“Choate strives for excellence in all of its endeavors,” says admissions officer Mr. Diffley. Whether in academics, arts, or athletics, Choate invariably succeeds immpressively. However, one of the most important and lesser-known aspects of the admissions process is the recruitment of student-athletes.

According to sources in the Admissions office, Choate employed an athletic liaison for the first time about ten or twelve years ago, to work as a coordinator directly between the school’s coaches and its admissions office that dealt with the recruitment and enrollment of student athletes. This employment of an athletic liaison signaled that Choate was looking more carefully at its athletic program, and the community was eager to watch it develop further.

This process continues under the present-day athletic liaison, Mr. Proto, who tries to recognize students who can work to enhance the school’s athletic program. Proto often coordinates with Ned Gallagher, the athletic director, who communicates with Proto the current status and trends of the athletic program, such as which teams are doing well and which ones need a boost from recruited athletes.

As Doc Gardner, the Boys Varsity Lacrosse coach, says, “We probably need each year a couple of post-graduates or recruited athletes to stay competitive with the teams in our league, and if we didn’t have [these athletes] it would hurt us.”

“With the information [from Ned Gallagher], that helps us select the best class to make Choate well-rounded and excellent,” says Diffley.

Although Choate has many sports to offer, not all of them are involved in the recruitment process. The sports that recruit the most include soccer, basketball, football, lacrosse, and hockey.

Nowadays, many student-athletes are looking to apply to boarding schools like Choate because they know that they are “pretty much the prime path right now to go to the top colleges and play top-level sports,” says Diffley.

Most prospective student-athletes know about Choate because of its national reputation as an elite academic instition. They usually hear about Choate through word of mouth, whether it’s at camp or middle school. For instance, as Dr. Gardner says, “right now there is an eighth-grader from New Jersey who is interested in applying to Choate next year—a lacrosse player—who is going to come up and see the Deerfield game this Saturday.” Therefore, rather than aggressively scouting out child stars and convincing them to come to Choate, the admissions and athletic office instead wait for the prospective students to contact Choate first. They then respond to those students.

In fact, there is a rule that prohibits Choate’s coaches (along with Deerfield, The Hill School, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Loomis Chaffee, Andover, Exeter, St. Paul’s, and Taft) from approaching athletes with the intention of recruiting. “We can’t just walk up to the local U-12 soccer practice and start handing out Choate catalogues,” says Diffley.

However, through jobs and positions outside the school in the off-season, Choate coaches can connect with athletes. For example, Sarah Nutting, coach of the Girls Varsity Hockey team, went to a hockey camp at Dartmouth University and connected with Ashley Bairos ’06, piquing her interest in attending Choate. Choate also participates in some admission fairs where coaches can meet and talk to prospective student-athletes.

Once an athlete expresses a marked interest in Choate, coaches can “convince some students that they can get both the academic and athletic experience they hope for here,” says Diffley.

Bairos, however, chose in the end to come to Choate because she “liked and appreciated that they left [the decision] up to me and didn’t force me to pick a school.”

Whenever a talented student-athlete applies to Choate, specific coaches and the athletic liaison make sure to tell the admissions office so these applicants can be identified early in the admissions process. As Gardner says, “We do contact admissions and say ‘Hey, so-and-so is a strong candidate and we’d really love to see him here’ and that probably helps their candidacy.”

As Diffley says, “Athletics is treated as a special talent, and any special talent can give students a ‘leg-up’ in the admissions process.” However, these students must also be academically motivated and prepared to handle the demands of Choate.

“They weren’t just going to let me into the school because I played ice hockey; so I had to have the academics to back it up,” says Bairos. Other than the initial contact the student-athletes and the coaches make, the admissions process for the athlete is the same as it is for anyone else. “I had to do everything [in applying] just like anyone else did,” says Bairos.

It is sometimes difficult for Choate to compete on the varsity level with schools that are not a part of the non-aggressive recruiting agreement, like Salisbury, Avon, and Canterbury. It can also be quite hard to maintain the agreement of passive recruiting among the participating schools. However, “Choate does not want to lower or change its standards just for the purpose of winning,” says Gardner.

Though its adacemics are held in high esteem, Choate does not have the reputation of an extremely strong athletic school. Possibly because up until a few years ago there was no fitness center and a only a sub-par hockey rink on campus, some prospective athletes question the school’s athletic ability. Choate’s record against some of the most traditionally athletic schools, like its 17-0 record against Deerfield in the fall, may sway these athletes’ minds and prove Choate’s athletic power and potential.

According to Diffley, the reason for the recruitment of athletes is simple: school pride. “You want to experience [either as a player or a spectator] more wins than losses in your Choate career to have an overall positive [athletic] experience.” The recruitment of student-athletes helps the athletic program establish itself in this way. It also makes Choate look all the more impressive to outsiders.

On the subject of student-athletes, Gardner says, “I would encourage all students here to help their school to be aware of friends of their brothers and sisters, or kids that they knew behind them in their school, and get them interested in Choate or tell us about them.”