Beyond the Books - January 2025

January 15, 2025

At Cretin-Derham Hall, students have important opportunities to grow, learn and thrive both in the classroom and 'beyond the books!' In fact, 98% of students participate in one or more sports or activities. 

Beyond the Books is our brag book on all of your favorite co-curriculars at CDH: athletics, activities, JROTC, Campus Ministry, and the Arts. This can also be a place for occasional school-wide athletic department updates and current news on some of our activities.

ATHLETICS | ACTIVITIES | BAND | CHOIR | JROTC | THEATER

Letter from the Director of Activities and Athletics

It is hard to believe that we have turned the corner to the halfway point of the school year and our winter sports season. It was a great 2024, but we have many great things ahead in 2025.

On January 11 we held our biggest event of the year with the 1st Annual Raider Gymnastics Invitational. As you may remember, last year was a historic year for Gymnastics as we returned to the state tournament for the first time since 2010 and had our best ever finish with the team earning the State Runner-Up trophy. With most of that team returning and renewed excitement Coach Pritchard-Gutknecht and the Athletic Office partnered to create our first Invite hosted at CDH for quite some time.

We invited 5 of the top teams in the Metro area (New Prague, Minnetonka, Forest Lake, St. Michael Albertville, and Rogers) to compete in a very competitive meet. Thanks to numerous parent volunteers, coaches, athletic office, and student-athletes for the night before set-up, the Joe Mauer Field House was transformed into a Gymnastic arena and the stage was set. We welcomed 100s of visitors on Saturday and the competition was fierce. After a long tabulation of judge scores and tie breakers, filled with a hand stand competition by grade and coaches while we waited, the Raiders ended up in first place by .75 points over the state’s top team, New Prague. CDH Hall-of-Fame gymnast, Courtney Norman ’98 was on-hand to take in the action and to hand out the awards.

Thank you to everyone who made this event special for our community and one that our student-athletes won’t forget. It was a great day to be a Raider!

Coach Funk

Athletics 

Boys Basketball

By Tony Yazbeck, Assistant Coach

The boys basketball team currently sits with a perfect record of 11-0 this season and is currently ranked #1 in the state. Recently the Raiders defeated #2 Orono 75-65, East Ridge 83-64, St. Thomas Academy 76-65, Waconia 93-51, Roseville 78-53 and the 3X defending state champion Totino Grace 82-77. The Raiders have had balanced scoring this season led by Tommy Ahneman ’25 with 17.7 PPG, Ty Schlagel ’27 16.6 PPG, Jojo Mitchell ’26 14 PPG. Monteff Dixon ’25 leads the team in assists and steals. The Raiders have also had great play from guards Jason Johnson ’26 and Julian Smith ’27. Isaiah Thom ’26, Dre Frierson-Hollie ’27 and Cartier Russell ’27 have provided tremendous depth with the ability to make shots, distribute and guard. The Raiders will be home this week when we host White Bear Lake on Wednesday and Mounds View on Friday.

Girls Basketball

By Tara Gunderson, Head Coach

The CDH Girls Basketball team continues to take positive strides and now has an overall record of 8-5 and currently sits in 3rd place in the SEC Conference. Over the Holiday, we played and beat Visitation but were defeated by Holy Angels. The last two games were solid as CDH played at home and defeated both Roseville 65-59, and then Woodbury 58-42. Top scorers against Roseville were Isabella Deleeuw ’29 with 17pts and Madeleine Hamiel ’29 with 16pts. In the Woodbury game, Sage Gilbert ’26 led scoring with 22 pts and Emma Dornan ’25 had 16pts. We are at the midpoint of our season and hope to keep seeing great strides with our team chemistry! Go Raiders!

Boys Hockey

By Matt Funk, Head Coach

The boys’ hockey team just finished up the first half of our season and are 12-2-1 and currently ranked #7 in the state. Our two losses have been tight games where we have had chances to tie in the end against #2 STA 4-2 (empty net goal) and #4 Edina 3-2 in the holiday classic. We are 6-0 in conference and recently beat #9 Stillwater on the road 4-3 and Park Cottage Grove on the road 8-1. Owen Nelson ’25 is one of the state leaders in wins with 9 wins and .922 save % and 1.88 GAA. Nate Chorlton ’26 leads the team in points with 20, Max Bennett ’25 leads in goals with 11, and Jimmy Dodig ’25 leads in assists with 12.

The Boys and Girls Hockey teams are honoring the memory of Class of ’25 teammate and classmate, Cormick Scanlan. The Live Like Mick fundraiser game is coming up on Feb 1. We are looking forward to this wonderful event to honor the life of Mick and raise some money for his foundation.

Girls Hockey

By Tony Scheid, Head Coach

The Raiders Girls Hockey Varsity and Junior Varsity had an excellent run over Christmas Break. The Varsity finished in third place at the Eden Prairie Mid-Winter Meltdown Tournament (December 26, 27, and 28) with a 2-1 win over North Wright County and a 2-1 huge overtime win against Section 3AA opponent Lakeville North. The Varsity lost 2-1 in the Semi-final game to a very strong Roseau team in a very well played game.

The Junior Varsity  captured the Consolation Championship at the Eden Prairie Tournament. After dropping the first game in overtime 1-0 to North Wright County they rolled with impressive wins against Roseau 5-1, and Gentry Academy 2-1.

Following the holiday tournament the Varsity had 2 Impressive wins on the road in Suburban East Conference play. On Saturday night January 4, the Raiders beat East Ridge 2-0. Goaltender Grace Kemp ’26 had another impressive performance shutting out the Raptors with 27 saves. Lauren Fisher ’25 scored the Raiders first goal with assists going to Delaney Schwab ’25 and Stella Hadac ’25. Channing Haycraft ’27 scored the second goal on the power play on a pass from Ava Perry ’25 to ice the Raiders victory. 

On Tuesday January 7, the Raiders traveled up to Forest Lake and defeated the Rangers 3-0 to lift them up into a second place tie in the Suburban Conference Standings. Standout goalie Grace Kemp ’26 had another fantastic shutout performance with 21 saves. Ava Perry '25 scored the first goal with assists going to Ellyson Henjum ’27 and Abby Broz ’25. Broz scored on a pass from Ava Perry ’25. Lauren Fisher ’25 closed out the Raiders scoring with her team leading 8th goal of the season on assists from Schwab and Broz.

On Thursday, January 9, the Raiders dropped a 4-1 decision to Hill Murray at Charles M. Schulz-Highland Arena. The Raiders girls hockey team was back in action at home again on Saturday, January 11 against Roseville/Mahtomedi where they came away with a 2-1 OT victory.

Boys Swim and Dive

By Mitchell Reynolds, Head Coach

The Raiders Boys Swim and Dive Team is about half way through a very challenging and rewarding season! We're fortunate to Co-op with Minnesota Math and Science Academy (MSA) - the partnership affords us several very strong athletes. Some recent season highlights include the Maroon and Gold Invitational (Jan 4) and the dual meet with Roseville (Jan 9). At Maroon and Gold we raced in the "Tiger Division" and placed 6th of 17 teams, led by Top 8 Scoring swims from Ryan Cunningham,  Alex Skluzacek, Gabe Kane, Owen Sargent '26, and Jack Kirchberg '25. 

We lost the Roseville dual in the final event with a score of 92-88. The Raiders won 5 of 12 events, highlighted by a 1-2-3 sweep in the 500 Freestyle with Cunningham, John Kovats '25 and Chase Nelson '28 leading the way. Other high point scorers included Isaac Van Oosterom '25 and Chase Style '27. The Raiders won the JV team score 54-49! 

Action continues with True Team Section, 7 more dual meets, the JV Conference Champs and the Section 6AA Championships. Many of these contests take place at St Catherine University so come check out a meet and cheer on the Raiders!

Boys Volleyball

By Dan Willaert, Head Coach

The Raiders Boys Volleyball team is gearing up for their second season overall and first season as an official MSHSL program! After participating at the club-level last season, the Raiders are eager to take on new challenges at the Varsity and JV levels this season.

Team Captains Andrew Green '25 and Gino Krejce '25 are excited to step up and lead this inaugural campaign. Several other returning players participated in camps and club seasons over the summer and fall and will form a terrific nucleus to build around as we add new faces to the group. Additionally, assistant coaches will be hired and announced soon.

Tryouts begin on Monday, March 17. The first scrimmage is on Saturday, March 29 in Anoka, and the Raiders will open their Suburban East Conference schedule on Tuesday, April 15 at Irondale. Due to the athletic facilities upgrades construction last spring, the Raiders were unable to host home matches. So we are hoping to pack the gym for an intense rematch against Stillwater in the first-ever home match for Raiders Boys Volleyball on Thursday, April 17. Hope to see you all there!

Wrestling

By Joe Piazza, Head Coach

The Wrestling team is entering the second half of the season with excellent momentum. 

The Raider wrestling program competes in the Suburban East conference, the toughest pound per pound wrestling in the state. On December 20, collectively as a team, wrestling with intensity and smarts, we beat rival SEC powerhouse White Bear Lake. The win marks a first in CDH history.

On January 4, our grapplers and parents spent the day at the Hopkins invitational. Mickey Piazza ’25 placed 2nd, Pla Khu ’27 placed 4th, and Bud Brondum ’25 placed 4th.

The Junior Varsity had an impressive day; Alex Waud ‘27 placed 1st, Julius Washington ’27 placed 2nd, Kyron Kurtz ’27 placed 3rd, and Solomon Grenardo ’27 wrestled tough for a 5th place finish.

Next Home meet is on Jan 16 against SEC AAA Woodbury, SEC AAA Roseville, and AA Section Mahtomedi, in the Griep Family Gymnasium.

Activities

Debate Club

By Emma Denzen, Moderator

We completed our first debate before break on "whether Yondr pouches should or should not be used in school." We are working on researching our second debate topic, "is strict parenting good or bad for kids?" Students split into two sides, pro and con, and will debate in 2 weeks. The energy, enthusiasm, and effort have been phenomenal!

Letters of Love

By Maeve Stephens ’25

Letters of Love in the 2024-2025 school year has been well! We added 5 new board members who are Sophomores training in to fill the seniors roles when the 4 of us graduate. They have been very helpful and already fit their roles well. We have collected around 900 cards so far this year from our monthly meetings and are reaching our goal of 1 thousand. This fall, we held a meeting in the chapel for the Olin, Katchmarek, and Schmitt families who had recently lost a parent. The number of students who filled that chapel was amazing. We saw 9th graders we hadn’t recognized at previous meetings, but now recognize at meetings since. Another something new this year was hand delivering cards. Our usual method of delivery is through mail to Letters of Love Global, who then mail the cards themselves to hospitals near our school. Although, to make sure the themed cards (like Halloween ones) get to the hospitals in time for the holiday, we have to hold our meetings early in the month. We wanted to add to our school's holiday spirit and have our meeting as close to Halloween as we could, so instead, we hand delivered the cards together to the Children’s Hospital in downtown St. Paul. While we didn’t get to physically hand the cards to the kids, handing them to a nurse was still a great feeling. We got to bond as a group while also seeing a step closer to the difference we make. This club has truly grown from what it was when we began our Sophomore year and the numbers of cards, and members, continue to grow with us.

Mock Trial

By Anne Dougherty, Moderator

Our Mock Trial season is off to an exciting and promising start! In December, we hosted a scrimmage with St. Agnes, giving our students valuable courtroom experience. We also competed at the Golden Gavel Invitational at the University of Minnesota, where our teams tested their legal strategy and advocacy skills against strong competition.

Led by captains MJ Dougherty ’25, Max Redden ’25, and Elise Newmark ’25, our two teams are packed with talent, including junior superstars Nora DeZell ’26, Richard Janey ’26, Mary Jensen ’26, and Daniel Tolson ’26. Their first official competition trial took place at the Ramsey County Courthouse on January 7, and they defeated Park Cottage Grove and Nova Classical Academy.

With a fantastic young team, the future of Mock Trial at CDH looks incredibly bright. Beyond competition, the program develops critical thinking, persuasive speaking, teamwork, and legal analysis skills—all essential for success in law, business, and beyond. Stay tuned for more updates as our season progresses!

String Ensemble and Jazz Band

By Teddy Williams, Band Director

Both the CDH String Ensemble and Jazz Band are coming off of a successful Christmas concert back before break! The Jazz Band also had the opportunity to collaborate with the choir's "Purple Reign" acapella group to perform. Both groups performed festive music that the crowd had a blast with. 

Each group has their eyes on the future, looking forward to another concert at the end of February. This concert will be held in the CDH Aux Gym on February 26, 7 pm. 

Band

By Teddy Williams, Band Director

The band had a successful Christmas concert last month! It was a combined performance with the choir and all the groups performed wonderfully. 

Now the band is looking forward to appearing at more CDH hockey and basketball games. The pep band will be in full swing this winter! 

They are also preparing for our SEC all conference music festival on Sunday, February 2, and Monday, February 3, at Irondale High School. There will be another combined concert with the choir in the CDH Aux Gym on February 26, 7 pm. 

Choir

By Delilah Schuster, Choir Director

Suburban East Conference Music Festival

Sunday February 2, 6 pm at Irondale HS
SEC Honor Choir Festival (featuring 8 of our CDH singers)

Band and Choir Midwinter Concert

Wednesday, February 26, 7pm in the Aux Gym.

JROTC

By SGM David Berrisford '81, MSG Ken Peloski, COL Scrocca, and SFC Thingvold

Theater

By Cullen Wiley '16, Theater Director

Winter Play: Little Women

Thursday, February 13, 7pm
Saturday, February 15, 7pm
Sunday, February 16, 2pm

Thursday, February 20, 7pm
Saturday, February 22, 7pm
Sunday, February 23, 2pm