Conroy Distinguished Visitor Peter McBride ’89 inspires others to find wonder in, and protect, nature.
April 14, 2025
Following a keynote by sports psychologist Spencer Wood, PhD, students participated in workshops on healthy habit-building and performance optimization.
BY KRISTIN DUISBERG
Decades ago, as a freshman starter on his Division II college basketball team, Spencer Wood was shooting a national-best 96.9% from the free throw line … until someone made him aware of the statistic. During a game the following day, he missed an unheard-of two free throws in a row — and learned the first of many valuable lessons about the interplay between mindset and performance that he brought to the St. Paul’s School community during an April 10 Spring Term LinC Day on the topic of healthy habit-building and performance optimization.
“It wasn’t because I physically didn’t execute the shots,” Wood, a sports psychologist and mental skills coach whose clients include NBA, MLB and NCAA Division I sports teams, explained during his opening keynote in Memorial Hall. “I want you to understand the first key point about pressure …. under pressure, the brain wants to think about what’s at stake, and that triggers mental, physical and emotional stress responses that create conditions for failure. But you can train your brain to stay in the present.”
Wood spent the day in Millville at the invitation of his longtime friend and SPS associate director of admissions Derek Johnson. Speaking in two separate sessions for Third and Fourth Formers and Fifth and Sixth Formers, he offered insights about how to develop mental resilience that are broadly applicable to academics and interpersonal relationships — and some new frameworks for students to use in thinking about their goals and positive ways to approach them.
I think the focus level of the students was inspiring. Everyone was focused during the presentation and throughout the workshops.”
— Ali Cabot ‘25, Sixth Form LinC Leader
In addition to Woods’ keynote, students participated in faculty and student LinC leader-run breakout sessions that emphasized both the physical and mental aspects of resilience, including yoga and meditation, public speaking, developing SMART goals and more. Spring Term sports captains and coaches met with Wood during lunch, and Fifth Formers had a second session with the visitor in the afternoon.
Fifth Form LinC leader Mekhi Simmons led two sessions for his peers during the day — one of the SMART goals workshops and one of the public speaking workshops. Sixth Form LinC leader Ali Cabot led a trivia workshop with Fifth Former William Iler that allowed students to apply some of the stress management skills they’d taken away from the day in a setting that was fun and engaging. “I think the focus level of the students was inspiring,” Cabot says of her peers’ participation in LinC Day. “Everyone was focused during the presentation and throughout the workshops.” Simmons adds that his favorite part of the day was taking part in an optional Q&A with Woods in the Friedman Center, open to all students, at the end of the formal programming. “He was very professional and also entertaining all at once, which made every environment that he attended a great place to be,” he says.
Part of the School’s Living in Community curriculum, which aims to nurture students’ development as knowledgeable, responsible and caring members of society, LinC Days take place in the Fall and Spring and offer topical programming that is chosen and developed by Fifth and Sixth Form LinC leaders. In addition to LinC Days, during Third and Fourth Form years, students take required LinC classes that delve into topics including cultural competency, diversity and inclusivity, personal identity, sexuality and gender, drugs and alcohol, and wellness; Fifth and Sixth Formers participate in a three-times-per-term seminar that builds on the knowledge base developed in those LinC classes.
Judging by the animated conversations that began during Thursday’s sessions and continued into afternoon athletics practices and arts rehearsals, the Spring Term topic was one that resonated with the student body — full of information applicable not just to performance on fields and courts but in classrooms, dorm rooms, at home and more.
