Jack McDermott ’23

The student profile below appears in the Summer 2023 edition of the Brooks Bulletin, a publication mailed three times a year to alumni, parents and friends of the school. View the full issue and peruse an archive of the magazine on The Bulletin page. 

Jack McDermott ’23 fell in love with Brooks when he attended a revisit day. “I came back to visit and the campus looked awesome,” he says. “I felt like it was the perfect spot.”

McDermott was talking about the school’s ability to meet his needs as a hockey player — he entered planning to play hockey — but also about its academic philosophy. “Brooks has rigorous academics,” McDermott says, “but I knew that I wasn’t going to be extremely overworked here. Brooks felt like a perfect balance.”

"Brooks felt like a perfect balance."

McDermott relishes his time playing on the boys 1st hockey team, and he speaks immediately of the friendships he made through the program. “We have the strongest group of guys possible,” he says. “That was our goal this year, to try to make and maintain those friendships, and I feel like we accomplished that. I can already tell that the guys I met playing hockey here at Brooks are going to be my friends for life.”

Learn about Brooks School's tradition of athletic excellence.

He learned, he says, how to work with other people; how to build relationships. “I figured out how people go about solving problems,” he says. “It’s about doing your job and recognizing that everyone has a specific role.”

McDermott also played golf at Brooks. This year, he was named to the All-ISL team and was named the team’s most valuable player. Golf is different from hockey, McDermott says, because “the only time you’ll see your friends when you’re playing is when you’re walking past them on a hole.”

The base of that teamwork, though, feels familiar. “You have to trust that your teammate is going to do their thing,” he says. “Golf was a really good experience. We got to play some really cool courses, and it was a lot of fun.”

McDermott looks forward to attending The Ohio State University in the fall, where he hopes to walk on to the school’s golf team. The level of competition in the ISL prepared McDermott for this challenge, he says, and he’s confident.

McDermott also shone in the classroom at Brooks. He speaks fondly of his AP Statistics class and its real-world applications, and his budding love for neuroscience, and marvels at the path his life took at Brooks.

“When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to go somewhere I could play hockey,” he says. “That was my goal. In my head, I was going to play in high school and then play junior hockey and go that route. Brooks really helped me find my way, and Brooks showed me what I want in life. There’s more to it than sports. I have other interests that intrigue me, and it’s not just about athletics.”