- Academics
Stone Ridge: A Home for Up-and-Coming Elite Athletes
As a Sacred Heart school inspiring young women to lead and serve through lives of purpose, Stone Ridge has had the privilege of seeing many of our students and alumnae thrive in their chosen pursuits. This summer, we had the remarkable opportunity to cheer on three of our alumnae as they competed at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Among them was America’s most decorated female swimmer of all time, our very own Gator, Katie Ledecky ’15, along with second-time Olympian Phoebe Bacon ’20, and Erin Gemmell ’23 making her Olympic debut. A fourth Gator swimmer, Eleanor Sun ’23, also competed at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. While it is sometimes possible for swimmers from the same college to be named to an Olympic team together, it is nearly unheard of for three athletes who attended the same high school to do this. What is it about Stone Ridge that helps support young athletes to reach elite levels of competition?
The Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria form the foundation for the School’s development of leaders ready to share their light in the world. Goal V and its Criteria encourage growing in courage, strength, and resilience by meeting challenges (Criteria 1), finding balance in spiritual, intellectual, physical, and social-emotional well-being (Criteria 2), and educating to transformational leadership (Criteria 7). The resulting environment encourages students to tackle challenges and develop leadership skills while maintaining a healthy balance in their lives. This seems to be an ideal blend of support and challenge for young athletes. The new level of inspiration and motivation brought by Katie Ledecky’s ’15 record-breaking career has also certainly contributed to the increase in elite-level athletes graduating from Stone Ridge in the 12 years since her Olympic debut.
The sight of past Gators competing for country and for college, on playing fields and rivers, in swimming pools and gyms, has become familiar over the past decade. Stone Ridge has long been a force in its regional sports league, the Independent School League (ISL). Banners in its athletic buildings testify to the Gators’ ISL success over many, many years.
For 20 years, about a half-dozen seniors annually signed letters of intent to play collegiate sports but the steady stream of Stone Ridge collegiate athletes has broadened substantially—12 from the Class of 2020, 15 from ’21, 17 from ’22, 15 from ’23, and 13 in 2024. In other words, 72 women who rank among the best athletes in the United States graduated from Stone Ridge in four years’ time.
Director of Athletics Andrew Maguire says that the school is attracting more top-notch players, a development for which he cites several factors. The all-girls environment is a draw for many families. So is Sacred Heart education. Stone Ridge’s emphasis on equilibrium—between academics and athletics and between club sports and school sports—is welcomed by players and parents alike.
Standout athletes are drawn to attend Stone Ridge because they’ve seen standout athletes attend Stone Ridge.
Swimmers Phoebe Bacon ’20 (2021 and 2024 Olympian and 2021 and 2024 individual NCAA Champion) and Eleanor Sun ’23 (2024 Ivy League Team Champion, NCAA Championship qualifier, and 2024 Olympic Swimming Trial competitor) both mentioned that Stone Ridge’s swimming success with Katie Ledecky ’15 was an initial reason that they were interested in coming to Stone Ridge for Upper School. Notably, once they were Gators, both reflected on the support they received to balance their demanding schedules as a factor that truly helped them continue to grow and succeed and that there was something unique about the support at Stone Ridge. Both Phoebe and Eleanor credit Swim Coach Bob Walker for helping to balance their obligations as student-athletes, especially with swimming being one of the sports where the external club and school seasons occur simultaneously.
Katherine Khramtsov ’22, a three-sport Iron Gator at Stone Ridge and current Ivy League ice hockey player at Princeton, says she found similar encouragement from all of her coaches at Stone Ridge, as well as from teachers and administrators. Head of Upper School Malcolm McCluskey and her advisor would “meet with me to help me balance my academics and athletics and to find the best possible solution when conflicts arose—which sometimes would consist of having to miss multiple days of school at a time,” she says.
Stone Ridge, these athletes say, encouraged them to become the best versions of themselves in every facet of life.
“Something that has stuck with me after I graduated from Stone Ridge is the opportunity that Stone Ridge gave me to explore all parts of myself and all of my passions,” says Michaela O’Connor ’22, a member of the 2024 National Championship winning Boston College Women’s Lacrosse team. Michaela noted that Stone Ridge helped her balance being more than just a student or an athlete, stating that Stone Ridge’s Upper School schedule allowed her to fit an art class into her schedule, which proved to be a great outlet from other stressors, and that having Social Action built into the curriculum allowed her to have experiences outside of the community during the school day, which helped with balancing school and club sports at the same time.
Despite the balance seeming effortless to outsiders at times, these student-athletes acknowledge that it was always something they had to work at. Mary Hollensteiner ’23, a member of Harvard’s women’s basketball team, noted that “it was definitely challenging at times to balance academics and athletics.However, Stone Ridge did a very good job of teaching students how to excel at both and provided plenty of opportunities and resources for building good habits at a young age.”
Mary reflected that the lessons learned at Stone Ridge helped prepare her for an even more time-intensive and demanding schedule in college because Stone Ridge had instilled these habits the discipline necessary for being a student-athlete long before she got to Harvard.
Dr. Maguire noted that the Stone Ridge Athletics Department is “committed to supporting its student-athletes in whatever ways possible” to succeed in their sports, while recognizing that participation in their sports is just one component of their busy school schedules. He continued that “sometimes helping them just means allowing them to come use the Stone Ridge fields and gyms to practice on their own time when the facilities are available, or trying to bring more programming to campus, like morning strength and conditioning sessions next school year, to help with family logistics.”
Access doesn’t stop when Gators graduate. Dr. Maguire said within a 48-hour period in mid-May he heard from Mary, along with Chetanna Nweke ’20 (Basketball—Princeton, Georgetown), Corey White ’23 (Lacrosse—University of Virginia), and Samantha Aronson ’23 (Soccer—Boston University), all saying that they were home from college and were hopeful to come back to campus to continue to master their skills.
The Stone Ridge Athletics experience fosters dedication within the students themselves, and also surrounds them with dedication from the entire Stone Ridge community to support the balancing act required of student-athletes in the top echelon. ❤