Blog

5/11/12 4:44 PM in News and Events

Spring Sports Awards

Spring Sports Award Night was held this past Wednesday May 9th.  After a hearty meal catered by Danny’s Pizzeria, Spring Sport families gathered in the Upper School Commons to hear about another exciting Spring season.  Among the highlights were that after the spring season, more than 75% of students at Saint Stephen’s in Grades 6 – 12 participated in at least one sport this year.  Four of those classes were at 80% or better!  56 students were listed as 3-sport athletes.  A lot of students getting out and getting active!

One of the true honors we have as a department is to recognize the Athlete of the Year and Mandy Stoll Award recipients.  The Athlete of the Year Award goes to that athlete who distinguishes him or herself in the athletic arena. This year the award went to Adam Vining.

The Mandy Stoll Award, named in memory of Mandy Stoll, daughter of Tom and Mary Stoll, goes to that athlete who distinguishes him or herself in both the classroom and the athletic arena.  This year the Mandy Stoll Award recipient was Hannah Howell.

The coaches used their breakout sessions to celebrate their seasons and to give out their individual awards.  The distributed awards were as follows:

5/4/12 4:40 PM in News and Events

On to the Next Level!

This past Wednesday the Athletic Department along with College Counseling had the distinct honor of recognizing those seniors who will continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level.  Eight seniors will go on to play college athletics from this year’s senior class.  That represents 15% for of the class.  By comparison, nationwide, only 4% of high school seniors go on to play in college.  This is a great accomplishment for these students.  The students are:

Lauren Johnson – Volleyball at Rhodes College in Tennessee

Brett Messieh – Soccer at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio

Shannon Morrish – Soccer at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee

Katie Pollan – Tennis at Williams College in Massachusetts

Michael Roberts – Baseball at Elon University in North Carolina

Chad Tolentino – Baseball at Trinity University in Texas

Oliver Vaidis – Golf at Mercer University in Georgia

Adam Vining – Football at Williams College in Massachusetts

Congratulations and good luck to these seniors!

4/13/12 2:54 PM in News and Events

Congratulations!

This week I want to send out a couple of kudos:

* To the students who competed in the Middle School Manatee County Track Meet on March 31st.  Henry Howell won the 6th grade 800 and 1600 races setting meet records in both events.  Elle Liebe won the 6th grade girls 800, also setting a meet record.  8th grader Ileana Ziessner also took home a first place finiosh in the 8th grade girls 800 race.  Special thanks to Jeff Csubak who was our honorary coach for the meet.  Great job by all involved!

* To the boys and girls tennis teams for their post-season performances thus far!  They both finished as district runner-up in their respective tournament, qualifying them for State Regional play.  The boys beat Ft. Myers Canterbury in the semi-finals to advance to the regional finals while the girls got past Community School of Naples to advance.  In the finals the boys played a tough Shorecrest team and lost their match 2 – 5.  The girls got a re-match with District Champion Out-Of-Door Academy.  With a narrow 3-2 lead after the singles matches, the match came down to the doubles matches.  Despite having to change venues mid-match because of darkness, (and surfaces – hard-courts to clay courts) the girls won both doubles matches and will now advance to the State Tournament next week.  Great job by our tennis teams.

* To the varsity boys lacrosse team on a very successful 1st season!  The team finished their season with a 7 – 3 record.  The season was highlighted by an 8 – 4 win over Out-Of-Door in the last game of the year.  Congratulations to all of the players and coaches!

* To the  Track team who had a great meet on Friday at Districts.  We are now competing in an expanded district, including power house Northside Christian, so our District competition is very similar to previous Regional competitions.  While most of our athletes ran their best times of the year, those listed below finished in the top four in their events and qualified for the Regional meet this Thursday.

Girls:
Paige Lindsay–200 meters
Lauren Csubak–800 meters
Hannah Howell–300 Hurdles
4 x 100 Relay (Hannah, Gabrielle Woodruff, Alexis Sedillo, Paige, Janae Murrell, and Ileana Zeissner)
4 x 400 Relay (Hannah, Gabrielle, Lauren, Paige, Ileana, and Kassandra Woodruff)

Boys:
Herman Israelsson–200 meters and 400 meters
Cam Tally–800 meters
4 x 400 Relay (Nate Carr, Brian Gentry, Sam Lynch, Herman Israelsson, Cam Tally, Nilan Patel)
4 x 800 Relay (Nate, Brian, Evan Amato, Cam, Sam, and Nilan)

3/20/12 8:30 AM in News and Events

Winter Athletes Rank Academically!

If you attended the Winter Sports Award Night, you heard Tod Creneti and I speak about the Four Pillars that we think of as the foundation of what we do in the Athletic Department.  The Four Pillars are:  Leadership, Scholarship, Service, and Integrity.  Those are the foundation of what we do and what we want to make sure that every student-athlete learns from their experience of being involved with sports at Saint Stephen’s.

Today I would like to speak briefly to Scholarship.  Saint Stephen’s is first and foremost a college prep school.  We want to be sure that when students graduate from Saint Stephen’s, they are fully prepared to move on to the next chapter in their lives.  Being sure that they are prepared academically ranks high on that list.   Learning to balance academics with extra-curricular activities, I believe is a huge part of that process.  The athletes on our winter teams have done just that!  We had four of our winter teams rank in the top 20 in the state in Team GPA, with two in the top 10, one in the top 5! Below is a listing of those teams:

VARSITY BOYS BASKETBALL: #3 in the State with a 3.647 team GPA
VARSITY GIRLS BASKETBALL: #10 in the State with a 3.382 team GPA
VARSITY GIRLS SOCCER: #16 in the State with a 3.226 team GPA
VARSITY BOYS SOCCER: #17 in the State with a 3.423 team GPA

So while we celebrate wins and losses on the field, I am just as proud of these student-athletes for their success in the classroom.  Having the capability to balance everything you do in life and be successful puts these talented student-athletes ahead of the curve.  Congratulations to all of our winter teams for their success on the field / court as well as in the classroom!

CLICK HERE FOR HT-PREPS ARTICLE

3/9/12 12:24 PM in News and Events

MARCH MADNESS!

The PE Department put on the Intermediate School Field Day today with a ‘March Madness theme.  The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students were split up into 16 teams and competed  in fun March Madness events.  Some of the competitions were: potato sack race, Lucky Lacrosse, Rainbow Toss, Obstacle Course, among many others.  The day culminated with a 16-team bracket tug-of-war competition.  There great spirit and enthusiasm the entire morning and we got a beautiful morning for the event.  Thanks to all who participated and all who helped out with this great event!

The PE Staff in their March Madness gear!

2/16/12 4:38 PM in News and Events

Twitter Specifics

Last week I posted that the Athletics Department would be going Twitter.  We have officially gone live.  To follow Saint Stephen’s Athletics follow these steps:

• Go to www.twitter.com to set up your own Twitter account if you do not already have one
  (this is free – all it takes is an e-mail and a password)
• Search for SSESAthletics
  (make sure that you search in ‘People’ not ‘Tweets’)
• Click ‘Follow’
• Under settings you can input your cell phone number and any Tweets will automatically be texted to your phone in real time
• Remember that we need followers to be able to tweet, so sign up and follow SSESAthletics today!

We are excited about this addition to our communication options.  We will update scores and any pertinent athletic news.  Any changes to practice or game schedules will also be communicated on Twitter.  Will a practice or game be rained out?  Check your Twitter.

If you have any questions please let us know!

Have a great College Weekend!

2/10/12 3:43 PM in News and Events

Wrestlers Advance / Twitter News

Congratulations to David Contarino and Nick Rodhouse who each finished 2nd in their weight class at the District Wrestling Meet to advance to the State Regional Meet.  The Regional Meet is being held this weekend at Golden Gate High School in Naples.  Good luck!!

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The Saint Stephen’s athletic departement is going Twitter.  You will be able to follow Saint Stephen’s Athletics and be kept up to date with all that’s happening in athletics.  Not only will you be able to get scores, but any last minute changes (practices canceled, game time changes, etc.) can now be communicated immediately.  More information on this will be available next week!

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I look forward to seeing many of you at the Falcon 5K tomorrow!  Race time 8:00 a.m.  Walk up registration is available beginning at 7:00 a.m.

Go Falcons!

2/3/12 10:15 AM in News and Events

Spring Sports are Here! Lacrosse is Official!

The end of one season here at Saint Stephen’s only means that it is the beginning of another season.  As our winter seasons are wrapping up, Spring sports have all started their practices.  That was highlighted this week by the beginning of boys lacrosse, a sport being offered for the first time by Saint Stephen’s.  There will be a middle school boys team and a varsity boys team.  The teams will be practicing here on campus and games will be played at Palma Sola Field.  The team is led by Darryl Weaver.  He is assisted by: Bob Bonis, Norm Brewer, Nicholas Rapisardi, Josh Leuchter, and Bemus Smith.

The lacrosse teams gathers around their coaches for instruction.

NEW FACES / OLD FACES:

All other spring sports have begun their practices.  There are a lot of new faces on the spring coaching staff as well as some returning veterans:

Baseball – Scott Sauerbeck takes over the head coaching duties for the baseball team this year.  He is assisted by Stott Eyre, Jason Capozella, and Saint Stephen’s alum, Josh Brietweiser.

Softball -  New coach Mike Murphy begins a new era in Saint Stephen’s softball.  He will have a dynamic team of varying talent levels.  I know that by the end of the season they will be one cohesive unit.

Tennis – The boys and girls tennis team look to continue their success on the courts led ably by Scott Schutzman (Boys) and Richard Schutman (Girls).  They are assisted by James Flanigan.

Track – Jamie Moore and Jon Quinlan return to lead this ever popular sport at Saint Stephen’s.

I look forward to seeing everyone out at our Spring Sports!  Go Falcons!

1/27/12 3:57 PM in News and Events

Soccer Teams Moving On!

Congratulations to our varsity boys and girls soccer teams as they have made a big splash in the post-season!

The varsity girls soccer team won the 1A District 8 Championship with a 3 – 0 win over Shorecrest Prep, a team that had beaten them earlier in the season.  With that win they advanced to the Regional Playoffs.  In the Regional Quarterfinals the girls dominated Bishop McLaughlin High School by an 8 – 0 score to advance to the Regional Semi-Finals.  The Regional Semi-Final game is scheduled for tonight (1/27) at 7:00 p.m. at Tampa Preparatory School.  Good luck girls!

The varsity boys soccer team has advanced through their district tournament beating Bradenton Christian and Admiral Farragut Academy by similar 8 – 0 scores.  They play for the 1A-8 Championship tonight (1/27) against Out-Of-Door Academy at 7:00 at ODA.  They will also advance to the Regional Playoffs which begin next Tuesday January 31st.  Good luck boys!

1/27/12 3:47 PM in News and Events

Progress Fun To Watch!

One of the most rewarding things you see as a coach, parent, or fan of sports is the progress of teams and players as seasons progress.  To watch a team in the beginning of a season and then watch it at the end of a season and see how much they improve is fun to watch.

As the coach for the varsity girls basketball season for 14 years, I had talented teams and some not so talented teams.  What I told each team at the start of the season is that the season is a journey and that throughout the season we were climbing a mountain.  The higher we climbed, the better we would be.  I was always amazed at the improvement in every team I coached from the beginning of the season to the end.

As the Athletic Director I get to watch all of our teams now more than I have been able to in the past.  It has been fun to watch all of our teams develop and improve as their seasons have moved along.  From our middle school girls basketball team to our varsity boys soccer team.  Improvement is apparent throughout all of our teams.  The kids as individuals and the teams as a whole have all improved and gotten better.

I hope you have enjoyed watching this as much as I have!

Coach Boothby