As the winter sports season begins, seniors reflect on their last season as a Blake Bear. Nico Valiente ‘23, a senior swimmer for the Bearstangs, is hopeful to “reconnect with the team.”
Valiente wishes his peers would recognize the boys’ swim team for its accomplishments. Valiente explains, “I don’t think the rest of our school understands how good our swim team is, honestly. As a school we need to be more excited.” The boys’ swim team is half Blake and half Breck swimmers, so “it makes the team feel like it’s its own entity; not just a Blake thing or a Breck thing.”
Catherine Hardy ‘23, currently the only senior player on the girls’ basketball team, says, “I’m looking forward to being the leader as a senior. Having been on Varsity for four years, I’ve been with this team through a lot. I’m hoping to guide all of the underclassmen to love the sport.”
With a light roster, Hardy urges her peers to consider joining the team. Hardy says, “It’s a fun and safe space and you don’t have to be good at basketball to be there… We have a lot of young kids, specifically seventh and eighth graders, who are interested in the program… There’s just a large gap of interest for grades ten and nine that needs to get filled.”
David Carlson ‘23, one of seven seniors on the boys’ hockey team, remarks, “In past years, there have been older players which have set the tone of the team. They really create a fun environment.”
But embodying the role of a senior on a team is not always fun and games; Carlson adds, “[Seniors] need to hold other, younger, players accountable.”
Furthermore, Carlson, as a senior, feels nostalgic about this year being his last formalized hockey season. Carlson concludes, “It’s strange to think that I’m going to be part of [fulfilling seniors’ responsibilities] this year. When I was younger—in on-ice and off-ice situations—I would look up to older players and linemates; now that older player is me.”
Zoe Edinburgh ‘23, a senior on the ski team, feels “really sad knowing that [this season holds] my last practices and races.” Edinburgh will mostly miss “just being on the team, my friends, the coaching… Just all of it.” As a senior, Edinburgh acknowledges her responsibility to “set a good example and tell the younger kids what to do.”
