Andrew – St. Joseph's Indian School

St. Joseph’s seventh and eighth grade football team is working their way through the season and learning a lot!

Last week, they took on the Warriors from a school in Pierre, South Dakota. The team was looking forward to taking on the boys from Pierre and saw some familiar faces. Excited as they were, the opposing team seemed to triple ours in numbers AND size!

The boys played hard throughout the game and had no complaints about being tired or needing a break. We had an early injury, which kept a player out for much of the game. This led the young men to have to play “Iron Man Football” and have no breaks because we had no one left to substitute in.

St. Joseph’s Braves take a break between plays on the football field. — St. Joseph’s Braves got their first victory of the football season last week!

After the injury, the team’s spirits seemed to falter a little. However, the support of our fans in the St. Joseph’s Indian School crowd helped pep them back up! There were a couple of long drives plays by the Warriors that lead to scores that brought St. Joseph’s down by 14. Our Braves did not stop fighting, however, and came back to score the go ahead points in the middle of the 4^th quarter!

All that was left was to stop the Warriors from scoring and run out the clock… However, the Warriors were marching down the field determined to score and take back the lead.

The Warriors had the ball at about the 15 yard line, looking to score, when Harold intercepted a pass to stop their drive! The boys then ran the final minutes off the clock to secure our first victory of the season.

The crowd went wild!

Both of us coaches are extremely proud of how well the boys played. That they did not let up on their efforts on the field in the face of adversity. It is as very good sign of things to come in the future.

Final Score = St. Joseph’s Braves 26 PILC Warriors 20

You can watch some of the game here – St. Joseph’s Braves are wearing the yellow jerseys.

Thanks for your support of this great team!

Coaches Dave & Andrew

The end of the year at St. Joseph’s is filled with different educational field trips and fun home trips. The Explorers group went on just such a trip last week. Along with a St. Joseph’s chaperone, boys involved in the group went to two baseball games in Kansas City – a night game and a day game.

The boys’ view from their seats during the day game. — The boys attended two games: one day and one night.

The boys were very excited to be going on this trip and worked hard to earn the opportunity. Each year, the Explorers raise money in many different ways. Mostly, proceeds benefit the Chamberlain and Oacoma communities. In the past, they have raised money for softball fields and families struggling with difficult medical issues.

This year, they are helping fund new playground equipment at a local park.

With their annual business wrapped up, everyone piled in for the eight-hour car ride to Kansas City, Missouri. Everyone was filled with anticipation – we were going to watch a

Major.

League.

Baseball.

Game.

Live in the stadium!!

Many of the boys talked about what they would have been doing in school and how great it was that they WEREN’T in school on the way down to Kansas City. That only added to the excitement!

After arriving at the hotel, we walked across the street to the stadium. Some couldn’t contain their excitement and ran!

When we got there, all the boys received a Kansas City Royals t-shirt as part of a promotional give-away that night. Very cool!

After finding our seats and setting ground rules for the boys, they were off to explore the Hall of Fame and get closer to the field to see if they could catch a ball during batting practice. The boys asked many questions about the game of baseball, the field and everything else you can imagine! Everyone really enjoyed the night.

The next morning, we had brunch before heading back to the stadium for the day game.

When the game ended, we made the long trip back to South Dakota and St. Joseph’s Indian School. Most of the boys slept at least half the way home. We had a late arrival time (about midnight) so the boys found space on the nearest piece of furniture they could find and slept there until morning (they didn’t want to wake up the whole house!).

The boys had a very good experience and learned a lot about baseball on the trip. We had fun looking at the history of the stadium, the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame, and the evolution of the game itself.

During their year being involved with Explorers, they learned many other valuable lessons. Thank you for helping St. Joseph’s provide these opportunities!

Category: Andrew

A gridiron victory for St. Joseph’s Braves!

Major League Fun for St. Joseph’s boys