drill with nothing to do with football, but I am obviously no expert on the sport. Unlike soccer, there were more standing-still plays. Also unlike soccer, my presence felt non-existent to the players. One person asked me what the camera was for before practice but other than that they were all very focused on the workout.
After the football-adjacent throwing drills, they went into some quick stretching, and then onto the field. From that point on until the time I left, they were doing an offense vs. defense game on one half of the field. Head Coach Josh Scouten would stand at midfield watching, and every once and a while would correct someone.
Again, back to the theme of the size of the team about the players’ relationship with each other. The boys’ lacrosse team is rather large and they seem to regard each other as colleagues and teammates more than as friends. Every once and a while there would be a congregation around the net where they would socialize while Scouten walked someone else through one-on-one instruction. There was also much more yelling than in the other sports, from both players and coaches.
Right before I left there was a group of kids off to the side waving their lacrosse sticks to get my attention. They wanted a photo of the four of them together, which I thought was pretty sweet.
Softball:
By this time it was Friday, February 23, and I had made a bit of a name for myself and my photography, so the softball players were pretty excited to see it was finally their day. It was also fairly windy, but much less windy than earlier in the week. I can say for certain that the players were the most excited to be there and were having a great time. I also got to see the new River Campus bathrooms for the first time and was very impressed.
Players started with a lap around the field, during that time I talked to Head Coach Katie Roth ‘15. The whole team was not there, so practice looked a little different than it would have on a normal day.
There were multiple times when my life was nearly ended by a softball, and to make up for it the team offered me a donut.We’re even now.
After that fiasco during warmups, they went into defensive game scenarios. Every once and a while one of the coaches would walk them through how to fix something. The majority of the time practice was fast-paced, and they would rotate to different positions.
Everyone on the team was friendly and the vibe was very positive. I think it’s safe to say that nobody wasn’t having a good time.
Girls’ Frisbee:
On Monday, February 26, I finally got to see the notorious girls’ frisbee team and immediately noticed a few things. First of all, it was insanely windy, more than any other day.
Someone brought a speaker and during warmups they were playing “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys. The coaches and the players had a connection unlike any other team on I observed. I always like to see when coaches practice with the players. Due to the wind, the warmups of tossing back and forth was a struggle at first.
But they adapted and focused on how to throw with the wind. After that, I think there was only one dropped frisbee per rotation. The team rotated every now and then to make sure everyone threw with everyone else. It was clear the team values their relationships with each other.
I gave up taking notes when they started stretching because the wind kept drying out the end of my pen, and the papers kept getting blown. After stretches were little one on one drills that focused on getting open and making plays. The team had a match the weekend prior, so what they were working on in practice was a product of what the coaches saw during that match.
The girls’ frisbee team was the smallest so far; it was no surprise that everyone was so close to each other. I can’t speak for the boys team, but if you’re looking for a sport that is competitive with great people, I’d tell you to look into frisbee.
