Ethel Walker School
With the conclusion of Walker’s fall sports, the focus shifts to what is sure to be an exciting winter athletics season. Basketball, swimming, and squash have had games, meets, and matches already and skiing is eager to hit the slopes when our athletes return in mid-January. Walker’s athletes are training hard and anticipate a winter filled with success, development, and learning.
This winter, Walker’s swimming has a roster of 21 motivated swimmers, with 10 returning athletes from the 2021-2022 season, a few of whom are Walker’s record-holders. The team is captained by returning captains Allison Wall ’22 and Alexia Grech ’23. Walker’s had a strong start to the season in two meets and will enter the 2022 competitive schedule at 3-3.
Walker’s will face a competitive schedule, racing a number of Founders Schools within the regular season: Kent, Westminster, Kingswood Oxford, and Miss Porter’s, while also facing non-league schools Westover, Wilbraham and Monson, Sacred Heart, Hopkins, Canterbury, MacDuffie, Williston Northampton, Hamden Hall, and Northfield Mount Hermon throughout January and February. Walker’s will compete in the annual Founders Championship on February 26 and NEPSAC Division III New England Championships on Saturday, March 5, 2022.
Coach Kati Eggert is in her fourth season coaching at Walker’s. She says, “It has been a great feeling to compete with teams next to us, wearing different suits and caps than ours – something we may have taken for granted as we were only able to host virtual meets last season. It’s nice to be able to see our swimmers cheering at the end of the lanes for each other, and resuming that team spirit on deck both at practices and meets.” Assisting in the swim program is Julia Sheldon P’20, ’23 and Karim Mabrouk.
Walker’s Varsity Basketball team is off to a great start on their 2021-2022 campaign. After a busy December, Walker’s stands at 6-1, having defeated Founders League opponents Hotchkiss and Westminster en-route to winning the Walker’s Holiday Tournament. In December, Walker’s also defeated Class B school Berkshire and a strong Millbrook team.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier in the new year, and Walker’s will rely on their senior leaders to help guide the younger players through the ups and downs of a winter season. Walker’s learned early on that they will be able to rely on strong guard play, tough interior defense, and a strong bench to carry them this season. The team looks forward to a fun season as they take on a difficult January and February slate of games.
Head Coach John Monagan is assisted by Patrick Durning in his first season with the program, and leading the JV team is Scott Frey.
Walker’s ski team is looking forward to the 2022 season. This year will be a true rebuilding year and the team is excited to get started.
Walker’s top racer and many others on the NEPSAC team graduated last season. This year, senior Sorrel Reeves and junior Kyla Birk are leading the crew as four-year members of the team.
Skiing is coached by Gretchen Sonju P’21 and Brendan O’Dwyer.
Walker’s squash program has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. The coaches and captains (Ku Paw ’22 and Joey Ho ’23) are excited about the 20 players that make up the 2021-2022 varsity and JV teams. The varsity team finished the 2021 portion of the schedule with a 0-2 record, narrowly losing to Kent in a close 2-3 match. The players and coaches are eager to get the 2022 portion of the schedule going when they return to the courts in mid-January. The schedule is packed with exciting matches against Class A, B, and C schools and culminates with a trip to Philadelphia to compete in the US Squash High School National Championship Tournament in February.
Mike Smith is in his third season, and assisting is Carol Clark-Flanagan P’93, ’97 with Alex Pape leading the JV team in her first season.
