The York School 2024/25 Year in Review - Athletic Highlights

Three cheers for York’s athletes! We’re so proud of their talent, teamwork and high level of competition.
Athletics at York has come a long way in the past 20 years. In 2005, we had fewer than 20 teams and they were competing at lower levels. Now we have approximately 50 teams each year, and between 65 and 70% of our students belong to at least one team. Our participation in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA), a federation of 18 regional athletic associations across the province, has also increased significantly. The growth of our school population and a focus on developing the Athletics program and student-athletes has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of OFSSA championships we compete in. Prior to 2014, York had qualified for two OFSSA championships, but in the last four years we competed in 17. 
 
In 2025, York celebrated an exciting milestone that proved that we’ve become an athletic school as well as an academic one. We also enjoyed victories at the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario Athletic Association (CISAA), including a gold medal for our Varsity Curling team.

Congratulations to our Varsity Girls Volleyball team who won the silver medal at OFSAA – York’s first ever team sport medal at OFSSA – by triumphing over fiercely competitive teams from across the province!  

Rick DeMarinis, the school’s Director of Athletics, has been building the Athletics program since he arrived in 2005. Mr. D., as he’s known to the students, developed the program by introducing teams at the Junior School (which created a pipeline of student-athletes) and bringing in external, professional coaches for teams in all our divisions. Rick says elevating our teams to a competitive level also required a cultural shift. 

“People knew that York offered sports, but we didn’t have a sports culture. We needed
to show our kids that they could be both academic and athletic”, he says. 

Beyond winning on the court and field, a number of events last year helped bring our community closer and built team spirit and school pride. Our Alumni Relations team began inviting graduates back to the school to play pick-up basketball on Saturdays. After the “Holiday Hoops and Social’ event in December, York treated the alumni hoopers to drinks and snacks at a nearby restaurant. Two February events offered exciting opportunities to root for our athletes. “Friday Night Lights,” held in our gym, featured our two strongest teams, Varsity Girls Volleyball and Varsity Boys Basketball, playing against teams from Malvern Collegiate Institute. An enthusiastic crowd of parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers and friends cheered for York. Another game, held during the school day, pitted our Varsity Boys Basketball team against alumni athletes who had previously played for the team.
 
Recognizing that many female athletes stop playing sports during adolescence, in January, York hosted a day-long conference called “We Can Play” for female athletes in Grades 6 to 12. Supported by the school’s Annual Fund, the goal of this inaugural conference was to encourage and inspire girls to continue participating in sports.

Delfina and Sol Henson ‘25, the co-captains of the OFSSA silver-medal winning Varsity Girls Volleyball team, say that during their time at York they were happy to observe an increased interest in both playing on and cheering for girls’ teams. “There were more events promoting our games and a lot of people came out to watch us play. More girls are trying out for teams because they want to be part of the community,” says Delfina.

See our student-athletes action here.
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