By Taylor Boggs ’16, Sports Editor
Mr. Christopher Milmoe, Athletic Director, was working as a college lacrosse coach and was curious about returning to prep school life when Country Day reached out and found him. “I had never thought about living in Ohio. I don’t have any family that lives here,” said Mr. Milmoe, “but other people told me that all great steps in careers are taken through risks.”
Despite what you would think, Mr. Milmoe was actually planning on becoming a history teacher when he got roped into athletics. “Nobody offered me a job and the job market is tough. I was lucky when a school in Connecticut offered me my first job in the athletic department.” Mr. Milmoe has all of the respect in the world for academics and the arts, but he was pushed into the more athletic side of things. After studying to be a teacher, Milmoe made the connection that “athletics are all about life skills and if a person can learn to work hard and be a team player, those skills tend to be even more important than certain classes.” After looking at many schools, Mr. Milmoe found our school very impressive and believes that the student body is awesome. The new athletic director beamed, “I am very lucky to be here.”
During the first quarter of school, Milmoe feels that school pride at games was great, although some people who have been here longer would maybe disagree. At the St. Bernard football game Milmoe thought it was his “duty to smile and be happy, but even through the rain the school pride there was fantastic.” He acknowledges that it is tough to get to a lot of games because of students’ workloads, but nonetheless there is good school spirit. Going along with school spirit is sportsmanship. “When you start looking at statistics only 1.6% go on to play college sports and another 1% go on to play professionally,” so since very few if any of the students will be playing after school, most of what we can do is “learn lessons through athletics” that we can then apply to the rest of our lives.
Based purely on numbers on an international level, the fastest growing youth sport is lacrosse. However, the sport that earns the title of “trendiest” is controversial. “The X-Games would also say they are the trendiest sport, but here at Country Day it seems like soccer is very popular.” Milmoe enjoys watching men’s and women’s college lacrosse on TV because it is fast and entertaining. He says that he “has not been able to see any football games, even though he was the head football coach at St. James in Maryland. The boys’ varsity team is so full of talent, but I enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed watching Kacie [Bradfish ‘15] compete in the state [golf] tournament.”
While in high school, Milmoe participated in football, wrestling and lacrosse. After achieving 12 varsity letters he said that he wished he could have played some other sports. “It’s crazy how much sneakers cost nowadays, but I would pay for them if I could dunk a basketball or learn how to surf.”
Milmoe believes that the students hold tremendous power in the school and his goal was to increase visibility while making the “athletic website as dynamic as it can be.” Web traffic is up by 400% from last year largely due to the commitment of the coaches. “We have a team roster and two or three news articles going up each week.” He wants to get as many people interested in Country Day as possible. “Athletics is the eyeball of the school,” so it is his goal as the Athletic Director to bring attention to the school and to bring in potential prospects.
