The Cate Way

December 7, 2023

Athletic Director Wade Ransom’s Cate Take on Athletics

My version of the Cate Way has its roots in what I consider the ethos of the school….giving students the opportunity to try and experience so many different things during their high school years in the hopes they take whatever brings them joy once they leave the Mesa. So many schools preach excellence through specialization. Cate has always been quite the opposite. Our excellence is reached through broad participation. We work really hard to ensure our students have access to a wide variety of learning opportunities. Our students all take art, our classes are often multidisciplinary in nature, and our seniors only have to take one required class. They build a foundation in preparation for the autonomy of our elective program. It makes learning more interesting and better prepares teenagers for college and adulthood, as well as a life filled with inquiry.

Our afterschool and athletics programs reflect that same intention. Our lower school students are required to participate in more than one interscholastic sport ensuring healthy cross training, differing social groups, interaction with different coaches and instructors and an emphasis on being healthy, well-rounded athletes. Similar to our academic program, as a student progresses through our athletic program they may choose to focus on one specific sport, but we do not start out that way by design. We also do not cut students out of a sport, we intentionally make room for everyone. This is very hard to pull off in practice, but it ensures all students who attend Cate get to try something new if they so desire. Again, this is reflective of our elective classes, Outings Week, weekend trips, performing arts, etc. It falls right in line with all other aspects of the school. There have been so many examples of students trying a new sport for the first time, being given an opportunity to fall in love with it, dedicating themselves to it, and becoming collegiate level athletes in that sport. It is one of my favorite parts of being at Cate. My other favorite part is the other side of that coin. When students try something new, they are not good at it, yet are permitted to play for four years because we do not cut students out of a program. Their sheer joy is a shining example of why Cate is great. We have had so many students who have been legendary in this capacity, fan favorites if you will, who would say their participation is one of their most favorite parts of the Cate experience despite not being elite. At its core, sports should be challenging and fun, and that enjoyment is best shared with peers. We do a great job of using sports to further create community and a sense of belonging. I believe in my soul that Cate would be a less happy place if students were not participating in sports. This was never more true than during the pandemic.

The other aspect speaks to who we are fundamentally. I am the rare Athletic Director at an athletically successful private school who does not have any influence over admissions. I do not sit on the Admissions Committee. I do not meet with targeted families. I do not allow our coaches to recruit potential middle school athletes. I believe very strongly that the program I am charged with running is for the students who are here and needs to be in line with everything else that we do as a school. We are a school first, above all else. Our students attend classes in person. They do not take reduced academic loads. They do not take online classes. They do not travel to tournaments on weekends with tutors. Our students do not get to cut corners academically. If anything, it is harder on them because the travel for playoffs in Southern California can be a real burden. Yet our students do not back down from that challenge.

We do not have physical education or a zero period weight training class. Our student athletes do that work on their own time, by choice. For example our boys and girls tennis teams just won CIF championships without a single year round tournament player on either roster. Every team we beat in the playoffs had 2-4 year round players. Our football team does not practice again until August. There is no 7-on-7. No spring practices. No mandatory team lifting or training in the off-season. Our players are out contributing to the Cate community in so many other ways until we see them again in the summer. That is how it used to be and is far from how it is nowadays in many other places.

We do not hire professional coaches for ridiculous bloated salaries. We hire teachers who love the sports they coach. Our walk-on coaches believe in the philosophy of the school and do not push back against the vast constraints of our program. The majority of people we have hired to be walk-on coaches stay for more than five years. Many of them have become full-time employees and faculty (Laura Moore, KC Collins, Jesse Morrison, Erik Hansen, Jorge Reynoso to name a few). We have had the spouses of coaches join us on the faculty (Erin Hansen, Amy Gil). While many private schools have looked to club coaches to strengthen their programs, we have been lucky enough to hire walk-ons who are teachers first, whose philosophies align perfectly with Cate’s. This is a direct result of having an education based athletic philosophy and not being a program driven by winning. I have always said to our coaches, if you teach the right way, the wins will happen organically. You won’t ever have to obsess over it. The beauty of education based athletics is coaching people to be successful in all aspects of their life. You prepare them to fail and be resilient. You teach them to lean on each other in times of struggle. You teach punctuality, accountability, and time management. You help them meet all of their expectations without sacrificing some of them. The athletic experience can be one of the most valuable teaching tools of a young person’s life; however, it requires intention and balance. If you do not value winning as the highest priority. If you do not stray from your core values in the pursuit of success and perhaps most importantly, having coaches who remember why they are here in the first place, to contribute to a student’s education and experience.

Cate’s athletic program is rooted in an education based athletic philosophy. Our program is an extension of our classroom and curriculum, where teaching is holistic and not just sport specific. We often refer to our sports as co-curricular instead of extra-curricular and I feel this is an important distinction. Our athletic endeavors are key to shaping joyful, happy, successful, and intelligent young people. Balancing our high-level academic schedule with co-curricular programs is important to our coaches, and it is why so many of our teaching faculty are coaches. They believe in educating the whole child, finding different ways to support students, and cultivating meaningful professional relationships that go way beyond a classroom. This is the secret sauce that allows us to be competitive with schools ten times our size, who spend far more hours training and practicing. Our students derive great joy and friendships from the community they create, while trusted adults help them to be their very best in whatever endeavors they pursue inside as well as outside of the traditional classroom.