As the recent long winter break came to a close, the Athletics Department, along with the Alumni Association, brought together both current and former school athletes to play in the annual Alumni Games, consisting of three separate matches of basketball, water polo, and soccer.
Led by coach Greg Guiler, the student basketball team faced an alumni team with a few familiar faces–George Genender ‘23, Jake Bond ‘23, Arjun Khatti ‘23, and Rapha Mitterer-Claudet ‘23 all returned to play–and opened the game with a jump ball between junior Henry Estes and his father David Estes ‘89.
“We had 20 to 25 guys show up this year,” Guiler said. “Those [four] guys wanted to come back and play against their teammates from a year ago, and our guys were real excited to have them in the gym. But that also makes the old guys competitive, because they’ve got younger people who are in good shape.”
By the third quarter of the game, despite a few dunks by Mitterer-Claudet, the student-led team was winning by about 20 points, leading Guiler to propose starting a new game, this time playing just two quarters. The alumni accepted and ended up claiming the victory in the second round.
“Everybody walked away feeling victorious in some sense,” Guiler said. “It’s a cool tradition. I’m grateful to see guys that I know I’ll only see during that one event, but they come back for it on a pretty regular basis. From our guys, [during the season], we’re trying to win every ball game we play, so lots of guys get to compete [during the alumni game] and you see players do things you didn’t necessarily expect.”
The water polo team, led by coach Trent Calder, put up a strong performance against an experienced alumni group, led by Easton Honaker ‘17, David Li ‘20, and Chase Honaker ‘19, in a back-and-forth game that ultimately ended with the alumni winning 11 to 10.
“It was an absolute blast,” Calder said. “We had fifteen or thirteen alumni return; we got to see some alumni families that I haven’t seen in a while; I met a couple of alumni who I hadn’t seen in my short tenure here; and then we had a great turnout from our [student] group.”
In the first quarter, the student group went up 5 to 2, before the alumni brought it back 8 to 5 in the second quarter. After ending the third quarter down by three, the student team fought hard, with senior Caleb Maddox blocking a shot from close range, but ultimately fell a little short.
“It was a great game all around,” Calder said. “There was a lot of joking and smack-talking, which is always appreciated. All the alumni contributed, and the young guys were getting in there and slinging it around. Overall, just great fun.”
Coming out of a long week of training, the soccer team, coached by Cory Martin, faced an alumni team of more than 30 returnees.
“It was real competitive, but we also had some objectives,” Martin said. “We worked on some tactical things, like [playing with] low pressure and high pressure. We always use the game, since it’s always a good way to get ready for counterseason.”
The alumni team saw an early goal from Stefan Moreno ‘22, a hat-trick from Knobel Hunt ‘21, and a late penalty by Jose Gonzalez ‘12. Despite a few chances for the student team, which was missing more than half of its varsity starting lineup, to convert, the game ultimately ended in a 5-0 win for the alumni.
“We just didn’t execute,” Martin said. “I think we could have been more focused, but we have so much fun with it anyway. Years ago, we used to play the alumni game in May, and I’m so grateful that we play it now, all at the same time. The development office does such a wonderful job, and the men that I see on the alumni team were boys that I coached, so it’s always great to see that so many of them are success stories as men that I would like our players to emulate.”
