After my first semester at college, I know what to expect when I meet someone who recognizes me. Generally it’s a warm smile and an eager “How’s college?”

College is tough. I’ve learned that you have to be used to the feeling of being not quite on top of your schoolwork.

And the problem is compounded when you have to balance that schoolwork with extracurricular activities, social activities, and occasionally meals and sleep.

A nice break from the chaos for me is attending sporting events. Ice Hockey, Basketball, Soccer, Football, Water Polo, Rugby, Volleyball, Diving, and other games allow the student body to focus their mind, spirit, and body towards cheering, yelling, clapping, and stomping the hometown team to victory.

But at my college, almost no students go to these events. This serves as a painful reminder of my college’s lack of a sports culture. It is not depleted. It is non-existent.

And this non-existent sports culture lowers our quality of life by a significant amount.

Coming from Old Forge, it is not hard to see why I was disappointed with the shortcomings. In our middle school and high school, we have consistently had strong sports teams with strong fan bases throughout our history.

Our students play three, four, sometimes five sports a year, unheard of outside Town of Webb’s walls. They devote uncountable hours to practicing their craft in each sport. They scream joy with victory, and cry out with anger at each (rare) loss.

And all of this happens while upholding an academic, musical, and extracurricular standard that is much higher than that of other public high schools.

As a community, we should be proud of this sports culture—for it is intertwined with and inseparable from academic and real-world success.

Many people contribute to this sports culture—coaches, athletes, parents, scoreboard keepers, school employees, fans, and newspapers.

But there is one contributor who is relatively unheralded, and he keeps it all from falling apart.

David Leach, the school’s Athletic Director, dedicates unheard of amounts of energy, time, and stress into preparing schedules, coordinating buses, negotiating improved facilities and equipment, and representing the Town of Webb in New York State’s athletic associations.

But that’s his job. What makes Mr. Leach remarkable is everything else he does. Sporting events without him on the sidelines or in the stands are few and far between at the Town of Webb School. He attends a strong majority of home games, and a good portion of away games, no matter what level or what sport is being played.

In dozens of cold, gritty cross country ski races at McCauley Mountain, I encountered Mr. Leach on the side of the trail (usually at the top of a hill) shouting encouragement to me the entire time I was in his line of sight.

Dozens of mornings in school, I could expect Mr. Leach to stop me in the hallway, complementing me on something that had happened in the previous day’s soccer game that I was proud of, but that I had thought went unnoticed.

Just as many times he struck up a conversation with me about the prospects for Section III, Class D golf—hardly an engaging subject for anyone other than me, really.

His dedication has been unmatched in supporting our athletes. But it goes further than that.

Last spring, it was determined that there would be no varsity baseball team. They simply did not have enough players. I witnessed Mr. Leach asking just about every high school boy he saw in the hallway if they would be interested in joining.

He had multiple conversations with me—even though he knew I was dedicated to golf, he tried to persuade me to try varsity baseball as well.

He was a better advocate for the survival of that program than any player who had already signed up, and certainly he was a better advocate than any parent who wanted to see varsity baseball.

While it seemed like the entire town was voicing their sorrows and beginning to assign blame for the lost program, Mr. Leach was holding onto a thread of hope that he could keep Old Forge’s baseball tradition alive. He succeeded, too. Those kids got to play baseball.

No one works harder to maintain and grow Old Forge’s sports culture than Mr. Leach. The students, their parents, the alumni, and the community should be thankful for the hours that Mr. Leach puts into his work.

How can we thank him? Students, simply consider joining another sport. Practice in the offseason. Strive for greatness on the court, pitch, or course—while maintaining (or perhaps improving) your grades.

Parents, just encourage your students to be active in school athletics. There is only one chance at an opportunity for organized sport like we have in Old Forge.

Alumni and greater Old Forge community, let’s go to games and go wild, cheering our team on to victory.

That’s what I miss at college, anyway. Let me know that it lives on in full force at home.

Colin Criss

Old Forge