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St. Mary's Enters New Era in Athletics

After several years of struggling with low numbers of participants in athletics and difficulties in finding coaches, Storm Lake St. Mary's will begin sharing all 7-12 sports, except dance team, with Storm Lake Community Schools during the 2026-2027 school year. St. Mary's administration collected feedback from parents through multiple means over the last several months to discuss athletic programming. In the end, the consensus was to seek the sharing agreement for all sports with Storm Lake Community Schools. According to St. Mary's administration, "By embarking on this larger partnership with athletic programming, we can continue to maintain our small, personalized academic setting in a Catholic environment while providing students athletic experiences on a larger scale, heightening the quality of the overall educational experience we can provide." While this certainly was a difficult decision to make with the rich history of Panther athletics, the facts show that now is the right time to move forward with shared athletics. St. Mary's administration said, "We wish to assure everyone that this new partnership is a positive venture for the future of St. Mary’s as it will provide better continuity and predictability for our families and students, as it relates to sports programming and opens the possibility of further enrollment attraction." It's no secret that the high school sports landscape has been changing for some time now. Many small schools that once brought life to towns all across Iowa could no longer survive on their own and had to consolidate with other nearby schools. For example, the Northwest Conference that St. Mary's belonged to from roughly 1997 - 2011 consisted of nine schools all within 45 minutes or so of Storm Lake. As of last school year, Storm Lake St. Mary's and Newell-Fonda were the only two schools left from that conference that had not consolidated with another school. Albert City-Truesdale became part of Sioux Central. Alta and Aurelia merged again. Schaller-Crestland joined Galva-Holstein to become Ridge View. Pomeroy-Palmer joined Pocahontas and Laurens-Marathon to become Pocahontas Area. Sac City merged with Wall Lake View Auburn to become East Sac County. Catholic schools have not been immune to these changes either, as Granville Spalding High School closed after the 2013 school year, and it merged with Gehlen Catholic in LeMars. Beyond school consolidation, athlete participation has been declining for years now across Iowa. Multiple schools have had to cancel varsity seasons in recent years and play JV-only schedules due to low numbers. Even larger schools like Charles City High School, which competes in Class 3A, canceled their varsity girls' basketball season during the '24-'25 school year because of low numbers. Finding coaches has become a major struggle as well. The days when nearly every coach taught in the school are gone. Many coaches now have jobs outside the school system and coach on the side. At St. Mary's in particular, we have had to rely heavily on Buena Vista University students with coaching authorizations to fill our coaching positions in recent years. While that has been a great experience for those BVU students and we appreciate the connections we have with the university, it has been difficult to build any consistency in a program once the coach graduated and moved on. Change is always difficult, but it also provides new opportunities and potential for something even greater. In the current times, this sharing agreement is the best way forward to allow St. Mary's students to have the opportunity to continue to experience high-quality, faith-based academics while also having access to meaningful and enjoyable athletic opportunities. This will also build stronger community-wide connections and relationships that benefits all our students and families in the long-run. St. Mary’s School remains thankful to Storm Lake Community School District administration for their ongoing support and partnership.

Living History Farms Trip

The St. Mary’s school year concluded with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students participating in an academic extended-classroom experience, traveling to Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa. It is the school’s intention for students to have unique experiences within their three years of middle school and rotate the focus of the year-end trip between science, fine arts, and social studies. Past trips have included Des Moines attractions including Terrace Hill and Principal Park to watch the Iowa Cubs, Sioux City’s Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Sioux City History Museum and the Cathedral of the Epiphany, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and this year’s location, Living History Farms. In small mixed grade groups of 15 or so students, students and chaperones travelled through Iowa from 1700 to 1900s. Students learned about Native American dwellings, homesteading, and townlife . Students especially enjoyed the chickens, pigs, and horses at the 1900s farm. In town the printshop, blacksmith, and drugstore were highlights. The perfect balance of sunshine and a cool breeze made it a great day for a field trip! A special thanks to our parent teacher organization, Parents and Teachers of Panthers for generously donating towards the expenses of this trip. Thank you also to Simpson College whose grant intended to promote Iowa government and history also help to make this trip possible. Thank you also to the teacher and parent volunteers that accompanied students. We could not provide these opportunities to our students without your support.

Chemistry Experimentation

Storm Lake St. Mary’s third-grade class was gifted a “St. Mary's Ball Nemmers Science Room Chemistry Experimentation Experience” from a generous parent’s purchase at the St. Mary’s Ball. Elementary students arrived at the Bernard '40 and June (Beck) Christenson Science Classroom in goggles and lab aprons on Thursday to act their parts as young scientists. Chemistry students, under the guidance of Dr. Erica Larson, created and facilitated lessons designed for these students surrounding the phenomena of color. This teaching opportunity provided an authentic audience for chemistry students to communicate scientific understandings as part of their final exam. A rainbow keepsake was the result of the chromatology station. A color change and bubbles were two indicators of a chemical reaction at the second station. The acid and zinc reaction resulted in the ‘pop’ of combustion of hydrogen gas. The third station was a favorite as students conducted flame tests of various solutions. The color change showcased electrons in their excited states. High school students, third graders, and teachers had a great time! Part of the vision of the renovation of the Bernard '40 and June (Beck) Christenson Science Classroom was versatility. We love utilizing this lab space for these unique combinations of students!

St. Mary's Annual Ball & Charity Auction Generates $1.3 million

St. Mary's annual Ball & Charity Auction exceeded all expectations Saturday, March 14th, as fundraising efforts from January up to that night equated over $1.3 million raised. The event was hosted by this year's Ball chairs Jeff and Amanda Foell and Adam and Kate Friedrichsen. St. Mary's School is thankful to all the current families, students, alumni, faculty, parishioners, and friends who contributed in any way to make the event what it was. The St. Mary's Ball & Charity Auction is the largest fundraiser of the year for St. Mary's School, and this year, it had a special focus as we look toward significant renovations coming to the middle school and high school hallways, lockers, and gym lobby entrance.

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