<p>Well most of the people on this site seem a little wrapped up in admissions to prep school or admissions to colleges but if you are already attending a prestigious prep school, perferrably east coast boarding, please provide a list of what you consider the top prep school athletically. I will start the thread off with my personal list.</p>
<li>Avon Old Farms</li>
<li>Loomis Chaffee</li>
<li>Taft </li>
<li>Salisbury</li>
<li>Miss Porter’s</li>
<li>Phillips Exeter & Phillips Andover (not sure which one is better)
Choate Rosemary Hall</li>
<li>Hotchkiss
Deerfield</li>
</ol>
<p>Honorable mention: Tabor, S. Kent, Trinity Pawling, St. Paul’s (these schools are known primarily for having good but not great teams year in and year out but for only 1 or 2 sports)</p>
<p>I'd say Andover, Exeter and Deerfield probably have the best all-around sports teams. Pretty much all of their teams contend in the playoffs, but many times fall just short of championships. (This fall Andover came in 2nd in NE for Boy's XC, Football, and Girl's Volleyball, and made the final four for waterpolo. They won the championships for Girls XC) AOF and Salisbury excel and win championships in sports like hockey and lacrosse, but traditionally are not as strong in sports like crew, water polo or cross country.</p>
<p>Salisbury has other strong teams that do very well such as basketball and tennis that don't get much credit but Avon, wow, undefeated cross country team 2005, New England Soccer champions 2005 , back-to-back hockey championships. They can beat anyone in any sport and notorously come out swinging even when they are underdogs. Too many championships to count. AOF has my vote. By the way, Exeter got crushed by Avon in the NE championship game. I was there because a friend of mine is on the team. And in football TP won that so no one can stake claim there but them. As for water polo, Avon has no team and Salisbury might but I would need to check, also obviously no girl's volleyball teams. Avon lacks a crew team. As for Deerfield, well, they can not compete with Avon. They lost in Soccer, demolished in football and hockeyl ready this year. The deerfieldians in their nice white sweaters have no argument for ever being ranked ahead of Avon or Loomis or Salisbury for that matter though they are quite good competitors.</p>
<p>conlax, I agree with most of what you say. Avon and Salisbury are very hard to beat in most sports. With less sports like water polo crew and indoor track, most of Avon's athletes play the biggest sports. Avon have 5 hockey teams, compared to Andover's 2. Salisbury's hockey team is unbelievable this winter, and AOF is the back-to-back defending new england champs. It's hard to argue with that many championships. Andover, Exeter and Deerfield tend to have more success in some smaller sports (but our football team did go undefeated in the regular season). Not to take away from your point at all (that is an impressive list of championships) I'm pretty sure that Avon was not undefeated in cross-country, but you can check that out.<br>
When you look at it, Avon and Salisbury are probably the two best boy's sports schools as far as championships in the last year. Due to the fact that they are all boys schools, they have more athletes to choose from in boy's soccer or hockey. I give the athletic programs at AOF and Salisbury credit for developing such strong programs all around the board.</p>
<p>You guys seem to be giving a bit too much credit to schools that are all guys. Avon and Salisbury are clearly among the athletic powerhouses in NE, but they are doing so with many more boys, plus PG's, although, if you shake the numbers out they probably have the same amount of boys as Exeter and Andover just because of sheer size. Belmont Hill is also a powerhouse, Deerfield and Hotty are both good at certain sports. For a smaller school, SPS is very good, same with GDA. And no offense conlax, but your bias about going to Avon is blinding you a bit, you sound like an Avon athletic brochure.</p>
<p>I agree, I was kind of trying to make that point above, but didn't really follow through with it. Not to take anything away from AOF or Salisbury, but having so many athletes to choose from is certainly a big advantage in sports like hockey and soccer.</p>
<p>ConLAX-
Oh wow... as a a student at MPS I'm so surprised you ranked it so high on your list. I love our sports teams but we usually just get shot down.
all the prep schoolers pole vaulters better watch out this year.... there is a senior who is going to represent porters (hopefully) this year and make us a name. hehe</p>
<p>Oh, ok I agree with what everyone said. Porter's teams may not be impressive, championship winning teams but as far as softball, volleyball, and swimming go they are good. You obv. would know better then me since you attend their but bailey sanders? Katherine Fuggi? They help out those teams a bit. Also, its not hard to figure out I'm from Avon but when the school lacks girls teams and many sports that Anodver and other places might have, and Andover triples the population, plus notorioulsy has the most PG's in NE most years they are hard to compare. Avon has just as many or less kids to pick from for teams then the bigger schools in NE. Obviously I am what you call biased lol, but I was wondering what other people thought and added my opinion too. Andover has 3X avon's populations and many more teams but I'm almost positive over the last 5 years Avon has amassed more championships in a diverse set of sports too (tennis anyone?) Oh and just to add in BigBlue09 Andover's football team was great this year but they never got to play AOF's which is a shame would have been a good game and AOF doesn't have water polo, crew, or indoor track.</p>
<p>valid points...
I think we can settle on that Avon or Andover would be great choices for athletics, and that you could make cases for both of them. Avon holds the edge in championships, but might not be the best choice if you play a lesser known sport. Both are great athletic schools, and present two different environments for learning.</p>
<p>There are many many great athletes at MPS. We have the # 3 in the world raquetball player. Our equestrian team is building. Swimming has more than bailey and katherine this year ( alot more). Softball, Crew, XC, and Volleryball have done fairly well. Our problem with some of our sports teams is that because we aren't co-ed, some people don't train as amuch in the off-season (esp over the summer) so the sports teams usually suffer from injuries. For example, our soccer team did well in our pre-season. then they had 4 injuries to starters and 3 or 4 more to other players. Our fh team has a similar problem... but compared to 4 years ago, porters has come a VERY long way.</p>
<p>Middlesex girls cross country team won the ISL this year. The football team finished with a 7-2 record and beat ? in a bowl game which I do not remember the name.</p>
<p>I am just reporting that Salisbury the former #1 in NE was beaten by Westminster and now Avon has beat them. AOF might be #1 in N.E. Varsity hockey right now but I won't say so for a fact they were #3 or #4 but they just beat the #1 team (westminster) who beat the other former #1 (salisbury). Lookin' to 3-peat!!!</p>
<p>Avon has been playing really well lately, and Salisbury, who looked like they might cruise through the season unscathed has shown that they can be beaten. There are a lot of really talented teams on top of D1 prep right now, and their hasn't been one team who has looked invincible. If Avon continues their great play, I would not be surprised to see a 3-peat.</p>
<p>OH man this sucks. I jinxed Avon! Well I hope I didn't but they just lost to Choate yesterday but the basketball upset the #1 team in NE (TP) last week and is looking good considering we don't have a player above 6' 2" and everyone on the team is a soccer, football, or lacrosse player. No potential college players in hoops atleast. Anyone else have big news on their teams?</p>