Phineas Hunt ’22 comes to St. Andrew's from San Fransisco, California. The below interview was recorded in the spring of 2019, at the end of his III Form (freshman) year at St. Andrew's. Since then, Phineas has continued to compete with the Saints football, indoor track, and lacrosse teams. He was a Second Team All-Conference selection in lacrosse in spring 2019; a First Team All-Conference selection at defensive tackle in football during his fall 2019 sophomore season; and this winter, Phineas competed in the indoor track state tournament in shot put. He was the only sophomore in the state competing with Flight 4, the furthest throwing group, at a meet of 60 teams, and "demolished his PR by throwing almost a full 2 1/2 feet farther than he had all year with a monster throw of 44' 8.25," recalled indoor track Assistant Coach Pat Moffitt. This catapulted him into a four place finish. When he's not crushing it athletically and academically, Phin can be found having fun with his roommates on Baum Corridor, mentoring students at a local elementary school, and giving tours for the Admission Office.

I started off in the fall as a football player, and my coaches suggested running track in the winter, just so I could stay in shape. My older brother had thrown shot put and I always thought it would be a fun thing to try, so I signed up. I knew that there wasn't an official "shot-putting team," so I talked to my coach asked if it was possible like to get a shot put and practice and he said "Oh yeah, we can do that if that's something you're interested in." 

So I started with that, and then two other seniors started throwing shot put with me, so it was the three of us throwing shot put, and we had a blast. It was really fun because we were doing a lot of the running and sprinting exercises, but we were also doing our own thing as like a group. We would lift and go outside and throw. It was nice being in a small group because I got to know those people a lot better. My [St. Andrew's] big brother, Thomas Cunningham ’19, was actually one of the shot-putters. So it was nice getting to hang out with him, and then I also got to hang out with the other seniors. That was really cool.

I wasn't sure what to expect because I had never been to a track meet, so I just went to the first meet and I got up and I threw. I think I threw like 32 feet. So it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing either. But I think I got like second or third, so I was really happy with that, and sort of surprised. I just kept working and improving. And by the end of the season I think I threw 36 feet. In shot put, that's a pretty big improvement.

For shot put, the minimum cut that you need to make the state tournament is 40 feet. And then you're like automatically in at 42 feet. So that's definitely something I'm working towards, especially because I want to get to compete against the best people in the state.

I really want—since the two other shot-putters I started with have graduated—to maybe recruit some new people, maybe off the football team—people who don't really have a dedicated winter sport—to just try and grow the team. It would just be a lot more fun if we had a group of guys that did this thing. I just want to get more people into it.

Something that I really enjoyed coming in as a freshman, is that I was put in a starting position in football and lacrosse. Even as a young athlete, you can be put into like in a leadership role at St. Andrew's, and that's something that I hadn't expected. Coming here to a very small school, everybody—seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshman—they're all playing and that's something that I really like. I wasn't expecting to be put into such a leadership role, but I think being thrown into it like made me a better player in both football and lacrosse. 

Winning the Cannon with the football team was just a great experience. I didn't understand how much it really meant, to not just the football team, but to everybody at St. Andrew’s. It's our biggest game. And being able to win it for the first time in four years, it's such a big thing. So it was just a really great thing. Also, I felt really close with the senior class, so being able to win it for them, just as they're about to leave, was something really special.