Xavier High School (New York City) - Athletics

Athletics

Xavier, a CHSAA member, provides its students the opportunity to pursue a wide variety of sports: baseball, basketball, bowling, cross-country, football, golf, hockey, indoor/outdoor track and field, rugby, soccer, swimming, tennis, and wrestling. Other extracurricular activities include boxing club, choir, speech and debate, chess team, anime, film, science fiction, and skiing /snowboard clubs, school newspaper, The Review, drama productions, and the Blue Night Jazz Band. The Blue Night Band won best trombone section at the 2010 Villanova University Big Band Festival.

Xavier's current mascot is a knight, and all of its athletic teams are referred to as the Knights. However, for many years, the teams were called the Cadets, a reflection of Xavier's military program, while a terrier was used as a mascot. After a variety of replacements, including the 1980s Bruins, the nickname of the Knights was decided upon in the early 1990s and has been official since.

Xavier has fielded one of the top rugby teams in the United States since the club's founding in 1976. The team achieved an undefeated season in 2007, winning the Tier B National Championship Tournament. The Xavier Rugby Team also won National Championship Tournaments in 1985 and 1993 and has won the East Coast/Northeast US Championship Tournament every year from 2000 to 2009. The team won their 4th National Championship on May 22, 2010. They defeated Gonzaga 32-10 to win the Boy's National High School Championship.

In 1859 the College of St. Francis Xavier and St. John's College (now Fordham University) played the first collegiate level baseball game, featuring the new nine-man team style of play. Fordham won the game 33-11.

The Xavier Football program began in the late 19th century. It has a continued rivalry with the Bronx's Fordham Preparatory School. The two schools compete in an annual "Turkey Bowl", the oldest high school football rivalry in New York City. Their very first game against one another took place in the late 19th century when the game was called due to darkness, ending in a tie. Many of these football matches were played at Manhattan's famed Polo Grounds, until its demolition.

Xavier High School's JV Soccer team won the CHSAA Intersectional Championship in both 2008 and 2009.

The Freshman Track and Field Team won the indoor and outdoor 2009 CHSAA Intersectional Championships, the first time in team history. In 2010, the team defended their outdoor victory as sophomores. The Track and Field team competed in the New Balance Nationals track meet in Greensboro, North Carolina in both the 4 by 100 and 4 by 200 meter relay. Both relays finished fifth places over all, earning Emerging Elite Metals. Both relay teams set school records for their performance at the national championship meet In June 2012, a Xavier track and field athlete became the school's first to earn All-America honors during the outdoor season with a 6th place overall finish in the 400 meter hurdles at the New Balance National Championship.