Just started researching athletics offered at boarding schools. What schools should I start considering if our family wants strong academics but also offers opportunities to play baseball or run track. Open to any state but especially interested in California schools at the moment.
I think most New England boarding schools have both baseball and track in the spring, but I don’t know about California. In terms of track, Loomis boys had an undefeated track season and the girls’ track team is very strong too.
While many New England schools offer baseball, remember that it is a very abbreviated season. If you go back and look a team listings for multiple years, you will see that some years schools get in as few as 8 games. California, Virginia and even mid-Atlantic schools have a longer season.
Some of the New England schools go to Florida to get in preseason training and games. Proctor takes a service trip to the DR.
Cate has both, and I am pretty sure Thacher does, too. The issue for baseball is that the schools are small and the league is small, too. Cate only has a varsity squad. If you’re looking for an elite level of play, that may disappoint. If you are looking for a fun team experience with kids and coaches who love the game, then Cate is a good fit. They made the playoffs, so they are competitive. If you’re looking to be a college recruit, though…
Thanks @CateCAParent. I’ll look into baseball at Cate. What you mentioned is exactly the type of experience we are looking for. So what does it mean if there is only a varsity squad? What about freshmen? Do they have to tryout to get on the squad?
Thanks @sparkatzz and @vwlizard . Those are good points and one more thing to consider as we look at schools in different states.
@8minutemile - Cate’s “varsity” baseball is no cut (last year there were a couple of girls on the team - apparently quite talented. Girl power!!!). This year was an unusually large team. 25-ish. That meant there wasn’t much playing time for freshmen unless they had mad skills. So that’s a bummer. You can look at the Cate website for the game schedule- I think they had about 15-20 games. So I figure most of the time on the field is in practices, anyway. The upside is the younger students really get to know the older students.
The head coach won the national Positive Coaching Alliance award last year. He coaches with his son, who iirc went to Cate himself back in the day. They also coach football. They are very much a huge part of the heart of Cate. The kids adore them. The head coach is a combo of old school - sets standards and expects you to meet them — and hilarious, and very warm. He cares about the kids on and off the field. Just what you want in a coach.
You can pm me if you want more info on baseball or anything else about Cate. I couldn’t be happier with my son’s experience so far.
What is your specialty in track? I don’t know much about Thacher’s baseball and track, but can ask around. College recruiters know Thacher as a great place for cross country runners. Several were recruited to top colleges.
Are track and baseball different seasons where you live? They are both Spring sports in many places, so he would have to choose one.
Thanks @CaliMex & @doschicos. DS has been playing baseball for several years but is also a fast runner and interested in trying track, most likely sprint or perhaps mid-distance. He enjoys team sports for a variety of reasons and baseball has been great, but he’s also looking for a new challenge too. Looking at schools that offer both so he can have options to choose from. Will look into Thacher–good to know they have baseball and cross country.
Most schools have cross country in the fall, and some also offer indoor track in winter, and then regular track&field and baseball are in the spring. So he could easily run for two seasons and then decide for the spring whether to do baseball or track.
This is good to know @417WHB. His current school doesn’t have track and he’s currently doing fall and spring club baseball. One cool thing about looking at schools is finding out about all the options available out there at various boarding schools.
Thacher and Cate were quite the baseball rivals this season. They split the games 2-1. I got to see one of the games. Super fun. Thacher and Cate make great frienemies. 
They were amazing for each other during the fires, and they do lots of good-natured competing for fundraising, etc. They also have a really cool program they share re: college applications. They fly in like 50 different college AOs and do mock application reviews with the students from the two schools (there might be a couple of other small schools that participate, too), like they are on an actual admissions team trying to select who to admit. Gives the students great insight into the process and an opportunity to mingle with AOs.
@8minutemile – it is worth mentioning that California schools are very different from East Coast schools sports-wise, because the CIF (statewide regulating body) does not allow recruiting, or for students to play for 5 years of high school sports. That means few, if any, students are PGs or repeat years. California schools take sports seriously, but sporty East Coast boarding schools take it to a whole 'nuther level. One system in not better than the other, and plenty of athletes get recruited to great colleges from California bs, but there is a difference in culture that you can feel on East Coast v West Coast campuses – at least when it comes to sports. Just something to pay attention to when thinking about fit.
@CateCAParent & @CaliMex, thanks for the info about Cate and Thacher. Will start researching what both schools have to offer with regards to athletics and academics. Both seem great from what I’ve been reading on this board. Good to know about the CIF guidelines for sports–sounds quite reasonable from what’s mentioned on this thread. Just to clarify, would the guideline means it’s less likely for there to be a wide spread in age range for sports? What are PGs?
PG’s- post graduates. Kids who have already graduated from high school but do another year, usually for athletics (to help with college recruiting).
Post graduates are students who basically take a fifth year of high school like a gap year. Many reasons why- to mature, to play sports, to catch up because life happened (illness, or some other disruption). But sports is a big reason.
In the bigger East Coast schools there are a handful of pg’s each year. There are threads on CC about them and boardingschoolreview identifies those with a pg program.
Yes, there is a wider age range in East Coast schools. I don’t think it happens much, but you could have a student who was on the old side when he started kindergarten, repeated 9th grade and is a PG playing alongside a young 13 y.o. 9th grade soccer phenom.
We had actually looked at the PG situation pretty closely after I read about it here and elsewhere and it is really not as bad as people make it out to be, football seems to be the only sport where there can be a good number of them (of course football has a lot bigger roster too, so maybe similar impact). I would suggest to look at the rosters of the schools you are considering, and talk to the coaches. Most varsity rosters have a lot of sophomores and juniors, and even some freshmen. The more surprising thing (for me anyway) was that pretty much all the kids who want a shot at playing in college still do year round thing with club and other workouts for their main sport in the offseason. At some schools coaches help to facilitate it (sometimes local club teams even practice on campus), but a lot of times it involves driving elsewhere for practice or games pretty much every Sunday, and even during the week. The short boarding school season is just not enough, even if you do play at pretty high level during that time. So that’s another thing to consider and ask about.