Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The All Rounder

Over my years as a student, I was somewhere between a mediocre to an average athlete. But I wanted very hard to be successful at sports, I could be persistent, and I could work hard. By the end of my high school years, I was okay and had the good fortune of playing on a couple of great first (now called varsity) teams, in part I suspect, due to the generosity of the coaches.

One of those teams was cricket - a super sport that combines, at its best, great skills, hand-eye coordination, psychological games and strategy - all encapsulated within a tradition of refinement, manners and sportsmanship. (I am sure that my view of the sport is anachronistic, but that is the way it seemed at the time. It is apparently the fastest growing sport in the Greater Toronto Area.)
One of the popular descriptors used in cricket is that of “The All Rounder”. In cricket you were usually categorized as one of three things: 1) a bowler (a pitcher in baseball terms;) 2) a batter; or 3) an all-rounder.
You could always look at the all-rounders in one of two ways.  Either they were fairly good at everything – fielding, batting, and sometimes even filling in as a bowler – so they were a valuable commodity as the core of the team. The alternate view was that they weren’t good enough at any one thing to get labeled as a specialist, so they were filler. I subscribe to the former, more optimistic interpretation.
As we finish of the first half of the fall term (the first reporting period), we celebrate our students’ achievements in service, the arts and sports. It’s been a great season and the last few last weeks provided many examples of a remarkable range of talents and highlights, including three varsity teams winning championships – Girls Field Hockey, Boys Golf, and Boys Soccer.  But on the subject of all-rounders, I saw a couple of amazing things on Friday.
At our regular Friday chapel services, the school was treated to a stunning one-two punch from two of our Grade 12 students, Andreas and Catherine. They first performed a beautiful cello duet as the anthem in the service before delivering an eloquent tag-team homily.
Any time you have to perform in front of the entire school population, it is a highly stressful, all-encompassing experience. I can only imagine what having to do a complex musical performance followed by a speech – in back-to-back services – must have been like.
But what really knocked my socks off was that evening, which featured two memorable Appleby community events – the Dignitas Coffee House and Appleby Rocks. The Coffee House is a fundraiser for Dignitas, an organization  that battles HIV/AIDS in Africa and supports many, most notably children, who are affected by this epidemic. The event featured students and alumni performing a variety of numbers from different genres, including some of their own compositions, in a classic coffeehouse setting. One of the most popular performances was by Andreas as he wowed the audience with a magic show. This isn’t the first time I have seen him perform magic and each time he spellbinds the audience.
After the coffeehouse, Appleby Rocks took the stage in Willis Hall and once again took the audience on an entertaining ride through rock, pop and R&B. The core of Appleby Rocks are Grade 12 students whose musical talent is awe-inspiring. There is no doubt that a few of them could easily pursue music professionally is they chose to. My wife, our two sons and I enjoyed the show immensely, especially Sympathy for the Devil and Ray Charles’ Georgia.  And yes, you are correct if you guessed that Catherine was one of the vocalists at Appleby Rocks.
Andreas and Catherine had a remarkable day on Friday. And to top it all off, they are both very strong students academically, and Andreas is Appleby’s strongest cross-country runner.
In a time where there is a constant pressure to specialize and become among the best at just one thing, it is refreshing to see students like Catherine and Andreas who are not only able live the ideal of breadth of experience, but do it at a very high level. I suspect that their abilities to juggle these multiple interests and excel at them will stand them in very good stead throughout their lives. They are two of many examples of Appleby all-rounders of whom I am very proud.   

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