FALL Verse: Heb. 2:9 IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES SCHEDULES FIND US ONLINE!

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1 P C S A T H L FALL 2015 E T I C S Verse: Heb. 2:9 PLAY THE RIGHT WAY, PLAY FOR THE RIGHT REASONS And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him - Colossians 3:17 From the Athletic Director: Heb. 2:9: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.(kj) As Christmas approaches and I begin to be reminded of Christ s descent to earth through the virgin birth, I am also reminded of the incredible fact of Christ being fully God and fully man. While my limited human mind cannot fully grasp what that would be like, it definitely fills me with wonder. I am also humbled by the fact Paul points out in his letter to the Philippians, that Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil 2:6-7). True, Christ could have come to this world guns-a-blazing ready to wipe-out the Jewish opposition and restore God's people to rule the world. Many Jews at the time believed the Messiah would come in this manner. But Christ did not come to wipe out the infidel, terrorize innocent civilians, or create a worldly government. He did not come into this world to win the way we think about winning today - a defeat of the opposition with trophies and a parade to follow. In Jesus own words, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark FALL :45). It is this attitude that we seek to instill in our student athletes. Yet it raises a difficult challenge: as athletes how do we balance this attitude with our pursuit of victory on the field. Michael Zigarelli, a professor at Messiah College, an NCAA Division III Christian liberal arts school in Grantham, PA wrote a book called The Messiah Method. He attempts to explain how both the Messiah men s and women s soccer programs recorded the best combined record for a decade in all of NCAA collegiate soccer, divisions 1, 2, and 3. He analyzed the 7 disciplines that both programs adhere to and gave examples of how they were applied. One of the disciplines he discussed was, Recruit Both-And Players. Zigarelli described the process of recruiting and how the coaches changed their philosophy when searching for players for their program. They would no longer settle for players who were immensely talented but lacked character, or players who were great kids, but not as skilled. They would recruit soccer players who were both highly skilled AND good teammates who displayed strong Christian character continued on page 2 IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES * 12/8-1st home games for Varsity boys and girls basketball * 12/ MS girls basketball playoffs * 12/19 - Boys basketball alumni game * 1/4 - MS boys basketball begins * 1/ Homecoming weekend * 1/29 - Pep rally, Senior recognition * 1/30 - Winter Ball * 2/29 - Winer Sports Awards Banquet SCHEDULES We encourage all of our athletes and parents to log onto schedulestar.com Create an account and sign up for instant updates that can be sent as a text or an - this is the best way to get up to the SECOND schedule changes! FIND US ONLINE! WEB: athletics (Check the new pages out!) FACEBOOK: PCS ATHLETICS "1

2 P C S A T H L E T I C S Over time, this approach to recruitment manifested itself throughout the entire program and became known as the Genius of the And. Women s coach Scott Frey stated, The genius of the and is taking those things that seem diametrically opposed and saying yes, we can have them both (pg. 89) These are the qualities they look for in their players: A fiercely competitive spirit AND selfless love, the hardest working team AND the most technical team, a champion s heart AND humble spirit, driven individuals AND selfless teammates, to dare greatly AND have the courage to fail (pg. 89). Throughout the soccer season this year we discussed this idea of being both, and players with our soccer boys. What did that look like for us? Could we be skilled AND smart players? Could we be defensively sound AND have an attack up front? Could we compete tooth-andnail with our opponent AND show the love of Christ in us? Could we have five four-hour preseason practices during the week AND give up our Saturday to do a service project for someone in need? More than anything we discussed this year the boys took this concept to heart. But of course, we had to apply it to our lives. What does a both, and Christian look like? In Matthew 16:14 Christ says to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves AND take up their cross and follow me. We cannot just say we are Christians. Christ calls us to action and obedience. He wants us to believe in our hearts AND confess with our tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord. A both, and Christian does not just label themselves a Christian, but follows and obeys. We are called to not just proclaim the name of Jesus, but live our lives as followers of Him. Needless to say, I was proud of our team in the way they played their first round district game against Faith Christian. Our strategy going in was to take the fouls and not retaliate. We wanted to compete hard, but not fall into the trap of letting our anger and emotions get the best of us. The strategy worked and we won and I was proud of the boys on the field, but I have never been more proud of our Plumstead Christian community than I was on that evening. After asking our student body and parents to please cheer only for our team and not AGAINST the opponent, I was so proud of the way our fans behaved and cheered during an intense game against a rival team. I want to thank all of you who came out for the way you responded to our team s request. As fans, you showed what it means to cheer the right way and for the right reasons. You showed that you could be a fanatic fan, without losing your testimony as Christians. I was greatly humbled by the outcome of love and support by our community and by the outcome of the game. You demonstrated what means to be both and fans. You reminded me what a wonderful community I am a part of here at Plumstead Christian and it was amazing to see God use our community for His will. Christ came to this world as both fully God AND fully man, neither sacrificing his divinity nor his humanity in the process. He bore that burden for us, suffered, died, and rose again so that we may receive the gift of salvation. He equips us, through the Spirit, to be both and followers, who, fixing our eyes on Him, find strength in weakness and are able to live out our call to be the light of the world whether at school, on the field, in the stands, or in the workplace. As we go into the final few weeks before break I pray you all have a wonderful holiday vacation and a very Merry Christmas Panther Nation! The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). (Special thanks to editor and friend Matthew Ogden) FALL 2015 "2

3 WHAT S NEW? S E Q U O I A C L U B NEW ACTIVITIES CENTER! The Activities Center is complete and the 1st Varsity Girls and Boys games will be December 8 beginning at 3:45 pm with the girls varsity game vs Phil-Mont! BASKETBALL PROGRAMS! Programs for the boys and girls basketball teams will now be available for purchase at all varsity home games for 2$ FALL 2015 "3

4 P C S A T H L E T I C S WINTER COACHING LINE UP NEW OR RETURNING! * MS Girls Basketball - Jenn Mott (A Team), Chrissy Boden (B Team) * Varsity Girls - Steve Haines * HS Boys - Jim Zeldenrust (Varsity), Dave Curry (Assistant), John Elton (JV Head and Assistant ), Jim Bortolotti (Freshmen Head and Assistant) WINTER and FUTURE COACHING NEEDS * Basketball (W)- MS Boys Head Coach, MS Boys Assistant * Track (S) - MS Girls, MS Boys * Tennis (S) - Boys Head Coach * Baseball (S) - MS Boys Head Coach MIDDLE SCHOOL TRACK For the last two years, in order to rebuild our track and field program, we have offered track and field to our middle school athletes as a club sport. Coming in the spring of 2016 we plan on launching our inaugural Middle School track and field team! If you or anyone you know is interested and qualified to help coach please contact us! FALL

5 S E Q U O I A C L U B FALL SPORTS WRAP UP Middle school girls field hockey team wins the BAL League CHAMPIONSHIP! Ashley Pritchard advanced to the 2nd round of BAL singles! Varsity boys soccer advanced to the district semi-finals after defeating Faith Christian in the 1st round! FALL 2015 "5

6 P C S A T H L E T I C S 2015 PCS FALL AWARDS LEAGUE RECOGNITIONS VARSITY FIELD HOCKEY (In order form left to right) Ellie Gresham (Jr.): 1st Team BAL (Also received Academic All-League) Celene Desko (Sr.): 2nd Team Paige Hawthorne (Sr.): Honorable Mention VARSITY SOCCER (In order form left to right) Brendan Provan (Jr.) - 2nd, Noah Klinger (Sr.) - 1st, Luke Brautigam (So.) - 1st, and Academic All-League, Steven Haines (Jr.) - 1st, Artie Micheel (Jr.) - 2nd, Alex Hartzel (So.) - 2nd FALL

7 S E Q U O I A C L U B Varsity Girls Field Hockey Overall Record: Coaches Jessie Brittingham (H) Lauren Van Pelt (A) TEAM AWARDS MVP: Ellie Gresham (Jr.) Christian Character: Olivia Eshleman (Sr.) Most Improved: Emily Moore (So.) Coaches Award: Celene Desko (Sr.) Middle School Girls Field Hockey Overall Record: Head Coach Tiehl McRoberts TEAM AWARDS Leadership: Olivia Mott (8th) Christian Character: Rachel Mandia (8th) Most Improved: Anna Hamilton (8th) Coaches Award: Carmen Gisondi (8th) FALL 2015 "7

8 P C S A T H L E T I C S Varsity Boys Soccer Overall Record: Coaches: Jim Zeldenrust (Head) Steve Haines (Assistant) Max Fritsche (JV Head Coach) Team Awards MVP: Luke Brautigam (So.) Most Improved: Phil Pennington (So.) Coaches Award: Noah Klinger (Sr.), Steven Haines (Jr.) Overall Record: 2-9 Head Coach: Doug Walker Team Awards Leadership: Peyton Link (8th) Christian Character: Caleb Mandia (6th) Most Improved: Josh Miller Coaches Award: Alex Read Middle School Boys Soccer FALL

9 S E Q U O I A C L U B Varsity Girls Tennis Head Coach: Jessica Jackson Team Awards MVP: Ashley Pritchard (Sr.) Most Improved: Mary Robinson (Fr.) Coaches Award: Shannon Billington (So.) If you would like to volunteer to be on our PCS Athletics Boosters Committee please contact the athletic department - pcsathletics@plumsteadchristian.org. Responsibilities would be helping out for one of the following during only one sports season: Concessions, Homecoming (pep rally, senior recognition), Awards Banquet. FALL 2015 "9