Soccer
The Philosophy
The soccer program strives to further the mission of St. Sebastian’s by
encouraging its players to grow in body, mind, and spirit. Our emphasis
is on using soccer to instill the ideals of teamwork, hard work, and fair
play.
The Program
Starting as club team in the late 1970’s, the soccer program now consists of four teams: Varsity, Junior varsity, Freshman, and Seventh and Eighth grade. Tryouts for the Varsity team are
open to all students at the beginning of each season. After the Varsity
team is selected, there are no more tryouts. That is, every player is
guaranteed a chance to contribute to a team as a St. Sebastian Arrow.
At all levels, our teams are coached by full-time St. Sebastian’s teachers, which helps students to understand that athletics are not a separate part of their school day, but an extension of our curriculum and mission. Therefore, the values learned in the classroom and on the soccer field complement and strengthen each other.
The Varsity Soccer Team competes in the Independent
School League (ISL), a league known across the country for producing top
college players. St. Sebastian’s players have gone on to compete for such c
colleges as Babson, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Hamilton. Two Arrows players, Michael Ost and Chris Connors, have been ISL players of the year. St. Sebastian’s and the
other fifteen teams in the ISL from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and
Rhode Island are eligible to compete against other New England schools in
the New England Prep School Soccer Association tournament at the end of
the season.
In 2007, St. Sebastian’s was blessed with the addition of a new turf field to complement our natural grass fields. This “field turf” is the same surface on which the New England Revolution and New England Patriots play. It maximizes our ability to practice in all conditions, and it serves as a professional surface for our home games.