Congratulations and good luck to our Rocket teams, Bravo and charlie. They will be competing at nationals in The Plains, VA on May 17. This is the third trip to nationals since the competition began in 2002. Only 7 teams in Ohio qualified for Nationals. Click here for names.

How would you like to spend 9 days in sunny Spain? Mrs. Cushing and Mrs. Hilovsky will hold an informational meeting for you and your parents on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 pm in room 342.

Ski Club Update:

We are excited about our new ski club!

Joanne Zaratsian, Ski Club Advisor reports….
The newly establish STVM Ski Club is off to a great start! On Wednesday, January 23rd, we boarded the bus with 40 people for the first ski club run. It was a great day and so much fun for everyone involved. All students received lessons and many were taking to the slopes for the very first time. As the night progressed, many students decided to head for the bigger hills! Also, a “great job” goes to the students – they were complimented with outstanding remarks from the Boston Mills Ski Resort staff.
We are so lucky to have had such an overwhelming response to this new club! The bus is full for this year’s Ski Club but if you are interested in next season – please contact Joanne Zaratsian, Ski Club Advisor jzaratsian@stvm.com or call 330-253-9113 extension 12. We would like to have 2 buses next season (80 students) and we are tentatively planning for an overnight ski trip to New York. Click here for photos.

 

See our Marching Band in the Christmas Parade!

Our Art students set a new winning record at the 2008 Northeast Central Ohio Scholastic Art Competition.  Click here to find out more!

Congratulations to Hilary Neumann, our Homecoming Queen and Meghan Miloscia, Crowner. Our Homecoming Dance was held at Tangiers on Saturday, October 6 at 7:00 pm. Click here to view the event.The Freshmen Homecoming was held at our school gym and Student Center on Saturday, October 6 at 7:00 pm. Click here to see our Freshmen.

 

Band's style incorporates jazz

Thursday, November 2, 2006
Two of the band members went to school with LeBron James.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

There's something both grounding and challenging for the members of the Akron-based band Templeton's Zeal in knowing that no matter how much national success and notoriety the band may experience, it will always be second best at any of its future high school reunions.

Formed just over a year ago, the trio — Frank Freeman (vocals, bass), Jimmy Huntington Jr. (vocals, guitar) and Ryan Mattie (vocals, drums) — first met one another while still in high school. Mattie graduated from Ravenna High School, and Freeman and Huntington graduated from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron. In fact, Freeman was the class president, but he was far from the most popular kid in his class.

That honor went to some guy named LeBron James, who during the short time since his NBA career began has become one of the most popular athletes in the world.

"You know, it's hilarious, no matter what we do, we'd never be the most popular in our class," said Freeman, who actually played football, not basketball, with James for three years. "It's kind of hard to compete with LeBron James but we definitely had a connection as far as the music went in high school."

After graduation, Huntington studied music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. He returned to the Akron area last year, started a band with his friend Mattie and enlisted old classmate Freeman to join on bass. From the start, what separated the modern rock sounding Templeton's Zeal from its peers was the incorporation of jazz elements into not only the songwriting but the group's live performances.

Though inspired by the likes of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, there are also hints of lesser-known artists, such as Dave Brubeck. In fact, Freeman said the group often covers the jazz pianist's song "Take Five." The threesome's amalgamation of sounds can be heard on its recently released debut EP "Drift Away."

"We've been described as a power trio with regards to the live show, but I think our new EP shows more of our poppy side, as opposed to our harder rock and edgier sounds."

Response

So far there's been favorable response from Northeast Ohio radio stations, which have played the title track. Even though the outfit has enough material already written to record its full-length debut (actually, Freeman said the trio has enough for two albums), it's now concentrating on touring regionally with dates planned for Akron, Cleveland, Kent, Pittsburgh and Youngstown. You can see Templeton's Zeal on Friday at Nyabinghi.

Though the band has yet to rise into indie rock circles, in some ways the national exposure brought on by James when they were in high school prepared the threesome for their future, as well as perhaps challenged them to reach great heights.

"I think our class was special," Freeman said. "It was unique in the fact that we had reporters in the school building all of the time with ESPN and Sports Illustrated. But it was a lot of fun and really exciting and we were all really happy for LeBron and are still huge fans of his. We're very happy he stayed in Cleveland."