Nothing hurts more than losing to Choate. Every year, each team plays Choate at least once, but the games we never want to lose are the ones on Choate Day.
This fall, Deerfield’s JV teams clearly dominated, while Choate’s varsity teams got the best of us. This fall, Choate published an article in their student newspaper, The Choate News, about Deerfield Day and included statistics from previous years. According to The Choate News on Choate Day, from 2000-2014 Deerfield’s fall teams have suffered 63% losses while only acquiring 30% wins and 7% ties.
These statistics were logged from five high profile sports: varsity football, varsity girls soccer, varsity boys soccer, varsity volleyball, and varsity field hockey. To quote a boy from Choate’s senior class, as published in The Choate News, “We may need to invest in a new opponent sometime soon. D-Day is getting a bit sad. It’s like watching a car crash happen; it’s horrible but you can’t look away.”
Indeed, our varsity fall athletic teams recently have been losing to Choate, but it hasn’t always been this way. Serena Ainslie ’16 attested, “Just because we’ve lost in recent years to Choate in the fall doesn’t mean that we haven’t had a competitive rivalry in the past 116 years. My cousins went here in the late 1990s, when we used to kill Choate in every sport.”
Over the past 15 years, Deerfield has shown its spring athletic supremacy over Choate. As Zeke Emerson ’16, captain of the varsity football team, said, “Obviously, it’s been a tough past few years against Choate for the football team, but it’s always good to look forward to the other seasons, where we’ve seen much more success.”
Although in the fall the Boars have been dominating Choate Day, what would a spring Choate Day look like? Many students want to create a Spring Choate Day to continue the tradition of a rival day and provide another opportunity for spectators to watch athletes perform
Nina McGowan ’16, a member of the varsity lacrosse team, commented, “I think having a spring Choate Day would intensify the rivalry because the games would be much more competitive.” The results from DA vs. Choate spring sports show that Deerfield clearly dominates over Choate, winning a total of 69% of games while only losing 31%. These percentages are from seven varsity sports: varsity boys baseball (6-8), varsity boys lacrosse (15-1), varsity girls lacrosse (8-8), varsity girls softball (7-8), varsity girls tennis (14-2), varsity boys tennis (13-3) and varsity golf (9-2).
Deerfield’s record against Choate in spring matches over the past 15 years is 72-32. Choate’s spring teams don’t stand a chance. Last year, Deerfield swept Choate in every sport except one.