Damien High School

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE – FEBRUARY 2012

Hello from the Principal’s Office!  I hope your January was productive.  The minute we got back from vacation we hit the ground running with a very successful Open House on January 7^th.  We entertained about 100 middle schoolers on our Shadowing Day on January 11^th, and then we tested approximately 300 8^th grade boys on January 21^st for our Placement Test.

Our Football Banquet was held on January 15^th at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario.  A great time was had by all, and I want to thank Coach Gano and his staff for all of their hard work.  About 100 of our boys accompanied me, along with Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Hoffman, and Mr. Nolte, to the Cathedral in Los Angeles on January 21^st for the Mass for the Unborn.  Our Spartans are very impressive all dressed up in their Damien gear.  We made quite an impression!!

We had another wonderful Kairos retreat the week of January 23^rd.  And our basketball and soccer teams continue to rack up .....

LA VERNE -- When discussions take place about some of the Southland's premier post players, the name Chris Reyes is not always included in the conversation.

The lack of recognition, however, does not bother the 6-foot-6, 205-pound senior from Damien. The perceived snub has served as plenty of motivation this season. Accordingly, Reyes is playing as well, if not better than most his peers in the greater Los Angeles area.

“Chris may not be ranked as high as the other guys, but he is just as good in my book,'' Damien coach Matt Dunn said. “He affects the game in so many ways, on both ends of the floor. Honestly, I think when people underestimate him, it's a mistake. I've seen...

DTV comes back for its first episode 0f 2012! The new 8 episode miniseries "Spartans Through Time" is introduced, the Damien community's new years resolutions, along with an update from our Sportzone analysts and more. Note, there's 30 seconds of our logo at the beginning you can skip over (added to give teachers time to turn it on in their classrooms).

The Damien newspaper, The Laconian has gone digital! Click on Student Life along the top of our site, then Laconian to read what's going on on campus!

Parents please urge your sons to sign up for their Advanced Placement Exams with Mr. Liptai in the Counseling Center. The cost is $87 per exam.  Fees can be paid in cash or check(payable to Damien High School). Sign ups will take place during Break and both lunches from January 17 to March 9.  AP tests will be administered at Damien May 7 through May 18.  If you have any questions regarding AP testing, please contact Mr. Liptai at (909) 596-1946 or by email:
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Good teams find a way to win close games.

Damien High School, the top-ranked team in CIF-Southern Section Division 3AAA, did just that in a 44-41 win over South Hills in a Sierra League game Friday night.

In a game that had five ties and 16 lead changes, the Spartans (15-1, 2-0) got a basket and free throw by Chris Reyes with 1:07 left for the victory.

"I thought Chris was spectacular," Spartans coach Matt Dunn said. "We didn't do a very good job of getting him the ball but he showed great character in handling their defensive scheme then find a way to get a basket at the end when we really needed it."

The Spartans biggest lead of the night, 8-3, came with 4:21 left in the first quarter. The Huskies (12-7, 1-1) then hit four 3-pointers, two of them by Jeriko Santos, to pull within a point at the end of the quarter. Santos led the Huskies with 14 points and Steven Rubin-Woods added 12.

"We knew we had to play great to win," Huskies coach Paul Reed said. "I thought ...