With another day of celebrating Catholic schools week, the excitement continues. Today we participated in all school mass and experienced a powerful homily, given by Father Edward Voltz.

Father Voltz couldn’t have expressed a homily more inspirational to the students of St. Dominic than he did today. Within the homily he spoke of vocations, following God’s will, even when it’s scary or doesn’t seem right, and finding courage through prayer to live a life dedicated to our faith. But with all this deep information he kept the attention of the entire room by including some humor of his personal awkward experience with a girl. His homily, overall, hit the hearts of multiple students.

“I’ve always been thinking about vocation, but it’s very hard for me. I’ve always thought of marriage but now I’m searching also for religious life because i don’t just want to focused on one thing and it not be what God has planned for me,” sophomore Megan Sengl said.

“I thought his story with his ride with he girl he met was very funny. But I think when he was calling the community of St. Dominic to just take out the peer pressure, and that if we want to find any kind of happiness or joy like open your ears now to god so you can start to hear him more and more,” sophomore Joe Hogan said.

But Hogan had more to think about along with his thoughts on today’s homily. Freshmen Patrick Klassen, Noah Sachs and Kalea Reeves along with Sophomores Michael Thompson, Mollie Fogarty, Jack Wallis, Monica Turntime, Jacob Schwendemen, and Joe Hogan all won awards for the either the Knights of Columbus or Serra Club essay contests.

“Catholic education has surrounded me with values of my faith for ten years now, so obviously it’s been very impactful to me,” Hogan said, explaining how his Catholic education benefited his ability to win the Serra Club essay contest.

But Hogan wasn’t the only one who expressed how Catholic education has changed their life.

“It’s very important to me because it helps with relationships with friends because through God, it brings me closer to them,” Sengl said.

“I think Catholic education is extremely important and I believe that it is because we have a faith based education, which means that anything we are teaching has the guidance of faith and the guidance of God in it which is extremely important,” Mrs. Peters said.

Mrs. Peters, who is Director of Admissions, talked about how at st. Dominic we have such a unique, beautiful community that includes more than just the students and faculty inside the building.

“I absolutely love the community we have in this school. I’ve been to other schools that just don’t have the same feel that we have. Everybody is so nice to each other and welcoming to our new students and it’s really great to see the older students be real role models for the younger students,” Mrs. Peters said.

After our faith filled day of Catholic schools week, the entire student body and staff will continue throughout the rest of the week with a newfound appreciation for the opportunity we are all given by attending St. Dominic.

Today, as our third day of Catholic schools week, students and faculty were given the opportunity to dress down, as long as they contributed four roles of toilet paper to our annual toilet paper drive.

“Catholic schools week has been so far, so good. My favorite part has honestly been the dress down say. I like being comfy and relaxed,” senior Jackie Lang said, who brought in eight rolls of toilet paper today.

Though everyone loves a comfy dress down day, the toilet paper drive is more meaningful than that. Mrs. Johnson, who is in charge of the collection, reminded us of the reason behind this fun rivalry.

“I think we do the dress down, more so people remember to bring in toilet paper. But the last three or four years we’ve collected toilet paper and donated it to the St. Joachim and Ann care service. This will usually last them four or five months. They give each family four or five rolls per week, which isn’t really a lot. It a very requested item because it’s not covered by food stamps but they can’t afford it so it’s a nice way to free up some of their funds if we have toilet paper covered.” Mrs. Johnson said.

As a Catholic school environment, this explanation of why we do the toilet paper drive should compel us to give all we can. But it doesn’t hurt that there are bragging rights included if we provide more toilet paper than our rival.

This year we are competing against St. Francis Borgia in the toilet paper drive. We’ve lost the past two years to Duchesne but many think that this may finally be our year to win.

“The accounting 2 class did the inventory and they said we had over 4,100 rolls. The winner’s not what’s important, the food pantries still get the toilet paper at an awareness that this is a need too. But I want to win. I don’t want to be number two,” Mrs. Johnson said.

“It looked like we got a lot of toilet paper so, I think we got it this year,” sophomore Taylor Larner said.

“I absolutely think we’ll be able to win this year. We have lost before, but I have faith,” Lang said.

Students and staff should all try to pack the stands at the varsity boys’ basketball game this Friday! The seven p.m. home game is also where the champion of the toilet paper drive will be announced.

Larner, who is a member of the Crusaderettes, gave an extra reason to attend the game at the end of the week.

“Dance team will be doing or half time routine. The one we’re competing at Triple A this weekend, so everyone show up and support!” Larner said.

Both the dance and cheer team will be performing their competition worthy routines during the halftime at Friday’s game. These impressive halftime shows will be bonuses for both those coming to enjoy the game and for those who cannot make the ladies’ competition this weekend.

There are only two days left of Catholic schools week and so far, the St. Dominic student body and faculty are on a roll, literally. With a surprise activity happening tomorrow, we’ll all be looking forward to the remaining festivities.  

With only one day left of Catholic schools week, the students and faculty received a nice little pick me up this morning. Due to weather, Crusaders were blessed with a late start, but students used this opportunity for many different reasons.

“The late start was nice, I like sleeping in,” senior Kennedy Murray said.

“The late start was nice, I had to come in to study for a math test. I didn’t really sleep in. I woke up at 7:30 and I usually wake up at 7:30,” senior Victor Glinsky said.

“I didn’t much sleep cause G-money (Mr. Cissle) needed me to come in for choir this morning at 8:45,” freshman Lexi Bross said.

But the morning kept getting better with Catholic schools week surprises. When students entered through the front doors this morning, they were greeted by multiple boxes of donuts for them to choose from. Those who indulged in taking a donut, or a few, enjoyed them.

“The donuts were delicious,” freshman Jacob Moore said.

“The five donuts I ate this morning were my favorite part of Catholic schools week. The glazed donut was my favorite,” Bross said.

On top of receiving donuts, classes watched a motivational talk in first period. The video fit perfectly into the theme for the day, which was “succeed.”

“The video was very inspiring. I like it, like the success,” Moore said.

As Catholic schools week is quickly coming to an end, everyone is looking forward to the last day. Tomorrow students and faculty will be competing in a dodgeball tournament. Even those not participating are excited.

“I will not be doing the dodgeball tournament tomorrow but I will be watching. I would fail. It would not be pretty,” sophomore Anna Clark said.

“I will not be in the dodgeball tournament tomorrow but good luck to anyone who’s in it,” Moore said.

Good luck to anyone who is signed up for the tournament tomorrow! Hopefully both students and teachers will get some good laughs out of the event.

St. Dominic ended Catholic Schools week with a bang by allowing students and faculty to participate in a dodgeball tournament. The exciting event included freshmen and sophomore teams competing for the first half of empower hour before the juniors and seniors went up against each other for the second half of empower hour.

The tournaments were full of craziness: leaps through the air trying to dodge the balls, impressive shots, participants diving to catch balls, and even some acrobatics.

When junior Joey Pescarino got his brother, senior Luke Pescarino, out and watched his team win that game, he performed a celebratory front handspring, which made the crowd go wild. But not everyone was as thrilled about the team’s victory.  

“It was pretty. I got out by him so that was embarrassing but it’s cool to compete with your family,” Pescarino said, as the senior football player described what it was like to play against his brother.

In the end, seniors Jack LeComte, Tyler Sachs, Nick Huber, Adam Belding, Nathan Woerther, and Luke Pescarino won the upperclassmen dodgeball tournament and beat the juniors. Though this was the first time these boys had participated in the tournament, they had no nerves when battling the juniors.

“When I found out we were up against the juniors, I was like, let’s run ‘em into the ground,” Pescarino said.

But we can’t forget about the underclassmen! After multiple eventful games, sophomores Ben Messer, Christian Giarla, Gabe Serri, Jonathon Gil, Patrick Sullivan and Luke Bauche claimed victory at the end of the day.

With Messer as the team captain, the “Warriors,” as they called themselves, weren’t nervous for the competition. They were in fact, very confident in their dodgeball skills.

“We chose Ben as the team captain cause he’s the greatest football player of the 2021 class,” Serri said.

“Nervous? Not at all. We were very cocky,” Messer said.

Not only did these boys win the tournament, but they went undefeated.

“We expected it. We were kind of excited but when you expect something and it happens it’s just not as exciting,” Sullivan said.

Even with their cocky view towards the games, the “Warriors,” also supported sophomore friends on other teams, such as Collin Quain, Kannon Patterson, and Tate Cross.

Quain, like the “Warriors,” was very dedicated to the game, even to the point of throwing himself to the floor in an attempt to catch a ball.

“I dove. Yeah, I thought I might’ve bruised my rib but it doesn’t hurt anymore,” Quain said.

While speaking to the “Warriors,” they expressed their appreciation and respect towards Cross, who selflessly joined a freshmen team.

“Tate’s one of the better athletes of the school,” Messer said.

“Terrible competition except for Tate,” Bauche said.

“You know, I’m all for the team. I’m not an individual player. All about the team,” Cross said.

Through all the fun and games, the “Warriors,” did come out on top while enjoying the game.

“Win. All we wanted to do was win,” Messer said.

“All we wanted was a fun, holy, hardy Catholic game of dodgeball,” Gil said.

Beautifully described by Gil, the dodgeball tournament was a success. Whether on the court or in the stands, everyone enjoyed watching the friendly rivalry between classes and seeing the teachers join the competition. Including Mrs. Newton, who is a coach to the softball team, showcase some of her own softball skills with some impressive throws.

Catholic schools week 2019 is sadly over, but that doesn’t mean the celebrations have to cease! There is the varsity basketball game tonight against Borgia, where the winner of the toilet paper drive will be announced.

Tomorrow morning, the dance and cheer teams will be competing for the Triple A Conference at Christian High School. Finally, Saturday night is the Dancing Through the Decades winter dance, with a special appearance by Señorita Zilka, who is back in town for the weekend.

This year’s Catholic schools week has left us with some laughs and memories while we wait for next year’s celebrations.