Moving on
ATHLETIC DIRECTOR’S CUP
Moving on AFTER A 10-YEAR STREAK OF WINNING THE SPC ATHLETIC DIRECTORS’ CUP, ST. MARK’S LOST THE TROPHY TO THE KINKAID SCHOOL. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE ITS INCEPTION, THE CUP WILL REST AT ANOTHER SCHOOL.
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t all started as a friendly rivalry between the school’s athletic director and Kinkaid’s almost two decades ago. Who had the best overall athletic program in the SPC? The score was soon settled. But then St. John’s, Greenhill and a few others wanted in on the competition. Just a friendly competition. Soon the majority of the SPC caught on. Former SPC Director Cindy Goff decided to make it official. With a trophy, true scoring and a lot of pride. The Lions took home the newly-minted boys’ Athletic Directors’ Cup in the first year of competition. Then the second, then the third. And, for nine years in a row the Cup sat in the trophy case outside the Great Hall, holding with it the pride of knowing 10600 Preston Road has the best group of boys’ sports teams the SPC has to offer. For nearly 10 years it sat. Underappreciated by many and nearly unchallenged. The Cup still sits in its usual spot. But this year, it will not return after the spring meetings of all the athletic directors from SPC schools. Instead, it will be taken to Kinkaid for the 2017-2018 school year. Over the course of the next year, teams will have the chance to contribute to the reconquering of the Cup. Just one team, however, will not be able to bring the Cup back to its resting place on its own. Athletic Director Mark Sullivan, who has worked here since the beginning of the 10-year streak, has come to know every team plays a huge part in an Athletic Directors’ Cup victory. “The trophy itself is a reflection of quality across the board,” Sullivan said. “You could look through, say, the past 10, 15 years of this, and you could see where one team fell down a little bit, and another team really picked them back up.” The scoring of the Cup works as such: if a team wins first place in SPC for a certain sport, they receive one point, the second place team receives two, all
the way down the list. If a sport’s SPC tournament is played in the form of either a 12 or eight-team bracket, schools that fail to make the bracket will receive one more point than the number of teams in the bracket. In order to make the 12-team bracket, teams have to finish the season in the top six seeds of their zone. If the sport has an 8-team bracket, they must make the top four in their zone. Coming into the spring season, Lions teams had amassed 38 points in total. This put the school 11 points behind first place St. John’s School with a couple other schools also in the mix. The first weekend of tournaments, lacrosse placed second and golf third, leaving a chance the Lions could reclaim the Cup. But despite another set of strong finishes by tennis, track and field and baseball of third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, The Kinkaid School in Houston ended up taking the Cup by a mere one point, the closest finish in the history of the Cup.
Even though he thinks it is important that the trophy will not be returning to 10600 Preston Road this year, Assistant Athletic Director Josh Friesen said he does not think the Cup will change how players and coaches approach the season next year. “I definitely think the guys will try to win no matter what,” Friesen said. “They try their best every year. I think it may put [the Cup] out there to the kids more, but no matter what, our players and coaches are doing what they can to finish as high as they possibly can.” ullivan agrees, but he also thinks having the Cup as a yearly goal not only helps him bring new excitement into each school year, but also helps him and Friesen further strengthen their emotional connection with the program. “In a sense, this is kind of my game,” Sullivan said. “I want to go into the spring meeting every year being the guy whose school won that trophy. There’s definitely ego involved and pride involved in doing that.” Senior baseball captain Gordon Gunn thinks the school’s success in recent years deserves to be celebrated, especially given the academic rigor that comes in addition to work out on the field, on the court or in the pool. “I think a lot of it comes down to school values,” Gunn said. “St. Mark’s
S
THE CUP It started as a friendly rivalry between Athletic Director Mark Sullivan and his counterpart at The Kinkaid School. But over the years, it grew into an organized — but friendly — competition between schools in the SPC. And now, after a ten-year streak, the Cup will head south to Kinkaid, after resting in the cabinets of the Great Hall here.
| May 12, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |
27
tends to value academics and community engagement quite a bit, which personally I think is great, especially when our athletics always tend to be dominant whether we value them [as much as other schools] or not.” Sullivan does not want motivation for competing to come from winning the Athletic Directors’ Cup. Rather, he hopes coaches will continue to instill in their athletes the values that can be taught through sports, and the rest will fall into place. “I wouldn’t want the Cup, and what it represents, necessarily, to drive any individual team and their effort,” Sullivan said. “To me, the Cup will take care of itself. I hope our focus will continue to be learning the right things through athletics. Learning how to be a better person, or a better man, if you will, through athletics.”
The streak Year
AD Cup Winner
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s Kinkaid School
STORY PARKER DAVIS, COLIN CAMPBELL PHOTOS RYAN NORMAN
Strength coach Dilworth plans second summer workout program by Nathan Han trength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth will implement plans to improve athletic prowess and teamwork over the summer, especially for the football team. Dilworth plans to have all athletes playing football in the ninth through 12th grade work out Monday through Thursday for two hours each week throughout the summer until the beginning of two-a-days in late August. “We’re strictly trying to get faster, trying to get stronger and trying to get stronger,” Dilworth said, “because we don’t want a repeat of what happened last year [in football].” But Dilworth doesn’t just anticipate growth physically, he also hopes that the team will take a step forward in its mental growth, as well. “We really want to get an identity of who we are, what our mission is and what we’re really trying to accomplish as a football team,” Dilworth said. “It’s not just about putting on the uniform but really
S
going out there with a purpose.” During the two hour long workouts, there will be twenty minutes focused on agility followed up by an hour and thirty minutes in the weight room. “It all starts in the weight room,” Dilworth said. “The main thing is if we work together and we grind together, we’re going to win successfully. But we got to go ahead and make sure we till the ground first.” During the workouts Dilworth hopes to incorporate his new methodology: higher octane. “So higher octane is basically taking all of it to another level,” Dilworth. “So the level we were at the past year; we’re just going to ramp it up another level.” The football team isn’t the only focus, however. Other offseason sports also will get their time to prepare and work out over the summer. “The offseason guys are going to get a big peek of we’re doing,” Dilworth said. “It’s all about setting up a nice base platform for the season.”
And for everybody, the message is loud and clear. “So that’s really the big focal point of what we’re going to do is work hard, come
together, and really become a band of brothers together to where we know we have each other’s back when we’re out there on the field no matter what,” Dilworth said.
SPORTS
Moving on AFTER A 10-YEAR STREAK OF WINNING THE SPC ATHLETIC DIRECTORS’ CUP, ST. MARK’S LOST THE TROPHY TO THE KINKAID SCHOOL. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE ITS INCEPTION, THE CUP WILL REST AT ANOTHER SCHOOL.
R F
G A
I
E L
I
t all started as a friendly rivalry between the school’s athletic director and Kinkaid’s almost two decades ago. Who had the best overall athletic program in the SPC? The score was soon settled. But then St. John’s, Greenhill and a few others wanted in on the competition. Just a friendly competition. Soon the majority of the SPC caught on. Former SPC Director Cindy Goff decided to make it official. With a trophy, true scoring and a lot of pride. The Lions took home the newly-minted boys’ Athletic Directors’ Cup in the first year of competition. Then the second, then the third. And, for nine years in a row the Cup sat in the trophy case outside the Great Hall, holding with it the pride of knowing 10600 Preston Road has the best group of boys’ sports teams the SPC has to offer. For nearly 10 years it sat. Underappreciated by many and nearly unchallenged. The Cup still sits in its usual spot. But this year, it will not return after the spring meetings of all the athletic directors from SPC schools. Instead, it will be taken to Kinkaid for the 2017-2018 school year. Over the course of the next year, teams will have the chance to contribute to the reconquering of the Cup. Just one team, however, will not be able to bring the Cup back to its resting place on its own. Athletic Director Mark Sullivan, who has worked here since the beginning of the 10-year streak, has come to know every team plays a huge part in an Athletic Directors’ Cup victory. “The trophy itself is a reflection of quality across the board,” Sullivan said. “You could look through, say, the past 10, 15 years of this, and you could see where one team fell down a little bit, and another team really picked them back up.” The scoring of the Cup works as such: if a team wins first place in SPC for a certain sport, they receive one point, the second place team receives two, all
the way down the list. If a sport’s SPC tournament is played in the form of either a 12 or eight-team bracket, schools that fail to make the bracket will receive one more point than the number of teams in the bracket. In order to make the 12-team bracket, teams have to finish the season in the top six seeds of their zone. If the sport has an 8-team bracket, they must make the top four in their zone. Coming into the spring season, Lions teams had amassed 38 points in total. This put the school 11 points behind first place St. John’s School with a couple other schools also in the mix. The first weekend of tournaments, lacrosse placed second and golf third, leaving a chance the Lions could reclaim the Cup. But despite another set of strong finishes by tennis, track and field and baseball of third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, The Kinkaid School in Houston ended up taking the Cup by a mere one point, the closest finish in the history of the Cup.
Even though he thinks it is important that the trophy will not be returning to 10600 Preston Road this year, Assistant Athletic Director Josh Friesen said he does not think the Cup will change how players and coaches approach the season next year. “I definitely think the guys will try to win no matter what,” Friesen said. “They try their best every year. I think it may put [the Cup] out there to the kids more, but no matter what, our players and coaches are doing what they can to finish as high as they possibly can.” ullivan agrees, but he also thinks having the Cup as a yearly goal not only helps him bring new excitement into each school year, but also helps him and Friesen further strengthen their emotional connection with the program. “In a sense, this is kind of my game,” Sullivan said. “I want to go into the spring meeting every year being the guy whose school won that trophy. There’s definitely ego involved and pride involved in doing that.” Senior baseball captain Gordon Gunn thinks the school’s success in recent years deserves to be celebrated, especially given the academic rigor that comes in addition to work out on the field, on the court or in the pool. “I think a lot of it comes down to school values,” Gunn said. “St. Mark’s
S
THE CUP It started as a friendly rivalry between Athletic Director Mark Sullivan and his counterpart at The Kinkaid School. But over the years, it grew into an organized — but friendly — competition between schools in the SPC. And now, after a ten-year streak, the Cup will head south to Kinkaid, after resting in the cabinets of the Great Hall here.
| May 12, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |
27
tends to value academics and community engagement quite a bit, which personally I think is great, especially when our athletics always tend to be dominant whether we value them [as much as other schools] or not.” Sullivan does not want motivation for competing to come from winning the Athletic Directors’ Cup. Rather, he hopes coaches will continue to instill in their athletes the values that can be taught through sports, and the rest will fall into place. “I wouldn’t want the Cup, and what it represents, necessarily, to drive any individual team and their effort,” Sullivan said. “To me, the Cup will take care of itself. I hope our focus will continue to be learning the right things through athletics. Learning how to be a better person, or a better man, if you will, through athletics.”
The streak Year
AD Cup Winner
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s St. Mark’s Kinkaid School
STORY PARKER DAVIS, COLIN CAMPBELL PHOTOS RYAN NORMAN
Strength coach Dilworth plans second summer workout program by Nathan Han trength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth will implement plans to improve athletic prowess and teamwork over the summer, especially for the football team. Dilworth plans to have all athletes playing football in the ninth through 12th grade work out Monday through Thursday for two hours each week throughout the summer until the beginning of two-a-days in late August. “We’re strictly trying to get faster, trying to get stronger and trying to get stronger,” Dilworth said, “because we don’t want a repeat of what happened last year [in football].” But Dilworth doesn’t just anticipate growth physically, he also hopes that the team will take a step forward in its mental growth, as well. “We really want to get an identity of who we are, what our mission is and what we’re really trying to accomplish as a football team,” Dilworth said. “It’s not just about putting on the uniform but really
S
going out there with a purpose.” During the two hour long workouts, there will be twenty minutes focused on agility followed up by an hour and thirty minutes in the weight room. “It all starts in the weight room,” Dilworth said. “The main thing is if we work together and we grind together, we’re going to win successfully. But we got to go ahead and make sure we till the ground first.” During the workouts Dilworth hopes to incorporate his new methodology: higher octane. “So higher octane is basically taking all of it to another level,” Dilworth. “So the level we were at the past year; we’re just going to ramp it up another level.” The football team isn’t the only focus, however. Other offseason sports also will get their time to prepare and work out over the summer. “The offseason guys are going to get a big peek of we’re doing,” Dilworth said. “It’s all about setting up a nice base platform for the season.”
And for everybody, the message is loud and clear. “So that’s really the big focal point of what we’re going to do is work hard, come
together, and really become a band of brothers together to where we know we have each other’s back when we’re out there on the field no matter what,” Dilworth said.
SPORTS
