Of course Dings achievements are great but you- our readers- will appreciate the story of how Ding came to New Hampton (a coed boarding school in New Hampton, NH) and then found encouragement and success from a teacher/coach.

“A USA Football rep informed David Perfield, then the football coach at the New Hampton School, a boarding school in New Hampshire, that he had spotted a talented kicker from China. New Hampton offered him a spot, and on a whim, Ding flew 7,000 miles from his family’s modest two-bedroom apartment in Qingdao to the New England campus. ‘When I first talked to Long, it was a chore to understand what he was saying,’ says Perfield, who is now the director of development at the Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire. ‘His English was really, really poor.’ Did he at least know the rules of football? ‘Oh, no, Jesus no,’ says Perfield. ‘It took him awhile to understand that stuff. He knew you kicked off to start the game, but he didn’t know why you punted, or why you kicked a field goal.’”(KS)

Ding kicked for Norwich University during college and recently attended the Jacksonville Jaguars rookie minicamp as undrafted free agent.

Of Ding’s minicamp work, John Bonamego, Jaguars special teams coach tells Time:

“I was very pleased with where he’s at…He has a legit chance to kick in the NFL. When he came out here, he didn’t act like it was too big for him. It wasn’t ‘hey, I belong.’ He has a wonderful demeanor.”(KS)

Ding seems to like the pressure, telling Keeping Score, “I like the pressure, you know?…You make it, and you’re a hero.”

We wish him the best of luck in his attempt to stick with an NFL team.

• “Leaving the Reservation…“
• “I Tell My Brothers They Have Choices to Make“
• “The Application Process Was Daunting…“
• “My Essay Was About My Struggles Growing Up.”

Aaron offers his stories, encouragement, and perspectives as part of the College Board’s “You Can Go” campaign.

The “You Can Go” campaign makes the case for college, and college options, to students who, for a variety of reasons, might remove themselves from the college admission process.

Addressing collegiate entrance hurdles such as cost, grades, and adult responsibilities, students are urged to take the collegiate leap even though it can feel risky.

“Don’t hold back” runs through each student’s story.

We first met Aaron in 2010 as a Proctor (Andover, NH) student and, then, learned Aaron’s broader story, writing in 2010:

“When we visited Proctor Academy’s campus in June, Aaron Thomas was kind enough to take time during our tour to talk about why he values Proctor. We had no idea that Aaron would open up a great back story that we had never heard. Aaron hails from the Navaho Nation and he attends Proctor as part of the school’s Native American Scholarship Fund.”

You can watch our video interview with Aaron below:

Linden Hill occupied a unique niche in the boarding school world working with middle and high school boys with attention issues and learning differences in a small, personal, family style setting.

Linden Hill head, James McDaniel laid bare the reality in his letter to the community announcing and explaining the decision. In an amazing detailed and honest letter, McDaniel explains that Linden had come up against some economic gulfs that the Linden Hill family was unable to bridge.

I share these excerpts, but I recommend reading McDaniel’s letter in its entirety:

…It is well documented over the course of the past several years that Linden Hill School has experienced lower enrollment causing reduced tuition revenues against our total operating costs. Our school was already burdened with extraordinary debt and could ill afford the dramatic decline in revenues…

We came to the understanding that our need for fundraising each year was growing at a rate that would exceed our small community’s ability to respond. We were, in short, rapidly approaching an inevitable closing of the school for lack of funds. We responded to this stark reality directly during the summer of 2011 to critically examine (1) our place in the LD/ADHD middle school market, (2) our programs to meet our population’s needs, (3) our staff’s skill sets to provide services to this population at the highest level and, finally, (4) our overall business model for sustainability. We came to the ultimate conclusion that we must take bold steps if we were going to have any chance of saving the school. At the same time, we recognized that those steps might not save the school. Nonetheless, making some dramatic changes was our only hope, however slim, of survival.

…Despite this effort and given the extreme pressure on the fundraising efforts and donors themselves over the past several years, it became increasingly evident that that we have exhausted the ability of our constituents to rescue the school from the ravages of a depressed economy and our significant enrollment declines. Recognizing this, the Board of Trustees determined that the current and projected expense of keeping Linden Hill School open is more than our community could bear or risk. Thus, the Board has voted to close Linden Hill after the end of this school year, June 8, 2012.

…Each year, we forged ahead and made ends meet, rising and falling with each student lost or big gift received struggling to close huge gaps annually between tuition revenues and expenses. The cumulative effect of this existence was deleterious to our ability to provide the best of staffing and to maintain the highest consistency of expectation for each member of the community. Yet, despite it all, we opened and closed each school year having helped our boys along in their lives, thanks to the courage of our faculty, board, and parents.

We are deeply saddened that we must make this decision regarding a school that has helped so many fine young men and their families. Our tradition has been a proud one as the oldest junior boarding school in America for boys with learning differences. We hope that through each of us who has been affiliated with our school, its legacy will live on.

Peace be with all of you as you carry forth the legacy of Linden Hill School.

Sincerely,
James A. McDaniel

If you know your top notch prep school basketball history, MCI with coach Max Good (currently the Loyola Marymount head coach) on the bench was once of the perennial prep school powers.

I watched, and worked the shot clock and scoreboard, at many a game where Good’s teams outran and imposed their will on the opposition.

The decision seems rooted in philosophy and finances. What role does the top notch team play in school and how much does it cost? It seems that, for MCI, liabilities began to outweigh the benefits.

“Finances was really a secondary role in this decision…The program no longer enhances the mission of the school,” MCI’s Director of Alumni and Communications Jennifer Beane told the Morning Sentinel.

“One hundred and thirty-five MCI post-graduate team players went on to play Division I college basketball, and 10 players, including Sam Cassell, Cutino Mobley, Brad Miller, Caron Butler, and DerMarr Johnson, went on to the NBA…

…MCI’s postgraduate basketball team saw its heyday under coach Max Good, from the late 1980s through the ’90s. In 10 years at MCI, Good went 275-30. Under Good, the Huskies had three undefeated teams, won five New England Prep School Athletic Conference titles and had a 79-game win streak. Eighty-seven of Good’s players went on to play Division I basketball, and nine of them have played in the NBA.”(MS)

Photo credit: Steve A Johnson via Creative Commons

The intallments feature students, and teachers, talking about their programs and, often, the benefits of a small interconnected community.

Dixson’s reports show Marvelwood students engaged in experiences ranging from the service oriented caring and training of future service dogs, to the artistic pursuit of jewelry making, to athletic rock climbing.

Each story offers a window into, not only what Marvelwood students experience, but also how Marvelwood faculty work, as well as the things that the greater Marvelwood community holds important and valuable. The high level of connection and individual pursuit is classic small school.

Marvelwood School: Cool for Puppies

Marvelwood School: Cool for Jewelry

Marvelwood School: Cool for Critters

Marvelwood School: Cool for Rock Climbing

To watch the reports go to: http://www.wfsb.com/category/211215/cool-schools

The entire Cool Schools series is kept on a single page. You’ll find the Marvelwood reports individually available in the past reports bar below the main video viewer window.

Interestingly, during my 24 hour trip, I came across two boarding school alumni- in different media- doing different work- but both achieving at the highest levels of their professions.

First fashion designer Jason Wu (a graduate of Loomis Chaffee).

I sit down in my seat on a Delta flight and, with a few minutes before take-off, I pull out Sky Magazine and there’s Wu on the cover- the subject of a piece exploring who he is and where he’s going.

The article is full of interesting biographical detail and Wu’s own observation on his work and where’s he’s going.

“At 29, Wu is poised to become a powerhouse brand of first-name magnitude—like Tommy, Ralph or Calvin…

‘A lot of my peers don’t think about collaborating the way I do,’ Wu says. ‘My approach is to imagine my world. The Jason Wu woman isn’t just floating around in a beautiful dress. I like to know where she’s going, what she likes. I’m not just in the fashion business. I’m in the lifestyle business. I believe in making good product.’

…But the whirlwind doesn’t appear to impede his artistic inclinations. ‘I can always find time to sketch,’ he says. That might be late at night, on the weekend or in the middle of a photo shoot. You could call him a workaholic, in the sense that he works a lot—as much as necessary (and in fact, he conjures up the term himself). But the word carries a certain negativity that bothers Wu.

‘I don’t feel stressed,’he says. ‘I’m organized. I’m inspired. I like what I do.’”(SM)

From fashion to hockey, Corey Schneider, Philips Andover Alumnus was in the net for the Vancouver Canucks while I was eating my salad in the hotel restaurant. I couldn’t hear the play by play or color analyst too well, but they did mention that Schneider was an Andover product.

Two successful boarding school alumni in the media on a quick April trip to Denver. Go figure.

A Gould Academy student share her insights into what it’s like to be a student at Gould. Two programs that she shares will strike viewers as setting Gould apart.

The first is Gould’s On Snow program. Adjacent to Sunday River ski area, Gould encourages and designs its programs so that students make maximum use of their ‘backyard’ outdoor opportunities. On Snow program puts as many students as possible on snow during the winter in capacities that allow students to grow in a variety of directions- as ski racers, as ski instructors for children.

During the winter, Gould ‘flips’ two days a week with students hitting the mountain first thing in the morning, then, returning to campus for classes in the evening.

Viewers will also be struck by Gould’s Farm and Forest Program.

In place of a traditional afternoon athletic requirement, students can gain first hand experience in working on and running the school’s farm. Animals and crops from the farm make into the school’s dining hall and the farm uses school waste in composting.

Gould features strong small class, discussion driven academics shaped by an engaged faculty. A strong arts program that offers another uniquely Gould class- blacksmithing.

Evenings feature traditional study hall and library hours.

Weekend are highlighted by activities ranging from relaxing to intense- shopping to ice climbing.

Whether it’s the governing body’s insistence in some faux notion of amateurism that never existed; to a student first, athlete second assertion (when anyone who’s ever been around a division 1 revenue sport knows that the time required by the sport is tantamount, or more, to a full time job); to the NCAA’s, and its members, willingness to function as a minor league program for in this case the NBA.

Which brings me to two recent articles on basketball talent Nerlens Noel. (Boston Globe’s Noel Pushing Forward, but Feels the Pull & The New York Times’ Everybody Wants a Piece of Nerlens Noel).

Noel’s supremely talented on the court while at the same time a high school kid. So talented, watched, and followed, is the 6’10″ Noel that he has almost 19,000 twitter followers.( BG)

He chose to leave his hometown high school and team to attend Tilton School. (Tilton plays some the best prep school basketball in the country.)

You’d think that heading off to Tilton would take some pressure of Noel- freeing him a bit- taking him away from those who project their beliefs and desires on him and those who want a piece of him- the well meaning and those who see him as cash cow.

As Boston basketball luminary Leo Papile told the Boston Globe’s Julian Benbow:

“It’s like a lottery ticket…Like somebody dropped one on the ground that’s worth $10 million and everyone’s scurrying around like, ‘Where’d the wind blow it?’ Every character in the world is saying, ‘Let me get in there.’ ’’(BG)

Alas, Noel doesn’t seem to have found peace in moving up to the Lakes Region. Everyone still wants a piece him. He’s still a great basketball talent.

The original plan was for Noel to spend two years at Tilton and, then, most likely to be selected in the 2013 NBA draft. Noel changed his mind and now will graduate from Tilton this year and, most likely, become one of the current breed of great players who spend one year on college team before heading off to the NBA.

The change of plan is where the guts, and gross, of the recruiting and cultivation of a seventeen year old major basketball player come into play. So many people seem to want to get their tenterhooks into him. Mostly, it seems, for selfish reasons.

It’s hard to maintain distance and perspective as an 18 year old. But, I’d like to see Noel play for himself and do what makes him happy. And, I’d like to see adult hangers on and coaches leave him alone.

Noel will announce his college choice tonight at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

I wish for him that he puts himself first in the decision making process…I hope it works out for him.

Thirty years ago, the Globe was the only paper that kept tabs on prep school leagues and standings.

Then, the Globe’s resources went elsewhere and prep school coverage languished for a while punctuated by various fragmented attempts at regular publication, score gathering, and reporting of prep school ahtletics.

Kudos to Scott Barboza and Brendan Hall of ESPN’s Boston High School Blog. These two Mass. natives- sporting solid journalist backgrounds- are doing a great job of following, collecting, and publishing quick coverage on New England prep school sports.

Just yesterday Barboza published a list of New England players on the NHL Central Scouting service final rankings of North American skaters and goaltenders. It includes some solid prep school talent.

For coverage of the NEPSAC winter tournaments (hockey and basketball) and prep school sports news, type NEPSAC into the search bar.

Northfield Mount-Hermon scored a huge upset win in boys class AAA tournament. NMH beat Brewster- handing them their only loss of the season- in the semifinal round. NMH then went on to defeat, St. Thomas Moore in the championship game.

St. Mark’s and Tilton played for the class AA title. St. Mark’s took the title 59-53.

Salisbury took the class A title beating Choate.

Hyde (ME) defeated Hebron Academy for the class C title.

And, in class D Hoosac, beat MacDuffie, 64-57.

For your video distraction, click on the image for  the YouTube “nepsac basketball 2012” search. If you’re a basketball fan, this search can keep you away from your work for a good while.