Living the Mission

6/15/2026

The numbers tell the story.

Five league and two state champions. Sixty-eight all-league and 61 all-state selections. Nine league and five state players of the year. Fourteen Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Metro selections (so far, because spring sport teams are pending. Six All-Americans.

That’s all very nice, of course, but there’s much more to Collegiate’s athletic program than numbers.

So says Andrew Stanley, who just completed his fourth year as athletic director, echoing the time-honored philosophy of his predecessors.

“We really put a focus on competition and sportsmanship,” he said. “When I think about the school year and the way the spring season ended, I continue to be proud of the way our coaches conducted business and the way our athletes competed and comported themselves.

“We focused on our mission statement: ‘We develop athletes through competition with a team-first mentality that emphasizes character and fosters confidence.’ We focused hard this year on increasing our comfort with competition in practice and what we demand of each other in games.”

One recent afternoon, Stanley shared his thoughts about the athletic program’s past, present, and future.

You often reference the mission statement.

One of the things we’re focusing on going forward is what we mean by a team-first mentality. It’s a privilege to be part of a larger group and compete for your school. This year, we had a number of young athletes step into impactful roles. We finished the year playing the games the right way and competing hard in a way we can be very proud of. The path forward is clear. We’re certainly very fortunate to have the support, resources, and opportunities we have. And the recent expansion of the Prep League and LIS (League of Independent Schools) will allow us to schedule more appropriately for our teams.

League expansion?

Covenant will be a provisional member of the Prep League. In this past year, Covenant was new in 25-26 and Christchurch was provisional in 25-26 and will be a full member in the LIS in 26-27.

What else is new?

I’m really excited about the changes and additions in sports performance. This spring, we expanded the opportunities for in-season athletes who wanted more to get in a third lift in the mornings. We had kids coming in showing more dedication and more willingness to improve to help their teams get better. Even in sports performance, team-first mentality is the path. The signs on the wall will be about team. The back of the t-shirt will be about team. We’re acknowledging kids for how many times they can bring somebody with them. The idea of competing hard and being a good teammate is so core to what I learned about Collegiate from the legends who came before me.

How do we do all that?

We’re looking carefully at our messaging. How can we bring this team-first mentality to the forefront so it’s ingrained? We try to make it a focus in the weight room. The weight room in and of itself is an individual act for the benefit of yourself and others. If I’m strong, the team is better. But can we teach it in a deeper level where we create more opportunities to work together and rely on each other? Can we adjust our practice plans and our expectations in the off season to be more team focused, standardizing things like shared responsibilities within teams? How do we set standards for group care? How can we “sweep the shed” from the All Blacks mentality? We’re looking at all these ideas, trying to ingrain the idea that you’re part of something bigger than yourself.

Which is vital to success in sports and in life. Correct?

Yes. If you go off and do your thing, I go off and do my thing, and then we come together, that’s not how chemistry happens. We have a 97 percent retention rate, so we have to develop from within. We’re looking at every aspect of our program to develop athletes through competition with a team-first mentality. You can see the path ahead. You can see that the opportunities for success in all definitions of that word are clearly on the horizon. We just have to keep moving forward, raising the floor one step at a time.

~Weldon Bradshaw

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