Football has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Prep school football, especially, carries a spirit that feels deeply familiar to me and my family. Growing up on prep school campuses, I would often accompany my father to the sidelines of the weekly football game. My husband, Jimmy, was a collegiate football player and spent years coaching at the Kents Hill School. My uncles played at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and my uncle, Moose Curtis, went on to coach at Hebron Academy for forty years. I remember watching Moose and Jimmy coach against each other at the Kents Hill and Hebron rivalry game for several years, always in the freezing cold, always a highlight of my fall. The long standing rivalry, the kids playing their hearts out, fans cheering with so much spirit, and the Head of School chair at stake all created an unforgettable atmosphere. At the end of the game, both sides expressed gratitude for the privilege of competing against a school and opponent they respected.
Coming to Proctor, after many years working at a school without it, Jimmy and I were genuinely excited to be at a school with football again. There is something uniquely compelling about the collaboration, strategy, and camaraderie of football. Each week brings a new opponent, a new game plan, and a different choreography on the field. It is unlike any other sport I can think of.
Proctor’s football program has a long and proud history, one that sits alongside our many other storied traditions like skiing, and experiential learning. Like many New England boarding schools, Proctor has been engaged in an evolving conversation about the sustainability of football for over a decade. Starting with the 2026 season, Proctor will transition to an 8-player football model, competing in the NEPSAC 8-player division alongside nine other prep schools.
Over the last decade, schools across our region have been navigating the same realities we face: increased pressures for athletes to specialize, supporting a vast array of athletic offerings, relatively small student bodies, and wanting to offer programs that are sustainable, safe and mission aligned. Holderness School, Pomfret School, and Hebron Academy have moved to eight-player football. Others, including Proctor’s former football opponents, Kimball Union Academy, Vermont Academy, Tilton School, Kents Hill School, Northfield Mount Hermon, Cushing Academy, and Hyde School, among others, have stepped away from the sport entirely. When I arrived, I stepped into a thoughtful evaluation already underway. The question my predecessors had been wrestling with, and the work they had begun around Proctor football, centered on this: Can we continue offering a program that is safe, competitive, mission-aligned, and sustainable for generations of students to come?
As our Leadership Team discussed the best path forward for football at Proctor, we surveyed students, spoke with parents and alumni, interviewed college coaches, and worked to deeply understand the value a sport like football brings to the community. To a person, our current players placed ultimate value on the teamwork, tradition, and sense of camaraderie that football provides them. Our commitment as a school is to ensure these qualities, life-lessons, and sense of belonging remain at the heart of our football program.
As I stepped into my role at Proctor, I carried with me the same assumptions many people hold about eight-player football. I believed it was somehow “less than,” not quite real football. Yet, as I listened, asked questions, and learned from those who know our program and our students, and as I looked more carefully at the realities facing small school football, my understanding evolved.
Eight-player football allows Proctor to preserve what matters most: the camaraderie, the teamwork, the learning of life long lessons, and the shared joy that comes with being part of a football program. It allows us to play meaningful games, reignite rivalries including the chance to once again play Holderness School. Players continue to develop their skills, deepen their understanding of the game, and grow as competitors. College coaches have told us clearly that dedicated eight-player athletes can and do continue their football careers, with many NCAA football rosters containing eight-player football athletes on them, and even some have even reached the National Football League.
I am deeply grateful to our coaches and players for their adaptability, leadership, and openness throughout this process. I hold tremendous respect and empathy for the students for whom Proctor football may no longer meet their athletic goals. Their voices and futures have mattered in every step of this work.
As we turn the page toward this next chapter, I hope you will join me in celebrating both the history and the future of Proctor football. I cannot wait to see you on the sidelines next fall, cheering, supporting, and watching another generation of Proctor students grow through this game we love.
Amy Smucker
Proctor Academy Head of School
- Athletics