Athletics

Since Nancy D. Hawk founded Mason Prep, the school has focused on the best interest of each child. Faculty, staff, and coaches strive to develop the whole child. The athletic program plays a significant part in this development.

Each person in the athletic program is dedicated to the specific growth of each student who participates in one of the many opportunities offered. Beyond developing basic fundamental skills, the program is designed to build onto these skills at appropriate age levels. Fundamental skills and strategies in several sports can be mastered throughout the eight years at Mason Prep. Each athlete who perseveres through the middle school years can make an easy transition to high school sports, finding notable success on the junior varsity or varsity levels of basketball, volleyball, tennis, golf, or track.

While athletic skills build, athletes also learn the meaning of hard work, integrity, responsibility, commitment, and sportsmanship-critically important traits for each athlete to take to the next level of sport or adulthood.

Developmental teams for golf, volleyball, basketball and tennis are offered before students enter a competitive arena. Rather than a win/loss record, each individual's performance to his best ability is the Mason Prep measure of success.

2010-11 Sports Information

Volleyball

Mason Prep will sponsor four volleyball teams this season: one junior junior varsity team for fifth graders, one junior varsity team for sixth graders, and two varsity teams for seventh and eighth graders. The participants attended our summer camps and worked hard to learn the basic skills in order to begin to gain game and court knowledge in practices, which began the week prior to school. Several younger girls joined the junior junior varsity team later and are now working very hard to catch up with the others. The matches will begin shortly after Labor Day as we wait for our schedules from the Charleston Recreation Department. We will keep you posted on the web page for days and times of competition.

Golf

Our golf program is available for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade boys and girls. A new addition to our program this year will be golf professional Brandon Ray. He will be conducting practices on Monday afternoons at Patriots Point Golf Course along with several of his assistants. Mason Prep will join the East Cooper Middle School Golf League again this season - the ECMSGL informational handout is available here. One other change is that there will be a $25.00 fee for each student to participate in the golf program. Details will be sent home with students and will also be posted on the web page soon.

Basketball

The basketball program will begin in mid-October for the competitive teams involving fourth through eighth graders. Fourth through eighth graders should sign up on the sheets in the gym foyer in order to receive the information concerning basketball. This flyer went home on September 1 in order for parents to confirm their child's interest in playing basketball. Coaches and teams cannot be determined until we have the participants signed up. Practices will be held three days per week after school and on Saturdays. The scheduled days and times for practices will depend upon the coach of each team, as the majority of our coaches have full-time jobs outside of Mason Prep. We try hard to manage our gym schedule to meet the coaches' availability. Please be patient during the time that the practice schedule is being determined.

Once the teams have been selected and practices are under way, the contact information for competitive teams in the fifth through eighth grades can be found at the Trident Basketball Association's web site. The fourth grade will compete at St. Joseph’s Family Life Center; information can be found at the St. Joseph web site.

New for basketball this season is an athletic fee for each student participating on a Mason Prep competitive team. The amount is yet to be determined and will be announced before the season begins on the web site and by hard copy.

Mason Prep's developmental basketball program for first, second, and third graders will be conducted somewhat differently than in the past. Sign-up sheets will be sent home with each student in these grades. Practices will start the first Sunday in November. All first graders will practice together, all second graders will practice together, and all third graders will practice together on Sunday afternoons. We will depend on parent volunteers to conduct these programs. When scrimmages are set up in January, games will be played among the grade levels with the possibility on the final Sunday of playing with all the grades together. There will be a fee of approximately $25.00 associated with this group in order to cover the cost of T-shirts for each player.

Tennis

Tennis season will begin in the spring with competitions through the Charleston Tennis Center. A new addition this school year is that Mason Prep will offer lessons once per week beginning in the fall for returning and potential tennis team players at St. Andrew’s Parks and Playgrounds with tennis professionals Brian and Phillip Burke. There will be a $10.00 fee for each lesson, payable to the playground. Beginning in January, Mason Prep will continue to offer the lessons twice per week at the same fee. These lessons are only for Mason Prep students.

The #1 competitive team is coached by Meredith Barth, who attended college on a tennis scholarship and who will conduct at least one practice per week beginning in February. Brian and Phillip Burke will be coaching the remaining teams and will conduct practice once per week, determine the line-up, etc. Mason Prep will ask for a parent volunteer to be a supervisor of each team during matches, with the main focus being their presence as a representative of the school and being sure all the players have been picked up by a parent after the match concludes. The group team lessons will be conducted similar to the past seasons, with lessons for only our students in order to determine the most suitable team to be played according to skill level. There will be a fee of $25.00 for these lessons.