The Watkinson Athletic Department is excited to announce that Max Schweitzer has been named Head Coach for Boys’ Varsity Tennis for the Spring 2024 season.

Schweitzer brings decades of tennis experience to Watkinson as both a player and a coach. A West Hartford native, Schweitzer competed in USTA tournaments in New England and beyond during his youth. His success on the court led to his eventual recruitment to Clark University, where he was a 4-year varsity starter in singles and doubles. At Clark, Schweitzer obtained a master’s degree in interpersonal communication and received the Russ Granger award for outstanding academic and athletic achievement in his class. 

In 2017, Schweitzer founded a private tennis coaching business to provide efficient, entertaining, and informative lessons for kids and adults alike. To date, he’s worked with over one hundred individuals, providing both technical help and strategic advice. Additionally, Schweitzer is the assistant director at the Nike Tennis Camp at Mount Holyoke College, the largest sleepaway tennis camp in the country. He will be entering his sixth year at the camp this summer.

As a coach, Schweitzer believes in leading by example, respecting one another, and the power of two-way communication. When he’s not on the court, Schweitzer enjoys long-distance running and creating artwork. His fine arts business, Schweitzer Studios, is centered around wildlife and pet illustrations on slabs of slate. 

Please join us in welcoming Coach Schweitzer to the Varsity Tennis program!

The Watkinson Athletic Department is thrilled to announce that Dan Horwitz has been named the Head Coach for Boys’ Varsity Basketball for the 23-24 school year. 

A native of West Hartford, Connecticut, Coach Horwitz is in his third year as an assistant director of Admissions at Watkinson. Prior to working at Watkinson, he served as an assistant men’s basketball coach at the collegiate level for three years, most recently at Mount Saint Mary College. At Watkinson, he led the boys’ JV basketball team for the past two years. Coach Horwitz attended Newbury College where he was a 4-year letter winner for the men’s basketball team and was named a team captain junior and senior years. At Newbury, Dan earned the sportsmanship award three years in a row and the scholar-athlete award his senior year for having the highest GPA of the male athletes. He interned for the men’s basketball team at Syracuse University for a summer and worked basketball camps at Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and UConn, and for USA youth development. 

Coach Horwitz self-published a basketball leadership book on Amazon called, “Help Them Up”. He believes in creating a championship culture environment where everyone feels safe, empowered, and has a voice. Dan has a twin brother who is an assistant men’s basketball coach at Hobart College.

Please join us in welcoming Coach Horwitz to the Varsity sidelines! 

With a 43-36 victory over Dublin School, Watkinson Girls Basketball has won the 2023 New England Class D Championship!!

The Rams used smart, dynamic, poised, and tough-nosed team play to earn the program’s first New England championship in almost ten years. Congratulations to every player on this year’s team for your incredible growth, effort, and commitment to team. We are so proud of you!

Kudos to our incredible coaching staff as well! In two short years, Coach (Kristalyn) Baisden, Coach Alferi, and Coach (Chris) Baisden have instilled a positive team culture that serves as the foundation for this success.

Special congratulations to:

Kayla H. ‘23, who was named MVP of the Class D Tournament.

Coach Kristalyn Baisden, who was named the 2023 NEPSGBA Class D Coach of the Year.

See a gallery of game photos here.

We celebrated the Winter sports season during all-school assemblies the week of February 27. Congratulations and thank you to all of our Middle and Upper School student-athletes and teams!

Our team’s togetherness and the culture we built stood out the most. If you watched our team, you would have observed our bench chanting “defense”, players standing up in excitement after a made basket, teammates sprinting over to a fallen teammate, and a lot of connected huddles!! We are so proud of this group.

Coach Horwitz, Boys Junior Varsity Basketball

Click here for team pictures and words of appreciation from our coaches and captains.

Eva G. ’25 was featured by Girls Prep Hoops recently. Take a look!

Thank you to Saint Peters University and Central Connecticut State University for attending our girls basketball open gym on September 30th! Their support of our girls basketball program is greatly appreciated!