Heard in the Halls - February 2022

February 9, 2022

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


ATHLETICS | COUNSELING | MUSIC |THEATER | JROTC 

Athletics

Boys Hockey

By Matt Funk, Head Coach

On February 8, the Boys Hockey team celebrated their 16 seniors in the program. From our managers to our senior captains, these 16 players have embodied what it means to be a Raider Student-Athlete. This group of seniors will graduate as one of the winningest groups of seniors in CDH history. They have won more than 80 percent of the games they have played and are hoping to win the conference for the 3rd straight year. Our seniors put their pride aside and put their energy into being the best at their assigned roles. They have grown into an extremely tight group despite extremely restricted conditions over the past two years. They have bought into our FEAR US mentality by:

1. Creating a FAMILY that truly loves and battles for each other.

2. Giving their maximum EFFORT each day they come to the rink.

3. Bringing a selfless ATTITUDE that puts the team over individual goals.

4. Remaining RELENTLESS in all we do to ensure victory and constant improvement.

5. Being UNITED in our pursuit of our team goals and desire to be one of the best teams in CDH history.

6. Willing to SACRIFICE everything for the mission.

Senior List

Colin Bennick – Manager
Max Graf – Manager
Will Henningsgard – Manager
#25 Breandan Smith – Practice Player/Manager
#2 Luke McCarthy – Forward
#5 Rory Smith – Defenseman
#12 Gabe Rasmussen – Forward
#14 Cooper Smith – Forward
#17 Sam Holm – Forward
#19 Kevin Odlaug – Forward
#20 John Kovarik – Forward
#29 Joe Cavanagh – Goalie
#30 Marko Belak – Goalie
#6 Zach Sondreal – Defenseman (Captain)
#16 Jake Sondreal – Forward (Captain)
#22 Drew Fisher – Forward (Captain)

I thank them for opening themselves up this year and going all-in together in search of something great and for committing themselves to the future of Raider hockey. That future is now and they have laid the foundation for what lies ahead, but I know they are not done yet. We have plenty to accomplish over the next month and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group.

Boys Basketball

By Tony Yazbeck, Assistant Coach

The Boys Basketball team will honor its graduating seniors on February 17 when we host Forest Lake. These young men have made significant contributions to the overall success of our program. During their four-year span they contributed to a 68-12 overall record with three state tournament berths. We thank the following seniors and wish them the very best going forward:

#2 Charlie Plum
#3 Donavhan Cain
#5 Tre Holloman
#10 Nic Coyle
#11 Ben Sheehan
#14 Brandon Melchior
#15 David Oturu
#22 Graham Owusu
Manager - Rylee Wills
Manager - Alis Coronado

Congratulations to Tre Holloman ’22 who was selected to play in the 24K Classic All-Star Game in Memphis on April 26.

The Boys Basketball team just completed an impressive week with two top 10 wins. On February 3, CDH went on the road and defeated #9 Park Cottage Grove 55-51 in front of a capacity crowd. Holloman led all scorers with 22 points along with 10 rebounds and 9 assists. Cain added 16 points and Miles Bollinger ’24 had 12. The Raiders ended the game on a 17-7 run to defeat the Wolfpack and future Gopher Pharell Payne who was held to 14 points. On February 5, the Raiders hosted #3 East Ridge and defeated the Raptors 67-50. Holloman recorded a triple-double with 13 points, 14 rebounds and 15 assists. Cain led all scorers with 18 points, Melchior had 13 points and nine rebounds and Adam Tauer ’23 with 10 points. The Raiders return to action at Woodbury on Friday.

Girls Hockey

By Tony Scheid, Head Coach

The Girls Hockey team recently recognized the hard-working faculty members of CDH with their annual Teacher Appreciation Night. We are very honored to have such wonderful people working with our kids on a daily basis. Nights like this are what makes CDH such a special place. Thank you CDH Faculty.

The team moved up a notch to 12th place in the state in the February 2 Let’s Play Hockey AA Rankings, ending the regular season with a record of 16-7-2. The Raiders made every conference game very meaningful all season. They were on the hunt for the SEC Conference Championship all the way into the 6th minute of overtime in the final game of the conference regular-season until losing a 3-2 heart breaker to Stillwater, the eventual conference champions. A tie in that game would have advanced the Raiders to the SEC Conference Playoff Championship game. Earlier in the season, CDH tied Stillwater in another overtime thriller on the road. The Raiders ended their season with the best overall record in the SEC conference which is very impressive considering their very tough strength of schedule in non-conference games.

Hannah Fritz '22 is one of the top goalies in the state with 15 wins and an impressive 9.32 save percentage. Goalie Erin Hannon '22 had an impressive shutout victory late in the season against Irondale.

Forward Lily Geist '22 leads the team in scoring. Geist quarterbacks the Raider power play and finished the regular season with 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points. Alida Ahern '25 is second on the scoring list with 16 goals and nine assists. Abby Broz '25 has 22 points. Sammy Muetzel '22 has been on a goal-scoring rampage since Christmas and currently has 12 goals and 21 total points. Other top scorers include Lily Anderson '23 with six goals and 19 points and Meredith Anfang '23 with nine goals and 17 total points. The line of Ryan Sherry '22, Shannon Murphy '22, and Lauren Fisher '25 has been extremely strong down the stretch of the regular season. Sherry and Murphy are the top penalty killers with the team penalty kill performing at an 86% success rate. The Murphy-Sherry duo is a huge key to the team’s success and great playoff expectations. 

The CDH defensive core has provided the Raiders with staunch and extremely consistent play all season. Led by captain Ari Evans '22, Maggie Dolan '22, Lindsey Crain '22, McKinley Haycraft '25, and Josie Vance '25. Evans plays half the game and has a key role on the power play that is clicking along at just under 30 percent. Dolan has logged major minutes every game against the opponents’ top scorers, playing stellar shutdown defense while initiating the offensive attack with phenomenal puck-moving skills.

The Raiders will open up Section 3AA play today and will host at Charles M. Schulz – Highland Arena.  

Alpine Ski

By Carrie Freitag, Head Coach

Alpine racing season is fast and furious! The Alpine Ski Team is headed to the Sections race at Wild Mountain Ski Area today. Lolo Goddard ’22, Jane Zirnhelt ’22, Elsa Wermager ’24, and Marin Miroslavich ’24 will be competing to earn individual advancement to the State Championship Race.

The Sections boys team is composed of Finn Wermager ’25, Hugh Burda ’23, Anders Engstrom ’23, Alex Gagnon ’25, Danny Weber ’23, and Luca Lombardi ’22, along with alternates Jake Haider ’25 and Gabe Zilka ’24. 

The work ethic and cohesiveness of this team of athletes is exceptional. The progress that they have made since the beginning of January when gate training was finally able to begin, is truly inspirational. 

This is a sport that is "officially" measured by the time it takes a racer to ski the racecourse correctly from top of hill to bottom.  However, there are other measures of success, for individuals and teams, in the progression of skills in this sport.  Not all successes are measured by the timing clock. This group of athletes has tallied numerous successes this season, as individuals, and as a team of competitors.

They are ready to tackle the Sections race with confidence! Through determination, faith, and grace, may there be representation of CDH athletes at the State Championship Race, which is on February 16 at Giant's Ridge Ski Area.

Boys Swimming & Diving

Mike Steineman '92, Head Coach

The Boys Swimming and Diving season is starting to wind down. As this goes to print, we are beginning the eleventh week of our fourteen-week season. On Tuesday, January 25, we had our last home dual meet of the season at St. Kate's. We again want to thank St. Kate's for letting us use their pool for practice and our home meets. It was so nice to be back "home"! In that meet, the CDH Raiders defeated the Raiders of Hastings 99.5 to 70.5.  here were not one, but two ties during this meet. First, Captain Adam Sewich '22 and Matt Baumberger '24 tied for first place in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:57.07. Then, Sam Wachlarowicz '22 tied for 5th place with a swimmer from Hastings in the 50 free in a time of 27.07.  You can find these results and all of the other results from our meets on our webpage (www.cdhraiders.org).

We also celebrated our Seniors after our meet with Hastings. We remembered all of the contributions they have given to our program over the last four years!  Special congratulations to Seamus Dougherty '22, Spencer Goulet '22, Ian Jeffrey '22, Luke Leonidas '22, Jack Mountain '22, Zach O'Connor '22, Adam Sewich '22, Sam Wachlarowicz '22, and Jacob Wahlstrom '22.  Thank you Seniors for four fantastic years! We wish you the very best! Know that we will miss you and your leadership next season!

Remaining on our schedule is the last dual meet of the season vs. the Mustangs of Mounds View.  That meet will be on Thursday, February 10 and start at 6 pm. After that, we begin our journey to the MSHSL Class AA State Swimming & Diving Meet held at the U of MN Aquatic Center on March 4-6. The "post-season" starts on Saturday, February 19 and will be the SEC JV Conference Meet. The meet will be at Oltman Middle School (East Ridge's Home Pool). Up next, the Raiders will compete in the MSHSL Section Meet beginning on Thursday, February 24 with swimming preliminaries. Saturday, February 26 are the Section Swimming Finals. The Raiders will swim in Section 6AA against teams from Edina, St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Highland/SPA, South, Southwest, & Washburn. The top two finishers in every event, or anyone that makes the State qualifying time, will advance to the State Meet. The Raiders are poised to have a strong meet and hope to qualify a number of swimmers to State!  Please follow all the action on our Twitter page @RaidersSwimDive and you can follow us on the MeetMobile app for iOS and Android devices.

Wrestling

By Dan Willaert, Head Coach

The Wrestling Team is wrapping up a successful regular season! The Raiders have won two Suburban East Conference duals for the first time since joining the conference! After a one-year break due to the pandemic, we were able to host the Sgt. Michael Carlson Memorial Duals again a couple of weeks ago, bringing to CDH several state-ranked programs for some very challenging competition.  

We celebrated Senior Night last week during a home triangular against Mahtomedi and St. Paul Como Park. Both seniors, Jack Welsch ’22 and Ben Tallman ’22, went 2-0 on the night, and the Raiders cruised to a comfortable team victory over Como and nearly upset Mahtomedi too. 

We are looking forward to the post-season! The Raiders will host the Section 4AA Team Championships on Saturday, February 19. If any alumni are able to volunteer to help run the tournament, it would be greatly appreciated. Please reach out to Coach Willaert. 

Dance Competition

By Ali Pendergrass, Head Coach

The Dance Team is finishing off their winter season on a strong note! Their JV teams placed 2nd place in both jazz and kick at their final competition at MoundsView. Varsity jazz placed 3rd. The team is proud to announce that they have achieved an Academic All-State Team award. Section Finals are this Saturday, February 12 at North Branch High School. 

Leaders Julianne Mason ’22, Olivia Hunt ’22, Annie Noyes ’22, and Rezza Sevenich ’23 have made the Minnesota All-State Dance Team and are excited to perform with other top dancers from Minnesota in March.  

Counseling

By Joan O'Connell, College Counselor

Junior College Planning Meetings

If you have not already done so, please schedule a family Zoom appointment for post-high planning with your student and his or her college counselor.  An email message was sent to parents with a link to your college counselor’s appointment schedule on Calendly.  Gather your questions and we will look forward to seeing you on Zoom soon!

Ms. O’Connell, Last names A-L. Joan O'Connell Junior Meeting Sign Up

Mrs. Connelly, Last names M-Z. Leslie Connelly Junior Meeting Sign Up

April ACT for Juniors

Juniors will be taking the ACT (no writing) on Tuesday, April 5. Students do not need to sign up for the test, as all juniors will be registered by CDH. The cost of the test is $48 and will be billed to the student's tuition account. Please check your emails for additional information from Emily Kurmis, CDH School Counselor, at ekurmis@c-dh.org

CDH Education Fair

Our annual CDH Education Fair is scheduled to be back in person this year! On Tuesday, April 5, we will host college admissions representatives in the Joe Mauer Field House. Sophomore and junior students and families are invited to come explore college options, meet college representatives and get your questions answered.  This open house event will be held from 6:30 to 8 pm and a list of attending colleges will be available prior to the event.  

Music

The Music department hosted the impressive SEC Music Festival on Monday, February 7.

Theater

By Chris Hill '01, Theater Director

Acting 1 has been preparing their two-person contemporary acting scenes for performance. Using improv and theater games students get an opportunity to collaborate on realistic, slice of life theater. Acting 1 students utilize universal theater language and staging techniques to create interesting, believable, and emotionally complex scene work. 

The Musical Theater class continues to work on their showcase which will perform Feb 18-20 in the Black Box Theater. Showcasing students’ singing, dancing, and acting talents the class will perform the classic Broadway musical Guys and Dolls. Tickets are available now. Seating is limited so act fast! 

The Creativity class has begun work on their children’s book project. Starting with the question "what is something that you know now that you wish you would have known when you were younger?", students create engaging and meaningful storybooks for young people. With Eric Carle-styled collage, the books are colorful and surprising! The class looks forward to sharing the books with grade-schoolers and their families in the surrounding community. 

Preparation for the spring musical has begun. Dance classes conducted by our choreographer Jake Hermann ’09 are being offered after school on Feb 7 and 15 for those students wishing to get a leg up on their audition. It is a great way to feel confident and prepared for auditions which are happening Feb 22 – 24. Signs Ups for the dance classes are on the Theater foyer bulletin board. 

JROTC

On February 1, the JROTC Program underwent a rigorous periodic program re-accreditation. The reaccreditation consists of a formal Army inspection and evaluation conducted by representatives of the Army Cadet Command 3rd Brigade from Chicago and active-duty Soldiers and cadets from the University of Minnesota ROTC Department.  

This inspection is held every three years. A score of 96 out of 100 is required to earn the status as an Army JROTC “Honor Unit with Distinction. CDH has maintained this status for 94 continuous years.  

The evaluation also includes meetings with the school administration, an evaluation of JROTC and school facilities, a drill presentation, color guard presentation, knowledge examinations, and cadet presentations on their Service Learning and Continuous Improvement Projects. 

For their Continuous Improvement Project, the brigade leadership planned and is initiating a JROTC mentorship program to better pass down knowledge, lessons learned, and traditions from one class to the next. As part of this program, seniors will mentor juniors, juniors will mentor sophomores, and sophomores will mentor ninth graders. The brigade is seeking to better develop younger cadets, instill a habit of mentorship in all cadets, and hold on to much of what was lost through COVID-imposed cancellations of team and esprit-de-corps building events like the annual dining-in, Camp Ripley trip, and the postponed Military Ball. 

For the Service Learning Project, the brigade is unable to execute Junior Achievement again this year due to COVID. The brigade struggled to find a worthwhile organization that could accommodate 300 volunteers, but after a lot of hard work, the brigade leadership was able to develop a plan to volunteer their time and effort in support of a very worthwhile organization – Free Bikes 4 Kids. Free Bikes 4 Kids is non-profit whose mission is to create a happier and healthier childhood for kids by providing bikes to families and children in need. As part of their service, the cadets will volunteer their time repairing, cleaning, and organizing many of the organization’s 13,000 bikes so they are ready to be distributed to kids in the Spring.   

The inspectors from the U of M ROTC Department and our higher headquarters in Chicago were very impressed with the expertise and professionalism demonstrated by our cadets. Consequently, the Raider Brigade scored 98.5 out of 100 possible points, extended its national accreditation for another three years, and was once again able to maintain its elite status as a JROTC Honor Unit with Distinction. 

The Raider Brigade is proud to continue the century-old tradition of excellence here at CDH and we know this is only possible with the outstanding support of the entire CDH community. The JROTC department and cadets would like to thank the teachers, administrators, staff, students, parents, and alumni for their support. This success belongs to not just the JROTC cadets, but the entire community. Thank you.