Congratulations to this week’s Doors of the Week!
Boys JV Hockey: Carson Belaire ’23
This week’s Door of the Week for the Boys JV hockey team is Carson Belaire. Carson has stood out from the beginning of the season as a player who loves the game, his teammates, and any situation given to him. His attitude and effort are a constant each week. He’s someone who wants to get better, and someone who cares about being a good teammate. This is the model his coaches like to see from members of the JV boys hockey team. Keep it up Carson!
Girls Varsity Swimming & Diving: Rachel Mark ’23
Boys Thirds Basketball: Justin Ahn ’24 and Peter Kurto ’23
In our scrimmages last week, both Justin and Peter had outstanding games and were prolific scorers. We appreciate their hard work and good spirits during our games!
Girls Thirds Squash: Adaugo Nwaokoro ’24
Adaugo came to Deerfield squash completely new to the sport and in the first several practices struggled to get her serves over the short line. But with diligent work she’s made improvements every week, and last Thursday she was the only lower-seeded player to win her challenge match and move up the ladder. We’re also grateful to her upbeat attitude and dedication to her teammates. She even volunteered to stay late to score the final match that night. We’re so glad she’s on the team!
Girls Varsity Basketball: Ruby Chase ’21
This week we’d like to honor senior, Ruby Chase, for sharing her humility, hard work and genuine enthusiasm for the game with her teammates every day. Ruby is quiet, but her dedication to the team and to the sport shines through daily. She is the ultimate team player, and she has taken on the role of senior leader on the team this year like a seasoned veteran. Ruby worked hard to make the varsity team last year, and her growth in skill and knowledge of the game have grown significantly. We are lucky to have her on the team and she is making a challenging season enjoyable with her daily example.
Boys JV Squash: Jack Willett ’23
Jack arrives to practice every afternoon with a smile and an exceptionally positive attitude. Regardless of the drill, conditioning or match Jack approaches it with an incredibly positive outlook and it’s pretty clear that Jack has never had a bad day out on the squash courts. His teammates love playing with him because of his positive energy and sportsmanship and his squash skills have improved dramatically over the years!
Boys Varsity Swimming & Diving: Robert Amundson ’22
Robert has been serious about swimming since he first stepped foot on our campus. Standing just over 6’6” tall, Robert has this great t-shirt that reads “Yes I’m tall, no I don’t play basketball, I swim it’s way better”!!! His seriousness and focus shows in his daily commitment to every one of our practices and to the overall positive team dynamics. He is a leader in our practices and is a great role model to the newer swimmers with his dedication and 100% effort given each day. He is very coachable and eager to be the best he can be in the sport. For his devotion, work ethic, and all around good spirit this week’s Boys’ Varsity Door of the Week is junior, Robert Amundson.
JV Swimming: Ruthie Spencer ’22 and Ella Foulkes ’22
JV swimming is pleased to select Ruthie Spencer as a Door of the Week. Ruthie has made great strides as a newcomer to the sport, mastering the strokes and developing additional skills including racing starts and flip turns. In the past 3 weeks Ruthie has dropped 6 seconds in both her 50 yard freestyle and 50 yard backstroke. She swam in her first career meet, the inaugural JV Green and White meet on Wednesday cementing her place as a competitive swimmer.
JV swimming is also happy to nominate Ella Foulkes as a Door of the Week. Ella has gamely tackled swimming as a new sport, and embraces each new challenge with a smile and words of encouragement to those around her. In our first Green and White meet of the season, Ella showcased the amazing progress she has made, dropping 5 seconds from her 50-yard freestyle and 7 seconds from her 50 yard breaststroke, in just 3 weeks!
Girls Thirds Basketball: Lily Lin ’23
The DoTW is Lily Lin. On the court she has been a sharp shooter, hitting from anywhere between two and seventeen feet. When the ball leaves ever finger tips it is usually followed by the sound of the ball brushing along the bottom of the net. She cones to practice every day with a positive attitude. Off the court she has demonstrated leadership by attempting to organize team dinners or taking videos and photos of our team building events. Way to go, Lily.
Boys JV Basketball: Oscar Patton ’23
Oscar Patton ’23 took over the show in Friday’s scrimmages. Oscar was simply unstoppable on offense as he found a whole new level of determination. Always an accurate outside shooter, Oscar also slashed to the hoop decisively and would not be denied. When teams began to adjust to stop him, he deftly found his open teammates. While we had other significant contributors last week, Oscar’s performance on Friday clearly earned our DOW.
Wrestling: Donovan Woods ’23 & Chad Ho ’22
Deerfield’s door is double. Two distinct and essential parts make a recognizable whole. So it is in the Kravis, where wrestlers train not as individuals, but as pairs. Our mantra is always make your partner better. In tune with that refrain, this week’s double door is the training partnership of Donovan Woods & Chad Ho. There are few livelier, more intense, LOUDER wrestlers in the room. Donovan & Chad get after each other with every last ounce of energy, talking each other up, correcting mistakes, improving position. If there’s a pair that functions as one to make each other better, it’s Donovan & Chad. Together, they’re the epitome of intensity, intelligence, and integrity.
Instrumental Music: Sam Thiel ’22
Sam has consistently gone above and beyond in the production of the Winter Music Co-Curricular’s music video project. His remarkable contributions are motivated by two things: 1) A desire to spend every minute learning as much as he possibly can about the music composition, performance, and production processes, and 2) A passionate commitment to ensuring that the team produces a product of the highest possible quality. He wrote a huge portion of our original arrangement of Clean Bandit’s song “Rather Be” for the unique 21-piece mixed ensemble in this Winter’s Co-Curric. As we rehearsed and recorded the music and video components of the project, he regularly showed up early and stayed late to help with everything from planning sessions, running rehearsals, setting up, breaking down, technological trouble-shooting, communication between different rehearsal locations, and providing production feedback. He has become the official “production assistant” for our co-curricular. He has not done any of this work out of a desire for recognition or resume building, but rather a true passion for music learning and the pursuit of musical excellence.
Girls Varsity Hockey: Sara Ito-Bagshaw ’21
Sara Ito-Bagshaw is the GVH Door of the Week. Even though she was non-contact for the week while rehabbing an injury, Sara worked harder than anyone. When she couldn’t do a drill, she did extra skating on the side, working on her edges, quick starts, and balance. She never let her intensity waver, and remained her typical upbeat and positive presence. It takes a special athlete to remain this engaged and committed to her team while injured, and Sara has demonstrated excellent leadership all year.