Signs of Spring

The transition from fall to winter sports at Brimmer largely involves the swapping out of outdoor green and white, polka-dotted balls that have been kicking around all fall, plus those really hard plastic smaller balls that kill your ankles when they fly at you off of an opponent’s stick, for the larger, indoor black-lined-and-orange pixelated spheres meant for hooping. The latter exit the sports equipment storage container; the former enter it (except for the one or two that somehow always get left under the bleachers or in a distant corner of Orr Field.) There’s also the why-is-it-so-arduous task of collecting uniforms, and the necessary gathering up of field hockey sticks, soon to be replaced, possibly, with brooms. The pinnies need collecting and washing, too, please.

The winter to spring sports season interchange ritual entails a lot more equipment. The winter, sleeveless uniforms are closeted (some after being found in lockers or in corners of the gym and then, later, those discovered at the bottom of a backpack in mid-May). The mostly-sleeved spring uniforms emerge: shorts and pants and skirts, pullover and button down shirts (warming under-layers to be provided by the athletes themselves, if they are preparing well for spring weather). Green and white (tennis anyone?) is to be seen everywhere, but there’s also a bit of gray and black mixed in as well--for accenting and used traditionally as a road uniform color. Notably, in every season, Brimmer athletes look sharp when they take the field or court.

Then there is the parade of swatting and catching devices that stream out of the loading dock containers and into the gym closets: lacrosse sticks, tennis racquets, softball and baseball bats, and gloves. These are brought out in special equipment bags or just gangling together like eating utensils in an oversized bin--picture a big yellow garbage can full of lacrosse sticks of various lengths and sizes. Helmets and other protective equipment--shoulder pads, catcher’s gear, etc.--appear for the first time in the course of the year, as do other miscellaneous items such as batting cages, pitching machines, protective nets, bases and pitcher’s rubbers, fungo bats, tennis ball launchers, and those interestingly-shaped lacrosse goals. Finally, those air-filled, orange balls shrink and change colors substantially: they turn into off-white, wedding dress white, and florescent yellow spheres before they start hitting the court, dirt or grass and change color again (mostly brown, green, or dull yellow).

A not-so brief aside here, if I may: the smell of a brand new tennis ball fresh out of the can and its look and feel--you can smell its newness, sense its vitality, and relish its taut wooly exterior all at the same time--are treasures each and every time you put your finger through the ring to pop the top and start a volley. Similarly, a brand new, pristine-white baseball in your bare hand, the seams red and tight on the smooth leather, offers so much promise: to pitchers, it’s the possibility of a 12-to-6 curveball that starts at the knees and ends at the ankles, to an outfielder it’s the prospect of hosing a runner at second base who thought, erroneously, to stretch a single into a double, to a batter, it’s the centering of the barrel and the ball and the long, high arc of a ball hit into the gap…a softball is a bigger object and glowingly yellow-green, but it is light, and when it is new, one just wants to hit it as high and far as she can. Unfortunately, I can’t really speak to the olfactory or tactile stimulation of a lacrosse ball--I do know that, like a baseball or softball, it hurts like the dickens when it hits you, but it feels so good in the cradle of the stick and even better in the back of the opponent’s net.

In the past four years, a Brimmer spring has offered rejuvenated and competitive softball teams and boys lacrosse and tennis programs with lots of fun and learning mixed in with many memorable contests, both tough defeats and upset wins. The School’s spring athletes have brought home a few championships as well, including the first-ever girls lacrosse league championship and back-to-back championships in baseball and girls tennis--the most impressive being the latter featuring consecutive undefeated seasons.

While the equipment is important, the personnel involved and the coalescing of their skills and wills is what makes for a successful team: hard work, a willingness to learn, teamwork, common goals, the will to win, and sportsmanship. These are essential elements. Our student-athletes use their bodies and minds regularly in their sporting endeavors: they condition, they develop skills, they study tactics, and they use a variety of strategies while they are on the fields and courts. They use their equipment as best they can to catch, and throw, to hit and score, to win and to lose, and to exercise and have fun.

This spring may be a little different still--we’ll be adding masks to the equipment list--but the sports equipment will be coming out again; it’s a much-anticipated restart with some increased opportunity and plenty of safety to go around. Thanks to Mr. Gates, Mr. Nelson, Ms. Lin, Mr. Stahley, and all the Brimmer coaches for getting out the equipment each and every season and for supporting our students in their efforts to get back into the game. Play ball!