Viking Band Wins State...Again ~ NCHS keeps racking up state championships, this time it's the marching band. The 2004 Nolan Catholic High School Marching Band won the Texas Private School Music Association's (TPSMEA) state competition held in San Antonio. On Saturday, October 30, the Viking band's show, Pirates of the Caribbean, edged out the other performances to take the competition title. This win is the band's fourth state championship in five years.

In addition to winning first place, they also won awards for Outstanding Color Guard, Outstanding Percussion, Outstanding Wind Instruments, Outstanding Marching and received a Division I rating.

Theatre Students Win State ~ Juniors, Eric Ryckaert and Tyler Ferguson, recently won the state duet acting competition at the annual Texas Thespian Convention held in Wichita Falls, Texas Nov. 18-20. Eric and Tyler performed a scene from William Inge's Picnic . These are the same roles they portrayed for the school's fall production of Picnic. Eric and Tyler will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska in June 2005 with teacher Gabriel Duarte to compete at the National Thespian Convention. This will be the fifth time Nolan Catholic acting students have represented Texas at Nationals.

Mardi Gras 2005 ~ Mark Your Calendars for the 24th Annual Mardi Gras Dinner, Auction & Dance, Saturday, February 5, 2005. Raffle Tickets are coming soon. Look for you chance to win $3,500 in Prizes. You can choose: $3,500 tuition credit to ANY Catholic school in the Ft. Worth Diocese OR $3,500 Vacation Package OR a $3,500 Shopping Spree. A Reminder the next Mardi Gras meetings are Dec. 7 - 7pm in the Library, Jan. 4 - 10:30am in the Lobby of the Arena, and January 25 - 7pm in the Library.

Upcoming Dates
Wednesday, December 8 ~ Liturgy Schedule I - Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Friday, December 10 ~ 12:04 Dismissal
EXAM WEEK - no student activities
Monday, December 13 ~ Exams - G & B periods
Tuesday, December 14 ~ Exams - D & A periods
Wednesday, December 15 ~ Exams - H & F periods
Thursday, December 16 ~ Exams - C & E periods

Phone/Pager Collection ~ As of December 1, Project Graduation is collecting only cell phones and pagers. Christmas will be here soon! Get the word out to family, friends and co-workers to donate old phones, as they are replaced. Drop cell phones and pagers into the decorated white boxes at the school.

Volunteers ~ Thank you to all of the volunteers who have already attended one of the Keeping Children Safe Sessions. You can now log into your Edline account and see a list of all of the "Cleared Volunteers." This list includes NCHS parents whom we have record of attending a Safe Session AND have received the background check from the Diocese.

The next safe session held at NCHS is February 24, 2005.

A very special thank you goes out to "The Bulkettes," the bulk mail stuffers, who took time out to volunteer there services to mail The Shield and Annual Report. The entire Nolan Catholic community should be receiving copies in the mail before Christmas.

Sister Art ~ When the art lover of PBS fame, Sister Wendy Beckett, visited Fort Worth for the Third Roman Catholic Lecture of TCU's Brite Divinity School, many of our own gave her a special NCHS welcome. Mary Jo Kaska, Moira McCarthy, Stephen Kai Nemeth, Karen Shepard, and seven students attended her presentation, "American Art" at the Amon Carter Museum: A Conversation. Sr. Wendy answered a question from a Nolan Catholic student from among the many that were submitted by the audience. Sr. Wendy was presented with a watercolor painting by Ms. Moira McCarthy, NCHS art teacher, and attended a special tour with the contemplative sister of the Trammell Crow Asian Art Collection.

"We know great art by its effect on us. If we are prepared to look without preconceptions, without defenses, without haste, then art will change us." - Sister Wendy Beckett

Cultural Enlightenment ~ Students in Mr. Nemeth's WGS: Asia, Pacifica class were fortunate to experience a presentation on Korean culture given by exchange-students Danny Lee (senior) and Eric Han (sophomore). Freshman students later presented lessons on Vietnamese culture (Anh Nguyen, Ly Hoang, Xuan Nguyen), Filipino culture (Adrean Indolos), and Thai culture (Chris Fitzer). These fine presentations assisted in broadening students' understanding and appreciation of cultures.

Other efforts this quarter include students' visits to the Trammel Crow Museum of Asian Art, to the Dallas Museum of Art for the Forbidden City exhibit, to the Japanese Gardens, and participation in the hula workshop. (The hula will be performed for the freshman Mary Mother of Nations celebration in February.)

German Club ~ On Saturday, Oct. 30, The NCHS German club won the Annual Sportfest soccer competition (again.)
Sportfest is the athletic competition between members of German Clubs from high school in North Central Texas.
Our German Club swept the tournament

Boys Varsity Soccer ~ Congrats to the boys soccer team for placing 2nd in the 2004 Viking Cup tournament at NCHS

Congratulations Lady Vikings Soccer The Lady Viking Soccer team won the St. Mary's Hall Invitational in San Antonio.
Here are the results:
NCHS 6 - Antonian 1;NCHS 8 - Austin St. Michaels 0; NCHS 6 - TMI 0; NCHS 5 - St. Mary's Hall 0; NCHS 5 - Oakridge 0

Still Running ~ Senior Andrew Montes participated in the Foot Locker South Regional Seeded Boys race in Charlotte, N.C. on Saturday 11/27. Montes came in 19th at 15:30.

Visit the Vikings online for scores, standings and other athletic news.

Get your Spirit Gear!Viking Spirit Gear products are available now. Visit the Spirit Gear stores in the Arena during athletic events. If you prefer shopping at home, The Spirit Gear online store is now open for business through the NCHS web site.