Athletics

Commonwealth's sports program aims to offer the excitement of competition to those who want it and the fun of exerting oneself to all.

Students can choose between the well-established soccer (boys and girls), basketball (boys varsity and junior varsity and girls varsity), fencing, and ultimate frisbee teams and recreational programs in running, fitness, ballroom dance, sailing, squash, dance, and yoga.

Teams practice at nearby fields and facilities, to which our students walk, run, or ride when classes are over. All our sports are open to everyone who wants to take part, and all students must participate in the fall and winter seasons, three days a week after school. Whether the reward is a trophy or a lifelong habit of exercise, we see sports as an important route to self-knowledge and pride.

Basketball and soccer team victories and losses often provide material for especially gripping announcements at recess. These teams play full schedules, the boys in the Massachusetts Bay Independent League, the girls in the Girls' Independent League.

Our fencers compete against some of the top schools in Massachusetts, and several winners of regional tourneys for the Junior Olympics have gone on to compete for Division I colleges, including Penn, Harvard, and Brown. But if the fencing team includes some of our most serious athletes, it also makes room for many who choose to practice without competing. Similarly, our rigorous program in dance welcomes beginners and offers a challenge to more experienced dancers.

Skaters, swimmers, and wrestlers committed to activities outside school are among those who have met their requirement through an independent sports credit. And student interest often leads to the addition of new sports at Commonwealth: in recent years, baseball, yoga, and ballroom dancing.