Midland School‘s boys basketball team ‘the Oaks’ receive nice coverage from Joe Bailey of the Santa Ynez Valley News. Bailey does a great job of painting the union between the Oak’s 7-0 start and Midland’s values.
Midland basketball coach athletic director, and business manager Tom Rogowski resurrected the program a few years back and has done a masterful job of melding Midland practices, philosophies and perspectives with athletics.
Rogowski explains:
“We resurrected the program here five or six years ago…We took a real good look at our programs; we only have 40 to 45 boys in the entire school. We had too many sports in one season so the talent was too spread out — we had a lot of mediocre of teams.”(SYVN)
No matter how successful the team or it’s individual members, each continues responsible for contributing and completing his jobs in Midland’s community. Rogowski explains:
“We have an interesting aspect in the program, the kids have to build a wood fire to heat the boiler to run the hot water. Sometimes a player will say ‘I was late to practice because I had to start my fire to heat my water’ — it’s a little different concept.”(SYVN)
Midland continues a boarding school tradition requiring students play two interscholastic sports each year.
“’Athletics is part of the curriculum — a sound body is a sound mind,’ Rogowski said. ‘So kids that have never played the sport before get the opportunity to play. It’s fun to see a kid accept a new challenge and watch that kid grow into a basketball player.’”(SYVN)
Even basketball comes with an outdoor element at Midland:
“The games are played in a three-sided barn, creating an old-school close to nature basketball atmosphere. Midland has to remind fans of opposing teams to bring extra blankets because it gets a little chilly during the later parts of the game.”(SYVN)
