Talking with coaches over the past season to get their thoughts on how the team played and what they thought of the players, we learned this past fall sports season was impressive for Friar athletes. When going over the season with Coach Susan Barr the team had finished off 5-14-2. 

“All in all, I think it was a rebuilding year, and I think we knew it was going to be a rebuilding year,” Barr said.

Due to illness and injury, many young Friars had to take the field and step up at the Varsity level.

“We were dressing freshman left and right in the game, and I thought the freshmen that went in impacted the game,” Barr said.

Barr was passionate when discussing the importance of team values and the success they brought to their program. 

“I think from a resiliency standpoint, I never felt like we gave up. I always felt like we believed the next game would be ours,” Barr stated.

Next year, Barr believes they are in a good place to continue building and growing. 

“The following year for the Friars will look very different in a good way. I think our ability to build on creating an environment where everybody has an input and having the ability to hold yourself accountable to a very high level of competition and how you carry yourself.” Barr said.

Coach Schiller, Upper School Health and Physical Education Teacher and Varsity Water Polo Coach, was excited about his team’s finish and is working hard for next year. 

“I have a philosophy called Kaizen that I talk about all the time. That is a Japanese business philosophy of never-ending on ending improvement, helping us get a couple of big wins,” Schiller said.

Regarding Inter-Ac award recipient Patrick Buysee, Schiller noted that his shoulder injury didn’t slow him down. 

“He is committed to our sport, which I love. He’s doing a lot of things in the offseason to get better. Buysee really stepped up for the team both in and out of the water,” Schiller said. 

Schiller says he wants his players all in for next year.

“If you’re on a water polo team or swim team, you’re not both, or you can do both, but you can’t do swimming over water polo. And that’s where we used to do it before the pandemic, and we had a lot of success” Schiller stated.

 With only three seniors graduating from water polo, Schiller is optimistic about next year. 

“Our JV team had a winning record for the first time in a few years. So you know, the JV squad was deep. So that depth moving up to the varsity level will be beneficial.” Schiller stated.

One of our Inter-ac winning Fall teams, Golf, had a very successful season with many accolades.

Gold Team head coach, Coach Gary Duda ‘88, was very happy about the season and had nothing but good things to say about his golfers and what drove their success.

“I think, just in terms of what we believe in, we believe in playing for each other. We believe in playing the right way. Carrying yourself that the right way, especially in golf when golf can be frustrating,” Duda stated.

When going over the awards this past season of a very impressive award show for the Friar golfers.

“First and foremost will Aprahamian being one of our senior players, getting our most improved, for him to finish top 10 in our league as a senior, he was a major reason why we finished the way we finished,” Duda said.

With many more shoutouts to top tri-state freshman golfers Davis Conway, Marshall Kain, Michael Henry, and Thomas Plozsay. Coach Duda was ecstatic to talk about next year when he said,

 “We have a core of younger guys coming back. So for the next, you know, three, four years. The future looks really good from that perspective”  Duda said.

Our Cross Country team fought hard this season and finished 3rd in the Inter-Ac. Mr. Mike Koenig, Upper School Science Teacher, and Head Cross Country/Track Coach reflect on how competitive the league was this season.

“We had a pretty good season. We did not quite meet the goals we had set out. It is always hard to compete in this competitive league, probably one of the most competitive leagues,” Koenig stated.

Some of the values Mr. Koenig instills in his players are consistency and holding a high standard.

 “Consistent approach to practice, consistent approach to racing was more like an attitude, I’d say. We have a pretty high standard and in cross country, there are a lot of banners in the gym, we even won 13 out of 14 years at one point.” Koenig said. 

Crucial senior runners, Jake Marrone, Carson Meyers, and Dylan Regan were award recipients this season. Mr. Koenig thinks very highly of his award recipients. 

“They’re not just talented Athletes, but they’re good team leaders. They command respect among the whole team, making great team captains. I trust them all 100%,” Koenig stated.

With Multiple seniors graduating, looking into next year, Mr. Koenig is optimistic. 

“Just keep going with what you got, we’ve got some incoming seniors, Jack McEvoy, Josh Stefano, Steve Hoffman, and Quinn Barwick, and they’re all going to be great leaders next season,” Koenig said.

After finishing 8-2 with a prominent season for the football team. Head Coach and Associate Director of Admissions, Dave Gueriera, had a lot to say about the season.

“I want to win, win, win. Every year I want to win every game. I want to win the league every year. So we didn’t hit our ultimate goal. We did go 8 and 2,  and we did rise number two in the state, with the freshman quarterback taking us through, but overall it was a good season,” Guriera said.

Missing critical players like seniors, Bobby Mears and Hayden Pegg, Coach Gueiera is confident in the team. 

“We feel pretty good about next year. We got a lot of guys who got battle-tested, a lot of guys that played really big games. We got a lot of young guys here that are we are strong places coming out. It’d be hard to replace, you know, those guys that we talked about. But I think these young guys are up for the challenge and are battle-tested,” Gueriera stated.

 Going into next year’s season, Coach Gueiera wants to make things simple. 

“I think, you know, just the offensive coaching me probably would have tried to keep things a little simpler. You know, it was almost like everyone’s feeling today after the Eagles game. You can’t turn the ball over. You gave him seven points, you know, and the same thing with like hair for school, you know, you have got to take care of the ball in this game and win third downs,” said Guriera.