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Volleyball Players
Mission
The Founders League consists of highly selective private college preparatory schools. Its members are committed first and foremost to academic excellence and believe that our athletic programs must always support our educational missions. The League stands for educational excellence, sportsmanship, and outstanding competition. Heads of school at the member institutions exercise control of athletics at both the institutional and league level to ensure that we remain true to our guiding principles.

The primary mission of the Founders League is to organize, facilitate, support, and regulate interscholastic athletic competition in a manner consistent with its member schools' shared commitment to academic excellence, integrity, well-being, and the personal growth of student-athletes. In pursuing and supporting our collective purpose, member schools strive to adhere to the same guiding principles within the League that ensure and promote our individual institutions' missions. If the athletic programs at our schools are to support our educational mission, it is essential that our interscholastic teams reflect the character of the student bodies within the League. We expect our student-athletes to grow from their athletic experiences to become national and community leaders across the spectrum of 21st century life.

One goal of our athletic programs is to identify and field the most competitive teams possible from our respective student bodies. How that task is defined and accomplished will depend on the diverse needs of each school and the climate in which it operates. However, as a basic principle, we agree that the lessons learned from fairly played athletics are of benefit to our students and serve the essential educational mission of our schools. We believe that school athletics are not a goal in themselves, but exist as an important part of each student's education.
 
Boys Lacrosse
Guiding Principles
 
  • ​Athletics should teach and promote life skills including fair play, respect, preparation, teamwork, leadership, and sportsmanship.
     
  • Student athletes and our athletic programs should be representative of our student bodies as a whole, both at the point of admission and in their academic performance, preferences and educational outcomes.
     
  • We are committed to diversity and to gender equity, in our athletic programs and throughout our institutions.
     
  • Athletic programs should be integrated into the broader life and fabric of our campuses.
     
  • Our institutions should provide a comprehensive athletic program available to the entire student body, not just varsity athletes, which emphasizes participation and the educational values of athletics.
     
  • We are committed to observing the highest ethical standards in the conduct of Founders League business and in the interactions among member institutions.
     
  • We are committed to providing need-based financial aid for athletes.
 
Spectator Guidelines
The Founders League is an association of excellent schools with similar educational missions and educational philosophies. As a league, it aspires to hold students and teachers to standards of behavior that reflect the very highest values in society. Athletic competition should exemplify these standards and serve the broader purposes of education within our schools. We are committed to providing students with a full, rich and balanced athletic program. Important lessons are taught through athletics. Like the classroom setting, games and practices are forums for our teachers to teach.

We acknowledge that students, coaches, parents, and other spectators can, on occasion, be caught up in the intensity of a particularly heated athletic contest. This, however, is no excuse for irresponsible behavior. Just as we expect civility and self-control in the classroom and in the dormitory, we must demand it on the athletic field. Sportsmanship and healthy competition must prevail.

Accordingly, the following guidelines have been established by the heads and athletic directors of the Founders League Schools:
 
  • It is the responsibility of the head of school to insure adequate faculty supervision at athletic contests.
     
  • The head of each school (or his/her delegate) will speak to the full faculty and student bodies about sportsmanship and spectator responsibilities at the start of each athletic season.
     
  • Spectators will watch games only from those areas defined by each school as spectator areas.
     
  • Spectators must not:
  • Run up and down sidelines;
  • Call to players, coaches or officials in an unsportsmanlike manner;
  • Go onto the field of play;
  • Stand near opposing teams for the purpose of taunting or heckling;
  • Engage in cheers that are profane or mocking;
  • Deface, destroy or remove property.
     
  • Use of alcohol, tobacco or drugs at athletic contests will not be tolerated.
     
  • Spectator buses will have faculty chaperones who will be responsible for the behavior of students both on the bus and at the athletic contest. 
     
  • Spectators who abuse the above guidelines will be subject to school action.  Violations should be reported to the athletic director of the appropriate school.