The Avalon School - Athletics

a healthy mind in a healthy body

"Mens sana in corpore sano" (A healthy mind in a healthy body) is almost a platitude of education and when something becomes a platitude it loses the energy of its underlying meaning. Avalon recognizes that a body is not something a person has, but it is an integral part of who he or she is. Sports provide not only a means of physical fitness, but an entry into the uniquely human world of games where effort and teamwork and camaraderie are all blended.

Daily Physical Education classes allow boys to test their physical limits and to test each other. The Avalon School exposes boys to the regular passel of sports that are commonly played, helping them to develop the skills necessary to compete capably, and encouraging the boys to use their imagination and innate competitiveness to develop games of their own.

Just as a student would not be able to take Calculus or Latin IV without the necessary prerequisites, not everyone who tries out for an interscholastic team is able to make the team. Cuts are made, although rarely at the middle school level, since a false sense of achievement robs the student of a fair assessment of areas that need improvement and diminishes the excellence and hard work of those who truly deserve it.