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October 23, 2025On the road to state
Rocket athletes, actors and academic competitors alike have been working hard toward one goal all semester: making it to state.
The competition kicked into high gear in early October, with the Mount Saint Mary volleyball team taking on Bishop McGuiness, while the cast and crew from play production performed “Mockingbird” at the Regional 5A One Act Competition.
One student, Desiyah Williams, competed in both events.
The busy day started with Williams arriving at Classen SAS around 7:30 a.m., where she and the students from play production spent the next nine hours participating in the competition and watching the competing shows. Around 4 p.m., she left the competition before the results were announced and headed to Bishop McGuinness, where she played middle blocker in the volleyball match. Four hours later, as the Lady Rockets were completing their win over the Fighting Irish, Mount Saint Mary was announced as the champion of the Regional 5A One Act Competition.
Along with the first-place trophy, the cast was also recognized for excellence in technical theatre and two individuals, Gabe Homeyer and Kozette Nguyen, were named to the All Star Cast. It was a big day for both Rocket teams. The One Act cast and crew will go on to compete at the state competition on Nov. 1.
The Rocket volleyball team kept winning, a week later capturing the regional championship to advance to the state tournament, played Oct. 23-25.
To add to those winning records, the Mount’s Academic Bowl team is now No. 1 in its district. The Academic Bowl pits two teams of four against each other, where competitors are quizzed in general knowledge, math and science computation. Earlier in October, the Rockets beat Tuttle 180-120 and Bridge Creek 220-130, elevating them to first place.
Growing in faith at Kairos
“This was the most influential religious experience I have ever had in my life,” said Isabelle Boeckman, Class of 2026, when speaking about the annual Kairos retreat.
Three times a year for the past 28 years, Mount Saint Mary has taken junior and senior students on the Kairos retreat. The weekend away from the busyness of life gives students and teachers a chance to reconnect with God and grow in their relationship with him.
“The word Kairos means God’s time,” said Kathryn Pickens, MSM class of ’07. “Kairos is a time to reconnect our relationships with God, ourselves, and each other.”
Brian Boeckman, a senior theology teacher at The Mount, was at the inaugural Kairos retreat at Mount Saint Mary in 1996. This long tradition has been passed down through the generations, and current students are highly encouraged to attend.
“Do it,” Pickens said in response to the question of what she would say to someone who was thinking about going. “You never know what you might get out of it because everyone’s experience is different. If you don’t go, you’ll get nothing out of it.
There’s something there for everyone.”
Isabelle Boeckman was a student retreatant at the women’s retreat in January 2025.
“Atfirst I was worried,” Isabelle said, “we were going somewhere I hadn’t really been before. I didn’t know who I would be sleeping in the same room with, and truthfully, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. But I went because people said it was a good thing and I trusted them.
“I love that I got to receive wisdom and relatable content from multiple generations of inspiring women. Being surrounded by Catholic women for a weekend and being able to openly and comfortably share about our faith was very impactful.
“If someone asked me, I would tell them they should absolutely go on the retreat. It’s a very eye-opening and life-changing experience, especially if you’re not certain in your faith, or even if you are, it helps grow it. It helped me grow in confidence in my faith.”
Bringing the spooky to MSM Media
For the past 11 years, Kaylyn Henderson has helped capture the events at Mount Saint Mary in a way that inspires students to be proud of and involved in their school. One of the classes taught by Henderson, MSM Media, is a semester-long course where students film and edit videos of what has been happening around the Mount.
Mount Life, as they call it, is their long-form videos where they go over all the current Mount events and include fun games to bring a different aspect to the videos. The class is divided into two teams, and each team alternates releasing editions of Mount Life twice a month.
Every year around Halloween, those in MSM Media work on a special Halloween episode of Mount Life. Traditionally, it involves picking a movie scene to recreate as the introductory scene of the video. Last year, the video opened with the Goosebumps theme.
Throughout the video, the student anchors dress in Halloween costumes to bring the spooky spirit into the entire video. This year, one team will create the bulk of the Halloween themed episode, while the other team will add its own movie scene recreation.
Keep an eye out for the special Halloween episode coming out the last week of October on YouTube and Instagram.
Photos: (Above) The Mockingbird cast. (Below) The Varsity Volleyball team. Photos provided.