Wake Up, Read ThisBy Kelly McNeilEditor-in-Chief

Now that Hill has been back in ses-sion for almost two months, a plague is sweeping across campus. Comply-ing with this year’s theme of ‘A Com-mon Humanity,’ it is blind to the creeds of race and gender, as well as indiscriminant towards class-load, form, and extra-curricular activities. Already we are seeing symptoms of this plague, such as listlessness, yawning, and dark circles under the eyes of students unfortunate enough to catch this dreaded disease. No, it’s not the swine flu, but if you believe Doctor James B. Maas, professor at Cornell University and recent speak-er at The Hill, it’s just as detrimental to your health. Sleep deprivation is the new hot topic at Hill.

Dr. Maas set a murmur of dissent through the student body once stu-dents realized why the teenage ideal of 9.25 hours of sleep a night was not being achieved (answer: four straight hours of homework a night), and also when students realized what effects lack of sleep were having. Decreased attention, mental clarity, and mo-tor skills can all be attributed to not enough sleep, according to Maas.

After school president Alex Hero made a promise of more sleep during last year’s campaign, sleep has been a snowballing issue here at Hill. “I had faith that with the help of the SGA and faculty, I could deliver on my promises,” says Hero, an optimistic leader.

See Sleep on page 3

The AporkalypseIs Here!By Kelly McNeilEditor-in-Chief

A month into the fall term, Hill has entered the Season of Swine. With more than 200 flu-related deaths in the United States as of last week, the H1N1 virus – known commonly as the Swine Flu – has cast a dark shadow across Hill’s campus at a time students should be gearing up for Lawrenceville Weekend instead of filing off to the Health Center or go-ing home.

Jennifer E. Lagor, Hill’s assistant head for student life, outlined the steps the school is taking to pre-vent a wide-scale outbreak of H1N1. Obsessive-compulsive use of hand sanitizer, avoidance of large gather-ings, and keeping good hygiene are all steps recommended by both the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention and the Hill administration. Mrs. Lagor also advised students to go directly to the Health Center if they are experiencing coughing, sneezing, a headache, vomiting, nausea, diar-rhea, muscle aches, and a multitude of other symptoms.

On each of the past two Fridays the Deans’ Office has circulated a list of students who had gone home with the flu or flu-like symptoms, and whose return to campus was uncer-tan. Each list numbered more than 20 students. The number of students feel-ing under the weather has ballooned. Mrs. Lagor also said in her update she assures that “the preventative mea-sures that began [recently] including minimizing all-school gatherings” will continue. The “all-school gather-ings” have included chapel and seated meals, whose cancellation has left students and faculty with a happy abundance of unregulated time.

Some students have predictably found humor in it all.

See SWIne on page 3

Girls Inhabit Upper SchoolBy Zoey ErdenebilegExecutive Editor

The smell of paint still lingers in the corridors of Hunt Upper School – perhaps one of the few reminders of the change that has swept the Quad and extends across campus. The long corridors have been bisected, new dorm parents have moved in, and if you walk by the giant stone ark, you’ll probably hear a Taylor Swift song out a window – on the east side of the building, anyway. It took mere 159 years, but there are now girls – 67 of them -- living in Upper School. In some ways, it’s a revolution – the final piece of the transformation of a boys’ school that went co-ed 11 years ago. Integration has been in the works for five years; the Trustees approved the move two years ago. At that point, though, the future of Upper School was still murky. “We even talked about tearing it [Upper School] down to make place for new dormitories,” explained Jennifer E. Lagor, assistant head for student life. Eventually, the school took the less controversial route: the re-opening of the fourth floor, which had long, lay dormant. So girls and boys now live side-by-side, girls to the east boys to the west. The school has taken special pains to make sure that’s as close as they get.

See UppeR ScHool on page 3

Vertical Housing Mixes FormsBy Joshua KoEditor-in-Chief

Girls aren’t the only new residents of Hunt Upper School. That baby-faced kid living next door to you might be a fourth former. He’s there because of a thing called “vertical housing,” which has scattered boarders from the fourth, fifth, and sixth form all over campus and brought with it a slew of problems and adjustments. The previous model was more horizontal, keeping members of each form living together for the most part. Under the new set-up, however, only third formers reside with one another. For everyone else, it’s a new neighbor-hood. The biggest change may be in Fos-ter, which was home last year to sixth formers and post-graduates. Dell Vil-lage now consists of two fourth form dorms and two third form dorms. Upper School and Rolfe, previously reserved for fifth and sixth formers, now include fourth formers.The change was spurred mostly for ad-missions reasons. Before, if the school had an opening during the summer, it was restricted as to whom it could take by where it had an open bed. That is, if there was room in Foster, then the school had to take a sixth former or a PG. Vertical housing ended those re-strictions, allowing the school to take the best candidate available.

See VeRTIcAl on page 3

SportsA Team on the Sidelines page 4

<<opinionSleep is not the Issue page 2

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The Worst Part of the Day

November 4, 2009 Volume 107, Issue 1

the hill news November 4, 2009

New Kids on the Block

Inside This Issue

STeVen GU

REMs and

GPAs o sleep or not to sleep? – that is

the question many Hill students ask themselves when they face

a stack of homework that will take them way past the end of study hall. This conundrum plagues almost all of us each day: Do we get some shut-eye and put off work until tomorrow or do we keep trudging through the homework swamp? Many new stu-dents realized by the first week that the course load at Hill is not easy, and many returning students are learn-ing that honors and AP classes are not that friendly either. This is why many students seem to be plodding through one day and then with their eyes half shut.

The school has not seen the whites of our eyes and responded. It brought Dr. James Maas, a renowned sleep

expert from Cornell, here to speak to students and faculty the first week of school and invited him back to talk to parents on Parents Weekend. A change in the schedule is obviously imminent. The question is, will this solve the problem? And will it lead to better performance in the classroom and on the playing fields.

Not likely. Why? Because the root of the problem is still the same: To get all our work done and get good grades, we have to sacrifice sleep. The cure for this is not to set the school clock forward by, say, an hour, but rather to allot more time during the day for us to do our work.

Most teachers give about 45 min-utes of homework a night, which includes written homework and studying. Since the Hill requires students to take at least five classes, students have up to four hours of homework each day on average. Study hall provides boarding stu-dents with two hours to work. Which

means students have to find at least another two hours during the day. Many squeeze the time into their busy after-school schedules. Though most sports practices end at 5 p.m., students usually use that hour before a seated dinner to get showered and dressed. And if there’s a required evening event, forget it.

Those events – speakers and the like – are usually more stressful than beneficial. Because by the time they’re over, say 8:15 or 8:30, you’re faced with an entire night’s work ahead of you. While some teachers give less homework on these special nights, most teachers don’t think about it, leaving students with hours of work to do and only about an hour left on the schedule to do it.

Letting us sleep an hour later won’t do anything about that, and forcing some of us to turn our lights out earlier won’t either – because it won’t work that way. The school has devised a simple, surface response to a complex problem. It’s looking at the two ends of the schedule when it needs to look at the middle. Mean-while, I need to go. I have a lot of work to do.

postscriptTad Montgomery

t’s the cigarette that identifies Tad Montgomery as a man from an earlier time. The Hill’s eighth

headmaster, who died in October at his home in Gladwyne, was the last headmaster to smoke cigarettes. It was a time when people of Mr. Mont-gomery’s social strata still puffed away blithely, and he was also known to like a cocktail in the evening and to occasionally amble up the road to dinner ferrying a half-full tumbler.

These were the roiling days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the social order that Tad Montgomery personified was up for scorn and under assault. Even as he arrived at Hill in the fall of 1968, Montgomery appeared to be an anachronism. The pocket squares, collar pins, rep ties, and horn rims he favored looked passé. Long hair, jeans, and flannel shirts defined the style of the youth revolution. The Ivy League look was out. Way out.

In his recent note on the Web site announcing Mr. Montgomery’s death, Mr. Dougherty lists 1968 to 1973 as Mr. Montgomery’s years in of-fice. That’s accurate, but misleading. Mr. Montgomery didn’t last a month into 1973. These were turbulent times at Hill – now often called The Dark Years by the alumni office -- and to some degree, Mr. Montgomery was a victim of events beyond his control.

But he was also the author of his own undoing, and we come now to praise him for that. It turned out that the man who liked to smoke and

drink, who wore a pocket square and a collar pin, wasn’t the traditionalist he appeared to be. Beneath his Brooks Brothers exterior, Tad Montgomery was a raging progressive.

Mr. Dougherty, quoting Paul Chancellor’s 1976 history of the school, pointed out that Mr. Mont-gomery wanted to run an institution that would “demonstrate relevance to our times.” So, as Mr. Dougherty pointed out, he championed forward-thinking programs like community outreach. He inaugurated indepen-dent study for 6th formers, and he pushed for courses in the history of minorities and drama production and acting. Students here called for an end to mandatory chapel and the dress code. Mr. Montgomery didn’t budge on these issues, but on others, he negotiated.

He was also negotiating with the trustees and the faculty, and the result of those talks was his depar-ture in the middle of 1972-73 school year. Mr. Montgomery had been

the headmaster at Garrison Forest, an elite girls school outside Balti-more, for eight years before coming to Pottstown, and that experience instilled in him the conviction that The Hill needed girls among its stu-dent body. He was trying to save the school from irrelevance, and he was foolish and/or brave enough to press the issue.

History isn’t clear about the events that lead to his departure, but whether he resigned or got pushed out seems beyond the point now. He put word “co-education” into the dia-logue here, and when the reactionary mandarins who signed his paycheck had heard enough, they moved his successor into place and then, essen-tially, gave him their verdict: Clean out your desk. It only took them 25 years, and the insistence of Mr. Mont-gomery’s once-removed successor, to acknowledge their misjudgment.

-- Tony Reid

o p I n I o n

I

2 The Hill news Volume 107, Issue 1

Vol. 107, IssuE I

EDITors-IN-chIEf Kelly McNeilJoshua Ko

ExEcuTIVE EDITorsSteven Gu Zoey Erdenebileg

NEWs EDITorM. Dinora Smith

PhoTograPhy EDITorRyan Erenstein

sTaff WrITErsPJ Mara Cassie BorellyGarvin Chan Maura D’AmicoSam Hernan Felix KimMJ Kwon Kara BeckmanMelissa Lee Emma WoodcockEddie Lee Christine OhJi Young Park Max SpectorJin Limb Kathryn Walsh

faculTy aDVIsorsTony ReidNate Yinger

hEaDMasTErDavid R. Dougherty

The opInIonS And ATTITudeS expreSSed In ThIS ISSue do noT neceSSArIly reflecT The opInIonS of The hIll newS, ITS edITorS

And STAff or The hIll School.

Your LettershoW To suBMIT The Hill News welcomes e-mail from its readers. Anyone wishing to comment on any story in the paper should send an e-mail to:

hillnews@thehill.org

Letters may be edited for content or shortened to fit the allotted space.

To get all our work done and get good grades, we have to sacrifice sleepT

page Two

HMLhIll My lIfE

Today, I got a headache so I went down to the health center. Turns out I have swine flu. hMl.

Today, I went into the Grille to get a mookie. I came out with swine flu.hMl.

Today, I went to the dining hall for dinner. I was served by someone wearing rubber gloves, I didn’t touch any food, I sat alone, and I usedhand sanatizer. I still got swine flu.hMl.

Submit your own HML at:

hillnews@thehill.org

Several people have been spotted wearing surgical masks in jest, while others cough violently on their friends to illicit a chuckle. “You have the swine flu!” is a common taunt for students who as much as sneeze. The changes and paranoia that have come to Hill over the past week are reminiscent of the same panic that accompanied the SARS and avian flu scares over the past several years, so it is understand-able why H1N1 has its skeptics among the Hill Community. Although these playful actions are meant in jest, for others they are anything but.

While some students are laughing the swine flu off, more are concerned about what measures the school is taking to protect against a widespread outbreak of the Piggy Plague. One is-sue is the efficacy of Purell and other hand sanitizers to protect against any sort of viral infection, since they are merely anti-bacterial. Mrs. Lagor acknowledged that problem in an in-terview last week and said that the school was awaiting a large order of Clorox wipes, which have been shown to kill viruses.

Meantime, the school has spent its money “hand san” at the rate of 54 dol-lars for a case of 12. Some 750 contain-ers have already been purchased and an additional 100 have been ordered for classrooms, and each hall on cam-pus will soon be the proud owner of their own, massive, 32 ounce behe-moth of a Purell bottle.

“I’m afraid of the swine flu,” said a bashful fourth form girl. “It could be nothing, but who knows. I’m both-ered when I see people sneezing and wiping their hands on another person or coughing on them and then laugh-ing about it. They could be spread-ing something they don’t know they have.”

“I wanted to deliver on my promises for the betterment of all the students whom I represent. That’s the job of the president: to make students’ lives easier.”

Students and teachers are heavily opinionated and divided on this mat-ter. “I’m all for it, but I’m wondering how the amount of homework I have will fit into this new schedule,” wor-ries Melissa Lee, 6th former and par-ticipant in seven classes. Adds a 5th former who doesn’t wish to be identi-fied, “I don’t think the new schedule will change things for the better be-cause of how many problems it will create.” A teacher who wishes to re-main anonymous also brought up the homework issue, pointing out that if each class has 40 minutes of home-work to go with their 40 minute class period, a student who takes six classes will have, on average, four hours of homework a night. AP students usual-ly have more than 40 minutes per AP class a night, so this can drive their total up to five hours or more. “In fact, the only way this schedule could ever work is if teachers agree to give reduced amounts of homework. But considering AP classes have to cover a certain amount of material before May, reduced homework, while help-ful, may not be the answer.”

But reduced homework is exactly what Alex Hero is pushing. “…we are cognizant of the fact that students have too much homework, and a plan to assign more effective and less homework is grouped with our pro-posal,” he promises. “We have a voice here at Hill, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.” In fact, some teachers like Mr. Rigg stepped up and offered to lighten their syllabus if students re-ally took this change of schedule seri-ously and didn’t use it as an excuse to stay up later.

Aside from consequences in school, lack of sleep can have more serious consequences. According to a recent article in The New York Times, which quoted a study done for The Archives of Internal Medicine, lack of sleep and susceptibility to colds (and other more serious diseases) go hand in hand. The study showed that people who get on average less than seven hours of sleep a night are three times as more likely to get sick as people who average eight or more hours of sleep a night. When it comes to immunity, sleep is one of the most important factors. Being able to get more sleep increases the pro-duction of white-blood cells which in turn fight disease, and in the day and age of the ever-present threat of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) Virus, decreased immunity can be possibly deadly.

The new SGA-proposed schedule starts at 8:40, eliminates 20 minutes by cutting the pre and post-lunch break and shortening the lunch pe-riod itself, and school will end at around 3:35. Hero hopes that the new schedule will be applied as a trial run during the winter. While some worry about winter sports practices and ath-letic contests, others worry about the arts. Many people in afternoon arts this term and in terms to come are concerned about the arts suffering se-rious cutbacks, just like many are fear-ing about athletics: something that, for some, is simply not an option.

Though the change solved one prob-lem, it may have created others. Last year, as the spring term came to a close, many rising male sixth form-ers were looking forward to living in Foster with their fellow classmates. Talks of future plans, “bro sessions,” and form bonding filled the conver-sations of the soon-to-be top dogs of campus. But vertical housing ended those plans. Angry fifth formers com-plained about losing the chance to live with their classmates on their last, and biggest, year at Hill.

But a new year has brought a new attitude with it, at least in some quar-ters. Some students, who were thrown into an angry, disappointed panic last spring, are now either indifferent or positive about vertical housing. Some who thought this change was wrong-headed have now embraced it. “I ac-tually like this,” said Trevor Mack, a third-year boarder living on Upper School 3 West. “If I were to be with all my friends, I wouldn’t do my work and probably not graduate. I mean, a lot of young bulls are running around, but they are nice, quiet and show me the

proper respect.” Due to such separation of sixth

formers, many have been able to con-centrate and focus on their priorities. Under peer pressure, many sixth form-ers would perhaps have been tempted to digress from their work if they had been living in Foster of Rolfe with the rest of their form.

The group of students most nega-tively affected by the switch might be the new fifth formers. With everyone thrown into the same housing pot, some say this group of students has had a harder time adjusting to the school and bonding with members of their class.

Prefects are also feeling the effects of the change. As every form has a different lights-out schedule, prefects have to check in with their students numerous times. And what about a situation where a sixth former is play-ing music quietly or chatting with a friend or roommate after the time that their fourth-form neighbor is sup-posed to be asleep? Unable to do work or sleep, the fourth former is left in a situation where he or she wastes time

lying in bed. In these sorts of conflicts, a prefect is left in a dilemma: Should I tell my fellow sixth former to quiet down, which could cause bad feel-ings, or should I tell the under former to stop complaining and leave the situation unresolved? One prefect on Upper School West, who faced such a dilemma, said: “It was an uncomfort-able situation to be placed in. I really didn’t know what to do.”

And the problem for prefects isn’t only other people’s sleep schedules. Many prefects have been disgruntled by the fact that they are required to stay up late in order to keep order in their mixed-form dorms. Even if a pre-fect had the opportunity to catch up on some sleep, he or she would still have to stay up until about 11:45.

Of the enforcement problem, one faculty member who requested ano-nymity said: “How does it work? It re-ally doesn’t. There’s really no way to police different rules for three differ-ent forms on one hall.”

The security system in the dorm has been upgraded, so like Berlin in the Cold War, it isn’t easy to get from east to west, or vice versa. A new monitor-ing system is in place, there’s a fac-ulty access card entrance (which fac-ulty are discouraged from using), and alarms on both sides that clang when either door is opened.

But an area where girls, and even women, felt vaguely uncomfortable now seems entirely relaxed. If you walk by during nice weather, you can see boys and girls lounging around in the patio or the in Adirondack chairs.

The addition of girls is not the only new feature of the building, which was constructed in 1910. There are female dorm parents in residence for the first time – Heather Olney lives on the first floor and is the head of the east side of the dorm; Olivia Ciacci ’01 is on the second floor and Dana Hunter-Watt is on the third floor.

The fourth floor has been opened for the first time since it and the fifth floor were closed in more than 25 years ago. All of the faculty apart-ments were renovated over the sum-mer with money diverted from the dormant Green Street faculty housing project. Each floor has new common rooms, and new storage and laundry facilities. Previously, anyone living in Upper School had to lug their dirty clothes to Wendell or Dutch Village.

A big worry was the reaction of par-ents and alumni, but the school says that has been mild.

Boys’ reaction has also been muted, perhaps owing to a newly gained do-minion over a long cherished girls’ dorm: Wendell.

The push for the integration of Up-per School came from another big push, residentially and socially. Resi-dentially, opening the fourth floor created more rooms for students, and the reconstruction up there has yield-ed the nicest digs on campus. Socially, it gave girls a claim to a Hill land-mark as well as equal territorial rule over the Quad. Recalling the days of segregation, one Upper School 4 East resident recalled: “There were just a lot football players and other jocks playing on the Quad … and it was re-ally intimidating to walk by a bunch of big guys … so I would walk around to avoid that area.”

Mrs. Lagor said the school wanted to create “a natural place for positive interaction and good friendships be-tween boys and girls.” The new inhab-itants say that’s what has happened. “It has definitely become more comfort-able,” said one female Upper School resident. “We can all hang out.”

some new residents on u.s. 2 East.

November 4, 2009 The Hill news 3

UppeR ScHool VeRTIcAl, from PaGE 1 UppeR ScHool, from PaGE 1

SWIne, from PaGE 1 Sleep, from PaGE 1

The school grapples with finding the proper balance between sleep and homework.

Boys’ cross countryRecord: 4-3

Key Wins/Invitational Finishes: City Championship, 3rd place at Canter-bury Invitational, 3rd place at StatesKey Losses: Blair (35- 24), Mercersburg (34-21)Upcoming Meets: MAPL Champion-ships, @ LawrencevilleFrom the coach: “We’ve had a difficult season with illnesses and other issues, but we have been training well and are still on track to peak at the ap-propriate time. We will be counting on our top 5 for solid performances in the end of the season champion-ships.” – Coach DeLucia

Girls’ cross countryRecord: 7-5

Key Wins/Invitational Finishes: Blair (27-30), 3rd place at the Canterbury Invitational, 3rd place at StatesKey Loss: Mercersburg (30-27)Upcoming Meets: MAPL Champion-ships, @ LawrencevilleFrom the coach: There are 9 runners who have gone under 23:00. I think the best is yet to come. We are train-ing hard for the end of the season and have a very good chance to capture our first MAPL title and beat L-Ville for the second year in a row.” – Coach Pine

Field HockeyRecord: 11-1 (3-0 MAPL)

Key Wins: Germantown Academy (1-0), Episcopal Academy (3-1)Key Loss: Notre Dame (2-3)Upcoming Games: Hun, Baldwin, @ LawrencevilleFrom the coach: “It has been an exciting season so far and I’ve been impressed with the work-ethic and mental-toughness of this year’s team. We have our sights set on the MAPL championship as we try to claim the title for the third year in a row.” – Coach Watson

FootballRecord: 5-1 (3-0 MAPL)

Key Wins: Peddie (32-14), Mercers-burg (29-0)Key Loss: Chestnut Hill Academy (13-21)Upcoming Games: Hun, @Law-renceville,From the coach: “We are in conten-tion to win the MAPL for the first time if we can win our last three games.” – Coach Vollmuth

Boys’ SoccerRecord: 6-7-2 (1-2 MAPL)

Key Results: Haverford School (0-0) Blair (1-0)Key Loss: Peddie (0-1)Upcoming Games: Hun, @Law-rencevilleFrom the coach - “Playing five fourth formers on a regular basis means growing pains, but the sixth formers are truly helping them adjust to var-sity level play.” – Coach Drowne

Girls’ SoccerRecord: 6-5 (1-2 MAPL)

Key Wins: St. Andrews (5-1), Mercers-burg (1-0)Key Losses: Blair (0-2)Upcoming Games: Hun, @ Penn Charter, @ Baldwin, @ Lawrenceville

Girls’ TennisRecord: 9-1 (2-0 MAPL)

Key Win: Episcopal (4-3)Key Loss: Notre Dame (2-4)Upcoming Games: Peddie, Hun, Law-rencevilleFrom the Coach: “We are having an awesome season despite losing seven starters from last year’s team because we are a much stronger team this year. We are in the running to win the MAPL.” – Coach Ortega

Boys’ Water poloRecord: 11-7

Key Wins: Lawrenceville (11-10), Episcopal (12-5)Key Losses: Episcopal (14-15 OT), Penn Charter (9-14)Upcoming Games: @ Malvern, @ Eastern Prep Tournament, @ Law-rencevilleFrom the coach: “The season was re-vived with exciting wins over EA and Lawrenceville in all-deep pools on the road. This bodes well for a season which concludes with 10 of the final 12 games in all-deep pools.” – Coach Jones

Girls’ Water poloRecord: 17-6

Key Wins: Lawrenceville (11-3), Episcopal (9-7, 7-6, 7-4), Germantown (12-4, 13-6)Key Losses: Lawrenceville (5-6), Penn Charter (7-8)Upcoming Games: @Eastern Prep Tournament, @LawrencevilleFrom the Coach: “Our entire focus now is on Eastern Preps on Novem-ber 7th and 8th, and trying to bring a 4th Title back to The Hill. None of the girls on this team have ever won a title, so they are hungry for it.” - Coach Johnson

By PJ MaraStaff Writer

Last year, many of the varsity boys lacrosse players were wary when they heard Meg Watson was going to be their assistant coach. Not because she is female, but because she is a notori-ous run-aholic.

The Hill lacrosse team, in the words of Coach Ned Ide, is comprised of a bunch of “prima donna, hot-sock punks” who possibly appreciate the game more for its aesthetic qualities. Hair flow, proper sock length, and number of behind the back goals ac-cumulated during practice are things on the forefront of every lax player’s mind during the season. Therefore, the team was a little unsettled when they discovered that their spring term con-ditioning was going to be at the mercy of a former Georgetown University field hockey player who occasionally goes for runs during free periods.

When the season finally came around, people were anxious to see how Watson’s presence would factor into the team dynamic. In addition, players were curious why she would waste her time with a bunch of hot-shots like Eric Davidheiser (’09) and Chris Howell (’10). Watson says, “The challenge wasn’t the fact that I was coaching boys: that didn’t bother me. It was because I had no personal ex-perience with the sport. I jumped at the opportunity because I enjoy work-ing with athletes to reach their poten tial.”

About halfway through the season there was a noticeable shift in Mrs. Watson’s presence on the team. She was more vocal and was more likely to point something out she noticed to a player. By the end of the spring, she was one of the boys.

And the boys’ lacrosse team was not the only students to acquire a new as-sistant coach. This past year, with the absence of Coach Amanda Dougherty, Watson was in need of an assistant for the varsity girls’ field hockey team and turned to none other than tough guy Ned Ide. Ide accepted, and the rest is sure to go down as Hill Athletics history.

Many of the girls on the field hockey team were probably wondering what this man with the weathered Boston Red Sox hat and lacrosse stick was doing on their sideline. Ide, a former football and lacrosse player at Trinity College, may even have been wonder-ing the same thing. But pretty soon the players realized his value: inspi-ration. Ide has a supernatural ability to motivate, encourage, and bring the best out in people. Although he may not understand all of the rules and dy-namics of field hockey yet, he does re-alize when the girls need motivation.

Ide and Watson are the “Yin and the Yang” of Hill Athletics. Their charac-ter differs on traits such as intensity; however they both share the same goals and values. “The players tend to know when I am anxious or frustrated where as Ide is usually subdued,” says Watson on their coaching dynamic.

S p o R T S The Season So Far

Sideline Sidekicks

Meg Watson, head field hockey coach, and assistant Ned Ide, watch a recentpractice. Watson was an assistant coach on Ide’s boys lacrosse team last spring.

coach WaTsoN

coach IDE

4 The Hill news Volume 107, Issue 1