Good afternoon. I am Christine Troshynski. And I am Mike Simons. We join you this afternoon with the St. Mary’s School news during our Homecoming Week.

Homecoming highlights our news this week. Monday began with the

classes decorating the respective hallways and the gym. It was also “Double

Day” for dress-up. Yesterday was “Wanna Be” day and today we dressed in our

favorite “Decade Music” costumes. Tomorrow students will be dressed in their

favorite “Survivor Day” costumes and then on Friday we will come in our

traditional school colors for “Maroon and White Day.”

Friday morning the students will vote for the homecoming attendants and

royalty. Senior candidates for king are Chris Bahrij, Steven Binkerd, Brent Kelly,

Nick Nord, Joe Pongratz, and Aaron Troester. Senior queen candidates are

Ashley Braun, Katie Cameron, Shannon Holz, Sara Kelly, Mary Kersenbrock, and

Kayla Ryan.

Students will view a special homecoming week video in the afternoon

before the pep rally which will begin at 2:15 in the gym. And then the traditional

bonfire will be lit Friday night at 9 o’clock. This evening bon fire and pep rally will

be held at the parking lot across from St. Patrick’s Church.

The 2001 royalty will be announced at half-time of the football game on

Saturday which starts at 5 p.m.

The SMH Drill Team is looking forward to this year. This year the

sponsors for the drill team are Sue Pongratz and Trisha Thompson. The

members of the drill team include seniors and captains Amanda Davis, Kayla

Ryan and Katie Cameron; junior Brooke Earley; sophmores Megan Davis,

Kathryn Fuscher, Emily Dugan and Kara Garman; and freshmen Brooke

Lindhorst, Jacque Earley, Sarah Novak and Christina Reynoldson. The SMH drill

team will perform this Saturday during half-time of the Homecoming football game

against Pope John. They will also be selling glow-in-the-dark necklaces to raise

money to compete in the Cornhusker State Games next summer.

Anyone who is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America must pay the

eight dollar membership fee before October 1, according to sponsor Mr. Allen.

The 2001-2002 Teachers’ Aides (TAs)are Chris Havranek with the kindergarten,

Mary Kersenbrock with the first grade, Staci Givens with the second grade, Sara Kelly

with the third grade, Michelle Shoemaker with the 5th grade, and Chris Bahrij with the

sixth grade. Brent Kelly, Joe Pongratz, Ashley Braun all help with at the high school, and

Katie Cameron helps out as an office assistant. Most of these people volunteer to TA,

but some do it for credit. The TA’s job is to help the teachers with grading papers,

making copies, and various other things. When students TA depends on if they are

aiding the teachers for credit on if they volunteer their time.

And the elementary classes have been busy this week too!

The Kindergarten children this week have been hard at work painting plates into

apples and learning the letter “L”. When I asked Mathew Kelly what he thought about

the letter “L” he said lion has the letter “L” in it. This week they also learned a new song

about lightning and thunder.

Well it seems safe to say that the second graders at St. Mary’s are the busy bees of the

school. They are still diligently planning the Mass for this Friday.

The second graders also have several projects which they have been working on

this past week. In Social Studies they are writing books about Nebraska. They will draw

the State bird, the State flower, the State tree, and the State flag. They will also learn

where Nebraska is in the United States. What a good time to be learning about where we

live as we recall this past week’s tragic events.

In science class are the second graders are studying different habitats. This week

they are studying the desert and how it compares to the habitat of the woodland area. In

math they are learning how to add three addends all at once. The children in the Mrs.

Cameron’s class are keeping themselves very occupied!

In St. Mary’s sports last Friday the O’Neill Cross Country Invitational Gina

Hoesing placed 60th in JV overall; Tyler Cole placed 90th; Kylie Ludemann

placed 22nd; Daniel Ascherl placed 12th; and Zachary Ascherl placed 34th. The next

cross country meet is this Friday the 21st at Albion Individual Invite at 5:00

p.m.

The St. Mary’s Cardinal JV volleyball players had another tough and exciting

week . Last Friday the junior varsity volleyball players traveled to Dunning where they

won in two sets. This was their only game all week.

This week they will be hosting Neligh-Oakdale on tomorrow evening starting at

six. This week is also homecoming week. The junior varsity volleyball homecoming

games will be on Saturday afternoon starting at !:00 p.m.

We congratulate the JV volleyball team on their win last week and wish them

luck in their upcoming games this week against Neligh and Elgin Pope John.

The Cardinal varsity volleyball team defeated the Stuart Broncos 14-16,

15-9, 15-6 on September 7th and took a quick victory over Sandhills Dunning

15-12, 15-13 on September 14th. The varsity volleyball team’s record is now 3-2.

St. Mary’s Cardinal volleyball team will be hosting Neligh-Oakdale

tomorrow night, September 20th starting with a C game at 6:00 p.m. B and A

games will follow. Saturday, September 22nd, the Lady Cardinals will play Elgin

Pope John for the SMH homecoming with volleyball games starting at 1:00 p.m.

On Monday the Junior High Cards faced the Niobrara-Santee Lions. The Cards

showed nothing but dominance as they moved the ball up and down the field. Their

defense was nothing short of great. The final score was 54-6. The game ended early due

to the 45-point rule for eight-man football. “It was a great win for us. Everybody got a

lot of playing time and it shows that we mean business this year,” said Coach Tim

Schneider. The Junior Cards’ next game is Monday, September 24, when they face the

Lynch Eagles.

The junior varsity football team played their first game of the year on Monday

night. The St. Mary’s Cardinals beat the Niobrara Lions 12-0. Coach Tony Allen said,

“It was a very defensive game for both teams. We also had some kids playing positions

that they haven’t played very much before.” The two touchdowns in the game came off

of a Nick Welding interception return and a Kevin Ohri touchdown run. The team’s next

game will be next Monday against the Lynch Eagles.

On September 14 the Cardinals’ varsity football team traveled two hours to

Dunning, NE to take on the Sandhills Panthers. In another last minute contest

the Cardinals won 34-26. With 57 seconds left Sandhills tied the game at 26-26

on a 30-yard touchdown pass. Matt Willis ran the ensuing kickoff back 65 yards

to seal the Cardinals’ victory. Coming back from a leg injury, Jed Givens led the

team in rushing with 93 yards and one touchdown. Matt Willis had five kickoff

returns for 166 yards and two touchdowns. Kiel Neumann led the team in tackles

with 13 and had two interceptions. On Saturday the Cardinals will take on the

number three team in the State, the Elgin Pope John Crusaders, for the SMH

homecoming at 5 p.m. Come out and support the Cardinals! The Cardinal

football record now stands at 2-1.

As we close today we want to remember all of the victims and their

families , the rescue/recovery workers and our President and world leaders as

they continue their efforts after last Tuesday terrorist attack.

We want to thank the sponsers of our St. Mary’s school news this week. I

am Christine Troshynski along with Mike Simons.

Thank you for listening.