Kings now advances to the Regional Final which will be
played this Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. versus Berkley Prep at
our very own Kahlert Stadium. Come on out and support the
boys as they attempt to secure their first trip to the state final four
in school history.

Leber, in his seventh season as head coach, said junior guard Cat Urso typifies the toughness of the Lions.

Urso received 15 stitches under her eye after a collision while diving for a loose ball during a win against Berean Christian on Jan. 17. She played three days later—still bruised and swollen—to help the Lions defeat Benjamin.

“Cat is the engine that drives everything,” Leber said of Urso, the team’s top scorer and assists leader. “She gutted it out. That’s our team. We don’t have a player who scores 25 points a game. We have four players who can score double figures. We have to play ugly, play defense, rebound and be physical.”

Leber was hopeful that style would remain successful heading into the district playoffs, which began yesterday.

After a dismal 2-8 start that coincided with three starters—Kathleen Wiggs, Victoria Crocetti and Morgan Jacobson—out with injuries, the Lions have won 10 of their last 14 games. They punctuated that comeback with a 64-32 win over Wellington Christian on Senior Night last Thursday.

Even though the three players returned by the third week of the season, it took some time for the King Academy ballers to regroup.

“There was a lack of chemistry [in the beginning] and re-integrating injured players is a challenge,” said Leber. “By Game 11, we were [meshing] a little better. From then on, we went 5-0 in district play and moved from a No. 6 seed to a No. 3 seed and averaged about 50 points a game.”

Leber noticed the growth of the team’s cohesiveness not only as the regular season progressed but also as the team prepared for districts.

“I don’t take anything for granted. It’s getting the maximum of what you have, what you do with what you have,” Leber said. “The chemistry is better. The girls are working hard. The girls bought into it. Early in the season there were doubts. Now, we’re sort of hitting our stride.”

One of the Lions’ goals is to win the district championship, but it doesn’t end there.

“They’re not going to be satisfied if we don’t win,” Leber said. “Our season starts in June when they’re in the weight room at 7 a.m. We have been going to a team camp in North Carolina and Georgia and we do a lot of life-long memories. They’ll remember feeding the homeless at a church in Blairsville, Ga. and a whitewater rafting trip when a tornado came through.”

King’s Academy scored 85.6 points, ahead of state runner-up Trinity Catholic (73.4) in the Class 1A Large Non-Tumbling Division Thursday. Pahokee had reached the semifinals.

Seminole Ridge placed third in the finals of the Class 2A Large Non-Tumbling Division Thursday. Seminole Ridge had 74.25, behind runner-up Pompano Beach-Ely (79.175) and champion West Broward (90.825). Treasure Coast and John I. Leonard reached the semifinals.

In the Class 2A Small Non-Tumbling Division, Boca Raton reached the semifinals. The state champion was Coral Gables.

In the Class 2A Small Varsity Division finals Friday, Olympic Heights placed fifth while Palm Beach Gardens placed seventh. Orlando-Dr. Phillips won the championship.

Jupiter finished second in 2A Medium. Suncoast reached the semifinals in the Class 1A Medium Varsity Division.

Benjamin, John Carroll and Glades Central reached the semifinals in the Class 1A Small Non-Tumbling Division. West Nassau won the title.

On Saturday, Wellington placed third in Class 2A Small co-ed.

The King’s Academy provides a friendly, well-rounded academic experience including 20 Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses, an award-winning fine arts program led by instructors with Broadway experience, a championship sports program, and innovative, state-of-the-art technology in every classroom, making TKA, an environment of amazing opportunities for every student. As Penny Holm, Director of Admissions, explained, “The King’s Academy has the best of both worlds; we are large enough to have diversity, yet small enough to establish life-long relationships.” With roughly 100 students per grade in high school, The King’s Academy maintains the personal attention to attain academic excellence and Christian values that impact students for life.

Understanding that the learning process and fluidity of communications can be enhanced by technology, The King’s Academy utilizes the most current technology available.  Every classroom is a smart classroom, equipped with smart board computer, laptop, tablet, or other device to deliver a lesson. Robert Danley, Director of IT described how technology plays a large role in classroom education at The King’s Academy; “We look to technology to enable our teachers to instruct kids in an engaging way. Our teachers build great teaching notebooks where they can embed images and videos to present each lesson in a smooth and engaging manner.”

Additionally, The King’s Academy parents and students can access daily announcements, course syllabi, classroom resources, grades, accounting details, and even athletic and fine arts events by accessing the school’s portal. Enabling constant communication between all channels in the education process has been very effective.

When asked about JDL’s role in advancing The King’s Academy’s technology, Danley added, “We are expanding to other campuses; and we knew we needed to head towards virtualization. JDL’s team of engineers assisted in successfully advising and deploying Citrix virtualization. Since the implementation, we have not experienced any issues, glitches, or bugs.”  Danley commented that, “JDL left me with the sense of, ‘that’s my go to’ for future technology projects. I look forward to working with the fantastic engineers of JDL.”

The King’s Academy

TKA girls’ soccer player Danielle Hurme signed a national letter of intent to play at Stetson University in Deland, Florida.  Danielle helped lead the girls’ soccer team to its 6th straight district title and to the regional finals in the 2011-12 season.  Danielle follows in the footsteps of many other TKA girls’ soccer players who have played at Stetson.

TKA football player Brian Grove signed a national letter of intent to play at Dartmouth College, a member of the prestigious Ivy League, in Hanover, New Hampshire.  Grove finished the 2011 football season as the third leading rusher in Palm Beach County.
TKA softball player Aubree Murphy signed a national letter of intent to attend Daytona State University in Daytona Beach, Florida.  Aubree has been one of the top pitchers in Palm Beach County for three years running, garnering numerous awards and all-area nominations.  Aubree will attempt to lead TKA’s girls’ softball team to a district title this year as they begin their season this Saturday.

TKA is proud of these students who have proven themselves on and off the field. The coaches who spoke about each student were in agreement that Danielle, Brian and Aubree all exemplify what it means to be a TKA student athlete because they are not only exceptional athletes, but also driven students, strong citizens, faithful Christians, and wonderful role models.

The King’s Academy is a nationally recognized private Christian school serving approximately 1,200 students from preschool through twelfth grade and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Christian Schools International, and the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The King’s Academy serves students and their families across Palm Beach and Hendry Counties at its main campus at Belvedere Road and Sansbury’s Way in West Palm Beach, its Clewiston campus on Caribbean Avenue, and its satellite preschool campuses in Greenacres, Palm Beach Gardens, and Royal Palm Beach. More information about The King’s Academy is available online at http://www.TKA.net.

Led by five seniors, the team is blessed with youth and great prospects for the future, as well.  Seniors Bailey Mudrick, Jerusha Pervenecki, Monique Belanger, Danielle Hurme, and Phelan Johnson lead a team that has no juniors, a wealth of sophomores, and some highly-talented freshmen and 8th graders.  Sophomore Sarah Collins leads the team in scoring with 12 goals and 7 assists, and senior Danielle Hurme has added 7 goals and 9 assists.  Mudrick and Pervenecki lead a defense that has earned 9 shut outs with Goalkeeper Rachel Spell protecting the goal for the fifth year in a row – and achieving a 1.06 goals against average.

The TKA boys varsity soccer team made history last night by defeating The Benjamin School 2 to 1 to win their first ever District Championship.  The team was led by Bobby Pappas who scored an early penalty kick, and the game winning assist to goal scorer Austin Masi in the fiftieth minute.  The Lions then held on to secure the victory.

The Lions have been led defensively by Nick Bates in goal, and a stellar back four consisting of J.C. Charles (Sr), Luke Mayer (Jr), Paul Schumacher (So), and Travis Gonzalez (So).  The Lions have been led offensively by Lucas DaSilva (So) with a team leading eleven assists, and Austin Masi (Jr) with a team leading sixteen goals.  The team defeated John Carroll and Cardinal Newman in the district quarters and semifinals to advance to the final game.  TKA will host the boys’ soccer regional quarterfinal on Tuesday January 31st at 7 p.m.

“He had a great visit, and that pretty much sealed the deal,” said former King’s Academy coach Craig Dobson, who coached Grove in high school.

Grove (5-10, 195, No. 50 on the Big Board) was also considering Penn, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He also had offers from The Citadel and Georgia State, a Football Championship Subdivision school, but said he long ago decided to go Ivy. He said his ACT is a 32 and expects to be in the second-highest band of the four-tier Ivy recruiting system.

Dartmouth, which has an early decision commitment from St. Andrew’s tight end Jack Sheehy, gets one of Palm Beach County’s fastest and most productive running backs.

Grove, who has been timed in the low-4.4′s in the 40-yard dash, rushed for 32 touchdowns and 2,988 yards on 440 carries over the last two seasons. His two-year yardage output trails only Glades Day’s Kelvin Taylor (5,354) and American Heritage’s Greg Bryant (3,041) among area ballcarriers.

Dobson was 47-18 in his six seasons at King’s Academy, coaching the Lions to four playoff berths.

“The transition in coaches can be challenging, especially when you have a great coach in Coach Dobson leading your program,” King’s Athletic Director Adam Winters said. “Heath is a strong leader and I believe that he possesses the experience, enthusiasm, and drive to build on The King’s Academy football program.”

Nivens, an offensive-minded coach who will likely use the spread, went 34-16 in five years at University Christian. He was previously head coach at Ben Lippen School in Columbia, S.C. from 2003-07. His teams have gone to the playoffs in six of his nine years as a head coach.

He was also an assistant coach (running backs, kicking game) at West Texas A&M from 2001-02.

Nivens got into coaching directly after playing for Lou Holtz at South Carolina. He was a walk-on offensive tackle for the Gamecocks, who defeated Ohio State in the Outback Bowl and were ranked 19th in the country during his senior season, 2000.

Nivens is a native of Irmo, S.C. He and his wife, Kristin, have been married for seven years and have one child, Cullen (2).

He becomes one of the area’s youngest head coaches, behind Fort Pierce Central’s Josh Shaffer (26), Village Academy’s Don Hanna (27) and Santaluces’ Daryl Drinkwater (28) and Forest Hill’s Chris Kokell (32).

The King’s Academy is a nationally recognized private Christian school serving approximately
1,200 students from preschool through twelfth grade and is accredited by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Christian Schools International, and the
Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The King’s Academy serves students and
their families across Palm Beach and Hendry Counties at its main campus at Belvedere Road
and Sansbury’s Way in West Palm Beach, its Clewiston campus on Caribbean Avenue, and its
satellite preschool campuses in Greenacres, Palm Beach Gardens, and Royal Palm Beach. More
information about The King’s Academy is available online at http://www.TKA.net.

The King’s Academy is a nationally recognized private Christian school serving approximately
1,200 students from preschool through twelfth grade and is accredited by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Christian Schools International, and the
Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The King’s Academy serves students and
their families across Palm Beach and Hendry Counties at its main campus at Belvedere Road
and Sansbury’s Way in West Palm Beach, its Clewiston campus on Caribbean Avenue, and its
satellite preschool campuses in Greenacres, Palm Beach Gardens, and Royal Palm Beach. More
information about The King’s Academy is available online at http://www.TKA.net.