2026 Kingswood-Oxford Invitational Field
The New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) has governed prep school athletics in the Northeast since 1942. Its members are accredited independent schools from across seven states. NEPSAC basketball is organized into tiers. Classes A, B and C are set by each school’s male enrollment, so schools of similar size play each other. Classes AA and AAA work differently. Schools choose to join them, and in return they get expanded rules, such as longer seasons, longer games, or both.
Operating across such a wide region makes seeding its postseason tournaments a challenge, because not every team can play opponents from across the region. Multi-team events at centrally located sites are the best answer to that problem.
Kingswood-Oxford School (CT), a NEPSAC Class B program, has hosted one of those events for more than six decades: the Paul W. “Frosty” Francis Kingswood Invitational Tournament (the K.I.T.). Francis, KO’s longtime athletic director and boys basketball coach, founded the tournament in 1963, and it’s now one of the oldest continuously running prep tournaments in New England. Held each December right after midterms, it fills Hewett Gymnasium with students, faculty, alumni and neighbors for three days of boys and girls basketball. The 2026 edition, the tournament’s 64th, runs December 18-20 with games in its two gyms.
The K.I.T. has long drawn teams from beyond the region and beyond NEPSAC. This year’s field leans heavily on one class: seven of the eight boys teams are NEPSAC Class B programs, from four states. That makes the K.I.T. a big help with the seeding problem. Class B teams from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York that rarely see each other during the season will meet in West Hartford, and the results will count when the Class B tournament is seeded.
Coming just before the holiday break, the event also gives college coaches a look at rosters that have had a few weeks to settle, all in a single weekend on one campus. Below are the programs taking part.
Berwick Academy (South Berwick, ME)
Head Coach: Tim Protzmann (207) 361 7347
Hyde School (Bath, ME)
Head Coach: Tom Bragg (508) 981 05988
Kent School (Kent, CT)
Head Coach: Tim McCarthy (508) 377 2552
King School (Stamford, CT)
Head Coach: Joe Amelio (646) 996 3080
Kingswood-Oxford School (West Hartford, CT)
Head Coach: Brad Seaman
New York Military Academy (Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY)
Head Coach: Bobby Rahn (845) 742 0275
Pingree School (South Hamilton, MA)
Head Coach: Dominique Langston (203) 313 8153
Westminster School (Simsbury, CT)
Head Coach: David Pringle (203) 606 5917
Pairings and tip times title graphic to come.