By Brenda Kneller
It has been another busy month of engaging activities at Theresetta School.
The beginning of February ushered in a new semester, which led to a change in our junior high options. Students in grades seven to nine have been given the opportunity to participate in cosmetology, hockey, philosophy, and outdoor education/active living.
Mrs. Kneller and the elementary music classes were thrilled to receive the news that the Coronation Music Festival would once again take place. Students have been fine tuning their singing voices, ukelele and recorder skills, bucket drumming beats, and rhythm instrument mastery. Several students are also polishing up their poetry skills, and melodic sounds are emanating from Mrs. Weber’s piano room. Performances will take place during the week of March 7 - 11.
With Valentine’s Day and Pink Shirt Day both occurring this month, students had plenty of opportunities to not only show off their bright colours but to also focus on acts of kindness and caring. Due to buses not operating on February 23 — the actual day set aside for wearing pink and drawing attention to the harmful effects of bullying — our school community chose to recognize it on Thurs, Feb. 24. In addition to an array of shades of pink, students could be seen throughout the day gathered at the “Kindness” bulletin board, where they were welcome to write positive messages of goodwill and compassion.
There has been no shortage of athletic opportunities as basketball, curling and ski trips have kept students in great shape. The elementary students were blessed with beautiful weather for their ski trip to Alliance on Fri, Feb. 25. The junior high students hope to be as lucky when they take to the slopes in Lake Louise from March 6th - 8th.
The TCS (Theresetta Catholic School) curling teams had an amazing day at the CARA Curling Bonspiel on Feb.15 in Stettler. We had ten athletes participate, so two full TCS teams and one combined team with Coronation players.
Team TCS 1, our grade 9 team, had a strong showing in the round robin, winning all three of their games. They played against Stettler Junior High (8-0), then Byemoor (3-2), and lastly Coronation 1 (8-0). They entered the playoffs ranked #1 and played their quarterfinal game against Big Valley, winning 5-2. In the semi final they took on the combined TCS/Coronation team and lost a heartbreaker 0-5. They played in the bronze medal match to end the day against Donalda, and it came down to our skip’s final two stones. He had to draw for two to tie the game, and then the skip made an awesome draw to the button to win the tiebreaker. The grade 9s played so well all day. Congratulations on bronze, grade 9s! You will be missed next season!
Our TCS 2 team was a blend of grade 6/7/8 players. They won two of their round robin games against Erskine 2 (9-0) and Gus Wetter 2 (6-0), and lost one game against Stettler Elementary (0-5). That had them sitting in 5th place out of 14 teams entering the playoff rounds. Their quarterfinal game was against Stettler Junior High, and they won 10-1. Their semi final game was against Donalda, and they won 4-2, which put them into the gold/silver match. They played against our combined TCS/Coronation team in the final and won 8-0 after a well played game from both teams. Congrats on gold!
Our other team was a mix of two towns to make a 14th team for the schedule. We rotated different grade 6/7/8 players into our two spots on the team throughout round robin play, and then kept the same two players on the team for playoffs. They played so well all day, adjusting to new positions and team mates. During round robin, the team won one, lost one, and tied one. Their first game was a tie against Erskine 1 (2-2), the second game was a loss to Gus Wetter 1 (2-3), and the third was a win against Coronation 2 (6-0). This had them entering the playoffs in 6th place. The top 8 teams went to the playoffs. The team beat Stettler Elementary in a close quarterfinal game, winning 4-3. Next, they took on our TCS grade 9 team, winning a very well played game 5-0! This got them into the gold/silver final, and they lost another well played game to our TCS 2 team (0-8). Great job winning silver!
It was a successful day in the hardware department, but more importantly it was a really fun day of great curling! A very nice way to end our curling season. Special thanks goes to Miss Smawley and Mrs. Boxma for their dedicated coaching. Way to go TCS!!