Philosophy
Christ Church Episcopal School believes that all aspects of our student’s well-being are important and that many important lessons are taught through an athletic experience. The goal of coaches and teachers is identical: to help young people reach their fullest potential. Coaches are teachers who deal with physical fitness as well as the fundamentals and strategies of sport. We strive to offer our students, who vary in their athletic interest and ability, quality programs that appropriately challenge them to stretch their limits of endurance, and fosters self-discipline, loyalty, self-confidence, leadership, cooperation, and sportsmanship. Coaches are expected to uphold standards and teach the valuable lessons that are learned from athletic competition.

League Affiliation
Christ Church is a member of the South Carolina High School League.

CCES Athletic Experience
Christ Church encourages a multi-sport experience rather that year-round specialization. The social, emotional, physical, and educational dividends are usually greatest when students have more than one athletic experience and perspective.

Participation
The most visible team in each sport is the varsity. Results of games are printed in the local newspapers and periodically reported in school publications. In the interests of relations with loyal alumni, our parent constituency, and the public, we make every effort to put our best foot forward and play to win within the spirit of amateur athletics and the school’s philosophy. In some especially close games, varsity reserves may not get to play or may play only sparingly. Even so, reserves are a highly valuable part of every varsity team because they help the other members of the team prepare and because they provide important encouragement during games.

On the sub-varsity and Middle School levels, coaches are expected to help all players feel they are an integral part of the group or team. Coaches are asked to make a conscientious effort to give everyone an opportunity to play and to communicate with individual players to help them accept and enjoy their roles on teams. However, not every player may play in every game, nor are all team members guaranteed equal playing time. Substitution rules can sometimes keep a coach from getting a player into a game. Coaches may decide not to put a player into a game if the coach believes that would be physically or emotionally harmful to that player. In addition, no Christ Church coach will knowingly put a student in a situation where there is a chance the player will be publicly embarrassed.

The difficulty is that these decisions are judgment calls that must be made by the coach, usually in the midst of the contest. The decisions are based as much as is humanly possible on the coach’s experience, his or her knowledge of the student’s skills as demonstrated in practice, and what is best for the individual and the group.