By Matt Riebe, Director of Athletics and Activities, GRACE
I am honored to have been welcomed into the GRACE community since I started in my role in November 2023. This brand-new position to spearhead system-wide athletics and activities resulted from efforts involving key focus areas of the GRACE Strategic Plan. My role at GRACE is focused on helping communication and collaboration between GRACE Schools and to the greater community. GRACE is blessed with so many amazing individuals who give their time and talents to creating positive learning experiences to help our students grow and enjoy being a part of something bigger than themselves. To start, I have focused on identifying needs and supporting athletics programs, but my aim is to work on growing GRACE school activities in the near future.
My first weeks in my role revolved around ingraining myself at each GRACE school community. I met with the principals and athletic directors at each school to gather perspective on what extracurricular opportunities are currently available, common challenges faced by each school, and ideas to help build system-wide athletics at GRACE. My work has focused on creating avenues of communication for site athletic directors, booster clubs, and parish staff to work together and share knowledge between other GRACE schools and communicate effectively.
The end goal is to find a way to communicate effectively and to cultivate environments that lead to positive experiences for students. We are working to increase participation in athletics at each school and building bridges across the system to open opportunities to play as many sports that may not be available at every school. We want to showcase the great things our schools are doing for students.
The connection with our CatholicLink partners, St. Norbert College and Notre Dame Academy, has opened up tremendous experiences for our students. We are creating amazing experiences for our students to interact and learn from high school and college student-athletes. Through this partnership, all GRACE students can attend St. Norbert College and Notre Dame Academy athletics events for free! Student-athletes from both schools are eager to give back and we are opening up opportunities for some great experiences for GRACE students.
I am very excited for the future of athletics and activities and I hope you join in on the fun!
Accomplishments
- Met with administrators at every level of athletics at each GRACE School to better understand the system, share knowledge, and provide support & guidance
- Hosted 7th and 8th grade basketball and track and field championships at St. Norbert College
- Formed a booster club at Chesterton Academy to help guide growing athletics programs and engage the school community
- Created a communication hub for all athletics seasons on gracesystem.org
- Established partnerships with area organization to supplement referee pools for games
- Met with CatholicLink partners to set up numerous collaborations such as volunteer programs, event passes to SNC/NDA games, and facility rentals
- Held an archery clinic for middle and high school students at St. John the Baptist, which included students from every GRACE school
- Guided the Holy Family Booster Club in filling their athletic director role and served as their interim athletic director to support the leadership transition
Future goals
- Growth of activity offerings and create collaborations between schools
- Introducing the GRACE Athletics Handbook to better communicate common policies and showcase opportunities for students in all sports
- Fostering athletics participation and forming independent teams at St. John Paul II and St. Thomas More
- Seek out opportunities to play other Catholic schools in our diocese
At Chesterton Academy, our Catholic Classical high school, athletics and activities have started to grow with boys and girls basketball and golf teams that finished their second seasons, as well as a chess team that finished in the top ten in the state this spring. We will be starting cross country and track & field programs starting next year, guided by the newly-created booster club to help build the necessary structure to support students and create strong high school programs.
This is an excerpt from the Spring 2024 GRACE Newsletter. Check out the whole newsletter by clicking the button below!
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8.) The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. The best way to learn more is to visit! Schedule a tour here.
