Fall Slide Show created by Cori Chandler
I attended a Quaker high school and there's a joke that goes "I am proud to be a humble Quaker." Quakers take humility seriously, and I know its a great quality. But it will be difficult for me to humbly talk about this fall in sports at North Shore because it was absolutely terrific.
And I am not just writing about the outcomes of our seasons. Yes, we won an ISL title in Soccer -- 2nd in a row -- and in Field Hockey -- our 7th in eight years -- and in Golf -- our 9th in a row. Yes, Drew Miles became the 3rd North Shore student to win an individual state title winning the 2A Boys Golf title in dramatic fashion shooting the lowest 36 hole score for all 3 divisions. Yes, we still have one athlete -- junior Katie Glew -- as of this writing -- Friday morning -- still competing as she became the first North Shore runner since 2009 to advance to the State Cross Country Meet. The state meet is tomorrow. Go Katie!! And yes, throughout this post, you will see pictures of our record 34 All-Conference athletes (that's 15% of the school!), four ISL Players of the year and two ISL Coaching Staffs of the year. It's been a pretty good fall and difficult for this proud Athletic Director to be humble about.
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| Our 34 All Conference Athletes this Fall |
All of these outcomes are terrific, but what I love is to see is the development, the progress, the positive change in our student athletes that -- sure -- resulted in some great outcomes. But even in the sports that did not have a championship, resulted in growth that will impact them positively for years to come.
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| ISL Players of the Year in Soccer, Golf, XC and Field Hockey |
Here are some quick memories from the last few months that will always stay with me.
The amount of preparatory work our coaches and athletes did this past summer. As the saying goes, the will to win means nothing without the will to prepare to win and with Coach Mark Medhurst's help we had more kids prepared to win than any summer that I remember.
Having Head of School Tom Doar come to his last opening coaches meeting. By the way, the word retired and Tom Doar do not go together for me. I am sad he won't be with us next year, but I hope people will stop saying he's retiring. He's not the retiring type.
Winning our first football game of the year after a long post season of wondering if we were doing the right thing by football at North Shore. There were a lot of long trips but the kids and coaches on that team pulled together like no football team I have seen in a long time. By the way, we got a thank you note from every football opponent who visited us. That was impressive to me given who we have hosted in the past.
Over 25 girls joining our tennis team and trying to figure out how to accommodate all of them. Scrambling to find courts and purchasing our new tennis backboard was part of it. There was terrific spirit among them that made it all worthwhile.
I was glad we had such a great summer because at first it seemed we had a lot of interruptions in September - between labor day and religious holidays - we started with 3 four day weeks in a row. That made for very busy days when we were in action.
Watching our soccer team hang with Glenbrook South early in the season brought back great memories from my first year at North Shore when we had to play one of the Glenbrooks in the state soccer tournament and they killed us. That no longer happens!
The Raider Boys Golf Invite was a new addition to our schedule and was an 18 hole tournament at North Shore Country Club. I am thankful to those who made that great day happen.
The amount of preparatory work our coaches and athletes did this past summer. As the saying goes, the will to win means nothing without the will to prepare to win and with Coach Mark Medhurst's help we had more kids prepared to win than any summer that I remember.
Having Head of School Tom Doar come to his last opening coaches meeting. By the way, the word retired and Tom Doar do not go together for me. I am sad he won't be with us next year, but I hope people will stop saying he's retiring. He's not the retiring type.
Winning our first football game of the year after a long post season of wondering if we were doing the right thing by football at North Shore. There were a lot of long trips but the kids and coaches on that team pulled together like no football team I have seen in a long time. By the way, we got a thank you note from every football opponent who visited us. That was impressive to me given who we have hosted in the past.
Over 25 girls joining our tennis team and trying to figure out how to accommodate all of them. Scrambling to find courts and purchasing our new tennis backboard was part of it. There was terrific spirit among them that made it all worthwhile.
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| ISL Field Hockey Coaching Staff of the Year |
Watching our soccer team hang with Glenbrook South early in the season brought back great memories from my first year at North Shore when we had to play one of the Glenbrooks in the state soccer tournament and they killed us. That no longer happens!
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| ISL Soccer Coaching Staff of the Year |
Alum Chris Avery announcing the Football Game at Homecoming demonstrated once again to me the long connections people keep with this school. Chris is an awesome announcer, but what's most impressive to me is now 25 years after graduating, he keeps giving back.
A young Varsity Volleyball team went to 3 games against every league (but Latin) opponent -- and almost every non-league opponent - this year. We had 3 terrific seniors that did a great job of mentoring the younger players and a lot to look forward to in a sport that is among the most competitive in our conference.
The Cross Country team having the best combined performance ever at our Regional. Only two years ago, we barely had a girls Cross Country team and this year we were 2nd in our Regional.
Saturday October 17th, we played our last regular season Field Hockey game, Drew Miles was leading the State in golf and I drove to Oakfield, Wisconsin to watch our football team play its last game of the season. Throughout the day I was getting updates. Field Hockey won and clinched the ISL title. Football won in dramatic fashion at the end of the game. And then Drew battled through the back 9 never conceding his spot at the top of the leader board but having the typical variations of a golf round. I left Oakfield feeling good about the football win but pretty tired for a long drive home. I got the news just outside Milwaukee that Drew won. I pulled over and posted the news on my twitter feed and headed to the Cheese Castle for dinner. Coach Frank Dachille had introduced me to the Cheese Castle earlier in the fall. Its worth a trip. That evening I ate one of the best brats I have ever eaten. Maybe it was the wins, maybe it was my hunger, maybe it was Wisconsin and the fall. Whatever it was, it was definitely a simple meal that was totally satisfying like this falls sports season.
The end of the fall included 15 of 16 days in a row of our teams in post season competition. That included a huge crowd at North Shore on October 24th for the Sectional Soccer final. There was a lot to be proud of this fall in the results of our seasons but what we have most to be proud of is this small community that pulled together to figure out how to create all these exciting moments for our players and their teams. I will humbly report that the combination of all of this will have positive ramifications for years to come.
A young Varsity Volleyball team went to 3 games against every league (but Latin) opponent -- and almost every non-league opponent - this year. We had 3 terrific seniors that did a great job of mentoring the younger players and a lot to look forward to in a sport that is among the most competitive in our conference.
The Cross Country team having the best combined performance ever at our Regional. Only two years ago, we barely had a girls Cross Country team and this year we were 2nd in our Regional.
Saturday October 17th, we played our last regular season Field Hockey game, Drew Miles was leading the State in golf and I drove to Oakfield, Wisconsin to watch our football team play its last game of the season. Throughout the day I was getting updates. Field Hockey won and clinched the ISL title. Football won in dramatic fashion at the end of the game. And then Drew battled through the back 9 never conceding his spot at the top of the leader board but having the typical variations of a golf round. I left Oakfield feeling good about the football win but pretty tired for a long drive home. I got the news just outside Milwaukee that Drew won. I pulled over and posted the news on my twitter feed and headed to the Cheese Castle for dinner. Coach Frank Dachille had introduced me to the Cheese Castle earlier in the fall. Its worth a trip. That evening I ate one of the best brats I have ever eaten. Maybe it was the wins, maybe it was my hunger, maybe it was Wisconsin and the fall. Whatever it was, it was definitely a simple meal that was totally satisfying like this falls sports season.
The end of the fall included 15 of 16 days in a row of our teams in post season competition. That included a huge crowd at North Shore on October 24th for the Sectional Soccer final. There was a lot to be proud of this fall in the results of our seasons but what we have most to be proud of is this small community that pulled together to figure out how to create all these exciting moments for our players and their teams. I will humbly report that the combination of all of this will have positive ramifications for years to come.
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