A perennial contender in the Founders and NEPSAC Class B leagues, the Kingswood Oxford girls’ soccer team appeared in eight postseason tournaments over an eleven-year span ranging from 2006-2016, winning a New England title in 2010. The team offers the best student-athlete experience: excitement, challenge, and the benefits of teamwork. Our athletes are a tight-knit group, always ready to commit their full energy, passion, and skill to the season. The team practices and plays across three natural grass fields on campus.

Coach Sal Penta seeks to foster a positive and competitive environment where girls improve technically, tactically, mentally, and physically.

Penta served as Southington’s girls’ high school soccer coach from 2001 to 2013, establishing a career record at the school of 140-66-24. Under his leadership, the team won the CIAC Class LL State Championship in 2002. The Meriden Record-Journal recognized him as Fall Coach of the Year in 2007. Currently, he is coaching for the Connecticut Football Club (CFC) North Branch.

Penta believes that as a coach, he needs to look at the entirety of the player. He examines the player’s technique, decision-making, athleticism, and mental toughness, and he also gets under the hood to understand the player’s motivation. “Are they here to excel and be a college athlete, or are they here for the experience?” he said. “You must tailor the coaching for each athlete based on their needs. It’s a juggling act sometimes, but it is rewarding when you do what is right for each athlete. I don’t want to impose my needs on a player. I may think they are a phenomenal athlete and get them ready for college, but if that’s not their goal, then I’m not pointing them in the right direction.”

Penta separates the wheat from the chaff by examining how the players approach the training sessions. The elite athletes, he said, find the training sessions more important than the games because that’s the environment where they will know they will improve. “That’s what I look for most in a player. How do they mentally approach the training sessions?” he said. “The athlete that sticks out to me is the one that uses the training sessions to the best of their ability.

All Kingswood Oxford athletes have access to our 33-acre campus, with multiple playing fields, an artificial turf field, a multi-purpose fieldhouse, a yoga studio, and two fitness centers. Certified athletic trainers are on hand every day to ensure the health, well-being, and development of every student-athlete. Every team also reflects the school’s core values, demonstrating honesty, integrity, respect, learning with passion, and caring beyond self.