Heard in the Halls - January 2022

January 12, 2022

We encourage you to read all the current blogs, or click below to quickly go to a section.


ATHLETICS | COUNSELING | CHOIR | THEATER | JROTC 

Athletics

Boys Swimming and Diving

By Mike Steineman ’92, Head Coach

The Boys Swimming & Diving team season is moving right along! Our dual meet record is now 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. The Raiders started the season with a win against the Lakers of Southwest and the Eagles of Kennedy in a triangular meet on December 14. The final score was CDH 119, Southwest 114, and Kennedy 85. CDH hosted meets at St. Kate's against the Knights of Irondale on December 16, and the Rangers of Forest Lake on December 23. CDH won both of these meets with scores of 96-79 against Irondale and 99-79 versus Forest Lake. Our first loss of the season happened on January 6 as we hosted the Ponies of Stillwater. The final score of this meet was 79-100.  

During Christmas Break, the team practiced for three hours a day in the water at St. Kate's and spent time in the CDH Fitness Center as well.  Highlights of Christmas practices included the 12 days of Christmas on Christmas Eve and the 10,000 yard workout on New Year's Eve! Swimmers were able to choose from 100 x 100s, 50 x 200s, 20 x 500s, 10 x 1000s, or 5 x 2000s. In total, the team swam 63,850 yards during our Christmas workouts! That is equal to 36.28 miles or the equivalent of swimming from CDH to just outside of Red Wing, MN. 

Up next for the Raiders is travelling to the White Bear Lake YMCA on Thursday, January 13 for a dual meet against the Bears. We end our week with the 6AA True Team Section Meet at Edina on Saturday, January 15.  

You can follow all the action on the MeetMobile app for iOS or Android phones.  We also invite you to follow us on Twitter @RaidersSwimDive, or check our website at cdhraiders.org for our schedule and meet results.

Alpine Ski

By Carrie Freitag, Head Coach

The Alpine Ski Team is in full-on physical training mode as we switched to on-the-snow training when true winter arrived.  The team is small in size, but mighty in commitment and enthusiasm! The Athlete Leadership Team is: Jane Zirnhelt ’22, Lolo Goddard ’22, Daniel Weber ’23, and Daniel Honsa ’22. Other returning athletes to the team are: Luca Lombardi ’22, Hugh Burda ’23, Anders Engstrom ’23, Marin Miroslavich ’24, Gabe Zilka ’24, and Elsa Wermager ’24. New additions to the team are:  Alex Simmons ’23, Alex Gagnon ’25, Jake Haider ’25, and Finn Wermager ’25.

There are high hopes for State Championship qualifiers again this season. Leading that pack will be Goddard who qualified as an individual last season! Several of our team members made huge strides in their racing abilities last season.  With the additional, structured and awesome, strength training coaching that they are getting through the CDH Fitness Center this season, further success on the race course is inevitable.

Conference races began the first week in January. Please come out and support the team as a spectator. There is nothing as refreshing and exhilarating as watching a winter sport in its outdoor element!

Please offer prayers for beautiful snowfalls and seasonable temperatures!

Boys Basketball

By Tony Yazbeck, Assistant Coach

The boys basketball team had to deal with a brief stoppage at the beginning of the season. As a result, we have had to reschedule a number of games. Here is our schedule update:

• December 9 game vs. Minnetonka moved to March 2 at CDH - 7 pm
• December 11 game vs. Totino Grace moved to January 15 at Hamline University - 6 pm
• December 14 game vs. East Ridge moved to February 5 at CDH - 7 pm

Alumni Shout-Outs: Congratulations to Sean Sweeney ’02 on getting his first win as an NBA coach when the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Houston Rockets 130-106 on January 7.

Congratulations to Sy Chatman ’18 who was recently named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week. Chatman averaged 22 points per game for his Illinois State Redbirds during this stretch.

We are happy to announce we will be hosting the 2nd annual Daniel Oturu '18 Basketball Camp this summer at CDH. We will have two weeks this year (June 28-30 and July 18-21) for grades K-8 boys and girls. Registration is now open at www.oturubasketballcamp.com. Daniel is in his second NBA season.

Boys Hockey

By Matt Funk, Head Coach

Winning is something that the Raider hockey team has gotten quite accustomed to over the past three years. They have compiled a winning percentage of 74% and have a record of 54-17-2 in those 3 years, but have failed to advance beyond the Section Semifinals in each of those years. Many of the “hockey experts” in the state attributed that to a soft regular-season schedule that included 18 conference games. Coach Matt Funk made it his mission to work with his conference peers and ADs to reconfigure the Suburban East Conference to allow for 4 more non-conference games by forming divisions.

Once approved, it was on Funk to work with coaches across the state to create one of the State’s top 10 toughest schedules according to reputable hockey website PageStat. “I got frustrated with the narrative that we were soft or paper Tigers and I wanted our student athletes to be challenged throughout the year. That is why they came to CDH and I wanted to build a schedule that represented the team we want to be,” Funk said.

The other challenge this year has been battling major injuries throughout the year. The Raiders started the year without Gabe Rasmussen ’22, who was rehabbing an ACL tear after a breakout year in lacrosse. Defenseman Colton Jamieson ’23 had to miss a couple of games due to a deep foot contusion that limited his skating ability after taking a puck to the foot in a preseason scrimmage. Finally, captain Jake Sondreal ’22 missed most of the preseason due to a shoulder separation in the Elite League and then re-injured it during the 2nd STA game forcing him to miss extended time over the holidays.

Despite all of these challenges, the Raiders have started the season 9-3 with their latest victory coming against the state’s #2 team Edina Hornets. It was one of 4 games this year with their full line up and the boys played one of their most complete games of the season. Sondreal scored 2 goals in his first game back from his shoulder injury, Simon Houge ’23 and Rasmussen added the other goals to put the game out of reach for the Hornets. Marko Belak ’22 had his best game in a Raider uniform stopping 28 of 30 shots from a high-flying Edina team.

That win gave the Raiders wins against 2 top10 AA teams (BSM and Edina) and 2 top 5 A teams (Mahtomedi and Hermantown). Our 3 losses are against STA (twice by a goal where CDH led most of the game) and to the top-ranked Andover Huskies (3-1 with an empty-net goal).

This schedule and the adversity we have faced has told us a lot about our team and forced our group to play different roles. It will help this group come playoff time to understand what it will take to achieve our goals. Every player on our roster can fill in if needed and we have a roster full of varsity-ready players on a highly successful JV team that is ready when their numbers are called as well. The future of Raider hockey is bright and we will continue to battle each and every day to improve and challenge each other.

Girls Hockey

By Tony Scheid, Head Coach

The Cretin-Derham Hall Girls Hockey team is currently ranked 13th in the State of Minnesota for Class AA schools. They have a record of 11-4-2 and are riding a red hot 5 game unbeaten streak. The Raiders had an impressive showing at the Eden Prairie Holiday Tournament over Christmas break. After skating to a 1-1 Overtime tie against a potent Roseau Ram squad the Raiders rolled to a 7-2 win over Shakopee and a 4-0 victory against Chaska/Chanhassen. CDH outscored their opponents 12-3 and played a dominating style of hockey with an explosive transition game, hard forechecking, sharp passing, and teamwork.

In this week’s action, the Raiders cruised to a 7-2 win over Forest Lake on Tuesday night at Charles M. Schulz Highland Arena. It was a very special night as our Raiders Girls Hockey team honored our CDH teachers with a special ceremony after the first period of the game. It was wonderful to see the phenomenal connection between our faculty and student-athletes on display. The Raiders then took their show on the road last night, winning 6-2 in an always tough conference tilt with the Bears at White Bear Lake Sports Center.

Captain Lily Geist ’22 is currently leading the Raiders in scoring with 10 goals and 14 assists for 24 points. Alida Ahern ’25 is second in scoring with 11 goals and 7 assists for 18 points. Other top scorers include: Abby Broz ’25 -15 points, Sammy Muetzel ’22 - 14 points, Meredith Anfang ’23 -14 points, and Lily Anderson ’23 - 14 points. Ryan Sherry ’22 and Shannon Murphy ’22 both have 8 points and have established themselves as a top penalty-killing duo while elevating the kill north of 90%.

The defensive core has been led by Captain Ari Evans ’22 with 2 goals and 11 total points, followed by Maggie Dolan ’22 with 8 points, McKinley Haycraft ’25 - 6 points, Josie Vance ’25 - 4 points, and Lindsey Crain ’22 - 1 point.

Goalies Hannah Fritz ’22 and Erin Hannon ’22 have been lights out all season. Fritz is a top-rated goalie in the state and has 11 wins and a 0.930 Save Percentage.

Recent Raider Milestones include: Geist’s 75th career point at CDH against White Bear Lake. Fritz’s 30 career win at CDH against Forest Lake. Dolan’s 25th career assist against Forest Lake, and Lauren Fisher ’25's first goal as a Raider against Chaska/Chanhassen.

Dance Competition

By Ali Pendergrass, Head Coach

The dance team is having another strong season! They finished overall 3rd in their conference! They competed in the Anoka Invitational on Saturday January 8 and scored the highest out of all the AA teams while placing overall 3rd in Varsity Jazz and JV Kick and 4th in Varsity Kick and JV Jazz against all AAA and AA teams. 

The team plans to focus on adjusting their choreography throughout the upcoming weeks to improve routine effectiveness and degree of accuracy. They continue to maintain high difficulty, creativity, and visual effectiveness points at each competition. 

The varsity jazz team is currently ranked in the top three for the 2AA section. If they can maintain this position, they will proceed to the state tournament in February! The team has a competition on January 15 at Totino Grace and on January 29 at Mounds View. They will compete in Section finals at North Branch High School on February 12. Catch them performing at various basketball games throughout the month of January! 

Counseling

By Joan O'Connell, College Counselor

Parents/Guardians Class of 2023

Please check your email for an email message from your junior’s CDH College Counselor (Joan O’Connell, Last Names A-L or Leslie Connelly, Last Names M-Z) inviting you to schedule a family Zoom meeting for post-high planning with your junior student. Included in the email will be a link to your college counselor's appointment schedule on Calendly. Gather your questions and we will look forward to meeting with you.  

Seniors – Class of 2022

Please be sure to let Mrs. Reding in the counseling office know if you would like your first trimester grades (mid-year report) sent to colleges where you have applied. You must request this action.  To report first trimester grades to the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, you must go into your UMNTC application tracker and self-report the grades.

Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation College Scholarship – Seniors Class of 2022

The application for this $5,000 per year, renewable scholarship is now available at schulzefamilyfoundation.org.  To qualify you must have a minimum, unweighted cumulative GPA of 3.0, have attended a Catholic grade school and be graduating from a Catholic high school. This award is designed to help middle-income families who do not qualify for a Federal Pell Grant, but still show unmet financial need on the FAFSA. Awards can be used at any accredited college.  Applications must be completed online by midnight on March 1.

Choir

By Tyler Berg, Choir Director

Greetings from Cretin-Derham Hall Choir! We hope you had a restful break and a happy new year. 

Theater

By Chris Hill '01, Theater Director

CDH Theater’s production of The Velveteen Rabbit was a great success. Although the Friday night show was snowed out, the rest of the weekend was filled with theater magic and holiday spirit. It felt great to welcome audiences back into the Lillian Theater. There is nothing like a house full of eager theatergoers. Performances wrapped up by welcoming a group of Nativity 2nd graders to see a matinee performance. It is a highlight of the school year when the young students can come see the “older kids” play during the school day. Thank you to all who made it to the show! 

We are excited for this year’s Musical Theater Class Showcase! The Musical Theater Class has been hard at work preparing for a full weekend of performances of their cabaret-style version of the classic Broadway musical, "Guys and Dolls." Performing Feb 18- 20 in the Black Box Theater this show is going to be a special experience for our audiences.

Believe it or not, we are starting to think spring in the theater as we get ready for Chicago, the Musical. Auditions for the Spring Musical are February 22 – 24. It’s shaping up to be a fantastic jazz age romp filled with criminals and heroes, fabulous dancing, and great music! 

JROTC

We are thankful that everyone returned safely from break. The Corps of Cadets is rested and ready to go. The Raider Brigade closed 2021 off strong and started 2022 running at full speed as we prepare for the Army formal brigade evaluation and inspection on February 1. This inspection is held every three years and our success is imperative to maintaining the Brigade's nation-leading 94-year continuous status as an Army JROTC “Honor Unit with Distinction.” 

Participation in Army JROTC is voluntary. JROTC Cadets wear an Army uniform to instill a sense of discipline and promote pride and esprit de corps in their school Brigade. As part of the inspection and evaluation, a formal in-ranks uniform inspection will be conducted by representatives from the Army Cadet Command 3rd Brigade from Chicago and active-duty Soldiers and cadets from the University of Minnesota ROTC Department. While in uniform, cadets must adhere to Army dress and appearance regulations in order for the school to maintain its status as an “Honor Unit with Distinction.”

The evaluation will also include meetings with the school administration, a drill presentation, color guard presentation, knowledge examinations, and cadet presentations on their Service Learning and Continuous Improvement Projects. The Corps of Cadets is completing final preparations for the inspection this month as they get their uniforms ready, study their knowledge questions, complete academic and administrative requirements, research, and plan presentations on their Service Learning and Continuous Improvement Projects. 

JROTC Co-Curriculars continue to thrive in the new year.

The Rifle Team is building on the strong foundation established in 2021. Due to the overwhelming interest, we had to add times for more shooters to participate in 2022.

The Regulation and Crack Drill Teams continue to draw additional members as they prepare for the upcoming Brigade inspection and competition in the Spring.

The Color Guard closed out 2021 presenting the Colors on the ice at a number of CDH Hockey Games and is now preparing for the upcoming inspection and to participate in additional sporting events in 2022.

Additionally, the Raider Brigade is also looking to re-establish the Orienteering Team in 2022 and hopes for a strong turnout at their first meeting this month.  

Due to the ongoing surge in COVID-19 numbers across the state, we made the decision to postpone the annual Military Ball from January 21 to April 22. We know everyone looks forward to this great event and hope the COVID situation in April will look a lot better than it does right now.