Entering the next chapter of Bearcat athletics

LAKEVILLE — Team huddles at The Hotchkiss School often break with, “‘Big Blue’ on two. One, two, Big Blue!”

Entering his second year as athletic director this fall, Dempsey Quinn has spent the summer preparing for a “Big Blue” year two.

His first year was met with success in every season. In fall sports, Hotchkiss mountain biking went undefeated to win its league title and boys cross country won the Founders League. In winter, boys diving and boys and girls squash each won their Founders League tournaments. In spring, girls lacrosse won its third straight Founders League title and two golfers (one male and one female) took home first prize in the end-of-season tournaments.

The bar is high for Quinn’s second year as athletic director. In the off-season, two fifth-year basketball recruits were added to the boys varsity team: a 6’8” forward from Brooklyn and a 6’6” guard from Seattle. Additionally, Hotchkiss athletics was represented at the 2024 World Junior Squash Championships by rising senior Oscar Okonkwo.

“It was a big, big learning experience,” said Quinn about his first year in the new job. “A lot of revamping the department and taking a look at what the vision is.”

The son of a coach, Quinn, has been playing sports his whole life. “My earliest memories as a three-year-old were running up and down the sidelines with my father’s high school football team,” he remembered. Quinn attended Avon Old Farms, where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He went on to play Division 1 football at Cornell University.

Immediately after graduating, Quinn went straight into the world of school sports with a job at the Berkshire School, where he worked for four years before deciding to go to Brown University to coach football. At Brown, Quinn got to see a different side of coaching and got a deeper look into the college recruiting process.

But he wasn’t able to stay away from high school sports for long. After a brief stint at the Kent School, he joined the Hotchkiss community in 2020. It was a difficult time, right at the start of Covid. “We were doing remote classes and meals were being delivered,” he recalled. After a second year at Hotchkiss working as a math teacher, football coach, and girls JV basketball coach, Quinn realized that he wanted to try a more administrative role in order to have greater impact on the inner workings of the school and a deeper connection to students.

He became class dean for the seniors of 2024. “That was the most rewarding,” he said. “You learn a lot about how a school is run.” And then, just two years later, the job of athletic director opened up. “Athletics had always been my passion, and I felt it was the area that I had the most impact both on policy and students,” he explained. Quinn decided to go for the position.

In his first year Quinn’s main focus was fixing issues with staffing. Along with that, he developed a new program for coaches, making sure they are supported and developed with the help of student feedback. “The first year is just laying the groundwork,” he said. With that came a key new hire.

“We have recently hired a director of athletic performance,” Quinn noted proudly. Seth Diters, a strength and conditioning coach from Virginia Tech, has joined Quinn’s team. “He has very high-level Division 1 experience and he will have an impact on every program,” Quinn says.

Hotchkiss has sent many players to Division 1 colleges for a multitude of sports. Quinn believes it’s important that Hotchkiss “continues to improve how they present student athletes to the outside audience,” and that it is also imperative that an athlete’s parents and coaches have as much information as possible about the recruiting process.

A goal of Quinn in year two is to welcome the local community to Hotchkiss. The athletic program does things such as host open swims, let nearby schools use facilities, and host camps. “It’s giving back and paying it forward,” Quinn said.

Quinn hopes that more locals will come watch Hotchkiss athletic events, too, from football under the lights to soccer played on gorgeous fall afternoons, “If you are looking for something to do, bring your kids over!” said Quinn, who noted that Hotchkiss is hosting the New England Championship for swimming and cross country along with the Founders League Championship for track and field in the coming school year.

Looking ahead to the next few years, Quinn wants to, “Continue to be available and approachable for students and faculty alike.” Most of all, he wants the Hotchkiss Athletics Department to be supportive of the students who study at the school and the community at large. “I want people to leave thinking that that is an operation that does things well and treats us with respect.”