By BOB YORK – Let’s just call him a blast from the past.Tom Heise returned to some very familiar landscape this fall: patrolling the sidelines for the Big Green boys varsity soccer team. Heise, who spent the past seven years coaching the Deerfield JV program, tutored the varsity for 11 years, from 1993 to 2004 and [...]

By BOB YORK – Through the first two months of its 2012 campaign, the word “awesome” had become synonymous with the Deerfield Academy field hockey program. It owned a 10-2-1 record and had already secured an invitation to postseason play for the 19th time in its 23 years of existence.Then, the Big Green ran into some [...]

By BOB YORK – Only one team – eventual champion Phillips Exeter Academy – placed as many runners among the top dozen finishers as Deerfield Academy did during this year’s New England Prep School Athletic Conference Boys Division I Cross Country Championships. Both squads rang up three: The Big Red filled the first, seventh and tenth [...]

By BOB YORK – Among the cherished moments Heidi Valk will remember about the 2012 Big Green girls soccer season will be all those long faces she could see on the Loomis Chaffee sidelines. Another thing she is sure to remember is how they got there.“I’ve been a part of the girls soccer program here at [...]

By BOB YORK – A hot start was followed by a chilly finish this season, as the Deerfield Academy volleyball team finished its 2012 campaign with a 6-8 record – and no tournament invitation. The Big Green opened this fall’s session with a 4-1 showing, only to pull out two more victories over the final nine [...]

By BOB YORK – There’s one piece of advice that many water polo players should heed above all other instruction: Keep your chin up!This little tip has nothing to do with pulling yourself out of a slump, but rather avoiding a nosedive – straight to the bottom. A mouthful of water can leave you short of [...]

By BOB YORK – Cross-country coaches were born to beat the clock. There’s not a second that goes by that they wouldn’t like to just reach out … grab one … and crunch it. In fact, just the mere thought of trimming even a tenth of a tick off one itsy-bitsy second will find them urging [...]

By BOB YORK– The Deerfield Academy football season could be summed up in a single word: “Ouch!” “In 45 years of coaching, I’ve never been through a season like this one,” said Big Green mentor Mike Silippo. “I can never remember one team being hit by so many injuries … they began during preseason workouts [...]

By BOB YORK  Big Green girls cross country coach Dennis Cullinane isn’t the least bit shy in explaining his interpretation of why his runners have been doing so well so far this season. “This is the best girls cross country team Deerfield Academy has had since the school went coed back in 1989,” said Cullinane. [...]

On Saturday, Deerfield’s boys’ and girls’ Cross Country teams won their respective divisions at the competitive Canterbury Invitational, held annually at the Canterbury School in New Milford, CT. The boys defeated the 2011 champions, Loomis Chaffee School, by three points, and the girls won their third consecutive title by easily outpacing 2nd place Greenwich Academy. [...]