Disappointed, bewildered, and looking for revenge are just a few ways one could have characterized the GDS women’s varsity soccer team at the end of 2016 fall season, after they had found out they had been relegated into the second division of the Independent School League (ISL.) Another way one could characterize them was relieved. For years the GDS women’s soccer program has been producing NCAA Division I and Division III-caliber athletes at a much higher rate than other GDS sports programs. Such players include class of 2015 graduate Hannah Natanson who is a forward for Harvard University, and class
Georgetown Day School (GDS) has never been a particularly athletically-focused school, but some sports are still more prominent than others. Ice hockey players at GDS have long been neglected, and with reason. Fewer than 10 students who play hockey out of more than 500 in the student body is hardly enough to field a team. This situation, however, is hardly unique to GDS. Hockey is not a very well-represented sport in the DC-Metropolitan area; yet, in 2003, a group of students from Woodrow Wilson High School set out to change that underrepresentation by giving local kids a chance to play
Following one of Anthony Belber’s iconic inspirational speeches, the GDS running hoppers placed 2nd overall for the women’s team and 4th overall for the men’s team today at the 2017 DCSAA Indoor Track Championship meet! No better way to spend Valentine’s Day than at an all-day track meet…and yes, the women did get those cool DCSAA sweatshirts for coming in 2nd! Congratulations to all athletes who “ran good” today! 🙂
Zachary Bergman For the past four years, students and teachers have been coming together once a week to play a sport they all love: badminton. The club was founded by longtime PE teacher and coach Harold Newton after many of his students expressed interest in playing badminton regularly. “A lot of it came from [my students],” Newton said, “because they were really into badminton so we started out just playing at lunch… Some members of the club went from not caring about badminton at all to super serious badminton players.” Newton described the club as “a playing experience;” club members
Alexander Thompson On April 16th, 2016, Athletic Director Kathy Hudson and the Georgetown Day High School Athletic Department hosted the first ever Spring Sports Saturday. Hudson and the Hopper Athletic Leadership Team (HALT) were hoping to begin a new GDS tradition by bringing the community together to showcase many of the school’s spring programs. Our Sports Saturday in the fall, which has been running for more than 20 years, has done wonders to strengthen the school’s sense of community, pride, and athletic excellence. After seeing this success year after year, Hudson decided that the school should try and recreate the
Sarah Pillard On May 28th Georgetown Day’s track team narrowly swept the DC State Championship. The women’s team won by a margin of 2.33 points, edging out Eastern High School in the last two relays of the day–the 4x100m and the 4x400m. The men’s team won by a single point and, for the third year in a row, beat Woodrow Wilson High School. The District of Columbia State Athletic Association (DCSAA) has been holding “State” Championships for the past four years. For three of those four years a portion of the GDS track team has stayed past the conference championships
Henry Schlick When Harold Newton first walked into Georgetown Day School in 1980, the high school, located on MacArthur Boulevard, had nowhere to play its home games. Seven years later a new school with a home field and gym were completed in Tenleytown. And today, 36 years later, he will be leaving the school as one of the most beloved figures in its history. Newton has coached the GDS Men’s Varsity Soccer team for 30 years and in that time they have won 12 MAC banners. The team was first in the league eight years in a row from 1989