What’s recently happened?
Bishop Noll Institute (BNI) has exceeded expectations of the school’s population – the freshman class helped the school to have over 600 students. BNI has not had this many students in several years. The student body has been busy helping out each other and participating in retreats, the play, clubs and sports.
BNI had a great fall sports season. The cross country team, with the help of new Coach Brian Kim, sent Students April Sepulveda, Alison Braviere, and Joshua Fierros to Regionals. The girl’s volleyball team made it to the Regional championship.
“The kids have worked hard all summer and expect to be competitive at the conference, sectional and regional level,” said Kim.
The school hosted an open house on November 8 from 6-8 p.m. Student ambassadors led groups of prospective students and parents around the school. Incoming students met with teachers, coaches, and a member of the team. They also saw the STREAM Lab and the newly updated band room and heard the band play.
The speech and debate team has been very successful. The team gained new members from all grade levels. Breaking two records since 2015, this was the first time the team got 100 points in a single tournament and won two tournaments in a row. The team will continue to work hard and improve.
“I really enjoy being a part of the speech team this year because of how comfortable everyone makes me feel. It’s awesome to be part of a team with so much history and expectations, and I really feel like I’m growing,” said Team Member Sara Seleb.
What’s coming up?
The BNI concert band is in full swing now, and will be having its annual Christmas concert in the school’s auditorium on December 16 and 17 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. The band’s theme is songs from holiday themed movies and television shows. The band will be performing songs such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “The Polar Express,” and “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.” The band has been working on the music since November.
“This year we wanted to take everyone back to sitting in front of their TV sets in our PJs to those days when we couldn’t wait to watch holiday movies. The concert is fun for the entire family,” said Band Director Rocco Carioto.
Not only will the concert band perform, but also the beginning band, jazz band, rock band and the choir. This is a very fun concert with sing-a-longs and dancing music. At the end of the concert, BNI will surprise students and parents with a visit from Santa Claus!
Staff spotlight:
Tyler Milby is one of the new additions to the BNI family. He teaches physical education, weight training, and health while being the head football coach and the strength and conditioning coach, too. Milby played football in high school and college as a tight end and a linebacker when realizing he wanted to coach football. He finished his sixth year of coaching high school varsity football before joining BNI’s team.
Earlier this year, the football team had a great opportunity to play at Lucas Oil Stadium. Milby helped the team win two games this season and has hopes for the team next year.
“We are looking to push to six wins or even five but it wouldn’t be a surprise to me for how hard our kids work,” Milby said.
BNI is currently in the stage of constructing its fields starting with the football and soccer field. Because of this, the team did not have any home games. It was a challenge, but the coaching staff and kids stepped up to the challenge. Next year, they are excited to finally play on the new fields.
“Having the new stadium is a reward and feels great,” Milby said.
Milby is enjoying the new environment at the high school. He loves that all the kids want to learn. He enjoys building relationships with them too. Milby is ready to bring back the football program to be better than ever and encourages kids to join the team.
Student spotlight:
Isabella Garcia is a senior at BNI. Along with other clubs and sports, Garcia is senior captain and the starting middle hitter and blocker of the volleyball team. She leads the team in hitting percentages (.353) and total blocks (56). Garcia had played volleyball since third grade after seeing her brother playing eighth grade Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) volleyball. She started out playing clinics and other youth tournaments.
The volleyball team had an amazing season going 28-9. The team also took first in the Greater South Shore Conference. It ended the season being sectional champions two years in a row and defeated Mishawaka Marian High School in the semi-finals of the volleyball Regionals.
“Taking a set from Carroll High School and beating Penn High School was cool,” Garcia said.
She had many fond memories from the past four years but beating those teams were her favorites. She will miss seeing the girls everyday and dancing to the music during practice. Garcia plans to go to Valparaiso University to study pre-law after high school.