Waldorf School of the Peninsula is thrilled to welcome Omar Kharroub, known on campus as “Coach Omar,” as our new Athletic Director! We’re excited to have Omar join our community, bringing his energy, passion, and structured approach to our Athletics Department.
Omar’s journey to WSP is as inspiring as it is impressive. Growing up locally in South San Francisco, he began his athletic career in middle and high school, participating in football, basketball, baseball, and even wrestling for a season. His dedication to sports and education led him to play football in college on athletic scholarships, including at Southwest Baptist University and Sterling University. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Notre Dame de Namur University, Omar’s athletic pursuits took him abroad, where he played football professionally in Europe and South America.
Upon returning to the Bay Area, Omar rekindled his love for coaching and working with students. He coached football for several years throughout Silicon Valley before transitioning into athletic administration. As an Athletic Director at various schools in the area, he focuses on building and strengthening programs while supporting athletes to succeed both on the field and in the classroom.
Omar’s philosophy emphasizes the power of “Small Things,” and he saw it first hand in our athletes at last weekend’s Middle School Basketball Tournament at Sacramento Waldorf. Their dedication to detail and perseverance on the court exemplified the impact that attention to small details can have on overall performance. He observed:
The girls’ team demonstrated high energy and consistent effort throughout their games.
The boys’ team showed remarkable perseverance, maintaining full effort regardless of the score—a quality Omar noted as particularly impressive for middle school athletes.
All athletes exhibited emotional resilience, handling the highs and lows of competition with grace.
Having only just met some of our high school athletes at this week’s Pep Rally, Omar was struck by their positive and relaxed attitude, excellent manners, and initiative in welcoming him to WSP.
At WSP, Omar aims to elevate our athletics program by focusing on the small but crucial details that make a big difference. He’s committed to providing our student -athletes with opportunities typically found in larger high schools, ensuring they have the best possible experience while having fun. Omar’s approach emphasizes surrounding students with excellent coaching, great personalities, and mentors who can support them in learning valuable life skills that will serve them well into adulthood.
When asked what he would like our parents to know as he begins this journey, Omar emphasizes patience, understanding, and cooperation. He’s jumping in full speed ahead to work towards elevating our program, but it will take some time. He stresses the importance of regular and punctual attendance at practices to build team spirit, cultivate teamwork, and boost morale. For WSP community members who aren’t directly involved with athletics, Omar encourages coming to games and matches, as a great crowd significantly helps our teams.
Omar plans to be very intentional in preparing our students for life. He believes it’s not only about the wins and losses of their sport but also about what that will teach them as they grow and develop towards their next stage of life. Whether it’s middle school studentsers moving to high school or high school students transitioning to college or the professional world, they are building skills and habits for their future. While it’s important for students to experience emotions, Omar emphasizes the value of learning to control and balance them.
We’re confident that Omar’s extensive experience and passionate approach will elevate our athletics program to new heights. His commitment to fostering not just athletic excellence, but also personal growth and life skills, aligns perfectly with WSP’s holistic educational philosophy.
As we embark on this exciting new chapter in WSP athletics, we encourage everyone in our community to extend a warm welcome to Omar. If you see him around campus, pPlease don’t hesitate to say hello and introduce yourself. Let’s all come together to support Omar in his mission to enrich our students’ lives through sports and teamwork.
Congratulations to our Co-Ed Middle School Cross Country team who ended their season earlier this week. They had a tremendous season and the girls earned a third place trophy in the league finals this week.
Our Middle School Girls’ Volleyball team also finished up their season with a great win vs Synapse and their last game against Hausner. I’m so proud of everyone and happy to witness their growth. I hope this season helped our players develop a strong passion for volleyball.
The Middle School Golf Team has a league tournament next week and its great to see them continue to improve weekly!
Our HS Girls’ Volleyball team had a fantastic 3 – 0 win over Liberty Baptist earlier this week, and closed out their season last night against Kahn Labs last night with another 3 – 0 win! Congratulations to our team and our two senior players, Maya & Frejya! Great season everyone!
Coach Sarah Triolo comes to WSP with a background in kinesiology, fitness, sports nutrition, and enjoys working with people who are struggling with health issues. We are so excited that Coach Sarah has expanded her pre-pandemic WSP role from middle school volleyball coach to Athletic Director and PE teacher for grades 6 – 9.
During the pandemic, Sarah overheard her son’s high school Zoom PE class plod through Standards Tests and rote repetition. She was inspired to create a way to not only make movement and activity more fun, but to help students learn how to integrate overall wellness and health into other activities. She wants our students to learn that improvement, not an arbitrary number, is the goal.
In Sarah’s first year her primary goal has been to make movement and activity fun for students in hopes that as they grow they will gravitate towards recreational movement as an opportunity for relaxation and enjoyment. She wants them to build positive associations with physical activity now that will keep them active for years to come.
In middle school, the students have been doing relay races, but not as you might imagine. In addition to typical running, they also run backwards and skip. When they finished for the first time she told the students they had run ¼ of a mile and they were so surprised! The students had fun working up to one mile without even realizing it. One student even said, “Who knew running could be so fun?” Some of her classes have also played variations of Ultimate, where they have made up their own rules. The group went from many students learning how to throw a disc short distances, to the group using up nearly the entire length of the field at the park for their games.
Another way that Sarah is working towards this goal is to show the students various ways that are readily accessible to them, with little to no equipment or financial investments required. For example, she took a class to the skate park at Rengstorff Park to do parkour. Some students immediately said “I can’t do it,” but she said, “You can!” And they did! They challenged themselves and succeeded, improving a bit class by class. Parkour is an example of an activity which is really good for developing core strength without the typical repetitive drills or standard push ups, pull ups, squats. And all you have to do is just try.
She has also incorporated physiology into their lessons and focused on helping the students learn to listen to their bodies. They have found and measured their heart rates learned to calculate their maximum heart rate and learned the meaning of both. The classes spent several weeks doing yoga and working on breathing techniques and ways to lower their heart rates and relax. They discussed other times in which that could be useful, such as if they are stressed or nervous about something. Some noted they could use it before presentations in class, or during high-pressure moments in team sports, like a free throw. Sarah is also planning to work on practical daily movements such as the proper ways to lift objects and how to carry this knowledge into other areas of their life to avoid injuries down the line.
Looking ahead this year Sarah has planned for classes including rock climbing, which will encourage students to reach and stretch, a unit on wheels and balance where they will work with scooters, bicycles, roller skates and skateboards, and nutrition where they will learn about nutritional labels, and what “eating from the rainbow means and how each color provides different nutrients. In future years Sarah is even hoping to add some new league sports such as swimming and golf.
We are so lucky to have Coach Sarah creating such fun and meaningful athletics experiences that will serve our students for years to come.
