From the rafters of the American Airlines Center hang a series of banners flaunting the division titles and league championships won by the arena’s respective tenants, the Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks. The 21 green and gold banners set against the brick walls of the Phillips Gymnasium exhibit a similar tradition by displaying the years in which Greenhill varsity athletic teams won Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) Division-I (D-I) championships. After 51 years of competing in SPC, only the banner belonging to the boys’ soccer team is filled.

        This visual demonstration of an apparent lack of success offers explanation for the negative reputation that accompanies Greenhill athletics. According to a poll conducted by The Evergreen, the majority of Greenhill students are aware that their school’s athletics are often regarded as “inferior” to those of its competitors. In fact, the poll also revealed that 47% of Upper School students actually agree with that assessment and consider Greenhill athletics not to be among the elite of the SPC.

        Despite a gym full of seemingly empty banners and the school’s unflattering reputation, Greenhill athletic teams have seen their share of success in recent history. From 2001 through 2009, Greenhill’s 28 SPC D-I championships was exceeded only by the 43 won by the St. Mark’s School of Texas. As encouraging as that statistic is, it also provides further explanation for Greenhill’s reputation.

        Were it Fort Worth Country Day, Holland Hall, or any other school with the most SPC D-I championships in the last eight years, students at Greenhill and other Dallas schools might not regard the Hornet athletic program as unsuccessful. However, the fact that the rival St. Mark’s Lions are the dominant program in the SPC makes Greenhill athletics seem second rate.

        “It is frustrating to see that Greenhill has won more SPC titles than any other coed school in the conference and only trails St. Mark’s among all schools and yet is seen as having a ‘poor sports program’,” said Head of School Scott Griggs. “When I talk with other Heads of our peer schools, they are all envious of our success athletically and admire the balance we have with outstanding academic and athletic programs.”

        When taking Greenhill’s athletic success in recent years into account, St. Mark’s’ dominance alone cannot explain the school’s athletic reputation.

        The fact that not one of the 28 Greenhill athletic teams to order SPC championship rings in the last eight years played football, however, can help. 

        “It is unfortunate that the school that is currently in possession of the Athletic Director’s Cup for Girls Sports Program, Co-Ed Sports Program, and was runner-up for Boys Sports Program (all of which are the most extensive measure of the overall standings of all of a school’s athletic teams) would be considered ‘inferior’ to any other school in the conference,” said Earl Dorber, Director of Athletics in an e-mail. “However, I fully realize that in Texas, the measuring stick is football, and quite frankly, we have struggled there for the past five years or so.”

        After a fall in which the football team suffered a 1-9 record and lost to rivals St. Mark’s and the Episcopal School of Dallas (ESD), the impact the football team has on the school’s entire athletic reputation is very evident.

        “The decline of the football team is definitely a reason Greenhill sports do not have the respect of other teams,” said an anonymous St. Mark’s senior. “The [Greenhill] football team used to be dominant and had a wonderful rivalry with St. Mark’s, but now, even to the fans, Greenhill football is not threatening anymore.”

        That St. Mark’s is considered the class of the SPC when it comes to athletics is understandable given the school’s athletic accomplishments throughout its history. On the other hand, the reason that 51% of Upper School students also consider ESD to be amongst the elite of the SPC and superior to Greenhill is less clear.

        In the same eight-year span that Greenhill won 28 SPC D-I titles, ESD only managed to collect five such championships. In the last five years, however, ESD also amassed two SPC Division-II (D-II) football titles. Football is the only SPC sport in which D-I and D-II participants are predetermined thus there is little difference between the two divisions. (In other sports, the top eight teams at the end of the regular season compete in D-I, while remaining teams are placed in D-II). Additionally, ESD has won three of its last four meetings against the Hornet football team.

        Pair the football team’s successes with a boys’ basketball team that has become the conference power, and ESD’s “superior” athletic reputation is solidified.  Boys’ basketball is perhaps the most influential sport to a school’s athletic reputation behind football, and ESD has won three of the last four SPC D-I championships in the sport.

        Comparatively, Greenhill has not celebrated a SPC basketball championship since 1998 and has not beaten ESD since Jaye Andrews became Varsity Boys’ Basketball Head Coach in 2003. Unfortunately for Greenhill, such statistics have been allowed to overshadow the school’s overall accomplishments and dictate its athletic reputation.

        Greenhill is home to perennial powers in soccer, volleyball, and track and field in addition to recently successful programs in tennis, swimming, and other sports. As a result, it has put itself in position to be regarded as one of the SPC’s finest athletic institutions.

        Senior and former varsity football captain Sean Kirkpatrick has been at Greenhill long enough to remember a time when Greenhill football was thought of as a powerhouse, and the school’s athletic program as a whole was looked at in a similar light.

        “I believe that football is very important, but a school’s focus should be on the whole athletic department and not just one area,” Sean said. “Greenhill has proven itself and earned the right to be respected in terms of athletics.”

                With Sean’s words in mind, perhaps it is time to realize that Greenhill is not the athletically inferior school it is perceived to be but rather is an established athletic institution that its students can be proud of.