This discussion was created from comments split from: Saint Grottlesex.
Just read the SPS magazine, SPS leaving the ISL. So not sure how they will compete in say…Boys LAX against the 6 schools they seem to be teaming up with? Girls sports I haven’t a clue, but SPS will not be competing against the “six schools” in football. Maybe this is a discussion for another thread.
@Sarum, according to the link below, “The exception to SSL participation will be the SPS football program, which Hirschfeld is hopeful will continue to compete as a non-league opponent with some of its ISL rivals as well as other New England independent schools.” See http://www.sps.edu/page/News-Detail?pk=848785&fromId=189009.
Why would St. Paul’s do this? There must be more to the story. It seems to me a huge leap into the unknown.
As I understand it, it was a choice of leaving the ISL or change some of their grants/aid policies. SPS wanted to give financial aid related to sports (in part) which is violation of ISL rules relating to sports scholarships. It’s obviously a gray area: Harvard gives a ton of aid to athletes where are obviously accepted in large part because of sports skills, but they aren’t technically athletic scholarships because any kid who gets in with the same financial situation will get the same aid.
Page 2 and page 4:
https://mediafiles01.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/36/misc/misc_129605.pdf
The financial aid is tied to merit scholarships that are given not always based on financial need but not given for athletic reasons either. The scholarships in question are regional scholarships.
I’ve heard this official rationale, but it just seems unconvincing. Take the piece on p. 2 from the link above, which is the more carefully written of the two. The lefthand column seems to be saying – although it could be saying the opposite – that after years of thoughtful deliberation, St. Paul’s is choosing not to “double down” on athletics. Yet they are leaving the ISL to compete more frequently against bigger boarding schools that enroll PGs? Or if you focus on the phrase “enhance strong teams” – after years of conversations about the importance of athletics, St. Paul’s is leaving the ISL abruptly, with no clear plan as to how to replace 2/3 of their regular season schedule in many boys’ sports?
The bigger quandary for me is in the right hand column, with the sentence “Neither option was viable in the context of our mission.” Why is the second option not viable? It works for Exeter and Andover, for Harvard, Princeton and Yale, not to mention for every other ISL school. The Ivy League prohibits redshirts and merit aid; how is a similar prohibition of PGs and merit aid at the secondary school level not a good thing for keeping athletics in balance with academics? Why leave that behind?
I’m not saying there is no rationale; clearly you don’t make a decision like this without a good reason. It just seems that there are some unspoken forces or reasoning here that I am missing.
I agree that there is spin in the Rector’s letter. They aren’t leaving abruptly in the sense that they will still play in the ISL next year. Most of the SPS sports teams are mediocre at best (I don’t think the school puts as much emphasis on recruiting athletes as many other BSs) so I would imagine that they won’t be successful in the new league being created based on past experience, size of school relative to new opponents, no PGs (but repeat juniors/5th formers) etc.
Why they made the choice is because they seemed to be forced to make the choice - found in violation of giving merit aid by the ISL league. Disappointing to think that SPS administration would not have dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s on that one, as the second piece mentions getting an exception granted for the first regional scholarship created decades ago. Who dropped the ball on that with the subsequent, newer regional scholarships?
Perhaps they weren’t given a choice to stay by the ISL and hence this is their spin. Perhaps they didn’t want to forgo the scholarship donations and feel that the draw of kids with regional diversity was more important. My guess is it might be the former than the latter. I would imagine that there are many connected to the school that are unhappy with this new direction.
This does highlight a real issue though–the relative size of the schools and how it impacts athletic outcomes. Let’s step away from boarding schools for a moment: In public high schools, schools with 300-400 kids don’t play schools that have 1200 kids. They are in different divisions. And if they play at all, it would only be in all-division type championship, which would be a pretty rare event. But for traditional “historical” reasons, they don’t do this at Prep Schools. Andover and Exeter have roughly twice the number of students of Deerfield or SPS, and nearly even more than that of a Groton or Middlesex. So the schools have a choice: If they want to stay competitive with a school 2x or more their size, they have to bring in a much greater percentage of athletes. It’s a tough call.
When we looked at Deerfield this exact thing came up. They have built a beautiful new arts center and afterwards donors/AOs were seeking dancers/musicians to fill it. There was some concern from coaches/alumni about losing athletes ( an article on it somewhere- maybe student newspaper?) These mid size schools have to strike a balance- most kids accepted need to fill several hooked slots vs. at PA, E or CRH where they can fill a specific need. Another thing to look at- what sports programs is the school supporting. A football program takes way more recruitable athletes than say squash. Do you think SPS will focus more on smaller team sports? SPS seems to be making a big push recently with their new FA policy and regional scholarships to bring in more economic diversity.
My DD is actually excited about filling multiple slots as she’s an athlete, a musician and hopefully the size of Deerfield will allow her to fulfill that. I definitely do see how the size of the student body impacts certain teams sport – you can see it in the league results. Its much harder for the mid-sized school to have enough players to compete.
University of Alabama football isn’t going to play Bucknell or Princeton Football- now Stanford their special
( don’t text while watch kid @ swim practice-that’s they’re…)
MAandMEkid will do great! DA lucky to grab her