Inside King's-Edgehill School

After what seems like years, it is “game day”! Baseball is playing a tournament in Ottawa. Girls’ hockey is in PEI. Girls’ basketball is in Antigonish playing StFX! Boys’ and girls’ soccer are playing a tournament on campus, and our boys’ hockey team is hosting a tournament. Wow! This afternoon we will have our first “noise day” for the soccer teams who are playing at our Tanna Athletic Facilities.

I am excited not just for the players but for our School. How long have we been waiting to be able to have a day like this? For a teenager, a year is a decade. Any longer is forever.

As I greeted the students arriving on campus this morning, I could hardly contain myself. Seeing Gabby Shaw drive up with her sister Nataliya, I remembered that she is in Grade 9 and would be playing St. FX tonight. I don’t know who is more excited or nervous about her playing in this game, Gabby or me, but in my enthusiasm I greeted her and then asked, “Did you eat your Wheaties this morning?”

I received a blank look.

Wheaties?

Am I really that old?

Throughout the 20^th century, Wheaties was “The Breakfast of Champions”. Long associated with sports and high performance, Wheaties was what you ate for breakfast if you wanted to win. To be on the cover of a Wheaties box was like being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Baseball legend Lou Gehrig was featured as far back as 1934 (long before I was born by the way…).  Jesse Owens was on it in 1936. Elinor Smith in 1934. Michael Jordan was on the cover 18 times! 

Ironically, I never ate Wheaties. We were an oatmeal family. Boxed cereals were expensive. However, the concept of eating for success in sport, and specifically having a good breakfast, has been a huge part of my life. I always figured that eating your Wheaties was a metaphor, not a meal.

Now that Gabby has reminded me that we are in the 21^st Century, my choice of metaphors will need to change. I am at a loss as to what though. Hmm…

Much like Play-Doh, plasticene is a multi-colored modelling putty that children play with. The colours are not as bright and it doesn’t smell as nice, but it is great fun, nonetheless.  Like Play-Doh, however, there is always a challenge separating the colours after one has finished one’s creation. Little bits of yellow hair will stick to the red hat, the green buttons will leave traces on the blue shirt. One day I was so frustrated that I simply mushed together all the different colours I had used on my multi-coloured stegosaurus. The result was gruesome. Instead of inventing a cool new colour, I had a blob of ugly, brownish-grey “mush”.

We are not perfect at KES, but I do love how we take delight in our differences. It is paradoxical to think that a school which has a strict dress code and takes pride in its uniforms and standards of grooming and behaviour, creates an environment where students can be celebrated for who they are and where they are from. Wandering around campus after class is a joy. There are students dancing and riding bicycles, there are students playing soccer and tennis and volleyball, and swimmers running with the cross-country team. Meanwhile, all our baseball and hockey players are doing their thing off campus. (Did I forget anybody?) Meanwhile, auditions start today for the play and our clubs sign up is on Monday.

Today I had lunch with Grade 10 student Tim Bednara. He has just arrived with his brother Ben from Germany.  He is keen to play soccer (“football”) which he has not been able to play in quite some time. What a delightful thing it is, especially considering the times in which we live, that a young man can be at home in Germany one day and the next day running around the soccer pitch with new friends and teammates from a parade of nations.

The School has been empty for almost four months. It is a joy to have it full once again.

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