MS Fall Sports Uniform Return
Congratulations to all our middle school fall athletes on successful seasons! We will celebrate the conclusion of the season with a pizza party on Friday, November 5 during their planned lunch period. Athletes may begin returning their uniform jersey all this week. All uniforms must be returned by this Friday. Cross Country may return their uniform to Coach Jenny Caro and volleyball may return their uniform to Coach Lanie Victory. Thank you to the Booster Club for providing the pizza!
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MS Winter Sports Start Dates
We are already planning for the start of middle school winter sports! Sacred Heart 5th-8th graders may participate in basketball and soccer for the winter season. Please see the dates below. During the evaluation days, coaches will assess the girls’ skills so they can be placed on a team if more than one team is needed. It is very important for your daughter to be present during the evaluation days so the coaches can prepare their teams.
Basketball Start Dates - Evaluation days
6th Grade Monday, November 15
5th Grade Tuesday, November 16
8th Grade Wednesday, November 17
7th Grade Thursday, November 18
Soccer Start Dates - Evaluation days
5th Grade Monday, November 15
6th Grade Tuesday, November 16
7th Grade Wednesday, November 17
8th Grade Thursday, November 18
Friday, November 19
Practices Start the week of Nov 22
Basketball Practice
5th/6th Monday & Wednesday
7th/8th Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
Soccer Practice
5th/6th Tuesday & Thursday
7th/8th Monday, Wednesday, Friday
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Swimming
Congratulations to the swim team for earning a District Championship this past Saturday! They competed against nine other schools to take the team title. All 12 swimmers scored points towards the win and they could not have achieved this victory without the help of every swimmer on the team. In addition, every swimmer on the team achieved a personal best time at this meet. Some Divisional Championship Highlights:
2nd in the 200yd Medley Relay (Piper Rubin ’25, Reese LaCaze ’24, Elodie Scafidel ’26 and Claire Parrish ’25)
2nd place in the 200yy Freestyle Relay (Reese LaCaze ’24, Elaine Marie Ehrensing ’24, Natalia Mehaffie ’25 and Claire Parrish ’25)
2nd place in the 400yd Freestyle Relay (Isabelle DeGruy ’24, Piper Rubin ’25, Elaine Maire Ehrensing ’24 and Nataila Mehaffie ’25)
Individual podium finishers:
Reese LaCaze ’24 was 1st in the 200yd Individual Medley and 1st in the 100yd Breaststroke
Claire Parrish ’25 was 3rd in the 50yd Freestyle
Isabelle DeGruy ’24 was 3rd in the 500yd Freestyle
Sacred Heart remains undefeated in all of their regular season competitions. They look forward to competing at the State Championships in three weeks. Great job, Cardinals!
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Cross Country
Last Friday, the cross country team resurrected the long lost tradition of dressing up in costumes and taking their pre-Halloween training run to the Skeleton House. The runners enjoyed themselves after a few minutes of initial embarrassment with the thought of who might see them while jogging down the avenue. After the quick visit to the house filled with skeletons in their front lawn and fence, the runners made their way back to school and then home to get a good night's rest before the Saturday morning race.
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It was a perfect race environment consisting of 55 degree weather at the St. Thomas Aquinas O'Krepki Invitational in Hammond. This race was the first of the year where all of the Sacred Heart top runners were finally healthy. All were excited to race and test their training, and this was also the debut race at the 3 mile distance for a trio of runners that were moved up from the middle school team because of their potential to help the Varsity team. In the 8:00 a.m. Varsity 3 mile race, Sacred Heart put 10 runners on the starting line. This included Colette English '27, Lily Varisco '27 and Abby Truxillo '26, and they were definitely ready to race on this morning and took full advantage of their opportunity. Within the 8 teams running on this day, five of them were either their classes’ State Champion or State Runner Up team respectively, which meant that this was a quality field of runners toeing the starting line and awaiting the starter's command of "Runners, Set, Go". As the gun sounded, the field of 81 runners bolted down the straightaway for 150 meters before filing 3 runners across before starting to string out over the course of the 3 miles ahead of them. Our first 8 runners ran together in a nice tight pack through the first mile of the race with only 25 seconds separating 1 - 8 and only 42 seconds between 1 - 10 for Sacred Heart. Leah Varisco '26 and Olivia Boyd '22 crossed the 1st mile in a 6:40 pace, Charlotte Johnston '26 and Vivian Real '26 in 6:52, while Colette English '27, Abby Truxillo '26, CC Johnson '23, in her first race of the season after recovering from an ankle injury, and Lily Varisco '27 all crossed the 1st mile marker with 7 seconds of each other between 7:00 and 7:07. Mariella Congeni '23 and Chiara Bazan '25 rounded out our top 10 and crossed the 1 mile marker in a 7:20 mile.
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Over the course of the 2nd mile, which had many areas of mud and wet grounds, a few position changes happened in the scenic wooded areas and when our first runner appeared from the woods. Leah Varisco had separated just slightly from the rest of our runners, crossing the 2 mile marker in 13:58. Olivia Boyd, Charlotte Johnston and Vivian Real, who was now running with only 1 shoe on after losing the other in the mud, ran the remaining 1.5 miles that way. All three of these runners crossed in 14:14. Colette English moved nicely through the crowd and crossed just 10 seconds behind in 14:23, her second fastest 2 mile ever and still had 1 mile to go, while looking very strong. Abby Truxillo and Lily Varisco ran stride for stride and as they did, Abby had enough energy to realize that she had just ran her personal record for 2 miles. CC Johnson and Mariella Congeni were now running together and crossed in 15:05 and continued that way over the last mile pushing each other. Chiara Bazan came through in 15:40, which we accounted for her fast first mile, but she was still determined to push hard over the last mile and make up the lost time, which she did.
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During the last mile which was the drier portion of the course, 9 out of our 10 runners ran a faster 3rd mile than their 2nd, which is called negative splitting. The last mile is a repeat of the first mile where the runners complete a 1/2 mile loop around a field and then hit the gravel road to the track for 600 meters before finishing the last 200 meters on the track while crossing the finish line in front of the spectator stands, which duplicates the State Meet finish. Leah Varisco '26 in 20:59, competing in her first race in 3 weeks after recovering from an upper glute strain, ran a fantastic pain free race and finished 19th overall. Only 1:08 separated our 1 - 7 runners during the varsity race and that is a spectacular split between them. Charlotte Johnston '26 in 21:18, ran a season best and was only 8 seconds from her personal record. Olivia Boyd '22 in 21:26 showed her sprinting ability over the last 150 meters by passing three runners ahead of her. Colette English '27 in 21:32, Lily Varisco '27 in 21:48 and Abby Truxillo '26 in 22:02, made their debut in the 3 mile race a fantastic one by finishing 4th, 5th and 6th for the team in their first race. Their addition to the team will help out the overall success of the team and push others to work just a little harder, which they did unknowingly already accomplish during this race. Vivian Real '26 in 22:07 ran a very gutsy race after losing her shoe at the halfway point. She also is just recovering from a bad case of shin splints which has sidelined her for the last three races. Mariella Congeni '23 in 22:25 ran 31 seconds faster over her last mile than her second one and showed her strengths while sprinting past other runners and beating one last runner at the finish line in a season's best time. CC Johnson '23 in 23:03 in her first race of the year ran a very strong race and showed all once again why she has been a great member of this program for the last six years so far. Her determination and goal setting of running her best race that she can every time is a positive influence on all that know her. Chiara Bazan '25 in 23:47, was quick to analyze her performance and knew exactly where her "miscalculation" was made and still put forth a very nice effort in her race and still her very young cross country career.
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The team finished 5 out of 9 teams in a very competitive race and they will use this wonderful outcome to prepare over the next two weeks for the State Championship in Natchitoches on November 16. The next race will be the Northshore Metro Championships on Monday, November 8 back in Hammond. The experience gained from this weekend will hopefully pay dividends and the runners will use this knowledge to run even faster times.
In the Junior Varsity 3 mile race, all runners ran personal record times. These are the combined results from the Varsity / JV races on that day.
20:59 - Leah Varisco '26
21:18 - Charlotte Johnston '26 - SB
21:26 - Olivia Boyd '22
21:32 - Colette English '27 - PR - 1st 3 mile race
21:48 - Lily Varisco '27 - PR - 1st 3 mile race
22:00 - Katherine Benton '24 - PR
22:02 - Abby Truxillo '26 - PR - 1st 3 mile race
22:07 - Vivian Real '26 - Ran last 1.5 miles without a shoe
22:22 - Carolina Khatib '25 - PR
22:25 - Mariella Congeni '23 - SB
23:05 - CC Johnson '23 - SB - 1st race of the year
23:15 - Eliza Capella '24 - SB - 1 second from PR
23:47 - Chiara Bazan '25
24:10 - Colette Shannon '25 - PR
26:08 - Eileen Igoe '25 - PR
15:57 - Maria English '24 -SB
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Volleyball
Last Monday, the Lusher Lions came roaring into the Rosary Gym to take on the ASH Cardinals. The Lions were a bit inexperienced and the Cardinals overwhelmed them with a potent serving display in the first set, winning 25-7. Natalia Mehaffie ’25, Claire Moriarty ’25, Kate Farris ’24 and Mary Elise Meyer ’24 combined for 11 aces. Lily Stone ’24 and Bria Egana ’25 contributed two kills a piece. In the second set, the all freshmen unit took the floor. The Lions fought hard this set as they battled to close the gap to 14-10 at one point. The freshmen responded well and went on to close out the game 25-14. Tough serving by Taylor Robert ’25, Charlotte Bush ’25 and Evelyn Monstead ’25 helped the cause as they each tallied several aces. Callie Parenton ’25, Claire Moriarty ‘25 and Natalia Mehaffie ’25 added a kill each to the final tally. On Thursday, the Cardinals traveled a few blocks to play the Newman Greenies in front of a large crowd. The Greenies came out with strong serving and attacking and the Cardinals were never ever able to turn the momentum as Newman prevailed in the match 25-12, 25-18. Kill leaders for the Cardinals were Lily Stone ’24, Mary Elise Meyer ’24 and Ellie Bendich ’24. Kate Farris ’24, Bria Egana ’25 and Natalia Mehaffie ’25 all had big blocks during the match as well. The JV ended the season with a final record of 16 wins and 7 losses. They fought hard in every match and carried the Sacred Heart name with pride to gyms all over the city.
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The Sacred Heart varsity volleyball team had another successful week before the LHSAA playoffs. The Varsity Volleyball team ended this week with a 4-1 record. The offense was led by kills from MC Mazzanti (33 kills), Gigi Gibbens (25 kills) , and Isabelle Moore (23 kills) with assists from Marian Graffagnini (76 assists) and Brooke Habetz (33 assists). The defense was led by digs from Caterine Bonura (65 digs) and Katherine Hale (17 digs). Serves from Kate Ready, MC Mazzanti, Katherine Hale, Brooke Habetz, and Marian Graffagnini helped lead the team to 45 total aces. The Cardinals are looking forward to playing in the LHSAA playoffs and defending the Division IV State Championship. Sacred Heart will be playing in the Bi-District Round against Franklin on Wednesday 11/3 at 5PM.
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Middle School Volleyball
Last week, all six of our middle school volleyball teams participated in the NOAL Tournament. On Tuesday, our 7th White and 8th Pink teams kicked off the tournament with matches against two different Country Day teams. Our 7th White team fell in two sets but our 8th Pink team prevailed and would advance to the next round of playoffs to be played on Wednesday. They traveled to St. George’s and played hard, but dropped the match 23-25, 18-25. Our 8th Black team traveled to Christian Brothers for a playoff game against John Curtis. They would win in close sets and advance to the semifinals on Thursday. On Thursday, the 8th Black and 7th Red teams competed in the semifinals held at Country Day. The 8th Black team faced a strong Newman team and dropped the match to finish tied for third place. Our 7th Red team beat another Newman team easily in their semifinal matchup to advance to the finals. They faced a Country Day and fought hard to come out on top as North Silver Bracket Champions! On Friday, our 6th grade teams began their tournament. The 6th White team traveled to John Curtis and faced Country Day and fell short in three sets, 25-15, 10-25, and an exciting third set 13-15. Even though they lost, they played great and ended the season with one of the best matches of the season. The 6th Red team played their bracket at Trinity. They beat McGeehee with ease in the semifinals and went on to beat Newman in the championship game to take home the title of North Gold Bracket Champions! Congratulations to all the teams on a great season!
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Varsity Sports Now Partnership
We are excited to continue our partnership with VSN this year to livestream many of our home volleyball, basketball, and soccer games. With your support through the Booster Club, we hope to be able to extend this opportunity to our other sports as well.
Below is the link to subscribe to VSN. It is important to use this specific link, as Sacred Heart will get back 50% of the subscriptions fees.
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Join the Booster Club!
Please consider joining the Booster Club if you have not done so already. Your membership provides opportunities for our Booster Club to enhance the athletic experience for each athlete. As a Booster Club member, you have many opportunities throughout the year to volunteer to assist at athletic events.
For more information about our Booster Club, please visit our website via the link below.
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Follow us for live scores and updates #GoCardinals
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Wednesday, November 3
5:00 V Volleyball vs. Franklin @ Rosary Gym - Bi-District Playoffs
Friday, November 5
V Swimming @ Metro Championships
TBA V Volleyball Regional Round Playoffs
Saturday, November 6
V Swimming @ Metro Championships
Monday, November 8
V Cross Country - Metro Championships @ Hammond
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Interested in becoming a member of our Athletic Booster Club? Learn more here.
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