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It is no secret that despite more and more rigorous admissions policies, there are certain high schools that send a disproportionate number of students to Harvard. Boston Latin, Philips Exeter and Philips Andover, the list goes on; all these schools have long established academic traditions that allow their students to distinguish themselves for the admissions office.

There are certain schools that endear themselves to Dean Fitzsimmons and company for another reason: their athletic programs. Over the next few weeks, I will be exploring this interplay between academics and athletics in the admissions process. Last time, we took a look at two public schools in California, Corona del Mar and Los Gatos, which almost exclusively send athletes to Harvard. Now we shift our focus to a public school in Harvard’s backyard: the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Despite sending upwards of 10 students to Harvard every year, CRLS student-athletes are a rarity on Crimson rosters.

PROXIMITY AND PERFORMANCE

The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School is located at 1640 Cambridge Street, about a two-minute walk from Memorial Hall and Annenberg. In 1977, Rindge Technical School and Cambridge Latin High School merged to form CRLS—the only public high school in Cambridge—which now serves 1,616 students, grades 9-12.

The original school was founded in 1648 after the general court of Cambridge, heavily influenced by the first graduating Harvard class of 1642, decreed that parents would be required to properly educate their children. It has since maintained a strong connection with the college, serving as the high school for poet E.E. Cummings ’15 A.M. ’16, mathematician Damodar Kosambi ’29 and Matt Damon, formerly ’92.

“We only have one high school in Cambridge,” said Senior Admissions Officer David L. Evans, the Harvard admissions officer responsible for the Cambridge area. “This is a city with many resourceful parents, parents who are teaching at Harvard, MIT, BU, UMass, the list goes on. Sociologists have shown over the years that there is a very strong correlation between the educational and economic resources of a parent and the performance of students academically. So we appreciate the high performing students that apply [from CRLS].”

Evans estimated that any given year between 40 and 50 CRLS students apply to Harvard, with the acceptance rate for Rindge students last year being 21 percent—compared to a 6.1 percent overall acceptance rate.

What distinguishes CRLS from other high schools with similarly high acceptance rates is that it is public and not a magnet school. Indeed, CRLS is often touted as one of the most diverse high schools in the country, serving students of over 83 nationalities and a wide range of socio-economic levels.

“I loved being a student there,” Josiah Bonsey ’14 said. “It was a great place to go to high school. I attribute the high number to an excellent education that we received at Rindge. [It was] just a really stellar education that left me mentally and physically prepared for college.”

The diversity of the school makes for a unique social and academic experience. Despite sending so many students on to schools like Harvard, the school’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores for 10th graders lag behind the state average in English Language Arts, Math, and Science, with an even more pronounced difference between those Rindge students considered “Low-Income” and those considered “Non-Low Income.”

“The culture here for students is very jam-packed,” CRLS Athletic Director MaryAnn Cappello said. “Whether some of the students have to have a part-time job to help out at home or are involved in any number of clubs or activities, they spread themselves very thin.”

THE FALCONS

CRLS fields 30 teams and has had varying levels of athletic success. The Falcons’ basketball team in the 1980’s sported Basketball Hall of Famer and NCAA National Champion at Georgetown Patrick Ewing, as well as NCAA Champion at Michigan and NBA journeyman, Rumeal Robinson.

“Not since Patrick Ewing have we had a guy playing at such a high level in such a high profile sport coming out of Rindge,” said Bonsey who captained his high school swimming team. “It’s kind of big news when someone goes D-1 from Rindge.”

Alma Lafler ’13-14, walked onto the Harvard sailing team and crewed her freshman and sophomore seasons. She is currently taking a leave of absence and is working at an internship with the Cambridge Public School System. She is the only recent CRLS graduate on a Crimson roster.

“Rindge has a great sailing program and we were all encouraged to learn a lot,” Lafler said. “We weren’t pushed in a negative overly competitive direction, and they really encouraged participation from all levels and abilities. In a sport like sailing, it’s great to see a diverse group of kids getting access to an often inaccessible sport.”

Cappello, who has been in her position as athletic director for the past four years, attributed the lack of CRLS student-athletes competing in college to a culture that promotes other endeavors above athletic success.

“I’ve been in the school system for 35 years, and when I came into this position [as athletic director] and tried to identify how to cultivate student-athletes, I realized that the biggest problem is that they don’t work out in the offseason,” Cappello said. “They’re just not interested until the first day of practices. It’s the culture that we’re dealing with in a city like Cambridge, and we’re trying to change the culture. You go out to the ’burbs, and those kids—whether they’re a three season athlete or a one season athlete—they’re still playing in the offseason. They’re playing club; they’re playing all the time.”

The school began an ambitious renovation campaign in 2009 that aimed to fix up facilities that had not been changed since the 1970s, athletic and otherwise.

“When I was [a student] there, Rindge was in a real period of transition,” Bonsey said. “From outdated and run down facilities, to really new, better, cleaner facilities. Our pool went from being one of the grossest places, and now we have just the most beautiful pool. I think the athletic facilities are improving every year, as opposed to falling apart as they had been for a number of years. The locker rooms were kind of lovable in a way, but kind of grimy. Now it’s sparkling, and maybe that will translate into better athletic performance.”

Cappello won’t be holding her breath. An offseason workout program that was open to the entire student body yielded only 10 participants between the winter and spring seasons. But Cappello noted that the stated goal of the CRLS athletic department is not to produce high-performing athletes, but rather high-performing student-athletes.

“I definitely think that the philosophy of the school is to have well-rounded individuals,” Cappello said. “Students that go here go to all the Ivy League colleges across the board. Kids from Rindge can go anywhere in the country. I think being involved in athletics certainly helps you to develop your time management skills, and as an athletic director, I’d love to see more athletes going D-1.”

Cappello was recently taked with reviewing students’ report cards to determine their spring season eligibility.

“It’s just amazing looking at what some of these students are up to, and you think, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s only 24 hours in a day, how do they manage all that?’” Cappello said. “Then you review their report cards, and you look at these kids, and they have all A’s, and they’re three season athletes. If we can have talented, well-rounded, healthy students, then I think we’re doing a good job.”

THE HARVARD CONNECTION

Despite the proximity and the proclivity for sending students to Harvard, Crimson athletics do not hold a place of esteem in the collective consciousness of the students at CRLS.

“No one really follows Harvard sports in Cambridge,” Bonsey said. “The only college sport that people really follow up here is the Beanpot and BU-BC hockey. But even that is not that big compared to the pro Boston sports.”

One need only look at the near-empty stands at a Harvard football game to realize that local enthusiasm for the Crimson is middling at best.

“When I was working in the elementary school, a person from the Harvard athletic department would send me tickets for the kids to go to Harvard basketball games,” Cappello said. “That generated a little interest, but there’s really not much of a following.”

Though Harvard does not rely on local support for its athletic department like many other schools around the country, the Crimson’s run to the NCAA tournament did energize an otherwise disinterested community.

“We would have loved to have seen Harvard go on in the NCAA tournament, so we could watch them play in Boston Garden,” Cappello said. “That would have been super, and I think really would have gotten people excited about Harvard in a way that they never have been before. Unfortunately, they lost.”

There is, for a variety of reasons, a level of disinterest in Harvard as an institution from the students at CRLS.

“As far as students thinking about going to Harvard, some of them will say ‘I don’t want to go to or apply to Harvard because it’s in Cambridge. I’ve lived here all my life, I want to get out,’” Cappello said.

Still, as the application numbers show, the proverbial ‘university at the top of the hill’ does have a significant draw on CRLS students considering their college options.

“It’s great being in Cambridge still,” said Bonsey of attending school in his hometown. “A lot of people want to go to college and kind of get out of their hometown. But for me it was more about being in a place that I really love. I love being in Cambridge; I love the people here. Of course, Harvard is Harvard. You’re not really going to find a school like this anywhere else, and the fact that it was in my hometown made it a pretty easy decision.”

For many student-athletes at Rindge who could play at the Division III level, compromises are made to attend Harvard.

“For me, I always knew I wanted to keep sailing just because I loved it so much,” Lafler said. “The competition level really rises in college in a lot of sports, but for sailing there’s a smaller community and so it’s a bit easier to continue in college. For a lot of my classmates, there were a lot of factors to consider, but Harvard worked out pretty perfect for me.”

Whether embraced or resented, the effect Harvard has had on the city of Cambridge vice versa is undeniable. It remains to be seen if that relationship will transfer more conspicuously onto the playing fields at Rindge and for the Crimson.

“My guess is that things won’t change,” Bonsey said. “[Rindge has] never been an athletic power house in anything, and neither has Harvard. I’m a big sports fan, but I’m fine with things being that way.”

—Staff writer Alexander Koenig can be reached at akoenig@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: April 5

In an earlier version of this article, Josiah Bonsey ’14 said that a student from his alma mater, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, is recruited to play a Division I sport in college every few years. Though the athletic director at the high school declined to provide the exact number of students who are recruited to play Division I sports, the average is in fact more than one per year.