So, beyond school sites, I resorted to scanning the signings lists at Rivals.com and I found a few prep school players who signed.

The group doesn’t seem as numerous, or deep, as it has in the past but that may be from a lower profile more than anything else.

Remember this list is by no means exhaustive or thorough. If you’ve know a boarding school player who should be on the list, by all means add him to the comment section.

• Isaiah Battle (Fork Union Military Academy)
• Aharown Campbell (Hargrave Military Academy)
• Nevin Cyr (Cushing Academy)
• Taylor Gadbois(Fork Union Military Academy)
• Cardale Jones (Fork Union Military Academy)
• Jake Kiley (New Hampton School)
• Jamar Lewter (Fork Union Military Academy)
• James Meagher (Trinity-Pawling School)
• Cam Shorey (Philips Exeter Academy)

T-P ran short news post and photo covering Meagher’s commitment to West Point.

Photo credit: acaben

It’s just a tough time in the admission cycle. Still, quiet, busy, loaded with thinking.

Admission officers and schools want to do what’s best for every child. Parents want the best for that same child. Sometimes, the best answer is ‘yes.’ Sometimes, the best answer is ‘no.’

Andrew Weller at Ridley College (a coed boarding school in St. Catharines, Canada) has a nice story up on his Independent School Admission Musing Blog chronicling his personal delivery of a difference making decision:

“Over my career I have had the opportunity on occasion to tell a student of their admission in person or over the phone before they got our packet, but this may well be the first time I have hand-delivered it…

When he hit the key line in the letter that confirmed where he thought this letter was going, his eyes got huge and his smile even bigger and his head shot up like a jack-in-the-box as he looked at me. And then he looked right back down to finish reading the letter. When he was done, he looked up and he said nothing, the bright glare reflecting off his braces sending the message of his delight. I simply smiled back, shook his hand, said congratulations, and went on my way.”(AW)

I know that not every admission and financial conversation, and decision, will go the way everyone hopes over the coming months. But Weller presents readers with an opportunity to reflect and think about the lasting power of decision well taken.

As school people, a lot of us live with the desire to be able to be successful and reach, every student, every day. We can’t. It doesn’t work like that. Not every school fits every student and not every faculty member fits every student.

In the private school world, sometimes our inability to reach a student is purely monetary. That’s a blunt reality.

Implicit in Weller’s piece, though, is a reminder to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Our greatest responsibility lies in work with those students we have, those before us.

Additional resources:

Ridley College - www.ridleycollege.com

Boarding school in Canada

This list isn’t exhaustive. If I didn’t find someone, please add them to the comments.

Danny Aiken, long snapper for the New England Patriots, did a PG year at Fork Union where coach John Schuman taught Aiken the art of long snapping- a specialty that can earn a player a career. Aiken played collegiately at the Univerisity of Virginia and played with the Bills prior to coming to the Patriots.

Victor Cruz did a postgraduate year at Bridgton Academy in 2005. Un-hearalded coming out UMass, Cruz has developed in to a consumate slot receiver and one of Eli Manning’s primary targets.

Fellow New York Giant D.J. Ware did a post grad year Hargrave Military before attending the University of Georgia. Ware has been with Giants since 2007 and already has a Super Bowl ring.

Additional resources:

Bridgton Academy football program

Fork Union Military Academy football program

Hargrave Academy football program

Boarding schools in ME

Boarding schools in VA

View from Brentwood College School

My school, Brentwood College School, is one of the largest boarding schools in Canada.  10% of our student population is from the United States of America.  They come here because they have heard that we are special; different then the choices available in the USA and elsewhere.

This ‘brain drain’ to the northwest is something I am proud of and, to be honest, something every American family associated with our school is immensely proud of.

The Americans at Brentwood tend to be willing to see beyond borders.  They are keen to see their own country from a new perspective and they enjoy interacting with other cultures.  Our American students tend to dream big, explore widely and live boldly.

Ironically, these very core elements of American culture are what drive many of our American students to Brentwood.  They are willing to step out of a comfort zone and proudly pronounce their independence in their own thinking; they are willing to show their courage as individuals.  Because of this, many of our American students go on to do great things in life.

Stereotypes are hard to live down. There are many about Canadians and Canada in general; some of these aren’t too far from the truth.

I myself love hockey, maple syrup and have been known to say ‘eh’ on occasion. However, not many people outside of Canada know about our amazing school and the fundamentally sound and globally recognized education our students receive

If you’re a high school snowboarder with collegiate or U.S. national aspirations, you might like our latest video interview with Chris Davies, Gould Academy, head snowboarding coach.

Davies talks about how Gould works with and approaches competitive snowboarding from cross training in the off-season to spending 100 days on snow during the winter.

You can see the video in two places:

1. At Gould’s “Glog” with the title “Does This Make Me famous…??” (I think it does, Chris!)
2. Or as part or our article: “Scouting Report: Competitive Snowboarding Boarding Schools“

Additional resources:

Gould Academy – www.gouldacademy.org

Boarding schools in Maine

Janet Dunn, Director of the Akin Learning Center at Kents Hill School chats with us about the center’s new building and the story behind it.

Kents Hill (a coed boarding school in Kents Hill, ME) has been on the fore of learning differences programs having had a program (that started in Dunn’s living room) for 32 years.  The new building is the latest step in the center’s journey from living room, to library, to dedicated, purpose built facility.

A seven year process brought the Akin Learning Center from idea to realization.  Like all good architecture the process began with the students and faculty who use the building and worked outward toward design.  The center’s new home provides students a comfortable setting into which kids want to come, collaborate, and be proud of what they accomplish.

Kents Hill alumni carry a structure and routine into college and adulthood that they’ve absorbed from the KHS experience.  They know how to keep a schedule and when to study and they are comfortable and secure in their interactions with teachers and adults.

Additional resources:

Akin Learning Center

Kents Hill School – www.kentshill.org

Boarding schools in ME

Learning differences boarding schools

In partnering with School and Student Services By NAIS (SSS), we’ve taken the regional cost of living adjustments and data used by SSS to calculate estimated family contributions toward tuition and put them into an easy to understand infographic. We present hypothetical financial situations, and possible tuition contribution, of families in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and the National Standard.

The infographic is part of our new free e-book, “Understanding Private School Financial Aid: What it is and How to Apply.”

If you’re contemplating, entering, or already deep into the private school financial aid process, “Understanding Private School Financial Aid: What it is and How to Apply” can help you navigate the waters.

We can give you general picture, but, in the end, every financial aid decision is made individually by each school.

Here’s the important disclaimer:

Keep in mind that all financial numbers we present are only estimates. Every family’s financial situation is unique as is each school’s financial aid program. Each school administers and determines its own financial aid process and awards. Schools do not necessarily use, or apply, metropolitan area Cost of Living Adjustments. Application of any Cost of Living Adjustment comes at the discretion of each school. Your family’s financial aid eligibility could be different at each school to which you apply.

Visualized by AdmissionsQuest, a site for families researching boarding schools. Financial aid data provided by School & Student Services By NAIS (SSS).

The lede holds much of the story’s draw.

A boarding school alumnus, Culter, who holds an undergraduate degree from Northeastern University and an M.B.A. from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, doesn’t work in finance. Instead he has found a life as a rising star in Brazilian Funk.

The story becomes even richer in light of the fact that the Brazilian funk comes out of Rio’s favelas and that Cutler makes his home in Tabajaras, the favela above Rio’s Copacabana beach.

Culter embraces and seems to love Brazilian life.

“…In a musical subculture that still frightens and fascinates many residents of the self-described noble seaside districts literally in the shadow of Rio’s hillside favelas, Mr. Cutler talks the talk. His Portuguese flows with roguish street terminology and self-deprecating wisecracks, a stream-of-consciousness commentary that would merit at least an R rating.

And unlike many fair-weather foreigners who frequent Rio for its beaches, he also walks the walk. He performs here in the gritty city of Nova Iguaçu and other sketchy parts of the Baixada Fluminense, the patchwork of poor districts on Rio’s periphery. He has put down stakes in Tabajaras, a favela perched atop Copacabana, where he paid $20,000 in cash for a tiny house where he lives with his girlfriend, Yasmin Leiros.

Tabajaras is a long way from Los Angeles, where Mr. Cutler was raised in an affluent Jewish household, before attending Berkshire, a Massachusetts boarding school.

Mr. Cutler clawed his way into the funk world from the ground level, after earlier efforts rapping in Spanish in the United States and then the Dominican Republic. He said he was drawn to rap, and later to funk, by the sense of incomparable adventure these genres offered compared with working in an office…”(NYT)

Culter knows the act may not last forever but he’s staying with music as long as he can telling writer Romero, “I don’t know if I’ll sing funk forever, but I know what it’s like to do music that trembles your soul.” (NYT)

Boarding school alumni sometimes work their way into seemingly odd places. I’d love to know where Cutler’s musical seeds were planted.

Worcester Academy, Worcester, MA

New head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Joe Philbin, did a post graduate year at Worcester Academy (a coed boarding school in Worcester, MA) during the 1979-80 academic year.

From the ‘life is a merry-go-round/degees of separation’ and the “my-oh-my how did those two guys end up in the same prep school english department at the same time’ files, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King writes:

“Miami’s hire of the Green Bay offensive coordinator as head coach Friday probably never would have happened without Matt Birk, Kirk Ferentz, and two Massachusetts establishments of higher education with significantly different reputations — Worcester Academy and Harvard.

“But never without Matt Birk,” said one NFL scout Friday. “And never without Harvard.”

And never without Kirk Ferentz.

Everyone’s life, personal and professional, has a certain degree of kismet to it. Every coach can look to one point in his career and say, That’s when it all changed for me. Peeling the onion on Philbin’s career shows the same thing.

In 1979, Philbin, a high-school tight end, enrolled at Worcester (Mass.) Academy for a post-grad high school year before going on to a four-year college. One of the assistant coaches on the team was a young kid just out of college, Kirk Ferentz, who actually performed nightly bedchecks on Philbin and got to know him well. Fast-forward to 1997. Philbin was climbing the coaching ladder, and took a job coaching the Harvard offensive line. At the time he took the job, Philbin inherited a good but technically raw starting center, Matt Birk. Excellent size and flexibility. But not technically sound. “A reacher and a grabber,” recalled Philbin. “He would get outside the framework of his body and start reaching and grabbing. Once he learned the fundamentals of punching and pass-protecting the right way, I think some people in the NFL felt he was certainly a prospect worth investing in.”

Here came the scouts, in the late winter of 1998, a month or so before the draft. One of those scouts, Ferentz, was the offensive line coach at Baltimore. “When I came in for a visit,” said Ferentz, “I looked at Matt and right away I could tell he’d been coached to do things the way we wanted them done. Coaching makes a huge difference. You work guys out, and you can see which ones have been schooled and which ones haven’t. Matt had a great head start.”

Ferentz had a good visit with his former student, Philbin, and thought: I knew he was a good kid. Now I can see that he’s a really good coach…”(SI)

Ferentz hired Philbin when he became the coach at Iowa.

And, get this tidbit about the Worcester English department circa 1979:

“Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

When Joe Philbin did his post-graduate high school academic year at Worcester (Mass.) Academy in 1979-80, the two English teachers at the small school 35 minutes west of Boston doubled as assistant coaches on the school’s football team: Kirk Ferentz and Mike Sherman.

Ferentz, the future coach at Iowa. Sherman, the future coach of Brett Favre with the Packers.”(SI)

You can’t make-up a rare confluence of talent like this.

Additional resources:

Worcester Academy - www.worcesteracademy.org

Boarding schools in MA

A Post Graduate Year; what’s that?

Ridley College headmaster Jonathan Leigh talks about the foundation of values that Ridley instills in its students.

With a passport of academic success, Ridley looks to send its graduates into the larger world as globalized, civilized, human beings.

Coming together from all over the world, then praying, playing, and eating together at Ridley builds and instills an ethic and series of experiences that Ridley alumni carry into all of their future endeavors.

Ridley College is a coed boarding school in St. Catharines, Canada.

Additional resources:

Ridley College – www.ridleycollege.com

Boarding schools in Canada