Upper School Athletics
In our Upper School we offer 20 different opportunities for interscholastic athletics, a remarkable number considering we have roughly 240 students in grades 9-12. Of those 20 programs, 18 compete at the varsity level and are therefore eligible for post-season play. (Ice Hockey is currently a JV program and cheerleading is an athletic opportunity, but does not compete interscholastically.) Of those 18, 16 qualified for NJSIAA post-season play during the 2007-08 school year. Since in most cases a winning record is required for such qualification, the fact that almost 90% of our eligible teams were competing when only the strongest in the state were still around is quite laudable. Seven of our teams were crowned conference champions and four advanced to sectional championships. The varsity girls tennis team earned our first-ever state championship in any sport and the varsity girls basketball and varsity baseball teams set school records for wins in a season.
On an individual level, our student-athletes’ accomplishments were just as impressive. 46 of our athletes were named First-Team All-Conference, 52 earned Prep B honors, 17 more were selected to All-Somerset County teams, and 31 of our finest were recognized as “All-Area” athletes by the Courier News, which covers over 50 schools in the area. Daisha Simmons ’10 (basketball) and Doug Smith ’09 (track and field) earned “Athlete-of-the-Year” accolades in their respective sports and six tennis players (boys and girls) won individual Prep B Championships. In addition to Simmons and Smith, Christie Pollin ’08 (tennis), Peter Bednarsky ’08 (soccer), Michael Jablonskyj ‘09 (soccer), Morgan Mireski ’08 (soccer), Katie Galpin ’08 (fencing), and John Leighton ’09 (tennis) earned All-State recognition for their accomplishments.
Clearly it is an exciting time to be a student-athlete at Gill St. Bernard’s and we’re confident that the unprecedented successes of 2007-08 are signs of even better things to come.
