Miles Prusek plays baseball not so much for the rewards but for the challenges.

 

 

How does one measure competitive success?

Last July when Jason Archbell accepted the position as Collegiate’s head boys varsity lacrosse coach and program leader, he was venturing into uncharted waters because he’d never coached at the high school level.

Gather ‘round, folks, and meet the latest class of Unsung Seniors, a group of Collegiate athletes who distinguished themselves in their final season but did so beneath the radar.

On the morning of Feb. 4, 1998, a group of athletic administrators from around Virginia convened at St. Christopher’s School to discuss the formation of an organization that would govern and coordinate independent school sports in the state.

When it’s time, it’s time.

Just yesterday, it seems, Rosie Ferrell and Virginia Harris were 7th graders competing for their respective schools in a series of low-key middle school cross country meets staged on the semi-undulating 2.5-mile course at Roslyn.

So here we are, on a somewhat warm but very blustery Tuesday afternoon, holding forth in the aerie overlooking the Charlie Blair Field as we watch Collegiate’s girls varsity soccer team match skill, talent, and wits with their visitors from Deep Run High School.

Steve Hart remembers well a day in French class his freshman year at the University of Richmond when the professor asked each student what career path he wanted to follow upon graduation.

Winning is the goal. Right?

Basketball has always held a very special place in John Moreau’s heart.

It was a much-needed feel-good moment in a not-so-feel-good time.

Throughout the five seasons that Lily Berger ran point for Collegiate’s varsity girls basketball team, she was known for her abiding passion for the game, her willingness to pay the price to achieve excellence, and her team-first mindset.

The long winter athletic season has finally come to an end, so let’s pause for a moment and take stock of several of the many high points that occurred despite its on-again, off-again nature compounded by the often-capricious Central Virginia weather.

Welcome, folks. Please meet the latest class of Unsung Seniors, five Collegiate athletes who made invaluable albeit understated contributions to their teams during the winter of 2024-2025.

Debbie Miller was everyone’s favorite teacher.

Winning is Plan A.

Same old, same old works just fine for Coach Mike Peters and Collegiate’s varsity girls swimming and diving team.

Seems appropriate, don’t you think, that after the sometimes icy, often frigid, and rarely idyllic weather through which Collegiate’s track team trained this winter, the Prep League and League of Independent Schools championship meets would be contested on a high-30s Saturday afternoon as a steady rain drenched Central Virginia.

One Saturday morning back in the spring of 2019, Karen Doxey was enjoying a quiet walk around the pastoral expanse of Collegiate’s Robins Campus before a full slate of events, scheduled that, day began.

They’re the few, the proud, the Cougars.

One simple phone call. 

There was a time when Bridget Blaszak’s athletic life centered around competitive swimming and Irish dancing.