With Fall break right around the corner, winter sports are gearing up at Berkeley High School. More than 200 student athletes will compete this season. Athletes will be spread across boys and girls basketball, co-ed wrestling, and girls and boys soccer.
Girls basketball
BHS girls varsity basketball is entering the season with especially high expectations. BHS junior Babirye Kiggundu, now in her second year on the team, is optimistic, largely due to the completely new coaching staff. She said, “I’m predicting it will be one of our best seasons.” Kiggundu noted that the coaches have brought more structure, intensity, and focus to practices, effectively improving the overall environment.
Najuna Kiggundu, BHS senior and small forward on the girls varsity basketball team, shared the same outlook. After just a week of training, she stated she has already seen “a big change from previous years,” with more conditioning, more drills, and a greater emphasis on fundamentals.
Both players value the relationships they have made through the team and believe that communication is one of the team’s strengths. One of their goals this season is to bring this communication onto the court through playing in a unified fashion.
Boys basketball
The varsity boys basketball team is also excited for their upcoming season, hoping to replicate their success from last year. BHS junior Preston Brown, a small forward, reflected on the team’s deep playoff run. “We went to the semi-finals for state and we haven’t been that far since 2016. It was a unique experience, it meant a lot to us,” Brown said.
For Brown, the highlight of playing basketball at BHS is the team’s community. Brown said, “(The team is) a brotherhood. There are people I could rely on, people I could talk to, even outside of basketball.”
Henry Robinson, a BHS junior, also echoed hopes of repeating last year’s achievements. With minimal changes in the roster and returning coaches, he expects the team to perform at a similarly high level. Both players emphasized the importance of hard work in practice and games while still wanting to enjoy the season.
Ultimately, the team hopes to draw from their improving basketball skills and interpersonal experience to have a chance at winning the league this season.
Girls & boys soccer
Soccer tryouts, held during the first week of November, 2025, filled around 75 and 60 spots across varsity, junior varsity, and frosh teams for boys and girls respectively. For boys, varsity and junior varsity start the season on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, at Vintage High School in Napa. Boys varsity co-captain Henry Banks called on students to attend home matches, adding, “it’s a fun environment and we’d be very happy to have fans.”
Historically a very competitive team, the team hopes to secure North Coast Section title. Boys soccer program manager Stacey Wright said, “Our focus this season, as always, will be to be proud and humble representatives of our community and have a blast winning a lot of matches.” Banks concluded, “We’ve got a lot of guys that have played together for a while. So yeah, I think there’s a lot of potential this year.”
The first home game for girls soccer is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. Girls varsity co-captain Ali Forbush reported that the team is looking strong. “I think the team chemistry is going to be great on and off the field,” she said. One matchup that the team looks forward to is the home game against Bishop O’Dowd on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. “We’ve had a pretty consistent rivalry and last year we lost to them. Hopefully this year is a turnaround,” Forbush said.
Wrestling
For BHS wrestling, head coach Benjamin Nathan returns for his 13th year. “It’s grown a lot in numbers. I have assistants who are very skilled coaches. They do a very good job of teaching technique. I used to do all of it myself, every practice, but (now) I focus a lot more on running the program and making sure that we can be a team,” Nathan said. Since Aug. 25, 2025, practices open to all levels have been run daily by assistant coach Dash Allen. A tournament hosted by BHS for first-year wrestlers will start off the season on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. Varsity’s first match is on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. Varsity captain and BHS senior Vincent Longmire looks forward to it, “The home meets are the most energized; the home meets are the best,” Longmire said. He aims to “show the hard work that (he) put in over the summer and the off season,” he said.
BHS winter athletes are excited for the months ahead and encourage their peers to come to as many home match-ups as they can.