Soccer season is over, and Waldorf’s record is 7 wins, 3 losses, and 2 draws, both against Simon’s Rock College of Bard. Our small but mighty co-ed team, under the cool hand of Coach Bart Elsbach, beat White Oak twice, Woodhall twice, Monument thirds, Mt. Everett JV, and Hawthorne Valley. We lost to Buxton, PVPA, and Kildonen. High scorer for the second year in a row was sophomore Kosta Koufis.

Benjamin Nes Buissink will return to take post-graduate courses at the Great Barrington Waldorf High School next year while he prepares to apply to programs in theater. He interned this year for Shakespeare & Co. Ben is a pianist and an actor; he played newspaperman Charles Webb in “Our Town” this spring.

William Littlefield Danz will attend Bard College next year. He interned this year for the Barrington Stage Company. Will is an actor, a hockey player, a baseball player, and a skilled outdoorsman. He played George Gibbs in “Our Town” this spring and accompanied the school’s trip to Munich last year.

Alice Jane Hixon Kirk will attend Smith College next fall. She interned for Dan Bellow Pottery for the past two years. Alice is an accomplished potter, cellist, artist, and writer. She played Joan of Arc in “St. Joan” two years ago, and the Stage Manager in “Our Town” this spring.

Kahlia Pelligra will defer entry to Iona College while she works and attends Hudson Valley Community College next year. Kahlia interned with alumni parent Laura Summer at Free Columbia, a year-long anthroposophical art course, this spring.

Phoebe Eilis Rohn will attend Connecticut College next year. Phoebe interned this spring with Journey Home, which works to end homelessness in the Hartford, CT, area. Phoebe is a polo player, and she studied international law at a conference at Cambridge University, UK, last year, before meeting our group in Munich. She played Emily Webb in “Our Town” this spring.

Saphire Eagle Rose Senger O’Leary will attend the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, next year. Saphire is a skilled writer, and she interned with the Berkshire Record this spring. Last year, she travelled to Munich with our school, and this spring she played Myrtle Webb in “Our Town.”

Avia Rose Stanton will attend Stonehill College next fall, where she plans to pursue pre-med and psychology studies. She interned this year at the Columbia County Mental Health Center. Avia is a school leader, organizing students at Hermit Island and fundraising and other details for the Senior trip to Montreal.

The Waldorf High School Chorus and the 7th and 8th grade Chorus from Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School presented a joint concert on Thursday, May 31st. Both choruses performed selections from Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and contemporary composers, displaying the year’s work in choral music.

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town presented by Great Barrington Waldorf High School on April 12th, 13th, 14th –7PM and April 15th — 2PM @ Berkshire South Regional Community Center, Crissey Road, Great Barrington. Tickets: $8 Students, $15 Adults, $35 Family. Reservations Recommended — Call 413.526.8833.

The Great Barrington Waldorf High School is proud to announce…TENNIS

Interested High School students will begin tennis clinics with Coach Bart Elsbach on Monday, April 2, from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Kilpatrick Athletic Center’s courts.

Clinics will run Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while school is in session, until June 1. (No tennis the weeks of April 16-20 and 23-27; no tennis on Memorial Day, May 28. We’ll let you know soon about April 9-13, the week of final play rehearsals…)

Students need a racquet and appropriate clothing and athletic shoes. (If you don’t own a tennis racquet, we can find someone to lend you one; if you have one to lend, please let us know.)

Students should plan to attend all clinics, and should let Coach Elsbach know well in advance of any that they will miss so he can plan practices.

We will provide transportation from the High School to Simon’s Rock at the end of the school day, but students should arrange their own transportation home after practice.

Our hope is that these clinics will lay the foundation for a tennis team to compete next spring, 2013.

Please call the high school with any questions.

Two Waldorf High School Juniors, Robin Graney and Samuel O’Brient, wrote the following poem for and read it at the 13th annual interfaith celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Holiday on Monday, January 16, 2012, at the First Congregational Church in Great Barrington. This event is sponsored by the Southern Berkshire Clergy Association and co-sponsored by the Interfaith Committee of Southern Berkshire. Waldorf High School students were invited to participate by Kaya Stern-Kaufman, rabbi and mother of Junior Sophie Shrum.

The Gradual Climb
By Robin Graney and Samuel O’Brient, Waldorf High School Class of 2013

As rivers flood and glaciers melt
Cards are laid and hand is dealt
We seem to seal our tragic fate
Let’s win this battle before it’s too late
To save the earth we endeavor to change
Our choices and habits we rearrange
Students should always accept one another
Everyone is a sister or brother
Families bind us as past crumbles
Ideals hold sway as society stumbles
We can survive this turbulent time
If we all stand together for the gradual climb

Comfortable in the status quo
We keep burning bridges, nowhere to go
We are running out of resources to exploit
We are pushed to the edge, to the breaking point
We take our place as children of the earth
As we approach a creation and rebirth

More trees could be planted, the earth could be greener
The air that we breathe could forever be cleaner
Snowflakes will fall and eyes will be clear
Our minds no longer consumed with fear
Thoughts and ideas will soon come to light
To give out blind eyes the power of sight

Racial prejudice will cease to exist
While corruption and evils dissolve in the mist
Unfazed by the media, united we stand
Racing from uncertainty we return to the land
No streets will flood with the tears of our young
Their cries go no longer forever unsung

No more innocent lives taken in battle
No more hear we war machines rattle
Cries of the past vanish into memory
As we escape the caves of Plato’s allegory
As we raise our glasses to the health of mankind
We move forward, our enemies far behind

A Halloween treat for our high school students? A workout at Mike Bissaillon’s Crossfit Great Barrington (http://www.bizfitcrossfit.com). With soccer fields in New England buried under ice this week, we arranged for the high school to do some indoor training. After a warm-up, students participated in a 2400 meter team indoor rowing race, shown here.

Students from our school have been working out at Mr. Bissaillon’s gym for several years, and the 9th and 10th grades will start a 6 week fitness program there next week. The weekend’s snow storm just gave us an excuse to get everyone in early.

by Stephen Sagarin, Faculty Chair

Q: What do a vacuum cleaner, the Iron Curtain, and an automatic scoring machine have in common?

A: Before yesterday, they had not taken the field for the Great Barrington Waldorf High School soccer team, ten players with no substitutes, to defeat Simon’s Rock College of Bard, 2-1, in the gathering darkness of the first snowfall of the season on an away field. This was Waldorf’s second win over Simon’s Rock, often their toughest opponent, in five years.

Ninth grader Kosta Koufis, the automatic scoring machine, scored twice in the first half. Simon’s Rock, graciously also playing only ten, scored quickly to open the second half. Then, as the weather worsened and Waldorf tired, postgraduate Justin Neves, the Iron Curtain of the defense, and tenth grader Nick Sagarin, a vacuum in the goal, assisted by a swarm of game teammates, froze the Rock in its tracks.

This win, which brings Waldorf’s record to 6-3-1, ensures a winning season. Let’s hope Waldorf can field a full team for the rematch, a home game next Tuesday, November 1, at 4:30.