The Class of 2026 got a taste of what Xavier is like on Thursday night with an evening of food and fun.
Pizza, pasta and meatballs, chicken tenders and fries. Basketball, spikeball, air hockey. Robotics, video games, foosball. Members of the jazz band playing outside the dining hall.
Some of the eight graders knew each other when they walked in. Others were meeting their future classmates for the first time.
Four years down the road so much will have happened. For now it was the first step. The next one will be in late August when the class returns for Falcon Blast before the school year opens and another group begins to find its identity.
This also came on the evening of the funeral for Artie Kohs, Xavier's first hire back in 1963. He went on to have a long career here, retiring as athletic director in 1997.The gym is named in his honor and it was fitting that many from the Class of 2026 poured into the gym to shoots some baskets Thursday night. Artie also was the school's first basketball coach.