News

On a springlike day perfectly suited for an outdoor, socially distanced college signing ceremony, five Durham Academy seniors put pen to paper on Feb. 25 to formally commit to compete in college athletics next year. John Donovan will play lacrosse at Gettysburg College; Toby Harris will play basketball at Brandeis University; Katherine Lantzy will play field hockey at Middlebury College; Gavin Schulz will play lacrosse at Franklin & Marshall College; and Scott West will play baseball at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Durham Academy spring sports are ready to hit the ground running after nearly a year without competition. While last year’s practices and games were substituted with virtual trivia nights and team meetings, this year the Cavs are prepared to take to the fields, courts and tracks. 

When Jed and Kerry Carlson came to Durham in 2003 for Jed to attend Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, they intended to move back to the Midwest after he earned his M.B.A. But nearly 18 years, two start-ups and three daughters later, they are still in Durham and happy to be here.

The Durham Academy boys basketball team had its season come to a close Friday night after a 58–35 loss to Greensboro Day in the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 4A state quarterfinal.

Boys basketball plays in the NCISAA 4A East quarterfinals 5:30 p.m. Friday.

The varsity swim teams capped off their season Monday at the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association state meet at the Greensboro Aquatics Center. Sophomore Spencer Jennings led the girls team to an eighth-place finish, four places ahead of where it finished last year, while the boys team earned a 12th-place finish overall.

Durham Academy athletics will host its first-ever Virtual CavDome for the DA community on Friday night  when the varsity boys and girls basketball teams take on Wake Christian in Kirby Gym! 

In a year in which connecting face-to-face isn’t possible, Durham Academy Parents Association leaders have planned a spring packed with opportunities to bring together DA families while laughing and having a little fun.

At a time when the need is great, the Upper School Red Cross Club is offering Durham Academy students, faculty, staff and parents the opportunity to save up to three lives by donating blood. The annual winter blood drive will this year take place over the course of three days — Feb. 15 at the Middle School and Feb. 23 and 24 at the Upper School.

Cavalier winter sports have been on a roll and are heading into the final few weeks of the season. The boys basketball team is 7–5 and in fourth place in the Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference (TISAC). With just six regular-season games left, four of which will take place over the next nine days, the team looks to avenge earlier losses to Cary Academy and Trinity Academy of Raleigh. After two thrilling wins in Kirby Gym over the last week, the girls basketball team has earned an 8–4 record and is 5–0 in conference. Friday night’s home game vs. North Raleigh Christian Academy will prove to be a tough matchup, as the Knights hold the top spot in the conference. 

John David Spatola trains for ninja competitions nearly every day, either on his backyard obstacle set or at a local gym — and he’s even competed on the nationally televised American Ninja Warrior Junior.

Ginny Robinson hit gold when her master’s degree thesis was published in 2005. Carrier, a collection of her original poetry, was not a chart-topping bestseller, but it gave Robinson an opportunity to read from her book at San Francisco’s renowned City Lights bookstore and she learned a lot about herself after it was published.

With a school that couldn’t gather en masse for any of its traditional community-building events, Parents Association’s leadership and committee chairs were charged with reinventing their community-building, philanthropic and volunteer engagement efforts from the ground up.

Chris Mason remembers a piece of advice his father gave him: Figure out what you love to do and then find someone to pay you for it.

At the end of yet another week of game changes and re-scheduling, the Cavalier basketball programs have a Friday night of competition to look forward to. Both teams will honor their seniors in a short ceremony in Kirby Gym prior to their matchups vs. Research Triangle High School. The boys basketball team heads into Friday’s game with a 6–4 record and will honor seniors Toby Harris, Henry Leasure, Sean Perkins, Alex Pfeil, Cole Sinclair and Blake Smith. The girls team, which is also 6–4 on the season entering Friday’s contest, will honor seniors Ameya Bellamkonda, Mary-Katherine Bryant and Amelia Kass.