Boutique Sports Continue to Thrive at Portledge

I call Squash and Fencing "Boutique Sports" because they are hard to find. Many schools do not have these offerings, and even when they are offered they are relegated to out of the way places not on the usual path of winter sports fans. This is pretty much the case at Portledge as the Fencing Program is tucked away in the Lower School gym where it has to do battle with the Lower School Holiday play and other events just to get some solid practice time. The fencers don't complain though, they just go about there business and perform. In 1999 our Lady Fencers won the ISFL Championship and several of those girls went on to have very good college fencing careers. During the last decade Naomi Johnson, daughter of long time Varsity Coach Eric Johnson, dominated the ISFL Individual bouts, and just recently an Epee squad led by Nick Hagedorn '09 and Alan Phipps '10 has steadily climbed the ISFL ladder and is in position this year to possibly win the school's second ISFL Championship. So good luck to Alan, Niko, Ryan and all the other epee fencers as they move on into the meat of their schedule.

In terms of squash, the sport had been growing at Portledge over the last eight years and we are starting to see the kind of development that marks real progress. This spring Portledge will be graduating its first college bound squash player as Chris Gerry moves on up to Amherst College with every intention to be part of the squash program there. Chris met with the coach during his visit and knows some of the players on the team from his matches here at Portledge over the years. This is ceratinly a significant moment for the development of the sport at our school and a lot of credit should go to Mr. Shane Capuccio who has done a great job of running the program since taking it over last winter.

Both programs are fully enrolled and we look for their continued development during the next decade. We hope to see all the Portledge faithful out supporting our winter teams as a big January of competition opens up next week. Check the website for game schedules and we'll see you at the games!!