At the Upper School (US), varsity games, fantasy leagues and professional sports have long fueled lunchtime debates and hallway conversations. Now, that enthusiasm is moving beyond fandom. This year, three sports-centered clubs are channeling US sports culture into something more ambitious: career exploration in media, analytics and performance science.
“People at the club fair were wondering why there were new sports clubs,” Dean Riaz ’28, who co-founded the Sports Discussions Club (SDC) with Charlie Zarrow ’28, said. “‘There’s so many of them’ is what I was hearing around, but each club really focuses on a different aspect of sports.”
SDC centers on communicating about sports through different perspectives. The club invited Christian Arcand ’00, host of “The Christian Arcand Show” on WEEI, to speak to students on Jan. 15 about his career in sports radio.
“We were trying to show the audience that this is an actual career, something you can pursue,” Dean said.
Mr. Arcand said he hoped to inspire future sports commentators.
“The future of this business is really in the hands of young people who are into sports and care about sports media and sports discussion. What makes my job fulfilling is that people care about it. At my 25th reunion, even though my classmates were working in strong industries, they all wanted to know about my job.
Mr. Arcand had advice for students interested in his career.
“You find your voice the more you talk,” he said. “Grab your phone, go down to watch the games of the sport you’re interested in and ask the coach, ‘Do you mind if I do play-by-play for these games up here in the stands?’ Do as many games as you can, then go back and listen to it.”
Mr. Arcand said the sports industry offers career paths beyond broadcasting.
“Pro teams have entire divisions of sports analytics, and they have a lot of say now in the sports business,” he said. “As for sports performance, teams are always looking for trainers and medical professionals to keep everybody healthy and in shape.”
While SDC explores sports commentary, the Sports Performance Club (SPC) examines the science behind athletic success. Established by Jack Reinfeld, Kai Veson and Kate Sullivan (all ’27), the club attended the event with Mr. Arcand.
“Students who come to our club are all disciplined and care about their sports,” Kai said. “They can learn new things to try to enhance their performance because they have that desire already.”
Kai had takeaways from listening to Mr. Arcand.
“It really showed how much he loves what he does,” Kai said. “It’s all about finding something you’re so passionate about that you will be able to go to any lengths to achieve your goals.”
Alongside SDC and SPC, the preexisting Sports Analytics Club (SAC) focuses on the data-driven side of athletics. On Jan. 29, SAC — led by Gus Inada, Brett Riley and Max Re (all ’26) — hosted Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick, who grew up in Lexington.
“We wanted to get a professional player’s take on sports analytics,” Gus said. “It was cool to get to hear from a professional baseball player about what he thinks about to optimize how he plays.”
Analytics prompted Mr. Frelick to alter his game. “He was one of the weaker hitters in the league in terms of how hard he hit the ball, but he changed his approach and now he’s a contact hitter,” Gus said. “Hearing how he found himself in the data was very inspiring.”
Talking about sports can develop skills applicable to other fields.
“We want to inspire curiosity, looking at the data to figure out why things happen,” he said. “If you build that curiosity in sports, it can carry over into other areas of life, as well.”
Together, the three clubs reflect growing student interest in sports beyond competition.
