Jaqui Casey battles it out with Timmy Dutta of Dutta Corp at the Palm City Polo Club. PHOTO BY LIZ LAMONT/ PHELPS MEDIA GROUP
At The Oxbridge Academy, Polo Gallops Into The Curriculum By Aemilia Phillips
Nestled behind a commercial nursery just off State Road 7 in suburban Boynton Beach sits the newest hidden gem in the area’s polo crown: the Palm City Polo Club. To the left of the gravel driveway winding into the facility, several polo ponies peer out from the openair barn, eyes longingly fixed on the freshly manicured polo field. Pro player and club owner Joey Casey stands at midfield, a blue baseball cap shading his face as he watches his daughter, Jaqui, gallop past him, dribbling the ball toward the 40-yard line. Still in high school and relatively new to competitive polo, Jaqui is a quick learner who caught “polo fever” as a youngster. She has proven her mettle and skill on the field against adults — including pros and amateurs — who play, train and compete at the club, which is open to the public. This fall,
she will share her love of the sport with a group of kindred spirits: teenagers eager to learn one of the most exciting and complex sports in the world, and who will do so under the helm of one of the best players in the sport: her father. It’s rare that a high school student can sign up for polo as a physical educa-
tion class, much less learn to ride a polo pony and swing a mallet under the tutelage of a polo master. But that opportunity awaits Oxbridge Academy students this fall. In a unique partnership with the Palm City Polo Club, the West Palm Beach prep school will become one of only three high schools in the country to offer polo, with the eventual goal of fielding a competitive interscholastic polo team. “I’m really excited to work with kids my age. I want to show them that they’ll be able to play polo. If I can do it, then they can do it, too,” said Jaqui, who will assist her father and the club’s head instructor, Mike Harris, with the program. Casey, whose excitement about the wellington the magazine | august 2015
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