The fall athletics season is already underway at Kingswood Oxford, and many of our teams have seen successes in their early games and meets. Beyond competitive sports groups, though, there are a handful of changes that have been made for the 2024-25 school year that may impact student-athletes.
Firstly, the Athletics Department has instituted a requirement that all Form Three students must participate in a team sport during the fall season. Director of Athletics Josh Balabuch believes that this will build community among the youngest and newest Wyverns. “It gets kids onto a team right away,” he said, “where they meet new people, get that team component, and start meeting a lot of our faculty and staff as well.” He explained that Form Three students also must sign up for a sport in the winter or spring seasons. “They still have to meet the two team/ one activity requirement, but one of those teams has to be in the fall season,” Mr. Balabuch said.
Another change is the addition and inclusion of intramural sports options like pickleball in the fall and ultimate frisbee in the spring. “We talked to a lot of students at the end of the year last year with Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Loeb,” Mr. Balabuch said. “Pickleball was one of those fast-growing sports in the world.” Many other schools with which KO competes have added pickleball as an activity option this year as well. In the spring, ultimate frisbee will be another fun way to engage students in athletics in a less competitive way.
Junior Shreya Adlakha joined intramural pickleball this fall and plans to continue with the sport in her senior year. “I was hoping to still have a more team-like experience without the demand of being on a varsity or JV team,” she said. The pickleball team practices for an hour per day, four days a week, on the tennis courts, which have been taped for the pickleball boundaries (which differ from tennis boundaries.) This practice schedule keeps the commitment relatively lower than a varsity-level sport, but also supports a high level of activity. “I have really liked participating in intramural sports this year, being able to both be on a team and have more free time,” Shreya said.
Both of these new stipulations culminate in the athletic department’s biggest change: a major shift in the structure of Strength and Performance. “Strength is really the only activity that people would flock to,” Mr. Balabuch said. “We felt like Strength and Performance became this catch-all.”
Not only is the program now capped at 50 students per season, but it also now offers a more structured program that allows students to achieve fitness goals with the support of the two on-staff strength trainers. “[Field House Manager and Strength and Performance Coach] Brad [Seaman], will usually host a 30 to 40 minute workout right off the bat, and then if they want, they can continue,” Mr. Balabuch said. “They can do their own workout in the Fitness Center, or work in the Varsity Weight Room.”
A handful of minor changes have also been made for the 2024-25 year. Many students, faculty, and staff have likely noticed the recently resurfaced Field House, a project that finished up during Preseason Week. “We changed up the color scheme, and the floors look really nice,” Mr. Balabuch said. “We’re trying to limit food and drinks in there so that we can keep the facilities fresh.”
Lastly, the construction project on campus has impacted KO’s tradition of “Under the Lights” night games on the turf. However, Mr. Balabuch hopes that the night games for Varsity Volleyball and Varsity Football will be well-attended. “They’ll be pretty highly contested matches,” he said. Be sure to Pack the Den in support of our Wyverns!
