Seven Increasingly Eventful Weeks: Spring Season Wrap-Ups for Park Athletics and Drama

The spring season is a short one for Park’s athletics and drama programs:

No sooner do students return from March break than they find themselves in the throes of practices, games, and rehearsals.  But much like the grass and flowers outside, our students blossomed quickly as they ran drills, studiously memorized lines, and gave impressive performances on the turf and stage.  We are pleased to share some highlights of the season.

Athletics:

This spring, Park fielded interscholastic teams in lacrosse, softball, track & field, and ultimate frisbee.  Across the board, the theme of the season was fast growth.  

In softball, athletes combined into one team with players from Grades 5 through 8, including several who had never played the sport before.  The team quickly compensated for what they lacked in age and experience with grit, determination, and team spirit.  Not a single Park player struck out in their first game against Fay, and they kept up their winning ways throughout the season, compiling an impressive 6-4-1 record, turning out multiple double plays, and developing a tremendous amount as both individuals and a team in just a handful of weeks.  In fact, some of the team’s newest players became their RBI leaders!  Coach Diana Zito shares, “There were so many impressive things about this team, from their resilience to their coachability and genuine knack for the game.  Everyone’s ability to find ways to lead was matched only by their willingness to listen to one another, and because of that their growth was incredible.”

Growth was also the theme for our track & field athletes.  Coach Karl Dreyer explains: “One of the great things about track & field is that improvement is measurable, and our athletes demonstrated that consistently. Times decreased across the board, while jumping and throwing distances steadily improved.”  However, Karl says that what impressed him the most this season was “the willingness of so many students to step outside their comfort zones.  I was especially proud of the athletes who tried new events, challenged themselves, and embraced unfamiliar experiences with a positive attitude and determination.”  The team’s efforts paid off: based on their performances at meets during the season, sixteen Park athletes qualified for the Massachusetts Middle School Track & Field Championships on June 6 at Gordon College.    

Our Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse team included athletes in Grades 5 through 8, including several who play the sport at the club level and will be the core of the team in future years.  According to Athletic Director Jen Viana, the team benefitted from an outstanding coaching partnership between first-year Coach Rich McMahon and Head of School Scott Young.  The team was competitive in nearly all of the games they played, and Jen has high hopes for the group going forward.  On the girls’ side, we had several swing players who enabled Park to play against teams at both the varsity and JV levels.  Jen notes that the “chemistry was really evident” among the group and she is excited to see them build on their hard work next season.  

For Varsity Ultimate Frisbee, the season started particularly quickly with a scrimmage after only two days of tryouts.  However, the group wasted no time settling into a routine of passing and catching the disc, led by a strong corps of Grade 8 veterans and benefitting from several newcomers who began contributing immediately.  Coach Manny Duarte Perlovsky observes, “As the season progressed, the team continued to develop its chemistry and confidence, showing steady improvement in communication, teamwork, and throwing ability.  The blend of experienced leadership and enthusiastic new talent created a competitive and supportive environment that helped the entire squad grow together.”  The group is looking forward to coming together one more time on June 7 to participate in the Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance’s middle school state championship tournament.  

The growth on our JV Ultimate Frisbee team was also impressive.  Coach Jesse Newman focused on teaching the fundamental skills and rules of the game, and they wasted no time jumping in headfirst, compiling an enviable 6-2 record (with both losses by only a single point!).  

While Upper Division athletes were busy focusing on one sport, our Grade 4 students enjoyed an intramural program that allowed them to sample all of Park’s spring sports for future consideration.  A highlight this year was that, for the first time, the group participated in a season-culminating ultimate frisbee scrimmage against the British International School of Boston.  Jen declares that the scrimmage was a great success, noting that the Grade 4 athletes were especially pleased to be treated to popsicles at the end!

Drama:

This spring showcased a double feature from our Drama Department.  In recent years, Park’s spring production has been the Grade 8 play, a special opportunity for graduating students to return to the stage for a final time at Park (or, in some cases, to try a drama production for the very first time!).  This year, Park’s Grade 5 play was moved from the fall to the spring to correspond with a new fall offering for Grade 5 actors called FUNdamentals.  As a result, the Park community was privileged to be able to attend not one but two student productions during the month of May.  

For the Grade 8 play, Director Kyra Fries and Assistant Director Nick Young were thrown for a bit of a loop when several students signed up at the last minute and they had to scramble to find a non-musical, ninety-minute production with substantive roles for twenty actors.  They landed on Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School for Magic & Magic, a parody of a rather well-known fantasy series that tells the story from the perspective of the students known as “Puffs”.  Kyra notes that the Grade 8 students were doing the “most advanced acting” of their Park careers as they worked with pace, played multiple characters that necessitated rapid costume changes, and grappled with some difficult subject matter.  Indeed, Kyra was tremendously impressed by the students’ ability to discuss hard issues, including complexities involving the author of the original series and the way the play dealt with death.  

Directors Lily Mittnight and Merrit O’Keefe worked with a group of twenty eager Grade 5 students to put on a production called Story Book Court: Full of Beans!.  This zany drama features the courtroom prosecution of Jack Beans, who is charged with stealing from the Giants, and many familiar fairy tale characters–from Little Red Riding Hood to Sleeping Beauty–make appearances as court officers, witnesses, and jurors.  Lily reflects, “The kids are so creative and funny.  One of my favorite parts was that they got to write their own scenes, and they showed such a good understanding of the original material in doing so.  They really did a great job making the play their own!”

Kyra reflects that the Grade 5 and Grade 8 plays are wonderful opportunities for students in these grades to build community with one another, in one case as the launching point of their Park drama careers and the other as the capstone, making it all the more special to have them in the same season.  She also notes that she is so appreciative how, in both performances, “everyone was valued” as they took to the stage.

By Elizabeth Prasse P’27, ’29, Park Perspectives Editorial Board

#TheParkSchoolMA #ParkSchoolExcellence #ItAllStartsatPark #ParkSchoolCommunity