"Glory Days"

To say that things came together this fall in Portledge Athletics would be an understatement. In an unprecedented show of gender balance, our Varsity Girls and Boys Soccer teams both captured the regular season championships of their respective leagues and earned automatic bids into the NYSAIASAA Soccer Championship Tournaments. Since then the Varsity Girls have gone onto win the PSAA Post Season Tournament Championship with two incredible 1-0 victories over long time rivals Berkeley Carroll and Staten Island Academy. On the Boys side, even though they suffered a heart breaking defeat to Lu Hi in the final of the IPPSAL Post Season Championship Tournament, their regular season title was their third straight and speaks volumes about the consistently high quality of Head Coach Kevin Coleman's Varsity Boys Soccer program. In addition to these tremendous soccer accomplishments, the Varsity Girls Tennis team captured its second consecutive, and thirteenth overall, IPPSAL Girls Tennis Championship. The Lady Panther Netters were only able to continue the trend of Portledge dominance of IPPSAL Girls Tennis because of exceptional Senior leadership on the part of Robyn Worrall, Elizabeth Girgenti and Stephanie Hegarty. The success of the athletic program at Portledge does not stop there though as the Middle School soccer teams enjoyed a very successful year in competition against our local day school rivals from Green Vale, Buckley, Holy Child and East Woods. The 7/8 Boys Soccer team led the way with a 7-2-1 overall mark that was highlighted by some tremendous play throughout the fall. Not only did the team have a exceptional group of attackers in Ronel Juste, Cameron Daniels, Kyle Flowers David Anderson and Solomon Hur, but the cadre of deep players made up of the Roel brothers, Jimmy and Tommy, stopper Sam Lerner and sweeper Zak Kleinwaks were stingiest defense in memory. Behing all this there was goaltender par excellence Patrick Byrnes. As team leader Byrnes consistently made incredible saves look easy as he was a rock in the Panther nets. Many great keepers have worn the Portledge crest, but Patrick Byrnes has the opportunity to go on and be the not only the strongest goaltender in Portledge history, but possibly one of the finest soccer players we have ever had at this institution. The 7/8 Girls team won several games this fall and showed a marked improvement in their overall play. Head Coach Miss Maiello will have most of her team returning next year and with the addition of a few more pieces from an also improved 5/6 Girls program should be very hard to beat in the fall of 2010. While the 5/6 Boys Soccer team, Middle School Coed Cross Country team, and Varsity Coed Cross Country teams are all still developing programs, there is no shortage of effort on behalf of their players to make those teams as strong as possible Thus, it is with a great amount of appreciation and congratulations that we commend all the Portledge fall sports players and coaches on a fantastic 2009 fall sports season. Special thanks also go out to all the parents and faculty who came out and supported our athletes this fall. Lastly, please give our Varsity Soccer players, both girls and boys, a wish of good luck as they prepare to compete in the state independent school championships coming up this week. The boys will play first on Wednesday, Nov 4th @ Randall's Island - Field # 70 (3:45pm) in a round of 16 game v. Lycee Francais of NYC. If they can secure a positive result, they will be back at Randall's Isaland the next day to face 2nd seeded UNIS. The Varsity Girls team will move right to the quarter finals when they face 2nd seeded St Ann's of Brooklyn on Thursday, Nov 5th at 3:45 at either the Red Hook or Aviator Field complex. Please feel free to check the homepage of portledge.org for more details as those contests draw closer. You can also learn a bit more about Portledge Athletics as Hey Hills goes on to answer a question we have heard a lot lately!

How is it that Portledge is experiencing so much success lately in its athletic programs?


The one thing that has become apparent during this exciting run of athletic accomplishments at Portledge is that, while hard work does not guarantee victory, it certainly does consistently put you in a position to achieve great things, and that if you put yourselves in that position often enough, you gain the type of experience, that when coupled with hard work, brings success. That's certainly a lot to say in one sentence and I'm not sure if it's even grammatically correct - I guess I'll have to check with someone in the English Dep't - but I do know that it is emphatically true. Portledge has enjoyed many periods of athletic bloom. During the late 1980s Boys Soccer and Lacrosse, and Girls Tennis were all having a great deal of success and establishing themselves as foundational blocks in the Portledge Athletic program. The 1990s saw Boys Tennis go through a boom and the Varsity Boys Ice Hockey team reached tremendous heights as it consistently defeated very strong prep opponents from around the country and was a team on which future NHL players honed their skills. This latest round of progress and growth in Portledge Athletics really began six tears ago when Michael Coope challenged a group of girls soccer players to work harder than they ever had athletically and to come together as a group as they never has before. The result, in only the fourth year of the programs existence, was a trip to the PSAA Girls Soccer Championship and the realization that hard work, and commitment to each other, could certainly breed success and put you in position to achieve great things. Since then we have seen the Girls Basketball program challenge for championships behind the relentless play and exceptional leadership of Emily Edwards Bourdrez, the creation of a Girls Ice Hockey and Baseball programs and in the case of Girls Ice Hockey its ultimate evolution to championship status. All of these developments have beeen powered by the hard work of players and coaches and their commitment to the success of our programs. Now that we are getting to these lofty places more often, we know how to prepare and how to act once we are there. So whether you are a girls or boys ice hockey, basketball, soccer, tennis, lacrosse, baseball or softball player - be ready to work, have a great overall experience and ultimately achieve some great things of your own.