Kyle Kurjiake

Oxford, CT

Meet Kyle Kurjiaka, a member of the Unified basketball team from Oxford who is going to the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games! Kyle is 17 years old and a student at Oxford High School - a Unified Champion School®. He has been involved with Unified Sports® for one year and says, “I have gained a greater understanding of how people with mental and physical disabilities still do great things in the world and also how to work with people of all different backgrounds.”

Kyle is also an avid golfer who finished in third place at the Naugatuck Valley League (NVL) Golf Tournament. He said that his biggest challenge was when he had a bad patch of unsuccessful rounds while on the golf team, but he overcame it with constant practice. Kyle is most proud of his improvements in golf over the past two years. A fun fact about Kyle is that he can hit a golf ball with his eyes closed! 

Kyle is a Unified Captain for the 2025-2026 school year and is also a member of the National Honor Society and his school’s Student Council and Student Government. In his community, he helps out at the Seymour Food Pantry and works as a cashier at ShopRite and a golf ball cleaner at Oxford Greens. 

Kyle admires his parents the most because they have worked hard to give him the life he has today. 

Kyle looks forward to attending the USA Games since he feels that he gets a chance to show the country why Oxford High School is the best. He is also excited to travel to Minneapolis. To prepare, he has been watching videos of past Games and to see what the experience will be like and talking to many of his teammates about the Games.