Mount St. Mary
Catholic High School

Vol. 3 / Issue 3

BE YOUR BEST ALWAYS

“Remember the past with gratitude.  Live the present with enthusiasm.  Look forward to the future with confidence.”
​St. John Paul II

The Men behind the madness
joseph Krug

          When people think of Rocket football, the mind immediately goes to the players that play under those Friday Night Lights. Still, people don’t know about the unsung heroes: The Rocket Junior Varsity team. They don’t just go out and play on Mondays. They are responsible for getting the Varsity team ready for their game on Friday by playing scout team to the best of their ability. But there is so much more they have to think about during the week.
 
           What is the importance of playing scout team, and how does it help the Varsity on a Friday night? Senior LB/RB Ben Winter exclaimed, “It is essential. I try to be as physical and possible to help prepare these strong men for the Friday night lights down in the boneyard!” What is the value of staying ready and prepared to play on Friday night? Ben Winter also explains, “It is super essential. It’s a very physical game required by some strong-willed men, who will do whatever it takes to win. I have to have that alpha mindset that if, or when I get in, I have to be a Great Dane rather than a teacup chihuahua to let my bark for the world to hear!” How is the future of Mount football looking? Freshman QB/LB Ethan Hamilton says, “We are looking outstanding. We are going to win a state championship without a single gram of doubt in my mind because we are alpha males, and alpha males do not lose.”

          JV players have just as significant of a role as the starters on Varsity. They have to run the Varsity opponent’s offense and defense, so the Varsity can get a good look at how the other team is going to play. Without the JV, the Varsity would not be as prepared. Because the Varsity wouldn’t be able to play against the actual offense or defense, they will face a Friday night. 

          Also, besides playing for the Varsity, they have to go out every Monday and play a game of their own. And it is not easy to flip-flop between your offense/defense and the varsity opponents’ offense/defense. It is the future of the program, so they have to stay focused and locked in.

The Catholic Origins of Thanksgiving
Myths about the pilgrims and religious freedom have obscured some surprising truths about this great American holiday.

Editor's note: This is borrowed from https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/11/27/the-catholic-origins-of-thanksgiving/
     Did you know that Thanksgiving is a Catholic holiday? True, it’s not on the Church calendar. And it is celebrated only in America, whereas Church holidays are universal.

     Our national holiday is undoubtedly an event that has taken on a life of its own, with an established tradition involving turkey and mashed potatoes, football, shopping, and a four-day weekend—which is fascinating since none of those things have anything to do with the original event that gave rise to annual celebration on the fourth Thursday in November. But any time a nation does anything in unison that involves families getting together and counting their blessings, it is a good thing. “Thanks,” says G.K. Chesterton, “is the highest form of thought.” And he mentions the fact that the worst moment for an atheist is when he is thankful and suddenly realizes he has no one to thank.

     But what is the origin of this holiday?

     What most people believe is a variation on what I was taught in public school in the 1960s. The Pilgrims came to Plymouth on a ship called the Mayflower. They were the first English settlers in America. They came for religious freedom. And they had a big feast with Indians, and that was the first Thanksgiving. That about sums it up. And that is what Chesterton calls “The Myth of the Mayflower.”

     First of all, they were not known as “pilgrims” till about 200 years afterwards. They were Puritans, a radical Anglican “low church” sect that loathed the “high church” Anglicans that happened to include the King of England. In fact, about 30 years after the Puritans arrived in America, some of their fellow Puritans back in England arranged for King Charles I to have his head chopped off.

     Secondly, there were at least nine other British settlements before the Plymouth colony. In fact, one of them was at Plymouth. All but one of them failed, including the first settlement at Plymouth. The Puritans who came to Plymouth in 1620 almost didn’t survive. Half the settlers died the first winter. They were saved by a Native American named Squanto, who taught them how to hunt and fish and grow corn.

     But here’s what is really interesting: Squanto was a Roman Catholic.

     In 1614, he had been captured by an English party led by Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) and taken on a ship to Spain where he was to be sold as a slave. He was rescued by some Dominican friars who instructed him in the Catholic faith. He told them he wanted to return to his people in America. They helped him get to England, where he met John Slaney, who taught him English and arranged for him to get to Newfoundland. Squanto served as an interpreter between the English and the Indians and crossed the Atlantic six times. He was never able to return to his own tribe, because they had been wiped out in a plague.

     After he came to the aid of the Plymouth settlers, helping them grow their own food, he arranged for a joint harvest feast with the local Wampanoag tribe. It was this event that is the basis of our Thanksgiving holiday. So Thanksgiving was started by a Native American Catholic. Ironically, the Wampanoag tribe later took Squanto hostage because they distrusted him, and he was rescued by the English. It is possible that the Indians poisoned him, which led to his death shortly afterwards in 1622.

     And then there is this other thing we never learned in school: In 1621, the year after the Puritans arrived at Plymouth, another group of English settlers arrived in Ferry, Newfoundland. The land had been granted to George Calvert, the First Baron of Baltimore. Calvert’s son, Cecilius, the Second Baron of Baltimore, was granted another chunk of the New World, which he settled in 1632. He called it Maryland. Why did England give this land to George Calvert and his son? As compensation for the fact the George Calvert had been stripped of his title of Secretary State. And why had he been stripped of his title? Because he declared that he was a Roman Catholic. Maryland (named for some woman whose name was Mary) was the first English Catholic settlement in the New World, and one of its founding principles was…freedom of religion.

     The Puritans up the coast get all the credit for establishing freedom of religion, but they did not do it. They were actually quite opposed to the idea. They were anything but tolerant. In fact, it was their intolerance that caused them to come to the new world, not persecution. England was not Puritan enough for them. They did not think the Stuarts had gone far enough to do away with the elements of Catholicism that still remained in the Church of England. Puritan intolerance led the eventual execution of King Charles I (whose wife and children were Catholic). Puritan intolerance was further demonstrated by a course of events in another Puritan settlement established just six years after the one in Plymouth, just down the road, had there been a road. It was called Salem. It was there that anyone who departed from a strict Puritan practice was in danger of being burned as a witch. Chesterton points out that the Puritans lost their belief in priests but kept their belief in witches.

     So the Catholics deserve the credit not only for the first Thanksgiving, but for the first real religious freedom in America. Not the Puritans whom we call Pilgrims.

     It is perhaps why G.K. Chesterton says that England should also celebrate Thanksgiving—in thanks that the Pilgrims left England!
(This essay was originally posted on November 25, 2015.)
Dale Ahlquist is president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, creator and host of the EWTN series “G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense,” and publisher of Gilbert Magazine. He is the author and editor of several books on Chesterton, including The Complete Thinker: The Marvelous Mind of G.K. Chesterton.

The Blue Crew
​Pryce Jeffries and Joseph Krug

     Whether it is basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc., the Rockets can always depend on one thing. It isn’t players playing well, coaches calling the right plays, or referees calling the game correctly. It is the “Blue Crew” being absolutely krunk and crazy. Through good games and bad games, good times and bad times, big crew and small crew, there will always be those crazy students going wild in the stands. The Mount will always have the better student section.

     A student section is a group of student fans supporting its athletic teams at sporting events. They are known for being one of the most visible, vocal, and energetic sections of a sports crowd and for their occasional raucous behavior. 

        The Blue Crew overpowers and dominates the other school’s students’ cheer and sends fear into the heart of the opponents. With loud cheers and crazy school spirit, it is just the thing our athletes need to inspire them to keep playing the best they can. And when the athletes are playing well, then the teams are playing well, and when the teams are playing well, it makes school so much fun.
​
     Here at Mount St. Mary, our student section is epic. Starting with the relationships it brings to the table, it allows students to watch the sport played, helps build a kinship with other students, and creates memories at MSM, a reason to attend every sporting event. 

         Starting sophomore point guard Braeden Lloyd said, “It gives me a lot of energy and gets me excited. Inspiring me to play to my full potential, and put on a show for my boys, fans, and family.” Concerning other teams’ fans, Rocket superfan and senior Ben Winter says, “Alphaness, we have a mentality that we cannot settle for second, we don’t just have boys in our crowd, we have a mean burly man that yells and screams at the top of his lungs.” Senior/Blue Crew Leader/Former Rocket basketball star Tyler Schaffer said, “We have to raise these young wolves and teach them how to howl at these boys and gals to make them win. Sometimes we have young wolves who think they are too cool for the pact, so we act accordingly.”

     The student section is the greatest thing a crowd could have. The relationship the students bring to the table is immaculate. It becomes a very emotional experience, considering all the student section does. From cheers to not so strong jeers, it builds up the athletes and creates an atmosphere.

     The student section always brings the heat. Some of the most intense/memorable student section moments at The Mount are the soccer state championship, the basketball making it to state, this year at the Lincoln Christian volleyball game where it was the loudest it has been in a while, and lastly,the volleyball state championship.

     Junior Maria Roquemore commented, “it helped a lot and affected me in a good way because it shows how much the volleyball team means to the students.” She also mentioned that “she would play, not only because the atmosphere would be different, there would be no students to hype us up when we are losing.” She commented that “you can truly see the difference between you guys from last year to this year. You guys were way louder.”
​
     Overall the Blue Crew can turn it up when needed; it knows how to get the crowd and players involved and engaged. The cheers are always loud, but when the team is doing well, it only gets louder. We have Rocket Pride.
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the first thanksgiving

     Floridians don’t want to turn the beloved Thanksgiving tradition upside down, ditch the turkey, and dismiss the pilgrims. But there is strong evidence that the first formal prayers of gratitude for good fortune in America, followed by a feast of thanks, took place in St. Augustine, a thousand miles south of Plymouth Rock, in 1565 - some 56 years earlier than traditionally accepted Thanksgiving.

     The Spanish founded their first permanent settlement in North America in 1565. Spanish explorers celebrated the first Thanksgiving for Europeans in America on September 8 of that year. Archaeologists and historians have located the approximate site, which visitors today can find at Mission Nombre de Dios and Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de La Leche in St. Augustine. A 208-foot-tall stainless-steel cross celebrates the founding of the city and marks the approximate location of the first Thanksgiving.

     Instead of pilgrims in tall black hats and wide white breastplates, cassocked Spanish priests and armored explorers celebrated a Catholic Mass and then shared a thanksgiving dinner with Timucuans - American Indians tattooed and adorned with seashells.

     What was the cause of that early celebration in Florida?

     On September 8, 1565, Spanish Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés arrived in St. Augustine with about a thousand soldiers, sailors, farmers, clergymen, and artisans. He was leading an expedition to reclaim the territory for its king, Felipe II of Spain. Before a makeshift altar, Father Francisco López celebrated a Mass of thanks for having arrived safely.

     A replica of that altar stands today on the beach, more or less in the place where - according to archaeologists - the Mass was celebrated.

     Florida historian Michael V. Gannon, professor emeritus of history at the University of Florida, described the event in 1965 in his book The Cross in the Sand. The admiral fed the Indians and shared dinner, Gannon writes.

     The menu did not include turkey.

     Instead, the main dish on the first Thanksgiving Day was a garlic stew called “cocido,” made with pork, chickpeas, and olive oil that the Spanish brought on their ships. They soaked stale bread in the stew and consumed it with red wine.

     The Timucuans probably contributed a variety of wild meats and fish - perhaps deer, red mullet, catfish, turtle, oysters, and clams. According to historians, other dishes probably consisted of squash, squash, beans, and various fruits and nuts. The Indians did not drink wine or rum. They probably only drank water, although they did consume a strong non-alcoholic drink made from herbs gathered from the coast.

     This was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent European settlement in North America. It took place just 300 yards north of the Castillo de San Marcos, at the Mission of Nombre de Dios. This event is commemorated today by a 250-foot cross that stands on the original landing site.

     Today, more than 200,000 visitors come to the mission and the sanctuary each year to walk, pray, reflect, and gain new insight into history. Much of the attraction is the chapel that contains a replica of the statue of Our Lady of La Leche, the first shrine in the United States dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The coffin of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés is in the mission museum, in an exhibition that describes the history of Catholicism in Florida.

     Every year, on the Saturday closest to September 8, the city celebrates its founding with a show that includes cannon shots, a proclamation from the mayor, speeches by historians, and a Mass at the replica of the altar.

(From: https://www.visitflorida.com/ideas-de-viaje-es/articulo/que-hacer-el-primer-dia-de-gracias-se-celebro-en-florida-56-anos- before -of-plymouth-rock /)

Budget Blues
​Spencer Crum

     ​A budget, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a plan for the coordination of resources and expenditures.” Budgets are essential to anyone who spends money frequently because moderation of spending saves money. Spending money is something that everyone knows how to do. Also, they should know how to do it correctly, and a budget is a must-have if you want to spend wisely.

     Mr. Winterrowd remarked, “Everybody, other than the U.S. government, should maintain a budget. If we lived our lives like the U.S. government, we would all be in jail.” He continued, “If you learn how to properly budget and spend money, you will be prepared for life.” For teenagers, he commented, “You have to only focus on three things: food, clothing, and gas. The way to make a budget is to add up revenue coming in and (expenses going) out and adjust your spending from there.” 

     Mr. Boda, the Economics class teacher, said, “First you must pause and allow yourself to think it through. Then, set your short-term goals and long-term goals. You must have flexibility in creating a budget as things can change quickly. For example, you might incur a loss of income or sickness that could affect your budget. Also, leave room in your budget (through savings) in case of an unexpected event. Budgeting in high school develops life skills. You learn at an early age how to be financially disciplined and responsible. A budget also allows peace of mind and helps with self-confidence in one’s ability.

     Mr. Carey stated, “When I got into college freshman year, I had to start budgeting because I had to pay for my finances. Budgeting has helped because it lets you know what your expenditures are, and it prevents overspending. I am more financially responsible now that I’ve started budgeting.” Mrs. Tecmire said, “I started seriously budgeting when I got married. My husband and I were combining finances, and we started budgeting because it was a new experience.” She continued, “I was planning for the future. Budgeting allows me to feel safer and prepared for my kid’s future. I feel like I have a better awareness of my money now that I budget.”

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Cans of help
​Pryce Jeffriesand Spencer Crum

     Did you know 1 in 6 of our statewide population is considered food insecure, leaving 594,000 Oklahomans (208,000 children) unsure where they will get their next meal? Oklahoma is the fifth hungriest state in the nation. ​​Mount St. Mary and NHS (National Honor Society) have teamed up to make a change to feed the hungry over the holiday season.

     Mrs. Dowell explained, "It's all about feeding hungry people in need. The proper term is food insecurity. The other goal is to teach students to become stewards of establishments like the Regional Food Bank. We have been donating food to the food bank recently, and the NHS saw no plans (for future donations). We put this together to fill in that deficit. The main goal is to raise awareness of food insecurity." She continued, "We also wanted to encourage students to donate and 'give food to poor people.' The students have contributed to this by bringing canned food for the hungry."

     Mr. Carey said, "People collect food for people who are experiencing financial hardship. The point is to help people who are in need during the holiday season. It is now more important than ever to spend time with family over food during the holiday season." Mr. Carey asserts, "It gives the students a chance to make a change." 

     Junior Kedon Gumerson said, "I donated sixty pounds of cans to the canned food drive. Not only because you get a free dress but also because it helps those in need." He also commented, "It makes me feel good to have the opportunity to give back and help this community in whatever way I can." 

     Junior CJ Johnson said, "I donated money because I couldn't get the cans in time, so I just let the mount get the cans they need." He also commented, "It makes me feel good because giving back to (those) that don't have food."

     Mount St Mary offers an opportunity to bring as many canned foods as possible. The more, the better. Currently, the seniors are leading the way, with 37% of their class participating. So far, The Mount has donated 2648.97 pounds of cans. 

     According to the latest participation statistics, and as of time of publication, Seniors have led the classes with 37% participation, Juniors not far behind with 27%, sophomores are at 11%,  freshmen passed the sophomores to 12%, and last but not least, coming in the first place, the staff with 72%. 

Grandparents' Day at The Mount
CJ Johnson

      Grandparents’ day was special in high school for our freshman counselor. Mrs. Elle Muzny’s grandfather, Mr. Córdova, used to work here at The Mount. Mr. Córdova was vice-principal and a Spanish teacher at The Mount. Mrs. Muzny added, “It is unique because on my dad’s side of the family, my grandma was one of the cafeteria cooks, and it was just fun having them go back and walk the halls of The Mount.”

     Mrs. Joy Murphy said, “It is a significant day. We also hosted it on veterans day so we could recognize the veterans that served this great country.” Mrs. Murphy also said that it plays a vital role at The Mount. She added, “It is enjoyable to see the students interact with their grandparents. It is just a different demeanor than we normally see from (our students).” Mrs.Murphy said this is by far her favorite event to host.

     Evan Hamilton said, “It was cool to have them (grandparents) at grandparents’ day because I don’t get to see them much doing the year.” Evan mentioned that it was pleasant walking them around the school and introducing them to his teachers. 

     For the event, The Mount brought in guest speaker, Ms. JaShe Kennedye Mccrory. She is a 2011 Mount Alumni. Ms. Mccrory is a former US Naval Academy graduate and flies E6-B aircrafts. 

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