Winter hangs on at St. Joseph’s Indian School

Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School,

Fr. Anthony, St. Joseph's Chaplain
Fr. Anthony, St. Joseph’s Chaplain

We’ve had a relatively mild winter in central South Dakota (we consider any day with sunshine and above zero temperatures “mild”), but that seems to be coming to an end.  The weather started terribly this morning with snow and very strong winds. St. Joseph’s even had a late start for the Lakota children!

Tomorrow’s weather is predicted to be extremely cold – it should be an interesting few days. But, I have also been told we will get a break at the end of the week with temps possibly up in the 40’s by the weekend. We’ll see what happens. I guess it is true that if you do not like the weather, wait a few moments and it will change!

This past Tuesday, we held the Staff Appreciation Breakfast, which is a way for the Priests of the Sacred Heart (SCJs) to say thank you to all the men and women who serve our missions so faithfully in a wide variety of ways.  It also allows the Lakota (Sioux) students to interact with those who work behind the scenes as well as staff members they encounter every day.  We had some trivia about Fr. Leo John Dehon, the founder of our SCJ community, and drew for door prizes.

Spring is right around the corner, which means some of our “winter” activities and programs are coming to an end.  Last Friday was the end of the bowling season.  Congratulations to the Rolling Thunder team and their captain Dave, one of our teachers, who captured First Place.

On our last day of bowling, the various teams were mixed together and we bowled 9 pin tap, which means the lanes were set so if you knocked down 9 pins it counted as a strike.  One of our high school girls, Irene, went crazy rolling scores of 245 and 251.  She even beat the bowling master, Andy, from the rec center who coordinated the league this year.  The students all did well and had fun.

The girls’ inter-city basketball season wrapped up on Sunday. There was a lot of improvement from when the season started. We hope friendships have been made that will continue through the years as these young ladies cross paths on the court or as they attend high school together in Chamberlain.

The Chamberlain High School girls’ basketball team is finished for the season as they lost their second round game in the state play-offs.  The boys’ team is the number 2 seed for their district and will not play until later this week when they’ll host one of the lower seeds.  If they win, they’ll play for the region championship and go on to the state tournament.  They ended their season against Stanley County from Ft. Pierre, South Dakota, this past Friday night and two of our St. Joseph’s players started — Adrian and Davis.

For Davis, it was a reward for how well he has played coming off the bench.  He showed his gratitude by having a double-double, in that he scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds to go along with several steals and assists. Great game, Davis!

Our St. Joseph’s boys’ basketball teams have also completed their season.  We hosted the sixth, seventh and eighth grade teams from Todd County this past Thursday.  The sixth grade won easily, but the seventh and eighth graders came up a bit short due to the Todd County press.  They made a run and got close but just could not get into the lead.  The seventh and eighth graders will finish their season today with a trip to Miller, South Dakota.

Be assured of our prayers for you; pilamaya thank you – for your continued support and interest in the Lakota children!

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

Author: St. Joseph's Indian School

At St. Joseph's Indian School, our privately-funded programs for Lakota (Sioux) children in need have evolved over 90 years of family partnership, experience and education. Because of generous friends who share tax-deductible donations, Native American youth receive a safe, stable home life; individual counseling and guidance; carefully planned curriculum based on Lakota culture and individual student needs and tools to help build confidence, boost self-esteem and improve cultural awareness. All of this helps children to live a bright, productive, possibility-filled future.

2 thoughts on “Winter hangs on at St. Joseph’s Indian School”

  1. Hi Fr Anthony, thanks for the update. I am sure students are unhappy about the end of the winter season of sports but looking forward to the start of the spring schedule. Hope the weather cooperates. This is one of the worst winters here on Cape Cod, The coldest February on record! We are in another Winter Weather Warning.. another 4-8 inches of snow.. everone is saying.. “NO MORE SNOW!!!” Have a good day.. God Bless

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