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.
No comments:
Post a Comment