A quarter century of excellence

clockwise from the upper left: Elise Kurtis ’21, Peter Buonanno ’19, Kari Buonanno ’15, Ali Blanchard ’14, Drew Blanchard ’13, Lexee Pinsky ’11, Meredith Langmuir ’15, Jared Donaldson ’11, Maddy Berkson ’10 and Austin Miller ’10. We could not find photos of Jesse Frieder ’06 and Lucy Green ’09 from their years at Gordon.

This summer, the Providence Journal’s sports staff set out to compile the official Rhode Island high school sports All-State teams of the past quarter century.

With the aid of the paper’s archives, the staff’s own notes, and the input from coaches across the state, they came up with a list that included a dozen stars who got their starts at Gordon.

After Gordon, these athletes went on to Moses Brown, Deerfield Academy, Classical High School, Ponaganset and Wheeler, on their way to Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Ohio State, Hobart and William Smith College, Holy Cross, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan, Boston University and Stanford.

Along the way, they earned dozens of state championships, eighteen All-American spots, First Team and Second Team All-Ivy League selections, an Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, and $2 million on the professional tennis circuit.

All of this talent sprang from Gordon, a school where the Middle School athletics program is rooted in teamwork and hustle, where no student is ever cut from a team, where everyone plays, and where each player has multiple opportunities to find and develop their personal strengths.

Honorable mention also goes to Steve Silva, honored for his time as a running back at East Providence High, who never attended Gordon but is now the proud parent of a Gordon Middle School athlete.

The full list of Gordon names on the Projo list of Rhode Island's top high school athletes of the past twenty-five years:

Jesse Frieder ’06, tennis
Lucy Green ’09, field hockey
Maddy Berkson ’10, track and field
Austin Miller ’10, lacrosse
Jared Donaldson ’11, tennis
Lexee Pinsky ’11, lacrosse
Drew Blanchard ’13, lacrosse
Ali Blanchard ’14, softball
Kari Buonanno ’15, field hockey
Meredith Langmuir ’15, lacrosse
Kari Buonanno ’15, lacrosse
Peter Buonanno ’19, lacrosse
Elise Kurtis ’21, lacrosse

The Projo coverage is here
More on Gordon athletics at www.gordonschool.org/athletics

Gordon athletics is supported by the Gordon Fund.