Take Five: Q&A With Patrick McHugh

For nearly two decades, Patrick McHugh has guided the athletic philosophy behind North Shore Country Day School (NSCDS) in Winnetka with a steady hand. . We check in to get the latest news.

Patch: What has been going on at the athletic department recently?
McHugh: It’s a 365-day operation these days. We have things going on every holiday, all summer long. Right now we have the largest number of sports for a school this size in our region. Most schools our size have one girl and one boy sports team. We typically have multiple sports each season. I am also excited about the development of a strong and dedicated coaching staff that includes people like Joe Bosco, one of the top 100 golf instructors in US, Fred Miller, a Superbowl champion with St. Louis Rams, Mark Medhurst, an athletic development coach from NS Performance, and Kelly Keporos, a former Northwestern Volleyball Captain. [Plus this year was] our school's first state championship team in boys golf.

It is also nice that our alums are doing well athletically elsewhere. '09 broke 4 minutes for the mile for Princeton twice this winter. He is the first Ivy League runner to ever break 4 minutes twice indoors.

Patch: What’s something new that you're working on in particular?
McHugh: Well, I've been writing my blog for about a year and gotten over 50,000 page views. It has helped me interact with our own community, as well as a much larger community out in the world about the school’s philosophy and my philosophy on athletics. Our interest is becoming more unique as more high schools have more specialized athletes. We believe a broadbased athletic background is what’s interesting, where kids do a bunch of different sports. At , anyone can be a North Shore athlete. It is a benefit for growing kids.

Patch: Could you talk more about the different philosophy for NSCDS?
McHugh: Kids are so specialized at any early way that they don’t move but in one direction. Most of us are meant to exercise in three planes, so we try to develop in all three planes of motion. I’m a classic example of someone overdone in one sport [I'm a pretty competitive runner] and have broken down a little bit.

What’s old is becoming new again. There’s been a 20-year period of how important it is to specalize, using models like Tiger Woods, but those are exceptions and unrealistic for most famlies to model. Students should be competently physical in lots of activities. I worry about these kids who want Division One scholarships. They are very, very minimial. You can see kids in middle school sold a good lie about Division One playing, they end up burnt out or cut. That doesn’t happen at North Shore [Country Day School]. The beauty of North Shore [Country Day School] is that you can be a three-sport athlete as much as you want.

Patch: And you've seen results?
McHugh: It's proven to bring lots of success. Just one example, the girls field hockey team won its fourth state conference title this past year. I see a lot of families in this community that could benefit from a well-rounded approach to athletics.

Patch: How would you describe the athletic department's role in the North Shore community?
McHugh: We are part of the educational philosophy of school. It's not just developing competent students but competent human beings and that obviously has a physical component. We have had a long history of doing that at the school. My own kids go here, and I see the benefit that the school philosophy has. The North Shore is a funny community; getting the word out about how special the school is has been a struggle. Obviously people move to this area for school because of the reputation of New Trier, which is well-deserved, but it is a school of 4,000. Smaller environments are better off for kids. Our school comes with a price but when you look at the investing in a kid's life, it’s a price worth paying.