Streaking down the field, legs burning, heart pounding with anticipation. Being blinded by the spotlights onstage. Seeing faces light up with “oh, I get it!” during a tutoring session. Leaving every thought and concern behind except the goal and the team.
This is the KO sports program — vibrant, intense, and indispensable to our community. For decades, our co-curriculars have provided students with the connection, motivation, and discipline they need to succeed at KO and beyond. The expectations we use to guide students towards these constructive opportunities are crucial to our success as a school, which is why it matters when they change.
Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, KO will alter the requirements on co-curricular participation. The updated policy requires each student to participate in at least two of the three seasons, erasing any distinction between “team” and “fitness” options and getting rid of some offerings like Strength and Performance. Freshmen and sophomores will no longer need to participate in three seasons. Since juniors and seniors were previously required to do two seasons, the main change for them will be that they cannot get credit for options like Recovery Season.
The facts of the change are relatively simple, but the effects might not be. What does the new policy mean for the future of co-curriculars at KO? And what do students and coaches think about it?
Sophomore Anya Dausey, ready to take the helm as the next girls cross country captain, shared her thoughts on how the change would impact her team. She said a few more runners might join, citing the decreased options for juniors and seniors that may require them to participate more in organized co-curriculars. She also shared her thoughts on how the team’s community would evolve as a result of the update. Cross country at KO is known for its close network and warmth towards every athlete, no matter their race time. Anya was confident that this would stay the same. “It won’t change the makeup of the team,” Anya said. “The things that our team values or that welcoming reputation that the team has will not change.”
Esports coach Graham Hegeman disagreed and thought the update might decrease attendance in his program since freshmen and sophomores will now only need to participate in two seasons. However, he was also confident in the esports team’s robustness. “I’m not particularly worried about the numbers right now,” he said. “I think we have a relatively healthy program. So even if we lost five members, I think that would be okay.”
The new policy requires students to participate in two seasons at KO, with independent proposals no longer an option. Anya thought this might make the change challenging for students with multiple sports outside of KO, who will now have to participate in two in-school activities a year on top of their other commitments. A survey distributed throughout the KO Upper School about the change showed that multiple students shared this concern.
However, the change might make playing an outside sport for just one season more manageable. Independent proposals at KO previously had a minimum requirement for hours of participation, forcing some athletes to overcommit to practicing so they could log enough hours. Now these students won’t need to load up their schedule — they can simply choose not to participate at KO during their independent season.
Freshman Luna Hansen, who figure-skates independently in the winter, needed to practice skating in the early morning as well as after school this year to fulfill the time requirement. She was relieved that the new requirement will solve that problem. “It’s going to be nice to actually get to sleep in and then to have provided time to do a sport,” Luna said.
One of the main concerns about the change among both students and coaches was that the decreased expectations for younger students’ participation might weaken the KO community. Multiple survey responders felt that this might pull freshmen and sophomores away from essential team-building experiences. Others added that it may cause many programs to lose numbers, JV sports teams in particular. Luna noted these issues. “I have some friends that are on the same teams as me,” she said, “and then maybe they will want to skip that season because they like their winter sport more, and then there’ll be less people on each of the teams.”
Activities previously divided into “team” and “non-team” categories will now count the same, which students are very happy about. The distinction always felt complicated and annoying, especially if you were serious about co-curriculars that were labeled “non-team” options. Being in Theater Tech, for instance, didn’t count as a team activity even though being in the musical cast with similar hours did. “What counted as a team sport and what didn’t seemed extremely arbitrary,” wrote freshman survey responder Tim Bateson, “so getting rid of that is nice.”
In particular, students are grateful to be done with the requirement that freshmen do a “team” co-curricular in the fall. Though it was well-meant as a way to encourage students to build friendships while entering high school, it could sometimes be counterproductive because freshmen who tried out for a team and didn’t make the cut had few options. “If I don’t get into JV, I’m going to have to do cross country or esports!” was a common complaint among freshmen this fall. Setting aside any questionable views on our accomplished cross country and esports teams, it’s doubtless that the previous policy was more constraining socially than helpful for most students.
While the new policy allows students more flexibility, it also adds structure in some places. Options like Recovery Season and Strength & Performance that really felt like excuses to skip sports are no longer offered. Mr. Hegeman was very supportive of this decision. “Students are just going to this because they have to go to something,” he said of Strength & Performance, “and pushing students more towards things that they’re actually interested in, or even if they’re not interested in that, but it actually benefits a program, is an overall good thing.”
Overall, the change has been received quite positively in the KO community. Conversations with students and coaches around campus showed that a large majority favor it. The KO community is aware that the updated requirement, like any other, will create dilemmas from changing rosters to challenges for independent athletes. However, there is widespread confidence that people will adjust and the new requirement will form the basis for a continued strong athletic program. “It’s really hard to say how this all shakes out,” Mr. Hegeman said, “but I’m excited to see what will happen.”
