With the Class of 2025 moving on to the next chapter of their lives, it’s time to look back on their last athletics season here at Avon. Along with their underclassmen teammates, they made us proud once again in their pursuit of excellence.

On the links, our varsity golf team surpassed preseason expectations with excellent performances against Founders League and New England competition. Led by postgraduate captain Timmy Adams ’25, and seniors Collin Anderson ’25 and Austin Kenyon ’25, the team finished with a record of 33 wins and 18 losses.

The Winged Beavers proved to be clutch, saving their best performances for invitational tournaments and title matches. They placed third in the coveted Coppola Cup, second at the Suffield Invitational, and fifth at Western New Englands.

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With many of the team’s underclassmen stepping up throughout the season, Adams says there is a lot to look forward to next year. “It was a really young team this year that performed well. They have a really bright future ahead of them,” he said.

The varsity lacrosse team shook up New England this year, playing the villain for many great teams across the region, ruining title hopes and proving they could compete with the best.

Ultimately, the team performed well enough to qualify for postseason play, where they faced one of the top teams in the entire country, Loomis Chaffee. Overall, the team embodied the school motto: aspirando et perseverando.

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Next year, the team will be led by newly appointed head coach John “Taylor” Pirie, who joins Avon from Millbrook School, where he served as the head varsity lacrosse coach and was named New England West 2 Division Coach of the Year in 2024. We are excited to see what Coach Pirie brings.

Our varsity tennis team got off to a flying start this year, winning their first four matches including a victory over Taft, historically one of the best teams in the nation. It was only the third win against Taft in more than 20 years.

Persistent postponements due to rain were another obstacle for the team to overcome, but they never let it dampen their high energy brought to every match and practice.

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Most of Avon’s top performers this year, including their #1 and #2 singles players, will be back next year to improve upon the excellent foundation they built this spring.

Coming off of back-to-back Founders League championships, and carrying the number one ranking in all of New England going into the season, it was going to be very difficult for our varsity baseball team to live up to expectations. And, yet, they still managed to impress.

Although ultimately falling short of a three-peat, this year’s team was made up of several returning seniors who had only improved in the offseason. In fact, the team finished the regular season with a better record than last spring.

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However, the real highlight of the season was the milestone reached by head coach Rob Dowling ’91, P’22, who, with his 356th win coming against Taft on May 3, became the winningest baseball coach in school history. We expect him to expand his record in the coming years.

Once again, our track and field athletes showcased individual and team excellence throughout the season. They ended the season with a record of 6-1, finished second in Founders League and sixth in New England.

Outside of New England, one of the highlights of the season came when our sprinters traveled to the Penn Relays, the oldest and most prestigious track and field event in the United States. The 4x100 relay team took second place, and the 4x400 team took third.

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It was also a year of shattering long-standing school records. The 4x100 team made up of Emory Sirman ’25, Henry Goginsky ’25, Rafferty McSweeney ’25, and Buck Craig ’26 set a new school record with a time of 42.75 seconds. Tobin Walsh ’25 set a new school record in the 300m hurdles with a time of 39.68 seconds. Tobin achieved this time at the NEPSAC championship, where he took first place in the event.

This spring, there was also a new addition to the Avon Old Farms School Athletic Hall of Fame. Perhaps the most deserving individual in school history, legendary varsity hockey coach John T. Gardner was inducted on May 17. Current and former players, students, parents, colleagues, and friends packed the Susan Casey Brown Auditorium for the ceremony honoring Gardner’s contributions to our school and to the thousands of lives he has impacted in his 50 years at Avon.