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Celebrating Cougar Achievements
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 Biodiesel Adventure Project
This past weekend, April 5th and 6th, Dustin Martin and his dad, Del, hosted the Houston leg for Biodiesel Adventure Project. They have a great website, www.biodieseladventure.com, but basically it is a team that originated in Japan and is driving around the world using waste vegetable oil, in a car that has the smallest biodiesel fuel plant installed in the back of it! Del has a website biodiesel group and had been in contact with them from the beginning. Since we make biodiesel at the airport, they made this their stop for the weekend. The driver, Shusei Yamada, says that as they are field testing alternative fuels, they are also meeting people around the world who are trying to make a difference. Shusei had his first chicken fried steak at Pa's Grill on Stuebner Airline and loved it! |
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Congratulations to the Northland Christian High School Choir on their outstanding results at the Texas Private Music Educators Association State Concert and Sight Reading Contest last week. Each choir must prepare 3 pieces of music demonstrating contrasting styles and time periods and sing them before the judging panel and an audience of choirs from competing schools. Next they enter another room where they must sing a piece of music in 4 part harmony with piano then without all before a panel of judges including several to the top college directors in the state. Each judge gives comments about the performance and a rating with superior being the highest possible score. Northland High School Choir received a rating of superior from all 6 judges in the Concert and Sight Reading portions of the competition. Congratulations NCS singers. |
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 Northland’s own Kathryn Eckhart won the 50 freestyle swim at the State Championship meet the weekend of March 8th. With this victory, she is now the fastest fourteen year old in the state of Texas as is ranked ninth in the entire country! Kathryn, an eighth grader, has now been at Northland for two years and has been swimming for almost four years. As well as finishing first in one event, she also placed second in the 100 meter freestyle swim missing first place by only 30/100ths of a second. During her swimming career at Fleet Swimming, Kathryn has broken three team records and there are more to come! We can only hope that more great things come in the future for her.
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| At back, Laura Lane (choir director) pictured with Haley Wilson and Dustin Martin |
Congratulations to the following Northland High School Singers for an outstanding showing at the Regional Texas Private School Music Educators Solo and Small Ensemble competition. Soloist receiving a rating of Superior Rating for singing a solo in Italian were Preston Pope, Jonathan Lane and Jean Marc Pruitt. Superior solo performances were also awarded for singing in Latin to Kerri O’Neal and Derek Manning. Superior ratings for solos in English were awarded to Kailey Perkins, Ashley Sheffield, Nikki Wilson and Dustin Martin. Ratings of Excellent for solo performance were awarded to Josh Walther and Sam Greer for singing in Italian and to Nicole Quinn and Emily Claire Lonon for solos in English. Northland High School choir also entered 6 ensembles in the competition. Of the four mixed ensembles 3 received Superior ratings and 1 Excellent rating for their English madrigal. A trio composed of Haley Wilson, Kailey Perkins and Rachel Lanier received a Superior on their Mendelssohn piece and Select 16 received a Superior for their selection sung in French.
Congratulations also goes out the the following Middle School Choir singers for a great showing at contest. Superior ratings for solos performed in English were awarded to Will Sheffield, Shelby Blocker, Hanson Larson, Kyla Wilcher, Coco Stewart and Victoria Williams. An Excellent rating for solo performance was awarded to Chelsea Scott. Two Middle School ensembles were entered one receiving a Superior Rating and the other an Excellent. Way to go Northland choir! |
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Congratualions to the NCS Cougars who participated in the Houston Chevron Marathon!
Full Marathon Finishers: (Jan. 13, 2008)
Nurse Tackett
Kim Stewart
(Mother of Bobby, Coco, and Christina)
Half Marathon Finishers:
Hannah Davis
Marty Davis (Dad of Hannah)
Lauren Tavey (extended care staff member)
Brad Eller (Dad of Braden and Cade)
John England (Dad of Kaitlyn and Kelsey)
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Nurse Jill and Kim Stewart got to meet George Bush Sr at mile 19. He had just got out of church and was cheering marathoners on by the road. They stopped and asked if they could take a picture with him and he said sure. Luckily, Kim had her flip phone so they have proof they met him. |
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 FYI: Texas is home to more Nilgai antelope than their native country of India. These are large sturdy animals with mature males weighing upwards of 600 pounds on the hoof. Nilgai are very skittish, and their keen eyesight is atop an elongated neck making it difficult to approach them without being spotted. These animals are difficult to bring down. |
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 Gabbie Fontana, a 7th grader at NCS was awarded
a gold medal in sparring at the Taekwondo
Junior Olympics held July 2007 in San Jose, CA.
She also achieved the rank of 1st degree
black belt in November.
Congratulations, Gabbie!
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 EAGLE sCOUT aCHIEVEMENT
Christopher Bell received the honor of becoming an Eagle Scout
on Dec. 7th. His eagle project was building 2 octagon picnic
tables for Northland.
Congratulations Christopher! Northland students and staff will enjoy
the picnic tables for years to come!
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 Select 16 Performs for
Dickens on the Strand
On Sunday, Dec 2nd our Select 16 ensemble performed for the first time for Dickens on the Strand in Galveston. They wore 1880's style garments which were made for this event.
Select 16 Ensemble:
Ashely Aleman, Nik Arezina, Mike Cano, Kory Hart, Rachel Lanier, Lauren Lawson, Jessica Maddox, Derek Manning, Dustin Martin, Drew McConnell, Kerri O'Neal, Kailey Perkins, Jean Marc Pruitt and Sarah Steele.
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All-State Choir Selections Congratulations to Haley Wilson and Dustin Martin on being selected for the Texas Private School Music Educators Association ALL-STATE CHOIR. To be selected, students had to prepare and record 3 very difficult selections in several languages. These recordings were judged along with the best singers from all over Texas, in 2 rounds of competition before final selection fro All-State. They will travel to San Antonio for several days of rehearsal, a concert and recording later this year. For Dustin, this accomplishment is very special as not many sophomores are selected. For Haley it is a milestone rarely reached by any student to have achieved placement in the All-State choir all 4 years of high school. Congrats to both! |
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 Elementary Football Players are Division Winners
Some of our Northland elementary boys played league
football this fall, and their teams won their divisions!
The boys are Dirk Sanford (center) of the Klein Rams Junior Team; and Teddy Lewis, Sam Petro, Brady Abt, and Austin Trammel of the Klein Rams Freshman team.
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Robyn Archer Takes Second Place A junior at NCS, Robyn Archer competed in a 3-point shoot out competition for basketball called "Clutch City Shoot-Out. In the first round she took second place, qualifying for the second round! If she succeeds in the second round, she can continue on for finals at the Toyota Center during halftime of a Rockets Game. If she wins in those finals she will win $1,000 for the NCS girls basketball team. The date for this game is still undetermined, but the tickets will be discounted, so be sure to come and cheer Robyn on and congratulate her in this great accomplishment. |
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Chess Expert at NCS Secondary Armando Marrufo, an 8th grader at NCS, has been playing chess since he was in the 3rd grade and has been competing since 4th grade earning top place trophies in minor and major tournaments. In October, Armando participated in the John Cooper School Chess Tournament and took 1st place in the Advanced section. Armando is looking for students at Northland who might be interested in competing. Beginners (must know how to play and follow the rules), intermediate, or advanced players wanted! Contact Armando if you are interested. There will be a national chess tournament at the George R. Brown Center this month and there are lots of tournaments in the Houston area. Additionally, every Friday night there's a chess tournament at Wal-Mart (FM 1960 & Cutten Road) in McDonald's. The first place winner gets the trophy and the entry fee is $2. You must be a member of the USCF (United States Chess Federation) in order to play. You can join by applying online. Go to www.uschess.org for more information and application. Go to www.chess.jliptrap.us for links of tournaments and private chess lessons in the area. Go to http://www.chess.jliptrap.us/schedule.htm for a list of tournaments. |
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 Triathlon Man There has been a rapidly spreading rumor going around campus that our notorious Associate Principal, Mr. Nelson, is not only trained in coaching and education, but he participates in triathlons! This rumor has been verified to be true by the man himself pictured at right.
Did you know that Mr. Nelson trains about 13-16 hours weekly for this triathlon? Can you imagine starting this brutal fight to the finish comprised of a swim of 1.2 miles, a bike ride of 54 miles, and finishing off with a 13.1 mile run, with the long awaited finish finally approaching? Well, Northland's Mr. Nelson loves to be a part of this six hour activity. He got started doing these triathlons last year at the teacher in-service. Coach Sanford showed a video of a proud father carrying his son across the finish line after a long race. This inspired Mr. Nelson to finish one of these races, and have that overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride. He sees these triathlons as a message to everyone that you can do anything you train to do, like a triathlon. If you train yourself and work towards it, you can be successful; just as in your relationship with Christ. Mr. Nelson recently completed his latest triathlon on October 28. What an achievement -- congratulations to Northland's Iron Man!
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Congratulations to Choir Students
 Congratulations to Lauren Lawson, Haley Wilson and Dustin Martin for being selected for the Texas Private School Music Education Association's Region 3 Honor choir at last week's auditions. NCS singers prepared 3 very difficult selections for the audition which placed them in competition with students from 1/3 of the private schools in Texas . Selection for this choir moves them on to the final round of auditions for the TPSMEA All State Choir in November. Way to go Lauren, Haley and Dustin!!
Pictured above, (l to r) Dustin Martin, Haley Wilson and Lauren Lawson. |
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Katie James Takes 1st Place
 The St. Mark's 2007 Heart of Texas Invitational Debate Tournament is a national circuit tournament with over 200 schools from across the nation representing the top competitors in the United States.
Katie James, by winning 1st place, secured an invitation in Student Congress to the prestigious Tournament of Champions Invitational Tournament at the University of Kentucky which will be held in May.
Katie proudly displays her St. Mark's 1st place trophy. She was elected by all student congress representatives as the Presiding Officer which she was awarded a gavel. |
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A Heartfelt Thanks to . . .
 Beth and Eddie Martin graciously receive a surprise THANK YOU from the NCS student body for their amazing acts of service on the NCS Campus. Beth was integral in the creation of the Outdoor Classroom Memorial. The Martin family loves this school and we love God more because of the servant heart they consistently show. Thank you Beth and Eddie for serving the Lord! Pictured at right are Eddie and Beth Martin with sons Randy and Scott who are seniors at Northland. Not pictured is daughter Katie, a 5th grader at Northland Elementary. |
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Kudos to the NCS Debate Team
The Glenbrooks High School Debate & Speech Tournament (Chicago, Illinois) is the largest tournament in the country hosted by a high school. It is a “by-invitation only” tournament hosting schools from 38 states. Last year, over 225 schools entered the tournament.
The Northland Christian School Debate Team has received an invitation to go to Chicago in November and compete against the best teams and competitors in the country! |
Dillon Hendricks, an NCS junior, 
