VERGENNES — As recent Vergennes Union High School grad Connor Brogan tells it, his career at the school did not get off to the best of starts.

Brogan said when he looks back he sees an 8th- and 9th-grader who was not physically fit, lacked social skills, and tended to sit on the sidelines.

“I guess I found the transition from elementary to middle school a little rough. I was a little less socially adept,” Brogan said.

But few would make those observations about Brogan now, something he acknowledges.

“My whole transformation physically and confidence-wise was really big for me, going from an unathletic … little kid, and a little kind of closed off, to now I’d say I’m pretty confident,” he said. “I’m fairly well liked around the school, I hope, and I’m pretty physically fit. I’m happy with that.”

So how did he change over the years.

He took to the stage and has worked his way into a significant role in the most recent spring musical. He sings in the school chorus. He joined the school’s student-run social justice club, Full Send, and served as the master of ceremonies for the recent VUHS day honoring social justice causes.

He joined the school’s track team and now runs 400 meters in under a minute. He got into weightlifting and has deadlifted 315 pounds, and has taken up boxing.

Brogan points to late in the ninth grade as pivotal in his maturation — he had rebuilt his social connections after the COVID quarantine years and had begun to get into shape.

“Right around the end of 9th grade was when I got into working out,” Brogan said. “Then I felt I started hitting my stride. I finally formed a really solid group of friends as well.”

Also, in 9th grade he signed up for the school’s annual spring musical, working on the crew that moved stage props between scenes of “Bye, Bye, Birdie.” He was hooked and started acting and singing.

“I was way too scared to go up on the stage and do anything (at first). I was too unpopular. So I hid back and moved stuff around,” Brogan said. “It was a super incredible experience. Such an amazing group of people … Every year I started progressively getting bigger and bigger roles.”

Did theater help his confidence after starting out not wanting to be seen on stage?

“Oh, absolutely,” Brogan said. “It’s nice feeling you can hit your stride doing something.”

Encouragement from VUHS teachers also helped him grow. Karl Steen’s 9th-grade Theater Arts class stands out for Brogan; he credits Steen for encouraging him to pursue his stage career.

“He really helped me get out of my shell and performing,” Brogan said. “I’ve always admired him as a teacher.”

As a 10th-grader Brogan had two small performing roles in “Newsies” after which VUHS chorus teacher Cailin O’Hara recruited him, and he signed on the next year.

“That was really awesome, feeling like not only was I decent in singing, but that I had a real talent for it, and having that be recognized,” he said.

Brogan also singled out as supportive his Spanish and morning meeting teacher Kristine Kirkaldy, PE teacher Karyn Choromanski, Social Studies teacher David Grabin and English teacher Chris Wyckoff.

He added a verbal bouquet to all the school’s faculty.

“All the teachers are really awesome and super involved with their students,” Brogan said.

TRACK AND BEYOND

Friends also steered him in the right direction. Brody McGuire talked him into joining the track & field team as an 11th-grader. Brogan flirted with the shot put, but turned to running. During his first season he struggled with injuries and rarely competed. He stuck with it anyway. He enjoys the coach, his friends on the team, and the group ethic of cheering for others.

“I loved the team, and Brad (Castillo), the coach, is an amazing guy,” Brogan said.

This season he started running the 400, partly because another friend on the team, Isabelle van Voorst, suggested it. Now his time in the event has caught the attention of the track & field coach at New Hampshire’s Colby-Sawyer College — his next academic stop.

Before Brogan took up track, another friend, James Buskey, introduced him to powerlifting. Brogan had been working out in his basement and, “I was terrible at PE, terrible at everything.”

They would drive up at 4 a.m. to Lift VT in Williston, and they worked hard and made friends.

Brogan described the lifting environment as similar to that of the track team.

“When someone hits a PR, lifts a really heavy weight, everyone cheers,” Brogan said.

But as much as he enjoyed powerlifting, he has turned instead to boxing. His friend Tyrelle Lavoie fought in the New England Golden Gloves in Lowell, Mass., and Brogan tagged along, calling it “an unreal experience.”

VUHS SENIOR CONNOR Brogan competes in a recent 400-meter race at the Middlebury College track in a meet hosted by the MUHS team.
Independent photo/Steve James

Lavoie gave him boxing gloves and brought him to his gym to try it out in the summer before his junior year, and Brogan was hooked.

“I haven’t competed yet. I’ve just started off. I’m still training,” Brogan said. “But I really want to compete.”

Along the way, Brogan also joined Full Send, which as well as working at VUHS has presented around the state and at a conference in Rhode Island. A friend recruited him, but Brogan also believes in what Full Send is trying to accomplish — inclusivity, equality and acceptance for all regardless of differences.

“I think it’s a really honorable cause, especially now,” Brogan said. “I can’t speak too much on social justice, obviously. I’m a straight white guy. I don’t have too much experience being discriminated against. But I think it’s really valuable, and I think a lot of people don’t realize that racism is real, and that those kinds of discrimination are actually out there …

“Most people, if you ask them, don’t think there’s tons of that in Vermont, but you hear from these people, yeah, this stuff is happening. So that was a really eye-opening experience. So I think it’s really important to advocate.”

LOOKING BACK, AHEAD

Brogan’s parents split at about the time he was born in the St. Albans area, and he has lived with his mother since, mostly in the Addison Northwest School District. He is on good terms with both parents.

More recently, his mother moved up north in Sheldon. In order to spend the end of his high school years at VUHS, Brogan has been living with family friends in Vergennes to whom he is profoundly attached and grateful, Tom and Rachel Cosgrove.

“They’re basically an aunt and uncle to me. We’re incredibly close. I’ve known them since I was really, really young,” he said. “They’ve always treated me like family.”

Next, at Colby-Sawyer he plans to study exercise science and follow that up with a career in sports medicine, possibly as an athletic trainer.

But that could be Plan B. There are boxing clubs in and around New London, home to Colby-Sawyer.

“I really want to box professionally,” Brogan said. “I really, really love boxing, everything about it.”

That goal has created mixed feelings in his family.

“My mom is supportive, and my dad is iffy on it, but neither of them really like the idea,” Brogan said.

When drawbacks were mentioned, such as possible brain damage, Brogan was unfazed.

“I think I’m doing alright so far,” he said.

For sure, Brogan is no longer someone who second-guesses himself. He was asked if he could, would he do anything differently at VUHS?

“Are there things that I regret? Absolutely,” Brogan said. “But even if I had the opportunity, I don’t think I would change any of that, because I don’t think I would be me without any of that stuff. I’ve learned from it, and it’s helped shape who I am and some of my core beliefs and values and all that cliché stuff. I think your experiences are what make you. So even the bad stuff I would take on. I’m pretty satisfied with who I am as a person.”