The newest high school in the Santa Clarita Valley will be growing athletically in the 2024-25 school year.
Legacy Christian Academy fielded no varsity teams in the 2022-23 school year and showcased just a complete freelance boys’ basketball and cross country team in 2023-24.
Athletes also competed in swim, track and field and co-ed tennis with several Legacy Lions even earning all-Heritage League honors.
The school’s teams will not all belong to a league just yet, but athletic director and boys’ basketball coach James Mosley is eyeing more for his growing athletic department.
“We have a plan of adding certain sports each year,” Mosley said in a phone interview. “That’s our goal. Last year was kind of the beginning of that.”
Numbers are on the rise for every sport as Mosley says enrollment is set to double for the 2024-25 school year, in which Legacy will host its inaugural senior class.
The school recently announced it would also showcase girls’ volleyball and basketball teams this upcoming school year.
“We have probably about 20 games scheduled for girls volleyball,” Mosley said. “I’m just excited. They’ve been working hard this summer. We’re finishing up our dead period right now, and then they’ll jump back into it the first week of August and get you ready for games.”
The high school offered basketball last season but didn’t field a team. With players still interested, the program began as Mosley and the team didn’t want to waste a year of development. Basketball will now join swim, cross country, tennis and track and field as sports offered to both boy and girl Lions.
“When you’re a small school, sports are a little bit of a work in progress,” Mosley said. “Our hope is for the (tennis) girls in the fall to have their own team. We don’t want to stay coed for a long time.”
Legacy has been open since 1998, when it began as a kindergarten. Ten years later, it offered K-8th grades and built up a sports culture at the middle school level.
“I’m just looking forward to just building community around our athletic program, and then also really trying to just serve the kids well,” Mosley said. “As a Christian school, we believe that a great way to develop the right character and pour into kids is through the sport that they love.”
According to Mosley, the upcoming eighth grade class has a ton of talent and athletic success that will help the school build its desired culture.
“Our boys’ basketball was really good for junior high,” Mosley said. “We’ve seen a lot of talent. Some obviously move on, but we’ve been blessed to have some choose to stay and be a part of what we’re doing.”
Legacy boys’ hoops will most likely remain freelance next season but is the most off-the-ground program at the school. The team finished over .500 in a 16-game season despite a late start and only playing in one home game. Boys’ basketball could potentially even have a junior varsity team next season and Mosley is hoping that soon it won’t be the only sport with multiple levels.
“I think for boys’ basketball, we’ll definitely have a JV,” Mosley said. “I think there’s a chance for girls volleyball, probably next year, to have JV.”
The school has plans for more sports in its future but with enrollment growing, student interest in sports like soccer, golf and football is sure to follow.
“Moving forward, we want to have girls soccer and baseball, those are our next stepping stones,” Mosley said. “This is a huge baseball and softball valley, so we’re really starting the process of directing our attention and resources towards having those things in the future. Eventually, part of our plan is to start eight-man football as well, and just to move and gradually grow. We really want to do things as an athletic department and as a school in an excellent way, because we really feel that sports really creates a platform for us to pour into the students to reach their potential.”
“The future is bright. I think the biggest thing is we’re a school committed obviously to great academics, great student lives, but a part of the culture we want to build is through athletics.”
