Tuesday marked the end of the soccer season, with the Cougars winning the fifth of 6 games. RCDS fought hard this season and it paid off.

The week started off with an away game with Barnstable, the only loss this season, 2-1. There was some controversy when Barnstable’s goalie caught the ball in his hands and fell back into the goal posts and the referee did not count the RCDS goal. Marc Cohen scored the only RCDS goal of the game, making him the highest (and only) scorer this game!

The second game, on the other hand, was much more successful with the final score of 3-1 against Green Meadow. To celebrate the end of the season, many players’ hair was sprayed green, the people were screaming from the sidelines. The game seemed like it was just going to go back and forth forever until Chris Jin scored the first goal, sending the ball soaring over the goalie’s head. Chris Jin also scored the second goal. Casey Patari was the goalie for most of the game and Derek Frelow was the goalie for the latter, after Casey suffered an injury. Green Meadow scored one point, which made all the fans nervous as time was almost up, and then Cedric Bluman sent the ball flying into the goal with an assist from Nicky Rocco to finish up the game; a perfect ending to an almost perfect season! This has been one of the best soccer seasons on record, and proof that the Cougars reign supreme!

The purpose of the visit was to help instructors Honey Dickson and Shannon Hubertus with a special project they are conducting with the third and seventh grades. The project is part of a larger celebration of the School’s 50th anniversary.

The project requires that the students work together to identify and learn about some of the oldest trees on the campus, while also observing how they have changed both in the long and short-term.

For example, each student in Ms. Dickson’s third-grade class has chosen a specific tree to observe and respond to. Students will be looking for seasonal changes, identifying species and learning scientific nomenclature. They will also do creative writing and artwork, including botanical drawing, rubbings and more.

During his visit, Mr. Dorwart gave the teachers some interesting information about the trees, along with ideas on how to expand the project.

“Mr. Dorwart is absolutely passionate about trees, and his excitement is highly contagious,” said Ms. Dickson. “He has a huge amount of factual information at his fingertips, and he loves to share it in ways that laymen ― and children ― can readily understand. He can give the Latin names of the trees, but he also uses creative language and imagery to convey an understanding of complex concepts.”

Even a short session with Mr. Dorwart resulted in the acquisition of a whole new vocabulary, said both teachers. “By the end of the hour, we had learned about drip rings, mulch volcanoes and tree flares, and we had identified pitch, squirrel paths and woodpecker holes,” said Ms. Hubertus. “Most important we began to appreciate an unusually impressive cherry tree, along with a variety of other specimens that make the RCDS campus such an exceptional place,” she added.