Heard in the Halls - January 2023

January 11, 2023

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

ATHLETICS | COUNSELING | CHOIR | BAND | JROTC

Athletics

Boys Swimming and Diving

By Mike Steineman '92, Head Coach

As this goes to print, the Boys Swimming and Diving Team will be in the middle of the busiest part of their season with three meets a week, culminating with the Section 6AA True Team Section Meet on Saturday, January 14. Dual meets against Forest Lake, the Maroon and Gold invite, and dual meets with Stillwater and Roseville lead up to True Team. The True Team meet is hosted by the Hornets of Edina and will be held at the Art Downey Aquatic Center at Valley Middle School. The meet starts at 1 pm and you can watch all of the action in person (ticket info will be on our website) or online with YouTube. Based on the outcome of the meet, the Raiders may qualify for True Team State by winning the meet or by placing second or third in order to advance to the True Team State Meet on January 24 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. You can find results from all of our meets on our website. Stay tuned and GO RAIDERS!

Boys Basketball 

By Tony Yazbeck, Assistant Coach

The Boys Basketball Team is off to a 6-3 start. We defeated rival St. Thomas Academy 67-52 on December 22 for our 19th consecutive victory over the Cadets. We also defeated two top ten teams in defeating #7AAAA Robbinsdale Armstrong 64-57 on December 17 and #4AAAA Eastview 72-69 in OT on December 29.

It was a thrill to see two of our finest alumni playing against each other when Buffalo played Michigan State on December 30. Curtis Jones ’20 and Tre Holloman ’22 battled all the way, guarding each other. After the game, they exchanged jerseys.

We are very excited to host the St. Paul Basketball 8th Grade Team at our game vs. Forest Lake on Wednesday January 11. They are having an outstanding season with an overall record of 10-1 and we look forward to showing them an up-close look at Raider Basketball.

On January 27, we will be holding our annual Coaches vs. Cancer game vs. East Ridge. We will be selling t-shirts the week of the game and collecting donations at the game. All proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society. We are focusing this year on colon cancer awareness.

Alpine Ski

By Carrie Freitag, Head Coach

CDH Alpine started their conference race series on January 10, with races also on January 17, 19, 24 and 31. The team is growing stronger by the day and looks to make a strong showing this season.

Boys Hockey

By Matt Funk, Head Coach

The Boys Hockey Team has played with heavy hearts over the past few weeks with the sudden loss of their teammate, brother, and friend Cormick Scanlan '25. The team has honored Cormick’s memory with #17 stickers on their helmets and a banner with his number at center ice.

The boys are ranked in the Top 10 and are currently at 9-4 with recent wins against Lakeville North, St. Thomas Academy, Totino-Grace, and Stillwater, and close losses to Maple Grove and Wayzata. The Raiders are being led in points by senior captains, Jake Fisher '23 (15 goals, 14 assists) and Attila Lippai '23 (9 goals, 13 assists). Raiders are currently 4-0 in the conference and are looking to win our 4th straight conference championship before making a run at consecutive state tournament appearances.

Girls Hockey

By Tony Scheid, Head Coach

The Raider Girls Varsity Hockey Team won the consolation championship at the Eden Prairie Meltdown Holiday tournament. They had impressive wins against Chaska-Chanhassen 5-0 and Roseau 3-2. In SEC conference play on Tuesday, the Raiders beat Eastridge 4-2 in front of a great home crowd at Charles M. Schulz – Highland Arena. The Raiders are improving and gaining momentum for the stretch run to the play-offs in February. We have taken a big step forward over the last two weeks and we are playing with the confidence to win every game moving forward. We are very honored to be playing in the opening game of Hockey Day in Minnesota at White Bear Lake on Thursday, January 26 at 5:30 pm.

Wrestling

By Dan Willaert, Head Coach

The Raider Wrestling Team went 3-2 at the North St. Paul Polar Duals over Christmas break to finish in 5th place out of 8 teams.

Individually, seniors Justice Linton '23 (8-4 record) and Mike Bougie '23 (7-4 record) along with sophomore Mickey Piazza '25 (7-4 record) are leading the way. Senior Nick Wood '23 recently started competing after an injury and has already posted a 3-1 record. Finally, sophomore Ike Andrzejek '25 started the year on junior varsity, but is now 4-1 on varsity with all four wins coming by pin!

The Raiders have home events coming up on Thursday, January 19 and Friday, February 3.

Girls Basketball

By Crystal Flint, Head Coach

We are off to a great start for the new year. We won our final game of 2022 against Concordia Academy (54-44). We started the New Year right where we left off, winning two in a row, improving our streak to three wins. We beat Woodbury (62-52) and had a convincing win against Irondale (66-44). 

Lilly Hahs '24 leads us in points with 10 PPG, followed closely behind by Lauren Bengtson '24 (9.4 PPG) and Suraya Hodges '24 (9.3 PPG). Hodges almost averages a double double leading the team in rebounding with an average of 10.3 RPG. She has recorded five double doubles on the year, four of our last five games. Bengtson leads the team in steals with almost 3 per game; she has had 14 steals in the last three games. Hahs is a close second with 22 steals on the year. Through 10 games, we are .500 (5/5) - one shy of total wins on the year last season.  

We are looking to continue improving on the season. We would like to invite all youth to our next home game versus White Bear Lake, this Friday, January 13.

Gymnastics

By Nicole Cleeton, Head Coach

I am extremely proud of the work ethic and progress that our team has shown throughout this season, resulting in more team wins this year than the past few years combined. Our team continues to improve each competition that we've had this season, most recently being the highest score of the season in a winning effort against Roseville High School with a score of 127.

Each gymnast on the team strives to get better not only for themselves but also to help the team and they are so supportive of each other. In the upcoming weeks, we have meets against Park, Forest Lake, and White Bear Lake. Just like the other meets that we've had this season, I know our girls will be prepared and give it their all. We invite all students, staff, and families to come support us if they have the chance!

College Counseling

By Joan O'Connell, College Counselor

Parents/Guardians Class of 2024

Please check your email for a message from your junior’s CDH college counselor (Joan O’Connell, last names A-K or Laura Nelson, last names L-Z) inviting you to a 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 look forward to meeting with you.

Seniors – Class of 2023

Please be sure to let Mrs. Mansur 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 2023

The application for this $5,000 per year, renewable scholarship will be available beginning January 6, 2023 at schulzefamilyfoundation.org.

To qualify, you must have a minimum, unweighted cumulative GPA of 3.0, have attended a Catholic grade school K-8 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, 2023.

Choir

By Tyler Berg, Choir Director

Greetings from the CDH Choirs!

Thank you all for your attendance to both the Christmas Dinner and the Christmas Concert. It means so much to the students that you support their artistic endeavors.

Here is a look at some of our upcoming public events

• March Concert: March 21, 2023, 7 pm, Lillian Theater (Location May Change)
• Spring (Pops) Concert: Tuesday, May 16, 2023, 7 pm, Lillian Theater

We also continue to celebrate our students who have been selected for 9-10 ACDA Honor Choir, SEC Honor Choir, 10-12 MMEA Honor Choir, and National ACDA Honor Choir, all who have events coming up in the next month or so... it's a busy time for us in the vocal department!

2024 Tour to San Diego / Fundraising

The CDH Choir and Band will once again embark on a National Tour in Spring of 2024. We are headed to San Diego! We will be doing 2 rounds of fundraising, starting with Butter Braids this spring! In early February, students will be bringing home order forms for Butter Braids. They will have about 6 weeks to sell as many as possible. There will be posters up around the school. Find a choir student, or email me and we can set you up with some Butter Braids! 

Band

By Nick Zahler, Band Director

Christmas break has come and gone, we all got snowed in for almost a week, and now we're all (hopefully) rested and re-energized for the rest of the year. It's going to be a busy one! Here are some of the things that band students will be doing over the next few weeks:

• Perform at plenty of boys and girls varsity basketball games
• Coordinate a performance tour with some of our local grade schools
• Selected students will rehearse at Stillwater and East Ridge High Schools to participate in the SEC Honor Band - a prestigious opportunity for those involved: Becca Gutzmann '24 (flute), Elizabeth Barnett '24 (flute), Liv Tharp '26 (oboe), Sophie Moeller '23 (saxophone), Mark Loeffler '25 (trumpet), Riley Klaus '23 (percussion).
• Attend and perform at the Suburban East Conference Music Festival, held this year at East Ridge High School. The Honor Band students, listed above, perform an additional concert in the evening.
• Start fundraising for next year's band/choir trip to beautiful San Diego, California!

And as always, please feel encouraged to join us at our concerts! Our next public performance is our Mid-Winter Concert on March 9 in the theater. It's free and open to the public!

JROTC

By SGM David Berrisford '91, MSG Ken Peloski, COL Scrocca, and SFC Thingvold,