Provincial Champs: Skiers Win Title

Tigers win another ski title. Apline Provincials, March 2015.
Tigers win another ski title. Apline Provincials, March 2015.

The Tigers are Provincial Champions! Congratulations on another ski title, and special thanks to the coaches.

Here’s an update from Coach Ruse from day one of the Alpine Provincials in Revelstoke:

After two cold days on the hill, our snowboarders have done well. Sophie is sitting in 10th overall and has boarded extremely well. Silvia has raced very well. Our two Grade 8 snowboarders, Selina and Cici, have made huge progress and have shown obvious growth in their snowboarding abilities. They are all having fun and looking forward to their 2nd day of racing!

Our skiers have absolutely dominated the field and have posted some tremendous results. Rosie placed 1st overall in the GS today (1st in the Province!), Meg placed 2nd, Arizah 5th, and Amelia is in 10th. All 6 of our girls have won their seeds and the team easily took the Giant Slalom portion of the competition.

Ski Team in February 2015
Ski Team in February 2015

11th Annual Cat’s Meow Wraps Up!

Congratulations to the 15 incredible public speakers who ‘left it all on the stage’ at The Cat’s Meow Recitation Finale!

Thanks to all who came out to support and to all who helped run the show–especially Rainy and Johanna who were superb MCs and our guest judges, Duncan Shields, Victoria Wills (’10), and Anna Galvin (see bios below).

Here are the results:

People’s Choice (chosen by the audience):
Tie: Ariana (Gr. 9) & Soha (Gr. 12)

4th Place:
Nicole (Gr. 11)

3rd Place:
Saphren (Gr. 8)

2nd Place:
Emma (Gr. 12)

Top Overall Speaker:
Soha (Gr. 12)

Soha will receive the chance to try-out for the National Poetry in Voice final in Montreal, QC in April!

Congratulations to ALL of you who tried your best this year!

Tanya Boteju
Public Speaking Coach

Watch the winning recitations:

Judge Biographies:

Duncan Shields
Duncan is a spoken word artist from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a two-time Vancouver Haiku Champion, a two-time Vancouver Nerd Slam Champion, and the winner of the 2010 IWPS Haiku Championship in Charlotte North Carolina. He is one of only two North American poets to slam 100 poems in a row with no repeats and is on his way to doing 200. He was a competitor in the final CBC Radio poetry faceoff in 2009. He is the current Vancouver poetry Slam Master, and he maintains the Vancouver Poetry Slam YouTube channel. Recently he made the 2013 and 2014 Vancouver Poetry Slam Teams. He enjoys the rain, movies, science fiction, and likes bland burritos. He’s happy to be here.

Victoria Wills (’10)
Victoria survived recitations and graduated from York House in 2010. She recently earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, with a focus on 20th century French and American literature and literary translation. At Columbia, she was a staff editor for Quarto (Columbia’s Undergraduate Literary Journal) and a founding member of Quarto’s rogue little sister, 4×4. Her writing has been published by Blue & White Magazine, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’s education journal, Our Schools/Our Selves.

Anna Galvin
Anna is delighted to assist adjudicating the finals of York House’s annual recitation competition. Raised in Australia, Anna Galvin is an actor who trained in Oxford, UK, and now calls Vancouver home. Her daughter Bianca attends YHS in Grade 5. Anna s local theatre credits include Dangerous Corner for the Vancouver Playhouse, The Philanderer, Calendar Girls, and Other Desert Cities for the Arts Club. Her recent film and television credits include; Warcraft, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, Motive, Almost Human, Backstrom, Mr Young and Transparency. Anna will be performing in the Artsclub’s upcoming production of Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike in March, and Bard on the Beach this summer.