Our Program
Athletics Statement:
Germantown Academy’s approach to athletics is rooted in our school’s mission. We seek to inspire our student-athletes to be confident, collaborative, and honorable in their pursuit of sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership, and lifelong fitness.
1. GA seeks to offer an inclusive, sequential, and rigorous athletic program.
Every student has an opportunity to pursue an athletic interest.
- GA strives to accommodate every student who wishes to play a specific sport.
- Every team will offer high quality training and competition in order to provide skill development for a range of athletic abilities and interests.
- In order to ensure a sequential program, GA will pursue a vertically aligned program in order to provide oversight of the entire MS/US coaches, program, team and athlete development.
2. GA will be committed to competing successfully throughout our athletic program.
Successful athletic programs foster student interest, passion, and growth in knowledge, skills, work ethic, perseverance, and respect for oneself and others. Most importantly, successful athletic programs balance the roles of student and athlete, and tend to the physical and emotional health and wellness of our students.
- GA will take a developmentally appropriate, flexible approach to placing students on athletic teams.
- Typically GA will offer different competitive levels for each sport to provide student-athletes with appropriate training and playing time at their respective skill level within their division, regardless of grade level, while always keeping a student’s social development in mind.
- In the Middle School, all athletes will have a regular opportunity to compete, but equal playing time may not be possible in all sports at all levels.
- In the Upper School, the best student-athletes will generally play more, especially in competitive varsity contests.
- As a college preparatory school, GA encourages student-athletes to contribute to school in many ways, across multiple sports and activities. GA’s coaches and college counselors will support and advocate for qualified student-athletes who seek to pursue their sport at the collegiate level.
3. GA strives to develop and attract talented student-athletes and teacher-coaches.
Exceptional coaches engage their players in the sport the way that master teachers engage their students in the curriculum. They are good teachers of their game and they inspire and grow our student-athletes. Committed student-athletes contribute meaningfully to our school as scholars first and also in athletics and other extracurricular arenas.
- GA will actively recruit qualified teacher-coaches who have played and/or coached their sport at a high level and support coaches with relevant, current professional development opportunities. Teacher-coaches will meet the same standard of teaching excellence as other faculty.
- As needed, GA will augment the teacher-coach model with outside experts who are committed to the GA mission.
- GA will attract, develop, and assist student-athletes in their quest to pursue athletics from the beginner level to the highest level of competition. Student-athletes will meet the same range of admission standards as all GA students.
Published on December 15, 2015