From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 11

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system and how the prep schools’ sports programs differ from the sports programs of most U.S. public school systems:

“Prep teams compete with college freshmen teams, other prep teams, and occasionally with public schools, although public school competitors are picked with care…Some schools, known as `jock’ schools, act essentially as farm teams for Ivy League colleges, consistently providing them with athletes who have been polished by the prep experience. Many prep schools take public high-school graduates for a post-graduate year, as a way of adding some size and weight to their football teams…Prep girls also love sports…

“…Few public schools can afford a hockey rink so prep schools can attract the best players without much competition. Some prep schools import a few Canadians each year to fill out the roster…

“The athletic facilities at prep schools are impressive, and at the larger schools, lavish. Acres and acres of playing fields, scores of tennis courts, one or more gyms, a hockey rink, a golf course, swimming pools, squash courts, workout rooms—all can be found on many prep school campuses…”