As you walk through the halls where Chase-Tallwood and Seaverns meet, you hear noise blasting from behind the doors of Hewett Gym: the squeaking of shoes, the thud of a basketball, and the cheers from the stands. While that’s an expected sound for a Wednesday evening, you just got out of your math class midway through a seemingly random Friday. But, as you look at the ‘US Announcements’ slideshow for something you may have missed, you realize it isn’t your average Friday, but instead, it’s the day Student Government takes on the KO faculty.
With the game taking place on Feb. 6 during Community Time, it allowed all Upper School students–and those from the Middle School who snuck away from lunch to join in on the fun and watch this competition. This game previously took place in 2024, with a hiatus in 2025, and was brought back for good reason: other than our required weekly assemblies, any space on campus has not been as voluntarily filled as it was that Friday afternoon.
Something notable, and a collective agreement, across the KO population, especially in the Upper School, is that we lack a sense of community and a strong bond. Unlike public schools, the majority of people in our already small student body are occupied with their mandated extracurricular activities, which students believe bring down school spirit.
To get a crowd, even at the most important games of a team’s season, we have to entice students with things such as free T-shirts: just look at previous Dig Pink matches and varsity softball championships. So, with this game occurring in the middle of the day, when everyone on campus is free, it brings people together more than any actual competition. Junior Aliza Rashid supports that sentiment. “I feel like KO lacks community bonding events,” she said, “and this is a great way to start it.”
The game itself was also exciting. Even though it resulted in an agreed disappointing ending–at least amongst the majority of the campus population–with the faculty winning 35-24, both kids and adults alike had a great time. What was so special about this is that each grade has SGA reps, as well as various types of people within the group, which allowed students from across the board to support their friends, and by association, the school as a whole.
Each quarter was five minutes long, with a couple of minutes for intermission in between, allowing discussion between the teams and the fans in attendance.
While the faculty may or may not have been carried by Middle School math teacher Tylon Smith–one of the only staff members who has seriously played basketball–he still had a sense of humility and admiration for this event. “It makes it exciting to be a Wyvern,” Mr. Smith said. Based on both his reaction and non-player reactions, it’s clear that, with the variety in ages and involvement aside, it was thrilling for everyone.
While on the surface this game is a fun experience for escaping the chaos and stress of the classroom, it holds deeper importance within the community. One of the main representatives of the Upper School–and a player in the game–explains this perfectly. “It’s a great community event to get the teachers and students involved, not just in the classroom, but outside of it too,” senior Speaker and varsity basketball Captain Olivia Pilecki said. “Obviously, when you go to your clubs, you have some of your teachers there as proctors, but it’s different when you get to play a game and compete with them, and just see everyone have fun.” From across all reactions, either by students who viewed it, played in it, or faculty members involved, it’s evident that this SGA v. Faculty basketball game was a success.
This game wouldn’t be anything worth noting without what it stood for. Anyone can go watch a late-night basketball game, whether it’s the KO Wyverns or the UConn Huskies, but it’s rare to be able to sit amongst your peers, even if you know them or not, and cheer together for a common goal: community. The importance of this game to the campus population is not spoken, but instead heard through the roars of the crowd when, really, anyone makes a basket, and the sighs when another three-pointer is missed. So, forming a tradition out of this game, as well as incorporating various activities and groups of people, can help continue this enjoyment and strengthen our bond for years to come, because if not, the concern of disconnect will remain as it has been throughout the previous decades.
