A popular saying in Brown School athletics is, “Oh, we’re just the Brown School,” referring to the fact that there are many people who don’t know about us, or other schools don’t think of us as a threat in sports.

However, in the past few years, our school has made it known that we are a fierce competitor, and the outcomes we’ve gotten haven’t just come from school practices: the off-season is where champions are made.

 As we are nearing the start of summer, school sports will end very shortly, but that doesn’t mean Brown School athletes won’t stop practicing. Journee Ruff, a varsity freshman basketball player states, “I think it’s very important to work during the off-season because you have to stay in shape and make sure you don’t forget anything. It’s important to stay focussed on your sport.” She also states that she “shoots hoops in her driveway almost every day in the summer as long as the weather is nice.” Ruff also completes basketball training to maintain her skills on the court.

Although school sports seasons are over in the summer, it doesn’t limit our athletes from joining summer leagues to keep up with their sport. Sara Rogers, an 8th grader who is on the Brown School swim, track, and cross country teams, says, “Summer swim [team] helps me stay in swimming shape and keep up with my fitness. I [also] do running camps while remaining very active. It’s always a good idea to keep perfecting your sport in the off-season, especially if you don’t have any other extracurriculars that keep you in shape.” Working in the off-season is something very important to Rogers, and they feel it pays off. 

One sport that isn’t touched on as others at our school is archery, even though it has a longer season than many school sports; it lasts October through March. Caroline Gallagher, a freshman who’s on the archery team, explains that she “usually goes to EP Tom Sawyer [Park] because they have an outdoor range with set up targets since I have my own bow and arrow.” When asked about her opinions of practicing archery in the off-season, her response was, “I think that it’s important to do so, especially if you want to see major improvements. If you work really hard during the [school] season, you don’t want to lose it once it’s over, so the practice [in the off-season] is very important.”

Brown School sports are continuing to grow and become more and more competitive, and one of the factors is our committed athletes. Without the commitment, it would make it a lot harder for the coaches to try and make their team excel.