2022 October – The Mirror

Varsity Hockey Has Promising Start to the Season

October 22, 2022 by Jackson Smith

Hockey action at the Olympic Center in October 2022 (Photo: Mr. Michael Aldridge).

The Varsity Boys’ hockey team has been off to a good start this season. On September 10-11, the team had home games against CP Dynamo and won both. It was a great way to start the season and instill confidence in the boys. The squad won the first game because of a last-second tying goal by Jackson Barbieri ‘24. They then went on to win in overtime and shared a great experience as a team for their first game. The second game was similar as they pulled out the victory in overtime for the second game in a row.

On the 23^rd and 24^th of September, the boys traveled to SLU and played Nichols School on both days. They won on Friday, 4-3, and won again on Saturday, 4-2, with an outstanding game from young goaltender Cash “Money” Lawrence ‘25.

The following weekend, September 30 – October 2, they traveled to South Kent School and battled South Kent on Friday, PAL Islanders on Saturday, and Palmyra on Sunday. They had a tough loss Friday at 2-8 against the selects U16 team. They had a tough fight against PAL Islanders and lost in OT 6-7. The Huskies finally pulled it together for the last game and beat Palmyra 3-2 in overtime with a great OT goal from Landon Cole ‘23. Good job to Northwood’s Prep team for winning that tournament.

On October 6-7, the Varsity squad faced Stanstead in two games. They played hard on Thursday’s first game but couldn’t put the puck in the net. Stanstead won 0-2. On Friday, the boys came back even harder. In the first 6 minutes of the game, they buried four goals on the opposing netminder. Before the end of the game, they netted four more to secure an 8-0 win. Cam Abel ‘23 had a hat trick, and Drew Donatello ‘24 had a shutout to leave the team 1-1 on the weekend.

The following weekend saw the team battle South Kent Selects again. They came out slow in the first game but kept the score close throughout, eventually losing 6-3 with an open net goal. The boys showed up the next day and dominated from the beginning and won 4-2 with a great game from all the boys.

The team is still working out the kinks, but the boys look great this year. They continue to get better and better. #RollHuskies

Filed Under: Northwood Life, Sports

Humans of Northwood: Sophia Kelting ‘23

October 21, 2022 by Jackson Smith

“I am from Saranac Lake, New York. I chose to transfer to Northwood because I wanted to find greater Nordic Skiing opportunities and increase the volume of my training. I found Northwood to suit me very well because of the people around me with different backgrounds and with extensive diversity.

“Growing up in the Adirondacks has made me who I am today. I love the outdoors. As a kid, my parents had me in the Dewey Mountain ski program. I was deeply involved in my community. I was hiking mountains and spending all my time outdoors.

“I am very excited to further my academic and athletic career in college. I am currently looking to ski Division 1. I took part in the US Junior Nationals last year in Minnesota, and I continue to train daily.

“I am also looking forward to studying environmental engineering. I love studying math and science and hope to translate that into a college major.”

As told to Jackson Smith ‘23. Photo: Mr. Michael Aldridge.

Filed Under: Northwood Life, People

A Class Without a Classroom Earns Credit in 48-Hours

October 21, 2022 by Maisie Crane

Mr. Bobby O’Connor (left) with the students who took Northwood’s first 48-hour course (photo provided).

Northwood School now offers a unique educational experience that is unlike other classes in that it does not involve a classroom. The new 48-hour course was designed by Mr. Bobby O’Connor, the director of the Northwood Outing Club (NOC) in which students have an intense outdoor learning experience over two days. The idea came from Ms. Carmicheal and Bobby O’Connor. The course was made to expose more people to the outdoors and the Adirondack landscape that surrounds our school. Upon successfully completing the class, students receive a credit towards graduation and outstanding wilderness training.

The basic structure of the course is that one weekend, on an early Saturday morning, a group of about 8 students backpack in the woods and set up camp for the night and hike the next day. The program is for anyone who wants to participate and so far, the school has run one 48-hour course and plans to run two more this year. Depending on the season. Here’s how the course is described in Northwood’s Course Catalog:

The first trip that set out this year took place on October 15-16. The group hiked in through the South Meadow and camped at Marcy dam. The next morning, they set out and hiked Phelps Mountain, which is one of the Adirondack 46 high peaks with summits over 4,000 feet.

The school and Mr. O’Connor also plan to offer a winter 48-hour course that will focus on back-country skiing and learning how to ski the slides. In the spring, O’Connor plans to bring a group of kids paddling/canoeing on the Saint Regis Lake.

Lea Lambert ‘24 is a ski racer from Quebec who took the recent 48-hour course and had a super “great experience,” even though she says she “froze” at night. She said she had a lot of fun on the hike and the views were very beautiful.

The following slide show contains images from the fall 2022 48-hour course. All photos are courtesy of NOC.

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Filed Under: Northwood Life, Top Story

Pink Out Cancer Fundraiser Extra Special This Year

October 21, 2022 by Maegan Byrne

To help show support for breast cancer awareness month, Northwood’s community service club, CARE, organizes a “Pink Out” each year in conjunction with an athletic contest. A Pink Out consists of students going to a home athletic contest, typically a hockey game, wearing as much pink clothing or accessories as they can.

Pink Out is extra special this year because a beloved member of the Northwood faculty is fighting breast cancer. “This year is more meaningful to me and my classmates because we are all rooting for Mrs. Walker during her fight against breast cancer.” Walker is currently in treatment at UVM Medical Center and the entire Northwood Community wishes her well.

This year CARE purchased pink tape so the players can show their support while playing as well. CARE chose Saturday, October 22 to host the pink out. This weekend, all three hockey teams are home as well as some other athletes and independents. Choosing this weekend allows for a larger crowd to come and support. The timing also gives students more opportunities to support each of our hockey teams.

During the game, Care will ask students and parents for donations that go towards breast cancer research and treatment.

Filed Under: Northwood Life, People, Real World

Tagovailoa Injury Yet Another Example of Inept Dolphins Organization

October 19, 2022 by Gus Garvey

The Dolphins. They could be in deep trouble pretty soon. I know what you’re thinking. What the heck did they do this time? What loophole did they fail miserably at exploiting?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with what happened Thursday, September 29, Tua Tagovailoa, the Dolphins QB, was cleared to play by the team despite every outside doctor calling for him to sit the game out. He, unfortunately, suffered the worst-case scenario and got carried off the field on a stretcher.

Teammates gather around Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa after an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in Cincinnati (Photo: Emilee Chinn/AP).

I think right now is a good time to take a long, hard look at the Dolphins organization. Not just because of the Tua situation but because of all the shady backroom shenanigans they’ve gotten up to under Stephen Ross these past few years.

Speaking of Ross, he needs no introduction to Dolphins fans. He may have been the only owner to vote against the moves of the Chargers and Raiders, citing fan loyalty and morals, but he sure hasn’t displayed any of that sentiment in his tenure as the Dolphins’ head honcho. Ross has been revealed to be one of the most incompetent and deviant owners in the sport, down there with figures such as Dean Spanos and Dan Snyder. Let’s dive into Ross’s recent actions.

The last few years, in particular, have been scandal after scandal after scandal. There were inklings of horror in 2019 when Miami put together the most blatant tank job since Sam Hinkey’s process. Despite denying these allegations, they would be brought back into the light last off-season when their promising third-year coach Brian Flores was fired. Even though they started the previous season 1-7, they rebounded, winning 8 of their last 9, but missed the playoffs by a game. During that stretch, they pulled off remarkable upsets of teams like the Ravens, Saints, and Patriots, two of those games being played in primetime. Despite this, the Dolphins chose to cut him loose. There were allegations that Ross and Flores disagreed on personnel decisions, but the damning allegation came after he got fired. Flores claimed that Ross had offered to pay him $100,000 for each game that Miami lost during their 2019 tank bowl season, and was angry when Flores refused. He claimed that since this moment, management had tried to undermine him multiple times, eventually culminating with his firing. This is honestly damning to the organization, even if the allegations turn out not to have been true. However, the big shock wave was still to come.

Over this past summer, a rumor began swirling that Ross had attempted to recruit Tom Brady from the Bucs to play for the Dolphins after using his retirement to get out from under contract. The only problem was that he allegedly did this while Brady was under contract with Tampa, which constitutes illegal tampering. The NFL did an investigation on the matter, and the rabbit hole went even deeper. Not only did Ross tamper with Brady during his Bucs tenure, but he also did so while he was still playing for New England. In addition, it was revealed that the Dolphins owner also tried to lure Sean Payton over to coach Miami, while he was still under contract in New Orleans.

This is a big no-no at the NFL level. They take the integrity of their game seriously, or so they want us to think. The reality is that almost every NFL team does this in some capacity, but the Shield and Roger Goodell needed to make a statement. The Dolphins lost multiple high draft picks for the coming years, and Ross himself was suspended until mid-October and was fined $1.4 million.

This leads us to the current situation. It started in week 3 in the game against Buffalo, when Tua was injured on a hit by linebacker Matt Milano. He hit his head hard on the grass and was pulled from the game and checked by team doctors at halftime. Then, despite stumbling over himself and looking visibly disoriented, he was allowed to start the second half. After the game, the team labeled it a back injury. However, the NFL and football fans everywhere had reason to believe that the Dolphins may have skirted concussion protocol to keep Tua in the game. Despite the launching of an investigation by the NFL, the Dolphins went on saying Tua’s injury was his back and that it was nothing serious.

That brings us to the week four Thursday Night game against the Bengals. Many doctors and outside professionals were calling for Tua not to play due to what they saw as a serious issue. Knowing this, the Dolphins chucked him out there anyway, probably loaded with enough painkillers to put an elephant in a coma. After 3 days’ rest, after a game in over 100 degrees that beat up everyone who played, and after suffering an obvious head injury in said game. That’s not a back issue. That’s a neuro issue.

Unfortunately, Tua was injured again. Another big hit sent him to the turf locked in a fencing position. He couldn’t move his extremities until he was in the hospital. A promising young career may have been thrown away as a result of the Dolphins’ complete neglect of player safety. Sure, they fired the doctor who evaluated Tua as a means of damage control, but at the end of the day, the damage is done, both to Tua and the Dolphins organization. This black eye will now follow the Dolphins, no matter how well they do this season.

This leads me to believe a rather stark theory: That the Dolphins have been doing this for years. Look at all the players that left Miami during or just after the Adam Gase era. Most of them were able to revive their careers elsewhere, some of them making complete turnarounds.

A classic example of this is Ryan Tannehill. In Miami, he struggled with injury after injury, despite having a strong offensive line protecting him. He was good for about 2 or 3 injuries a year that sidelined him, forcing the likes of Matt Moore, Jay Cutler, and Brock Osweiler to fill in for him. Once Tannehill left for Tennessee, he revived his career. Even worse of a look for Miami, he hasn’t missed a game since he replaced Mariota in October of 2019. In Miami, he was often criticized for being too injury-prone, but now I’m wondering how much of that had to do with the Dolphins organization itself. The fortunate thing is that Tannehill never suffered an injury serious enough to warrant any scrutiny of the organization.

And that’s not all, look at Laremy Tunsil. Yes, he’s more infamous for what Houston gave up to bring him in, but he got significantly better after being put into a system that wouldn’t kill him. Look at Jay Ajayi. The dude dealt with stinger after stinger in one year in Miami, then got traded to Philly and was a core contributor when they won the Super Bowl. This is very damning to the Dolphins organization as a whole, and this black eye will follow them around until Stephen Ross sells.

The Dolphins may be doing well on the field, but their off-field actions remain as inept as ever.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: GusOnNFL

CARE Hopes to Continue Legacy of Service

October 19, 2022 by Maisie Crane

CARE is the longest-running active student club at Northwood. CARE is Northwood’s community service group. The club works on tying the outside community into Northwood. Often the group gathers small fundraisers within the school that benefits needy local organizations or causes. CARE also works to organize small fun events within the school. Some examples of CARE projects include food drives, candy grams, and Pink the Rink.

I had the opportunity to interview longtime former CARE faculty advisor Mrs. Annie Edwards. She led the group for over 20 years. She helped oversee and create quite a few school-wide events organized for the students to participate in, and the money raised was given back to local and national charities. A few examples include Lee Denim Day, North Elba Christmas Fund, Fleece Blankets for Elders, Pink the Rink, Food Pantry, and Candy Grams.

Lee Denim day is a day where students can donate a small amount of money to dress in jeans for the day, and the money goes to a cancer charity. Pink the Rink is an engaging hockey fundraiser where teams of about 4 students pay to compete in a 3-on-3 hockey tournament, which ended up raising about $4,000 dollars for breast cancer research. Candy Grams is more of a fun fundraiser where students can buy small candy bags or flowers to send to a friend around Halloween and Valentine’s Day, the proceeds for this don’t have distinct placement and each year go to different charities.

The group is led by passionate hard-working high schoolers who work to engage the Northwood Community with a more global society. Past leaders have made great strides to improve the school community and this year Brian Brady ‘24 and I hope to carry on this legacy.

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Filed Under: Northwood Life, Top Story

Catching up with David Garvey ’22

October 19, 2022 by Gus Garvey

David Garvey ‘22 is currently beginning his first year at Hobart College in Geneva, NY. When first asked about his time there so far, he was blunt. “I’m a D1 student-athlete. I am a tank. I wake up at 4:30 every morning and hit the wall,” he said.

David has found opportunities at Hobart to pursue his many interests. One of those is continuing to row. Recently, he made the cut for Hobart’s D1 crew program. On the subject of adjustment, he commented, “It’s a big adjustment going from a crew team of 1 person at Northwood to a Division 1 program in one summer, but it’s treating me well. We’re putting in the hours, we’re putting in the meters.”

David adds depth to an already stacked Hobart crew team that is ranked in the top 15 in the country. He is also the first Northwood graduate in the Runyon era of rowing to go straight from Northwood to a D1 crew program. He also said that Coach Runyon, the crew coach here at Northwood, helped a lot in terms of preparing him for the adjustment to collegiate athletics.

He has also found some time to pursue other hobbies, like squash. While crew is too much of a time commitment for him to play squash competitively, he still finds innovative ways to get on the court in his free time. He is the president of Hobart’s squash club and has been improving his game under some of the best coaches in the sport. “I’m hitting the thing around 175 miles per hour,” he remarked. “I’ve got the back corner drop shot down to a science.” He also jokingly mentioned that he should be playing in the U.S. Open, thanks to this alleged mastery of a hard shot.

In terms of academics, David has hit the ground running. He is majoring in Biology and Ecology and is taking Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, and Science in Fiction. He has also expressed a desire to finish his studies by 2025, and to do various independent work over the summer to pursue his interests in ecology.

When I took the opportunity to tell him about the upcoming Northwood Crew race in Saratoga, which I will be taking part in, the classic banter was not lost on him, as he immediately said: “I hope you fall in. I hate seeing joy in your life.”

David, or “Garvey” as he was commonly known during his time at Northwood, is enjoying the start of his new school year at Hobart.

Filed Under: Northwood Life, People

Varsity Team Sweeps Nichols in SLU Barn

October 19, 2022 by Jackson Smith

The St. Lawrence University Men’s Hockey locker room (photo: Northwood Athletics Instagram)

The Varsity team traveled to Canton, New York for the final contests of September to face off against Nichols in St. Lawrence University’s Appleton Arena. The boys went 2-0 and swept their prep school foe. The Huskies were victorious in the first game in overtime and won the second contest 4-2.

The team started off the weekend with a tour of SLU from Northwood’s Alumni Will Arquiett ‘19. He has been playing at SLU for a couple of years now after graduating from Northwood. He took the team through the facilities and showed them what the school had to offer. At the end of the tour, they made their way into the varsity men’s hockey team’s locker room. The squad was all impressed to see the facilities for players at that level. It was inspiring for all of them, and a great shared moment for the team.

The Appleton Arena at St. Lawrence University (Photo: St. Lawrence University)

“Playing at Appleton Arena was a lot of fun,” said postgrad Bailey Bartholemew. “The rink had a great atmosphere, and I really liked the whole wooden arena. The ice was fast and nice to play on” added Bartholemew. “The rink matches the vibe of the whole campus, a rich old place that was still very clean and nice,” he added.

Hayden Newman ‘24 also enjoyed playing at a collegiate facility. “I think that playing at the SLU arena was an enlightening experience. Getting to step onto the ice and play an actual game was really cool to me because one day I’d like to play at a high level just like what’s held on that rink.”

The entire team was grateful to share such an enlightening and inspirational experience. What a great weekend for the boys. Something they will remember forever.

Filed Under: Northwood Life, Sports

Hockey Team Meets Famous Rap Artist

October 19, 2022 by Jackson Smith

While the Boys’ Varsity Hockey team was in Canton, there was news a concert was being put on at St. Lawrence University by the famous rapper Waka Flaka Flame. We had just listened to his music on the way to the hotel and we were excited that he was going to be in town at the same time. On the way to the team’s first game at the Appleton Arena, the Husky players were waiting in the hotel lobby for the buses and one of the boys recognized Flaka. They ran outside and got his attention. They had a conversation with him about the concert and the games. This reporter was one of the players on that team. Wacka Flocka was a great guy, and we loved our short experience with him. We got a picture with him, and he was kind enough to repost it to his Instagram followers.

Filed Under: Northwood Life, Sports

Catching Up with Jan Korec ‘22

October 19, 2022 by Aidan Lasky

Jan Korec ’22 in action for Northwood (photo provided).

For those of you who did not get the pleasure of meeting Jan, he was a student and member of Northwood’s Prep hockey team last year. He has since moved to Iowa to play for the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL, the top junior league in the U.S. Those who knew him can attest that he had a big impact on Northwood, and it is only right that we see how he is doing now.

Jan is now living with a billet family where his life revolves around playing for the Buccaneers. Jan said, “We are on the ice for 2 or more hours every day paired with intense workouts.” Although hockey plays a big role in Jan’s life, he was also known for taking his academics extremely seriously, so it comes as no surprise that Jan is continuing his education by learning about the fundamentals of coding and computer science. There is no doubt that Jan will be prepared for college when the time comes.

I asked Jan if he felt Northwood prepared him for this next step academically and athletically. He was quick to share that he felt it did. “Northwood has been a very important stepping stone for me to be able to move on and play at this level.” He also felt that the “academic environment helped me get used to college-level courses.” Compliments to both the hockey program and the academics here at Northwood.

Jan Korec ’22 (photo: Des Moines Buccaneers)

Having had the pleasure of playing and being classmates with Jan, I can say he pursued excellence in both areas of life, never letting himself fall behind in either. A true embodiment of the Northwood core values. Jan’s goal this year is to develop in Des Moines and ultimately be ready for Boston College next fall. A goal that will take both his academic and athletic ability to achieve.

Jan was a great role model during his time at Northwood and it is easy to see why. Students now should look at Jan and aspire to follow in his shoes. You don’t have to be an athlete to appreciate the commitment Jan continues to have for his goals. Always taking the extra step to get ahead whether that be stretching in his room or visiting with teachers to make sure he is doing everything he can to get the results he wants. These habits will help Jan excel in his life beyond Northwood.

It will no doubt be exciting to see how Jan continues his journey, in Des Moines and eventually Boston College. I wish him luck with his goals and although I only broke the seal on Jan Korec, I hope you enjoyed Catching Up with Jan Korec.