Category Archives: Athletics

To Students: Take Advantage Of The Extracurricular Opportunities Your School Offers!

1 Reply

Last night was the high school athletic banquet and as I do every year, I marvel at the wide variety of athletic endeavours we offer AND at the student-athletes who partake in them. In many ways, I am jealous of the opportunities they have and find myself saying, “I wish I would have gone to a school like this!”

When I was in school, I played sports from the first day of school to the first day of final exams. Volleyball season led directly into basketball season, basketball was just finishing as badminton started up and I was able to start track and field a week or two before the last birdie had been bashed. We did not have such exotic sports as rugby, archery, cricket, table tennis or alpine skiing and I probably wouldn’t have found the time or interest to do any of them (although my Dad was a member of the Forest Hill Archery Club in the 60s). And while my school had music and drama and outreach opportunities, I didn’t take advantage of any of them (but in hindsight “wish I would have”).

Rugby is a good example of a school sport that attracts all types of athlete. Some students join for the camaraderie, some sign up for the excellent fitness component and some enjoy the physical contact of the sport. In a (relative to our opponents) small school population like ours, all types are needed to field a team and with great coaching, our rugby teams are 10-3 in ROPSSAA this year.

Archery has an even more diverse athlete profile. When we first started the programme, most of the team members were only part of that one sports team. With some initial success, archery began to attract more students and this year, the team has two OFSAA (Ontario) gold medals and most of the team members are involved in multiple sports during the school year.

We see this at all levels within our school. There are all kinds of reasons why students get involved in activities. They may join the Spelling Club because the teacher-in-charge was their homeroom teacher a few years before. They may not be particularly interested in the Choir but hearing from a teacher or parent that “you have a great voice” can be the start of a wonderful lifetime hobby. Peer pressure can be a positive thing and I imagine that more than a few of the actors on our stages this year only went out to auditions because their friends did. Motivation can come from unlikely sources, too; HS coach Mr. Milkovich can probably name more than a dozen girls whose 4-year career in a Marauder rugby jersey started with a uniform detention he issued in Grade 9 “to be served at 3:30…bring your cleats and meet me on the field”

As this year comes to a close, I challenge all students to take a look at how they can expand their horizons next year. This might mean joining more clubs but it also might mean dropping a few activities in order to focus in on one or two. For the older students, it might be improving their overall academic average and for the younger ones, it might be to make more friends. Mentor College and TEAM School gives every student these opportunities so make the best of them so you aren’t saying in June 2016, “I wish I would have…”

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

Teachers’ Strike Affects All Of Us

Leave a reply

I had my first slo-pitch game of the year last night and we sat around after the game to get to know each other a bit better over an iced tea (as slo-pitch players do). When my new teammates found out what I did for a living, one of them said, “I guess you are one of the few people that are happy about a teachers’ strike!”

Actually, we are not happy about a strike. It affects our students by disrupting the scheduled extra-curricular activities and the participation of competitors from all schools.

Our junior boys’ rugby team has won all 4 of their ROPSSAA games. Their Tuesday game vs. John Fraser was cancelled and their big game versus also-undefeated Lorne Park today did not happen. If sports do not re-convene in the Peel schools, there are only 2 Catholic schools in the league; we have played the only one in our division and our boys may have played their last official game of the season. The senior rugby boys have played the only Catholic school in the league and might also be done. The boys’ soccer team is also in first place but now have no games scheduled. Girls’ soccer and girls’ rugby have only one game to play. Yesterday’s junior badminton match was cancelled and after tomorrow’s game against St. Francis Xavier, there will be no more games if the job action continues. The coaches of all these sports are finding exhibition games or tournaments to keep their season going but we would rather be playing within the regular ROPSSAA framework.

Competition in extra-curricular activities for our students is also affected. Our high school mock-trial team will have its regional competition on Friday, but will be missing participants competing from schools of the boards who are on strike. We have an elementary student participating at the Canada-Wide Science Fair next week who will be accompanied by one of our science teachers, while a volunteer chaperone had to be recruited to allow the students from the public board to participate as part of the group from the Peel region.

We hope that a solution is negotiated that will allow students and teachers to return to their school, and to their classes and extra-curricular activities, thereby allowing our sports and extra-curricular activities to proceed as planned with participants from all schools.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

A Great Weekend With A Great Bunch Of Students

Leave a reply

Over the weekend, I had the privilege to take the Grade 9 girls’ volleyball team (and HS attendance secretary Ms. Showler) back to my hometown of Goderich for a tournament. This group of girls is a really fun bunch and by fun, I mean that they did anything but blend in as we stopped to take photos in front of the high schools of their two heroes (Justin Bieber, Stratford Northwestern Secondary School and Ms. Fuhr, Mitchell District High School). They couldn’t believe that students were driving home from school on a snowmobile and they even pretended to enjoy my guided tour of the town of Goderich! Their mathematics teachers will be proud to hear that they did not believe it was geometrically possible to drive in circles around an octagon that is called “The Square”. The weekend was about having some fun together and not about winning games (but they did anyway!). Everywhere we went, the girls were energetic (and perhaps a wee bit loud at times but that is par for the course with 14-year-old girls) and I was proud of the way they represented the school from the moment we left until we returned.

I was disappointed in myself for one incident, though. We were at a McDonalds and the girls were tired after playing 8 games and probably as quiet and lifeless as they were all weekend. They had all ordered and were waiting in line at the side while I got ready to place my order. Before I got to the till, two folks got into line behind me and said “Oh, great…there’s a bunch of stupid kids here”.

My first impulse was to turn around and go on a Rick Mercer-esque rant and say “Actually, they are not a bunch of stupid kids. They are bunch of wonderful, intelligent young women. Some of them have known each other for years and others for only months but they truly enjoy each other’s company. They can laugh with each other and at themselves. They cheer for each other when times are good and console each other when things get rough. They have been taught by their school and by their parents to be respectful of adults, even when adults like you unfairly do not give them any respect. For example, they would never walk into a restaurant and say ‘Oh great, there’s a bunch of old people here’. Please forgive me if you think I am being defensive; I am just extremely proud of my students and my school wherever we go!”

In the end, I ended up doing nothing (and probably best-represented the school by doing so!) but it was a good reminder for me that we have a very special school. The people at the McDonald’s will never understand why anyone would want to spend the weekend in a small town with a bunch of “stupid kids” but I know that Ms. Showler and I would trade neither the weekend nor that “bunch” for another.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

Get Involved…You Only Live Once

Leave a reply

There was a fad a year or two ago where people were encouraged to write a letter to “16-Year-Old Me”. I am not sure what the purpose of this was but the positive spin from it was that young people had the chance to see what older people (eg: over 20!) would have changed about their teenage years.

For me, I would have gone back further and written a letter to the 14-year-old me. At 14 and in Grade 8, sports was everything. My life revolved around the community sports seasons (hockey, fastball, soccer) but once I hit high school, I moved from volleyball to basketball to badminton to track without a day off between. I was so focussed on athletics that I did not give myself the chance to get involved in anything else. I would have told the 14-year-old me to take courses in music and drama, to play in the school ensembles and audition for a role on stage. Now that I am over 20(!!), I wish I had taken advantage of those opportunities.

So whenever I have the chance to speak with students about their future years in education, I always tell them to add one new extra-curricular activity each year (even if it means they need to drop one). Every year, I see students who play on a sports team or perform on stage for the first time and think to myself “Why didn’t they do this sooner?”. Even more frustrating is seeing students who are very active in the TEAM/Mentor clubs, teams, ensembles and activities from JK to Grade 8 but then don’t get involved in anything in high school! What happened to YOLO (You Only Live Once)?

In a few weeks, it will be New Year’s Eve and many of us will be making resolutions for 2015. Students…make this the year that you tryout for a new sports team, audition for a role in the musical, join the cooking club or sign up to participate in an Outreach project. Parents…if your child needs a bit of encouragement to get involved, let us know and we can perhaps subtly give them a nudge. You could even write that letter to the “14-Year-Old Me” (or choose the age your child is) to start the conversation. The only question is…would you have listened to an “ancient” person like you when you were 14?

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

Athletes Exceptional Both On & Off Field

Leave a reply

Last night was the high school athletic banquet and every year, it allows me to reminisce. I take a look around the room to see how the Grade 12s have matured as students, athletes and human beings since I coached them in Grade 9. At the same time, I look at the Grade 9s and wonder who will be the leaders of our sports programme when they are in their graduating year. For the Grade 10s, I try to decide who will be a difference-maker in their first year of senior sports and I think in my head which Grade 11 student-athletes will be the backbone of next year’s teams.

This year, athletic director Mr. Miller invited two alumni back for the event to present two of the awards. Lynda Vu and Jesse Kokorudz just finished their 3rd year of university as student-athletes (Lynda at McMaster as a wrestler and Jesse at Wilfrid Laurier as a rugby player) and when I asked them at the last minute if they wanted to say a few words to the crowd, they eagerly accepted (must be all that Speech Night training!). Lynda encouraged the Grade 12s to ignore all the little excuses to not be involved in collegiate sports and that she would have not been nearly as successful in her studies if not for her wrestling endeavours. Jesse took the opportunity to thank both his rugby coaches and his teachers for both his athletic and academic success at TSS/Mentor and that he continues to apply the foundational tools he learned here in the classroom and on the field.

What impressed me most about these two though, was what they did after their 5 minutes on stage. Not only were they at the event before it started, they stayed afterwards….but not, as you might think, to stand around and chat with their coaches. It was like they were back in high school again; Lynda helped the Athletic Association team cleaning up tables and Jesse rolled up his sleeves and helped with the final job of the night…rolling up the tarps.

Congratulations to all of the student-athletes who participated in Marauder Athletics this year and to the graduating students, Jesse and Lynda are great examples of how the lessons you learn in school and in sports will continue with you when you start the next chapter of your education…if you give yourself the opportunity.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School