The 2015 golf season culminated in state tournament berths for both the boys and girls teams and continued a run of dominance by the Falcons. Led by junior Vanessa Yan, the girls captured their fourth consecutive district and regional titles, then finished 11th at state. The boys were runners-up at districts, but rebounded to defend their regional championship and placed seventh in the state tournament at Howey-in-the-Hills. Yan was a force for the Lady Falcons throughout the regular season and was just as impressive once post-season tournament play started. Her 71 at the Bradenton Country Club made her the district medalist. A week later, she shot 78 in blustery conditions to tie for the top spot at regionals. Yan then carded 72-76-148 at the state tournament to finish 14th. Justin Wynen’s (pictured) individual efforts on the boys’ side nearly mirrored Yan’s. The senior placed third at both districts (74) and regionals (73), then was one shot off the pace after the first day of the state tournament before ultimately shooting 71-79-150 to finish eighth overall.
Falcon Golfers Win Regionals
The girls and boys golf teams will make return trips to state, sweeping the 1A-Region 6 tournament on Monday, Oct. 19. After finishing second to Sarasota Christian at districts, the boys turned the tables, winning by six strokes on a windy afternoon at the Bradenton Country Club. Justin Wynen led the way for the Falcons with a 73. The boys will seek their first state title since 2004. The girls, who won the district championship a week earlier on the same course, edged past Fort Myers Bishop Verot by one stroke to qualify for their fourth straight state tournament trip and sixth overall. They will be chasing their first state crown. Vanessa Yan again led the way for SSES. The junior shot 78 to share the region individual championship with Naples St. John Neumann’s Sydnney Shrader. Both SSES teams will compete next Tuesday and Wednesday at Howey-in-the-Hills.
Student Breaks World Record
Amid cheers of support from the entire school, senior Zack Gromko broke a Guinness World Record on Thursday, Oct. 15, when the robot he built solved a Rubik’s cube in 2.4 seconds. The entire school community gathered in Hoagland Arena to watch the feat. Independent judges and timekeepers were also on hand to verify the attempt and submit the proper paperwork to Guinness in order to officially establish the record. Zack, who can finish the cube by hand in less than 20 seconds, started solving the popular puzzle as a sixth grader. A few years later, he saw video of a device solving the cube in record time and hatched the idea of topping that feat. Combining his love for math, engineering and puzzles, Zack went about constructing his computer-controlled robot last year. After plenty of trial and error, his creation was eventually able to consistently best the established record. On Oct. 15, Zack put the robot to the ultimate test in front of the school audience and gathered local media. The first attempt solved the cube in 3.5 seconds. The second set the new record.
Athletics are Getting Colorful!
Volleyball is thinking pink and football’s regular-season home finale has been designated a “Green Out.” Thursday’s (Oct. 8) Falcons volleyball matches against St. Petersburg Admiral Farragut will be “Pink Night” in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Wear your pink and cheer on the freshman (5 p.m.), JV (6 p.m.) and varsity (7 p.m.) in important games against a district rival. There will be treats available for the kids and a bake sale. The Moore Athletic Complex should be a sea of green when the football Falcons take on Out-of-Door Academy on Friday night, Oct. 23. Game Changers, the annual SSES Athletics fund-raiser scheduled this school year for Jan. 30, is sponsoring special “Green Out” t-shirts that will be provided to all Saint Stephen’s students. We hope you’ll attend the game, proudly wear your green, and cheer on the Falcons as they build on what is shaping up to be a record-setting 2015 season!
Five Students Reach NMS Semis
Saint Stephen’s students made up half of the 10 students from Manatee County named Tuesday as semifinalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship program. Seniors Joseph Class, Zackary Gromko, Sabrina Priestly, Hannah Sage, and Michelle Yan advanced to be among a total of 16,000 semifinalists nationally. Finalists will be named in the spring for some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million. The process of becoming a semifinalist begins during the junior year of high school when students take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Those named semifinalists are the highest-scoring entrants in each state — fewer than one-percent of all U.S. high school seniors. About 90-percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of those will win a National Merit Scholarship.
SSES Rises to the ‘Challenge’
The Saint Stephen’s community voiced its support for the school and its mission loud and clear during the 2015 Giving Challenge (Sept. 1-2), donating more than $78,000 during a 24-hour period. That total, represented by 415 individual gifts, was the largest for any single organization among the 450 non-profits participating in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. The Challenge also served as the kickoff to the school’s annual “Drive to 75” Saint’s Fund campaign, which runs 75 days through Nov. 14. In total, more than $6.6-million was raised for area non-profit organizations through the Giving Challenge. The Patterson Foundation also committed to match individual gifts up to $250. The additional match provided to Saint Stephen’s will be announced at a later date. A special thank you to everyone who supported SSES during the Challenge.
Latin Students Win National Title
Eighteen Saint Stephen’s students joined more than 1,600 Latin students from around the country in San Antonio, Texas at the end of July for the 2015 National Junior Classical League Forum. At the close of the week, SSES students came away with a National Championship in Advanced Certamen, a second-place finish at Novice Certamen, and a basket full of ribbons for top-10 finishes in academics, art and athletics. Every Saint Stephen’s student had at least one top-10 finish in academics or creatives. Leading the students to the competition at Trinity University were teachers Tony Haakman, Alice Revard and Geoff Revard, and parent chaperone Lisa Beckstein.
Headlining the accomplishments were four Saint Stephen’s students, Matthew Thomas, Joe Class, Ethan Leuchter and MaryAnn Placheril who were members of Florida’s Certamen teams at the national tournament. Certamen is an academic team-style game divided into three divisions: Novice (for first-year students), Intermediate (for second-year students) and Advanced (for levels three and above). Joe Class, Ethan Leuchter and MaryAnn Placheril (coached by Geoff Revard) won the national championship at the Advanced level. It was the second national title for MaryAnn Placheril who won at the Novice division in 2013. Florida won its seventh title in the past 15 years. The Advanced win also came with a $500 prize, which the students donated to the charity Water Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in the developing world. Matthew Thomas was a member of the Novice team coached by Tony Haakman that placed second in the tournament
Congratulations to four students who had special placements: Joe Class’ fourth place on the Academic Decathlon earned him a $100 prize; Ethan Leuchter’s first-place on Roman History (99 out of 100 correct) was the best score at any level for this test; Matthew Thomas finished in tenth-place in Overall Academics, and Savannah Sandstrum’s Saint Stephen’s Latin Club scrapbook took third nationally.
Students Set New AP Standard
There’s some more exciting news to share regarding our talented students. Saint Stephen’s recently received the Upper School AP (Advanced Placement) scores from the exams taken by 10-12 graders in May 2015. An amazing 98-percent of our students who took at least one AP exam scored a 3, 4 or 5. By comparison, the percentage of Florida students receiving 3, 4 or 5 is 55-percent, and globally, the percentage is 61-percent. Over the past several years, SSES students have consistently scored in the 90th percentiles, but having 98-percent achieve these scores sets a new standard.
Media Names Bessette Top Player
Senior Zach Bessette was a unanimous selection as the area’s top high school tennis player, earning 2015 player of the year honors from both the Bradenton Herald and Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Bessette, who will play in the fall as a freshman at Amherst (Mass.) College, led the Falcons to a Class 1A state championship. It was the Falcons’ fourth crown overall and first since 2004. A student at SSES since kindergarten, Zach competed as a member of the school’s tennis program since eighth grade, and his career also included a state doubles title with partner Brian Berdusco in 2013. He was the team leader as a senior, posting a 9-1 regular-season record and an undefeated run through regionals. At Amherst, he will join a traditionally strong program that won the Division III national title in 2014.
Welcome New Lower School Director
Please join us in welcoming new Lower School Director Jennifer Helbing to the Saint Stephen’s family. Jennifer comes to campus after spending 15 years at Darlington School, a Pre-K to grade 12 independent school in Rome, Ga. During her tenure at Darlington, she was a classroom teacher in Pre-K, kindergarten and second grade, a learning specialist, Lower School Dean of Students and, most recently, Dean of Students for Pre-K through grade 8. In her various roles, she assisted students with learning differences, launched a faculty team to create performance-based standards and designed curriculum to support those standards, all while overseeing student leadership opportunities and serving on the school’s academic and technology committees. Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a master’s in education from Georgia State.
