The wait was worth it for Saint Ann’s

November 25, 2024 Andy Furman

Girls’ volleyball coach Shannon Carr and her championship players. Photo courtesy of Andy Furman

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It’s true — good things do come to those who wait. Shannon Carr is living proof.

Her Saint Ann’s girls’ volleyball team completed a perfect 23-0 season as New York State Association of Independent Schools state champions.

For Carr, well, it only took 29 years.

“We were second in the state in 2006,” she told the Brooklyn Eagle the other day. “This year, we had a fantastic team,” she continued, “these players were totally dedicated and many of them played in outside clubs. We developed a very collaborative process. We were strong in ’06. We only had one loss – but this team was the best in wins and losses.”

Quite the feat for the little private school at 129 Pierrepont St.

The school is a nonsectarian, coeducational pre-K-12-day school with programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences — and how can we forget – volleyball?

The students number 1,012 from preschool through 12th grade, as well as 324 faculty, administration and staff members. In fact, there was a ninth-grader starting for that title team this year, Carr said.

Shannon Carr teaches in the Recreational Arts Department when she’s not coaching a state championship volleyball team. The Chicago native taught at Manhattan’s Town School after college, prior to her tenure at Saint Ann’s.

“At Saint Ann’s School,” says the coach, “we try really hard for opportunities for all our students, be it painting or drawing.”

Saint Ann’s attracts its students, she says, from Brooklyn, of course, as well as Staten Island, Manhattan, Queens and even New Jersey.

Saint Ann’s breezed through the state tournament, with a first-round bye; defeated Brearley School — an eighth seed — in the quarterfinals; topped Brooklyn’s Poly Prep in the semifinals — a fourth seed — and defeated Marymount School — a three-seed at the Spence School — for the title.

“That state tournament,” Carr said, “lasted two weeks and four rounds, and we did not lose one set in the tourney. We were very focused; we dominated.”

The school support for the tournament was tremendous, Carr said. “We had a bus for the faculty and they came to the Finals. The matches were live-streamed, so people could see it all over. In fact,” she said, “I have friends in Europe who were watching.”

The coach says you need players working together and supporting one another to win championships.

That is primarily the academic structure at the school. Saint Ann’s permits its high school juniors and seniors to design their own curriculum. “Students here learn for the joy of learning,” she says. “We evaluate our students on the work they do — and we submit reports on them.”

The school was founded in 1965 with 63 students and seven teachers in the basement of the Saint Ann’s Episcopal Church. In 1966, the church purchased the former Crescent Athletic Club House, which has since served as the school’s main building.

In a 2004 survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal, Saint Ann’s was rated the number one high school in the country for having the highest percentage of graduating seniors enroll in Ivy League and other highly selective colleges. “We have some volleyball grads attending Wesleyan and Amherst,” Carr said. Saint Ann’s offers 11 varsity sports — four each in the Fall and Spring and three in winter, according to the coach.

In 2012, the New York Observer ranked Saint Ann’s as the number one high school in New York City.

And in 2024, Saint Ann’s is the number one volleyball team in the state of New York.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host, Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR