The Program
Philosophy
“Students who come here will not only be part of a successful team, but a successful program,” says Director of Athletics Ned Gallagher. Gallagher cites boys basketball as an example.
Choate fields teams at the varsity, junior varsity, and thirds levels. In one recent season, on Coach Chuck Timlin’s 13-man varsity roster, there were eight boys who entered the school as third formers (ninth-graders); three players—including one of the starting forwards—who spent at least one year on the thirds team; and nine who had played at least one year on the JV squad.
Says Timlin, “I am always interested in excellent postgraduate candidates or multi-sport student-athletes who can come in at the varsity level, but I want to be very selective about whom and how many we take for our basketball program. I am committed to building a program in which we grow our own. To do that, a coach has to be willing to give kids a chance to come up through the ranks and to resist the temptation to recruit ‘over’ them.”
Gallagher observes that it’s also typical of Choate student-athletes to excel in sports they never have even tried before arriving in Wallingford. His own cross-country teams illustrate this point. Among the 50 or so boys on the Wild Boars squad each season, typically only a handful had any serious training or running experience before coming to Choate. Still, the team produced record numbers of All-League and All-New England honorees en route to winning back-to-back New England championships in 1997 and 1998 and then again in 2001.
Respect
Olympic medalist, Angela Ruggiero ’98, class president and co-captain of the girls ice hockey team, scored 40 goals—a school record—on her way to being named to the first-ever U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team, the youngest member of a squad that captured the gold in the Nagano Games.
“Choate let me continue to play hockey in a competitive league and get a very strong education,” she says. “The teachers at Choate really respected the students, and they were always ready to give us extra time.”
Ruggiero certainly made the most of her time at the school, and not just on the ice. A strong student, she also was the starting goalie for Choate’s varsity soccer team and her individual title in the shot put helped the Wild Boars win the New England championship in girls track & field for the first time in the spring of 1998. Angela went on to Harvard; she and Julie Chu ’01 and Kim Insalco ’99—are members of the 2004 Women’s US Ice Hockey team.
In 1998, Ruggiero racked up another “youngest ever” accolade when she was inducted into the Choate Rosemary Hall Athletics Hall of Fame alongside another Olympic gold medalist: Bob McVey ’54, a member of the victorious U.S. men’s ice hockey team at Squaw Valley in 1960.
Motivation
On several autumn afternoons, the boys varsity soccer team tutors two dozen kids from Curtis Home for Children in the finer points of soccer and, after practice, in the finer points of video games and pool at the Student Activities Center. Choate student-athletes are encouraged to keep their passions in perspective.
Says veteran coach Chip Lowery, “Athletes are often self-focused individuals. We like to get out of ourselves sometimes, and focus on the needs of others.”
Lowery, who coached soccer at Choate from 1978 to 2000, was inducted into the Western New England Prep School Soccer Association’s Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003. At the induction, Taft headmaster Willy MacMullen said, “Chip’s teams were a reflection of the coach—organized, meticulous, efficient, and skilled. Chip was first and finally a teacher. There are scores of Choate men who look back on their careers and say unequivocally that Coach Lowery was the most important man in their life because he cared about them as people first and as players second.
Go Choate!
The entire Choate community rallies around its athletic teams in a special way, and the school makes it easy for Wild Boars supporters – both on campus and off – to follow the fortunes of Choate teams.
- Parents, alumni, and friends of the school around the world can check game day scores on this website or by phoning the Sports Update Hotline at (203) 697-2136.
- Each Thursday and Sunday morning, The Choate Press, a student-produced sports publication, can be found on all the tables in Hill House Dining Hall, chock full of articles about the prior day’s athletic contests. Faculty and students alike pay close attention to the game summaries and action photos in each issue of The Press.
- The News covers school sports every week. Besides articles about recent events and feature stories, The News also profiles an Athlete of the Week. “Choate Sports Minute” gives the win-loss records of each team playing that season.
Balance
Three-sport varsity athlete (soccer/ice hockey/softball) Catherine Elkins ’98 chose Choate Rosemary Hall because of the prestige of its girls ice hockey program, consistently ranked among the top New England prep school teams. “But the school is strong academically,” she says, “and with that mix, there's a good balance. Sports will help people get into college; academics will help you the rest of your life.” Elkins went from Choate to Middlebury, where she excelled both athletically and academically.
Her Choate soccer coach was Anne Armour. “In an era of increasing specialization, creating a whole person is imperative,” Armour explains. “Because most of our coaches teach and also live in residential houses with our kids, we are able to keep tabs on student-athletes as whole people. It's easier to keep athletics in perspective in this sort of setting.”
Coach Armour represents the versatility prized among the Choate faculty. In addition to being assistant athletic director and girls varsity soccer coach, she has been a member of the French Department faculty for more than 15 years. Armour coached her teams to victory winning a 1998 New England Championship and a 2003 Western New England Prep School Soccer Association Championship. She has also coached JV squash, and for many years lived in Logan Munroe—a house of fourth and fifth form boys—with her husband, Gordon, a Choate English teacher and former crew coach, and three children. And she played the oboe in the orchestra of the spring 2004 school production of “The King and I.”
Such multifaceted contact with Choate students affords a unique opportunity for adults to get to know kids, and vice versa, in an educational community.
Pride
Tom Yankus ’52 is standing beneath the goalposts on the varsity football field on a clear autumn day, and when Yankus speaks of sports he speaks for all of Choate. English teacher, baseball coach, dean, and an inaugural inductee into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame, Yankus is a former minor league pitcher in the New York Yankees organization, as well as a manager in the Cape Cod summer league. When his playing days on the diamond were over, he brought his unusual combination of talents and perspective back to Choate. He's been both an inspiration for budding writers and a coach for countless athletes. Choate athletic legend Albie Giandomenico ’71 was one.
“I took two things from my athletic experience at Choate,” he remembers. “The lessons you learn on the field are instrumental; you do use them later in life. In team sports, everyone has a role that is applicable in business and social life.’
Giandomenico is a successful businessman in the suburbs of Boston now, owner of a multimillion-dollar company he founded, a career launched by his Harvard education. Captain of both the football and hockey teams and a baseball star at Choate, Giandomenico honed the athletic skills that helped him gain entrance to the hallowed Ivy halls, but once in Cambridge he did the rest, earning a bachelor's degree in history and graduating cum laude.
After Choate
Student-athletes often continue to have athletic success after they graduate from Choate Rosemary Hall. Among recent graduates are these standouts:
- John Dawson ’00, co-captain of the Middlebury men’s Division III hockey team that captured the 2004 NCAA Division national championship title.
- Ken Estrera ’00, winner of Yale’s Robert Gardner Anderson Award for his success as a linebacker on the 2003 football team.
- Khari Stephenson ’01, midfielder, drafted by the Kansas City Wizards soccer team. Stephenson attended Williams College, where he was a two-time NSCAA All-American and two-time NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) Player of the Year. He led the team in scoring his senior season in 2003 with 15 goals and 34 points. He finished his collegiate career with 40 goals and 18 assists for 98 points.
- Sisters Catherine Elkins ’98 and Ali Elkins ’01, who both had distinguished hockey careers after Choate. Catherine was captain of the Middlebury hockey team and was selected for First Team All-American Division III. Ali, at Colorado College, was named to the 2002-03 Women’s First Team All-American squad.
- Libba Cox ’03 , playing on the Colby soccer team, was a second team NESCAC selection. Her sisters Dalton Cox ’99 and Kendall Cox ’01 also excelled at college soccer, the former at Middlebury and the latter at Bowdoin.
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