Focused Fun - Chaperoning a Milton Team Trip

There are many ways to enjoy being a Milton Academy parent, and ever since my two children started kindergarten here, I’ve tried quite a few of them. Parents’ Day each fall has long been a highlight for me, in both Middle & Upper School … almost as much fun as Lower School woodworking! I’ve been a regular member of the Roberts Rink Rats and an associate with Sideline Snacks, as well as a contributing freelancer for “How Bus Drivers Could Find Away Games.”

But March of 2006 topped them all, when I had the chance to attempt adult supervision of the varsity sailing team’s Spring Break practice trip to Annapolis, Maryland. The team had learned over the winter that they no longer had access to their former venue in Florida, at a college whose boats were already spoken for. By mid-February, co-captain Jon Enright (I) had lined up a fleet of 420 class racing dinghies at the Annapolis Yacht Club for the Milton team’s use during a week in March, but word filtered back from my son, Max Taylor (II) and his skipper, Massimo Soriano (III) that they needed a chaperone in order to go. Having spent many hours sailing 420’s in my youth, I volunteered, and began exchanging email messages with the team and their regular coach, Brent Jansen, who couldn’t make the trip due to his day job teaching in a public school.

Pretty soon, with Brent’s help, we had lined up some additional coaching in Annapolis, as well as an invitation to join other college and high school teams racing at the Naval Academy that week. It fell to me to find housing, and after debriefing various hotel managers on nearby teenage activity options, mini-bar protocols and local transportation, we found O’Callaghan’s, an Irish family hotel chain whose only property outside Ireland is in downtown Annapolis.

Everything seemingly set, I wrote a long, windy e-mail memo on the particulars and my expectations to the team members that I think few, if any, of them actually read. But it caught the attention of the administration, and was graciously received and reviewed by Messrs. Warren, Hardy, and Alsbach. I quickly learned that there exists a substantial policy notebook regulating “Off-Campus Trips & Programs” and it requires, among many other things, the gathering of “consent-to-treat” medical forms in addition to all the contact information and much else that I had already anticipated. Mostly, I had anticipated that if I could keep the group out of any form of Marmaduke’s (a longtime sailors’ and vagabonds’ watering hole in Annapolis that closed in the mid-1990’s but has been replaced by numerous upscale alternatives), I would be a step ahead and take it from there.

When I arrived in Annapolis in the late evening on the first day, I found 7 of the 8 team members settled into the hotel, but HyunJin Kim (I) was missing and hadn’t been heard from. Dialing from my list of cell phone contacts, I found a tired HyunJin and her even more tired Mom, delayed somewhere on the New Jersey Turnpike, driving steadily south on a cold March night. HyunJin was enroute to join the sailing team having just deplaned in New York from the orchestra’s trip to Italy. She and her Mom arrived for breakfast after a short overnight motel stop in Delaware. I quickly realized that this is a very dedicated team.

A cold, blustery week of “two a day” sailing practices ensued, and, from my perspective, it was a great success on the part of a terrific group of kids. They all treated me (and each other) beautifully. They also acquitted themselves very well indeed on the water, sailing to a 4-1 record on the day they did team racing against the Naval Academy, Dartmouth College and two other high schools. They also did pretty well fleet racing the prior day in very strong winds vs. the same group at Navy.

They reflected Milton Academy's values beautifully at every turn, leaving their hosts at Navy, the Annapolis YC, and the hotel all hoping for a return visit next year.

But I was most impressed by the intra-team dynamics, and the leadership of the older members. Senior co-captain Max Stratouly (also captain of the wrestling team) sailed the whole week with freshman skipper Will Hutchings, helping sharpen his already considerable skills during his introduction to interscholastic team racing in 420’s. Christina Fish (I), also swim team captain, reveled in the heavy air, shrugging off the cold weather and showing exemplary crew work for each of her skippers. Junior skipper Ben Whitman led an entire fleet of college sailors from Navy and Dartmouth to one windward mark, only to have to deal with watching his older sister Kate (Navy ’07) beat him in the end (she’s among the very top-ranked women sailors in US college sailing this year, so he had little to regret).

Max Taylor (II) and Massimo Soriano (III) capped what had been their best start of that windy day with a flashy capsize, during which neither of them even got wet as they righted their boat and continued up the course. By the end of that day, which had even featured periodic snowflakes across the course during the morning session, the team was pretty cold.

But not to worry … they retired to the hotel, squeezed all eight of them into the two beds in the girls’ room and watched TV while simultaneously hatching a plan to fake a birthday party for their youngest member at dinner; it went off without a hitch, and “winding down” the evening was never a problem, they all showed a collective ability to “have fun but stay focused.” I was impressed with the dedication.

Each morning by 0900 they were back at the yacht club in front of their coach’s white board discussing improvements in team racing strategy before rigging up and getting out on the water. Three members told me on Friday afternoon as we wrapped up that “we wish we were staying.”

It had been a fun week, for me as much as anyone. They have been rewarded, too, for their efforts. As I write this on April 12th, the team has had two regattas so far this Spring season and they have won them both - without losing a single race in either one. A great group, indeed.

Steve Taylor and his wife, M.E. Malone, are Milton parents of Max (’07) and Conrad (’11) Taylor. Steve won the 420 Class World Championship twice, in 1976 and 1977.

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