Fall is Here!
Crisp air, colorful leaves, comfy sweaters, and powder puff football!!

Our refs were ready.  Definitely tuff “enuff” for powder puff.
Team Pink and Team Purple had excellent coaches, Evan and Mason respectively.

And the “cheerleaders” were full of spirit!

Plays were made.  The stands were filled with fans…

…and fun was had by all!

In the end, Team Purple pulled out a win!

Spirit Week – School spirit was in full display with creative spirit wear worn each day!

Greeks vs Grease Day

Dynamic Duo Day

Tie Dye Day

Jersey Day

Tourist Day

Each day of Spirit Week, Mrs. Prince and Mrs. Dearing selected students for the Spirit Court. 

The Spirit Court winners –  Nick, Evan, Bryson, Emma, Sydney, Ben, Tyler, Chase, Kirby, Emily, Daniel, and Cameron – were then awarded the privilege of representing the Upper School in a game of dodgeball against the teachers during the Pep Rally.

Warrior Man Scavenger Hunt –
Throughout the week, the Houses participated in a “warrior” man scavenger hunt for points.  The warriors were hidden in the common areas of the school.

Some warriors were very camouflaged and never found all week, like the one above that was hiding in Mrs. Sneed’s wreath on her door!

Hunt #1 (Mon-Wed) – 1st Place: Fides, 2nd Place: Sapientia, 3rd Place: Audacia
Hunt #2 (Thurs-Fri) – 1st Place: Sapientia, 2nd Place: Fides, 3rd Place: Audacia

House Meeting Spirit Competition –
The Houses each held a meeting during Spirit Week and were given a School Spirit Challenge.  They had 20 minutes to show their school spirit by decorating the white board of one of their House advisors.  Mrs. Prince then had the hard task of judging each.

1st Place went to Audacia – 40pts

But it was a tie for 2nd Place…

Fides – 20pts

Sapientia – 20pts

Audacia further showed their House and School Spirit by decorating the school rock!  Well done…using your motto with school colors!  20pts!

The Houses know how to get the word out about Spirit events – like the Chick-fil-a Spirit Night.  Their Instagram images continue to be so creative!  Love them!

The old saying is right…”Time flies when you are having fun!”  AND 1st quarter at CCS has been so much fun!  As soon as the 1st quarter grades are in, we will announce which House has won the quarter. 

And remember to always…

Pursue Wisdom!  Live Courageously! and Keep the Faith!

1326pts           1140pts             1644pts

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September has been filled with exciting moments in academics and athletics at CCS!  Warrior pride is on the rise! 

Congratulations to Kirby Thigpen, who has been named a National Merit Semifinalist in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program! Over 1.6 million students in more than 22,000 high schools took the 2015 PSAT.  The 16,000 semifinalists are the highest scoring entrants in each state and represent less than 1% of each state’s high school seniors. The semifinalists now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,500 National Merit Scholarship awards that will be offered spring 2017. Such a historic moment warrants historic point levels. House Audacia 150 points! Outstanding work, Kirby!
And the praise continues…Congratulations to Daniel Haycox, who received a Letter of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program, representing the top 2.5% of the state’s high school seniors. House Fides 75 points. Amazing job, Daniel!

Come out and support your CCS Warriors at the Cross Country meets and soccer games.  See the CCS website or watch for the CCS E-news for upcoming games – home and away.

Current Standings:

997 pts          781 pts            1255 pts

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While the CCS House System continues to grow and strengthen as a tool that provides leadership opportunities and gives incentives for excellence in academics, character, service, and school spirit, traditions will take root and healthy competition will blossom.

The students continually submit creative ideas for traditions that will raise the bar higher as the Houses compete for the desired Covenant Cup.  What a joy it is to be able to bring some of those ideas to life.  The most recent being the tradition of allowing the House that wins the Covenant Cup at the end of the school year to fly its House flag under the American flag all the next school year until a new House winner is announced in May.

Since House Fides was the 2015-16 Covenant Cup winner, they are the first House that is allowed to enjoy this new tradition…and thus have some added inspiration (or bragging rights) for a job well done.

Speaking of a job well done…the CCS Student Government hosted a Pancake Breakfast last week, and it was a delicious success!!!  Over 250 scrumptious pancakes were made and quickly devoured by smiling grammar, middle, and upper school students and parents.

The SG leaders plan to tithe 10% of their profits to support missions.  And after all the raves reviews from the hungry customers, I believe this has the potential of becoming an annual fall and/or spring tradition for the school!

Audacia House Advisor, Mrs. Quillen, knows how to set the bar high and show her house spirit!  At orientation last month, she decorated her table boldly…courageously…in the CCS AND House Audacia colors! 

 Audacia House Captain, Kirby Thipgen, is also getting the ball rolling by submitting her ticket stubs to various museums she has visited over the summer months.

** Remember all visits to museums, symphonies, art shows, musicals, etc. fall under points for the Arts and can be submitted anytime.

Audacia was also the first to submit a picture of most of their house wearing their house shirts on Friday.

Fides and Sapientia…consider yourself warned.  As the Audacia House chant says…”watch out…Audacia is coming for ya! ROAR!”

Leadership points… to House Fides for being the first house to post upcoming information on the bulletin board and make a creative flyer to do so!  Well done!

Current Standings:

554pts            444pts            627pts

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Warrior Camp 2016 was a big success!!

The CCS Upper School spent 2 days and 1 night at Camp Canaan to start off the year with fun, fellowship, and fantastic talks by 3 of our esteemed Uppers School teachers, Mr. Morton, Mr. Wilmoth, and Mr. Leland.  Attendance Points – Audacia 42pts, Fides 40pts, Sapientia 42pts

House Induction Ceremonies kicked off the day.  Audacia’s House Captain, Kirby Thigpen, welcomed in their new “lion cubs” by reading a fable on the origin of House Audacia that was recently written by Kirby, Braeden, and Sara Beth. Then the entire House circled around the new recruits with a lion chant roar of “Audacia, Audacia.”  Then members and new members were marked with red face paint.

Sapientia was up next.  Sapientia House Advisor, Mr. Morton, read their House fable about their origin.  Then each new “owlette” was asked to take an oath and marked with a blue “S”.

Last year’s Covenant Cup winner, House Fides, stepped up next to welcome in their new “wolf pups.” House Captain, Daniel Haycox, dressed in the “ancient” pelts of past Captains, read from the Fides Commonplace Book of Prints the fable of Fides’ origin.  Afterward the new wolf pups each inked their paw print into the book. If you would like to read the fables, click on the House Description link in the black bar at the top or if viewing in email format use this link.

With the induction ceremonies concluded, the CCS games began! First, in the spirit of the Olympics (somewhat), each House circled up and participated in a speed Hula Hoop race in which members held hands to create a “chain” so that the hula hoop moved around the circle by the members climbing through it.

Audacia 1st place – 30pts, Fides 2nd place – 20pts, Sapientia 3rd place – 10pts

Instead of the Decathlon, the Houses participated in a “Dog-Athlon” in honor of House Fides.  The students raced in swimming gear in a 100 yard dash, tagging team mates in a “soap box derby” race (shown below).  Then other members were released in a 3×3 noodle relay that culminated in the rest of the house tossing water balloons towards a bucket that needed the waterballoons burst into it to reach a marked line.

Sapientia 1st place – 30pts, Audacia 2nd place – 20pts, Fides 3rd place – 10pts

In honor of House Audacia, the Houses played a “musical chairs” sort of game with the music being the story of The Cat in the Hat read to them and the chairs being paper plates.  Students were either Sally, Mother, or the Fish and they had to switch seats whenever their character was read, always leaving one person in the middle. With all the wrestling and struggling for a seat, it was more appropriately dubbed “Wild Big Cat in the Hat,” and unfortunately I have no pictures to post for your enjoyment.  Fides 1st place – 30pts, and Audacia and Sapientia tied for 2nd place – 20pts each.

In honor of House Sapientia, the Houses played a hilarious game of “Owl on a Perch.”  Due to time limitations, we were unable to determine a winner, but it definitely won in the amount of laughter it produced.

After lunch the staff at Camp Canaan conducted a House competition called the “Island Challenge.”  It consisted of 25+ challenges that the Houses could choose from and receive points for completing.  After a set amount of time, the Houses could cash in their points for materials to construct an airplane or glider.

After 30 minutes of building their glider, the Houses selected members to describe the inspiration behind their structure and features of their aircraft.  And a course was set up to measure distance flown and time in the air.

Each house had two gliders.  Up first… House Fides… 

Then House Audacia…

Then Sapientia… one of their gliders flew the furthest.

I wish I could remember the names and descriptions for each glider, but suffice it to say that each team did a great “sell” job on their creation and used a lot of creativity in their construction.  Island Challenge winner – Sapientia 30pts!  Congratulations!
Fides came in 2nd place, 20pts, and Audacia in 3rd – 10pts.

After the challenge, the students listened to a talk by Mr. Morton who highlighted a song by Phil Wickham called “Sailing on a Ship” that was used as this year’s camp theme. Then dinner was served before the 7th/8th graders left to return home. 
The 9th-12th had some free time followed by a debrief time within their Houses, campfire with s’mores, and pick up games of disc golf, gaga ball, and capture the flag with glow sticks.

Though my pictures end here, the next day was equally fun.  The morning started with the 7th/8th graders returning after breakfast.  All were treated to a time of worship that has been described as a really powerful and meaningful time.  Then the students participated in a fun game of archery tag.  They were also blessed by two more fabulous talks – this time by Mr. Wilmoth and Mr. Leland.

The reviews of the camp have been really positive, and all would agree that it was the perfect start to what will no doubt be a special year.  May we all listen for that voice on the wind, calling us further in. May our sails be filled with His breath…as we sail on a ship that’s bound for life!

Current Point Standings:

523pts            383pts            520pts