Boston Latin's Classics Coach Is Big on Push-Ups

I had pictured Latin as a sitting-down subject. I was wrong. It is a contact sport with a syllabus.

Eighty-two teams competed. Boston Latin's intermediate and advanced teams each placed second. On the way home there was cake. A sophomore told the paper the best part was getting to know people at the tournaments, even while competing against them.

In February 2025 Boston Latin hosted its own, fifteenth annual tournament. The theme was Praemia Academica, the Academy Awards, and each round included two questions about recent movies and television. Then the results came in. In all three divisions, novice, intermediate and advanced, first place went to Roxbury Latin.

At home. With push-ups. I want to say there is a lesson there, and there is, and it is that there is always another Latin school.

A senior's farewell in the 2025 graduation issue of the Argo listed the communities that made the school feel like home: Gospel Choir, the paper, band, and early summer mornings at Boston University for Certamen practice.

Summer. Early mornings. For Latin. Nobody is there by accident.

The middle one has taken one year of Latin and has started quizzing us at dinner. Last night he asked the Latin for "table." The eldest knew it. He asked the Latin for "dog." The youngest guessed "Woof," and he gave it to her, because it was close enough to canis in spirit. My wife asked for the Latin for "please clear the table." He did not know it. He went quiet for a while, then did ten push-ups on the kitchen floor and said he was getting into the right mindset.

The table is still not cleared. He says the word for that is next week.