Christine Nordhagen with high school volleyball coach Erin Martin
Olympian Christine Nordhagen returns to BRHS
Last Wednesday, BRHS welcomed back a very special visitor, Christine Nordhagen. Christine, famous as an Olympic wrestler and six-time world women’s wrestling champion, also happens to be a graduate of Beaverlodge Regional High School (class of 1989). She returned to share her Olympic experiences and her positive message with students and staff.
BRHS students were very enthusiastic about Christine’s message, and are grateful to ConocoPhillips for their sponsorship in bringing Christine to speak. Here is grade 12 student Lyndsey Gamroth’s letter to ConocoPhillips’ representative in Calgary, Eric Mohun.
Dear Mr Mohun,
Today we had a pleasant presentation from Christine Nordhagen at our high school in Beaverlodge. She had three main topics she shared with us. Her presentation was rich with excitement; you can tell she is very passionate about sharing her life with others, and is very passionate about wrestling. She is proud to share stories about her trips around the world and tell us about the ups and downs she faced. Christine explained some key points on how to wrestle, and even used a student of ours to demonstrate. Now that was very entertaining! She kept a positive attitude, and explained that by keeping a positive attitude you can achieve more than what you were expecting. Her presentation was extremely energetic and full of pride.
Christine has some really interesting points about life and its hardships that I can relate to. Everyone has moments where the self-pity just washes over them. But unlike most people Christine can overcome that feeling and motivate herself to become more positive. In that section of her presentation she taught me how to channel negative thoughts into great positive ones. She showed me how to motivate myself in times when I feel at my ultimate lowest. And, she says that talking to yourself at these moments is healthy and natural. It is good to know that other people talk to themselves before an important event to help them stay motivated. Her motto also caught my attention: “We are not born winners or losers; we are born choosers”. It has some great truth to it. We can’t blame other people for what goes wrong in our lives when we had the opportunity to choose what happens. This motto made me more aware of the control I have in my own life by my decisions, which I do believe will help me.
I greatly appreciate ConocoPhillips for sending Christine to our school. Her stories were extremely interesting and were greatly enjoyed. In her presentation you can tell everything is still new and fresh in her mind, and that her experiences were still sinking in. That made the presentation more lively. She has helped me and many others realize that dreams can come true, no matter if you aren’t “the best”. It is the attitude that will take you farther than you can imagine. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lyndsey Gamroth
|
A tribute to Dave Penner
By Lamont Bartlett (Special to Spectrum)
For the first time in 12 years, this upcoming basketball season will not see the return of Dave Penner to the coaching staff. He has decided to spend this winter with his family rather than on the road with the team.
On behalf the all the boys who have had the privilege of learning with you on the basketball court, Dave— thanks—a million times over. Through the ups and downs, you were always there to tell us your stories, make us laugh, and even teach us a few things about the sport along the way.
Everyone from last year’s team understands your reasons for not continuing on, and we all respect you for that. No matter what happens this year under a new coach, we won’t forget the great times we had with you. We were rookies together (with a rookie coach) only two years ago, but the memories still seem endless.
Thanks for being our coach, Dave, and for ultimately becoming our friend.
The BRHS BOB group (Builders of Bridges) will be out in full force on Halloween Night (Sunday, October 31) with “Halloween Harvest”, collecting non-perishable food items for the Beaverlodge Food Bank.
BRHS Creative Writing Club
will hold its Organizational gathering on Monday, October 25 at 7:00 pm in the BRHS Library. For more information, contact Karen Bass at 356-2757
|
