Varsity Soccer: Volts Come Back for a Hard Fought Tie with CAHS

I really want to give a shout out to our Varsity players who DUG DEEP, played it cool and raged back against a 1-3 deficit in the second half of the game yesterday against CAHS. The VOLTS ended the game with a 3-3 tie, even after lots of rough playing and continuous challenges.  It was AWESOME.

Kudos to all the players who showed a proud representation of our school and positive sportsmanship. And HATS OFF to Coach John who is a perfect role model for our kids to follow.  Calm, collected and strategic on the sidelines at all times.

Way to go Volts,

Mrs. Arpasi

WAY TO GO VOLTS.  You guys are simply amazing.

VIMSIA Players on USVI U-17 Boys

The members of the U.S. Virgin Islands under-17 boys national team playing in the CONCACAF U-17 Championships in Bradenton, Fla.: front row from left, Connor Querrard, Kareem Sealey, Hasani Edgar, Selah Mathurin, Jimson St. Louis, Devonte Duncan, Thomiah Williams, Orion Mills and Mahari Cortijo; back row from left, Elton Richards Jr., Axel Bartsch, Destin Thompson Jr., Kyle Willis, Dalton Parr, Isaiah Jarvis, Nyon Maynard, Whelan Joseph and Gidal Williams.

The U.S. Virgin Islands under-17 boys national team was shut out in its first two matches at the CONCACAF U-17 Championship, being played at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

The USVI National Team, playing in Group A in the 19-team qualifying stage, lost to St. Vincent and the Grenadines 1-0 on March 16, then fell 3-0 to the Cayman Islands on Sunday.

The U.S. Virgin Islands are now 0-2-0 in group play, with two matches remaining against Nicaragua, and Sunday, March 24, against Grenada.

Congratulations to the four VIMSIA students who made it onto the team: Devonte Duncan, Jimson St. Louis, Isaish Jarvis and Axel Bartsch.

Elementary Girls Soccer Champs

St. Thomas Elementary Girls Soccer Champs

Virgin Islands Montessori School’s elementary girls soccer team won the St. Thomas-St. John Interscholastic Athletic Association league title this season. The Lady Volts finished the season with a 5-0-1 record. Team members are, front row from left, Ellis Wisehart, Arielle Shackell, Natasha Webster, Zia Gibbs, Tanya Khemlani and Arimei Miller; back row from left, coach Adalio Araujo, Cadence Canes, Aurora Rodriguez, Devin DeGannes, Aysia Frett, Abella Maynard, Sofia Kappel and Mariana Brunt. DeGannes was the league’s leading scorer with six goals.

Babson Rugby Team Visits the PGIA

The Babson Rugby team visited our school this past week. They led our students through a fun PE full of rugby drills and a game at the end, one which included all of the students and Babson team members! Thank you so much to the Babson Rugby team for sharing their knowledge and rugby skills with us!

Girls Elementary Soccer having a great 2nd Season

2019 ELEMENTARY GIRLS SOCCER TEAM

For the second-ever season of the girls’ elementary soccer league, our girls are having a great season. Having played four games already ( all victories!), these young soccer players are setting a standard for the other competition, Antilles and All Saints. Keep it up girls!

The Soccer Field is Looking Very "Bright"

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Out of chaos comes opportunity.

The Story of the Lights:

VIMSIA's soccer field is now lit with LED lights. Thus the electricity consumption is nominal. The poles supporting the lights are discarded utility poles from the hurricanes...recycled poles. 

And that’s not all this very “GREEN” field has to boast about:

• The retaining wall and seats on the south side of the field are built from discarded poles from the hurricanes...recycled materials;

• The poles and lights were installed by Haugland Energy... donated labor;

• The field is watered with water captured in our road run-off collection system. The system not only waters the field but reduces the road run-off into the ocean from surrounding roads...an environmental system helping to preserve ocean quality;

• The pump system and lighting are powered by our solar system and battery storage system, (off grid system)...no energy payments to WAPA.

Pit fall: the lawn mower used to mow the field is gas powered.

But, maybe we can fix that, too. CAS hours anyone?

Boys Varsity Basketball Takes Off

The Varsity Boys Basketball Team kicked off the season Tuesday night against Charlotte Amalie High School. The VOLTS played tough but eventually came up short 53-40. It's an exciting team this year. We have a core group of committed boys that have been participating for a while - Teon Persaud, Greg Christian, Jalen McClean, Teagan Kappel and Jayvyn Potter. A few more VIMSIA students decided to join - Jimson St. Louis and Drake Nemeth. We've welcomed a senior from GIFTT Hill - Patrick Hendrickson. And we've also welcomed four students from Seventh Day Adventist - Angel Khatib, James Nosty, Mauricio Francis and Austin Sterling Jr. 

We play Friday night vs IEKHS at IEKHS. Game time is set for 5:15. Please keep checking our school website for game schedules as updates come out regularly. And please come out and support us!
The Varsity Girls Basketball Team's schedule is set to be announced next Monday. Please check for their schedule as well and please come out and support us!

I would also like to thank a few other students that make our season possible. Radiance Peets keeps the official score book for us during games. Daicya Dawson video records the games. Chelisia Morton helps out as an assistant coach for both varsity teams. 

GO VOLTS! 
Coach Stocking

Volts Represent USVI at Concacaf

VIMSIA junior Jimson St. Louis and senior Ammiel Maynard.

Sports fans will want to follow the USVI U-20 soccer team as they compete in a 34-nation tournament that will determine our region’s teams that will participate in the FIFA U-20 championships next year. The team includes current Virgin Islands Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSIA) students Ammiel Maynard & Jimson St. Louis, alumni Grant Farrell ’18 and Seidon Nemeth ’18, displaced-by-Irmaria student Quinn Farrell, and former student Orion Mills (older brother to current student Jacob Mills). The USVI will play 5 games November 1-9, including meeting the USA team Saturday November 3! Games can be viewed on the concacaf website. Go USVI, go VIMSIA VOLTS!

Cross Country Update

Varsity boys - Volts isaiah, TEagan, Devonte and Axel

More in sports!  Unofficially, the Boys Varsity Cross Country team won their meet Tuesday with a 47 point performance.  The boys lost last week with a close second to Antilles, but had a great bounce back this week. Shout out the all JV and Varsity runners on the Cross teams and big ups to their efforts on the field.   

Elementary Cross team nearly swept the meet on Tuesday! Volts took 1st through 4th place unofficially winning the meet - Owen 1st, Khafri 2nd, Pedro 3rd and Malachi 4th. Girls also unofficially won their meet this week with Marianna taking third place.

Mega huge photo credit and thanks to Dionne Sinclair (Tolud) for these great pictures. There are a bunch on this post - click here to see all of her photos from Tuesdays meet. Thanks for sharing, Dionne!

Owen leading the pack

Official results from Tuesday, Oct 16 are in with Elementary Girls and Boys Volts each winning their elementary meet. Owen took first and Malachi taking second for the boys - Devin took third for the girls. Maia won the JV girls race and Varsity boys took a close second for their team race.

JV Girls Volleyball Remain Undefeated

Volts JV Volleyball Team

Congratulations Leah - tournament MVP

Our JV girls have been hard at work - winning all of their games thus far. They represented VIMSIA well and won the season opener invitational tournament at Antilles School. PGIA 9th grader, Leah Smith, was named tournament MVP. Kudos, Leah! Check out the team’s great trophy in the front office!

Natalia placing the tournament trophy

The Volts took Tuesday’s game with Julius Sprauve in three. Their next game is Thursday, 10-25 at 4:00 here at VIMSIA.

Go Volts! Keep up the great work!

Check the schedule for this week’s games - Varsity Girls, Varsity Boys and JV Girls have teams.

Huge thanks and appreciation to our Volleyball Coaches - Nalani Figueroa, Ivan Figueroa and Ronald Blyden!

First All-Girls Soccer League on Island

New newly formed Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy's Elementary All-girls soccer team, played in a historic event last Friday! The game was played at 4 pm and our girls won 5-1 against All Saints. Aurora Rodriguez had 2 (two) goals, Joniah Julien, Devin DeGannes, and Cassidy Caines, all contributed with one goal.

Shane DeGannes Appointed National Coach of the Virgin Islands Junior Track Team

Coach DeGannes and silver medal winner Evan Jones

Congratulations to Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy’s (VIMSIA) Shane DeGannes, School Nurse and Athletic Director, who was recently appointed the National Coach for the Virgin Islands Junior Track and Field team by the Virgin Islands Track and Field Federation. “I’m excited and honored to be named the National Coach for our Junior team. I’ve been working for the past seven years trying to get the community to believe that I’m here for the sport of Track and Field and Cross Country and I think it has finally been validated by the Federation by sending me with the National Team” exclaimed DeGannes.

DeGannes was honored and thrilled when asked to accompany the dedicated members of the Junior Track and Field team along with two other Virgin Islands coaches to the Flow Carifta Games hosted in the Bahamas. Evan Jones and Talisse Thompson, a VIMSIA “lifer”, both trained with DeGannes with Evan placing in the top three. Jones won the silver medal in the boys under twenty 1500m run. “I’m stoked to have coached him” DeGannes commented, adding that “we haven’t won a medal since 2010 and it was time!”

Three runners from St. Croix and four from St. Thomas represented the Virgin Islands in the Flow Carifta Games. DeGannes recently developed his own club for runners called the St. Thomas Track Club. Both Evan and Talisse ran representing St. Thomas Track Club.

Girls On a Mission

March 15, 2018 - You've heard of girl power and independent young women, but we bet you haven't heard of Maya Livingston and Amalie Zucker. These two Upper Elementary students at Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy decided they wanted to start up a cheerleading after school and made it happen!

After asking their teacher Caroline Morrison for guidance, 10 year old Maya and Amalie took it upon themselves to write a formal proposal for Business Director, Peggy Hunt and find volunteer coaches to get the program started. Determined to start an athletic after school program, both girls presented Hunt with a very detailed and well-written proposal specifying dates, times and practice locations. "I was beyond impressed by these two young ladies. They are the true definition of a Montessori child - independent, risk-taking and determined. The administration fully supports their idea - they've basically already done all the work” says Hunt. Maya and Amalie mentioned that this was their first time writing a proposal and "it required, a lot of changes.... a lot!"

After attending a cheerleading camp over the summer, Amalie told Maya all about how wonderful cheerleading is and how it requires various athletic abilities. "One day we were on the playground and we decided we wanted to do something fun for after school" said Maya.

The girls are thankful to have the help of coach Keri Landry, Lower Elementary Teaching Assistant, as their after school cheerleading coach! Besides being a well-rounded athlete, Landry strives to empower youth and support her local community. "Cheerleading was an activity I was involved with from junior high all through college. In college is where I actually started competing. I also got involved in an all-star team. Both teams traveled around the country to compete. I agreed to help the girls out because being part of an athletic team is important and anything I can do to support growth in the community.. I will do it" says Landry.

Both Maya and Amalie mentioned how impressed they were with their first practice and how much they were able to accomplish. The girls hope that this will make people aware that cheerleading is not just girls with pom-poms and big bows rooting on sports teams, but a highly athletic and physically demanding sport. 

Congratulations Maya and Amalie!

Lady Volts 2018 Co-Champions

The Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy's (VIMSIA) JV Girls Basketball team finished the season as Co-Champions of the Interscholastic Athletic Association (IAA) league this season with a final record of 5-1.  
 
"This was a historic season as this is the first title captured by a basketball team here at VIMSIA" says Matthew Stocking, Head Coach. The lady Volts team practiced hard this year and their efforts paid off with tremendous season filled with great sportsmanship.

"This is only the second year many of the girls have played and their progress has been amazing to see. They’re a competitive group and always display good sportsmanship, even when things get heated and intense during game play. They were able to keep the intense situations light and fun with their positive mindset and ability to communicate effectively with each other" added coach Stocking.
 
Special mention: Adia Thomas and Chantel Carty for good leadership skilills and for their positive spirits that kept practices fun and energetic.  
 
"I look forward to watching this team grow!" - Coach Stocking

Las Vegas Mayor's Cups and International Showcase Results

Starting lineup for our friendly with Preston Lodge (Scotland),

The PGIA Varsity Soccer Team had a very successful trip to to the Las Vegas Mayor's Cup and International Showcase.  Playing opposition from California, Nevada, Utah, and Scotland, the Volts hung tough despite being the youngest team in their division (U19 Boys).  They recorded their first win at a stateside tournament, qualified for the knockout stage (a first), and beat a team that otherwise went undefeated in the tournament.  Two of the Volts three losses came to teams who qualified for the final.  Goal scorers for the PGIA included David Dawson (the game-winning goal in our win), Seidon Nemeth, Nickolas Swan, and Grant Farrell.  Richie Livacz recorded a shutout in goal in our opening tournament game.  As soon as we get film from the tournament, we will be putting up highlights on the website. 

The tournament results are as follows:

PGIA 2 (David Dawson, Seidon Nemeth) Red Dragons College Prep 0 - Group Game

PGIA 1 (Nickolas Swan), San Diego Machine 3 - Group Game

PGIA 0, Carson FC Pumas Elite 5 - Quarterfinal

PGIA 1 (Grant Farrell), Las Vegas Revolution 5 - Consolation

Chris Griffith, a Volts JV soccer player, was a guest player on the Downtown Las Vegas Soccer Club U13 Academy team.  His team qualified for the quarterfinals as well, and Chris got on the scoreboard in his third match (with all of the U19 team in attendance).  Great job Chris!

Off the field, the Volts toured Las Vegas reality show sets (Pawn Stars, Tanked, Rick's Restoration and Count's Customs), explored Las Vegas, rode a zip line over the Fremont Street Experience, and visited the Grand Canyon.  They received multiple compliments on their behavior and sportsmanship, representing the school with grace and class.  

The team would like to thank all who made this trip possible.  This list includes, but is not limited to, all who bought t-shirts and water, the parents of all our players, the PGIA administration, the Downtown Las Vegas Soccer Club (for letting Chris play with them) and the Las Vegas Mayor's Cup and International Showcase (who donated registration fees and hotel accommodations).  There are already plans in the works to return next year.  Go Volts!

VIMSIA Soccer Team at the Grand Canyon

Volts with Rick Harrison of "Pawn Stars"

VIMSIA Soccer Team Travels to Las Vegas

The Peter Gruber International Academy (PGIA) Varsity Soccer Team is delighted to be participating in the Las Vegas Mayor's Cup and International Showcase.  There are over 600 teams from 70 countries/5 continents at the event.  In addition, over 400 college coaches will be in attendance.  The Volts will play a friendly match vs. Preston Lodge School (Scotland) on Thursday night before starting tournament play on Saturday.  They will have up to 5 games in three days against teams from across the United States and around the world.  International schools and amateur/professional clubs are represented, including a youth team from Borussia Monchengladbach, a team in the German Bundesliga.  The Volts, defending I-AA Champions, are looking forward to the opportunity for growth provided by a tournament of this caliber.  They are thankful for all the community members who bought t-shirts and water to support their fundraising efforts.

First Place VOLTS - Undefeated Season JV Girls!

Huge kudos to our JV Volts Girls Volleyball team for taking the title with an undefeated 8 and 0 season.  These Volts started strong and stayed strong. 

Huge congratulations to our 2017 girls volleyball teams.  Briefly, our JV girls team went undefeated 8-0. They won the JV league with that perfect record. Our Varsity girls team took 4th place in the league with a record of 4-4.  Great job ladies and way to work. 

I would like to thank Coach Ivan Figueroa, Coach Nalani Figueroa and Coach Ronald Blyden for their efforts this season.  VIMSIA could not have executed this successful season without your hard work and dedication.  VIMSIA's volleyball program has come along quite well.  I see nothing but success at the varsity level in the very near future.  The foundation our past teams have laid will be built upon and VIMSIA will soon claim the girls varsity volleyball championship too. 

GO VOLTS!   

 Shane DeGannes R.N., VOLTS Athletic Director

Special recognition to our Seniors:  Vanshika, Kobe (Captain), Nalani (Coach) and Candice.

Congratulations Volts - Varsity Soccer Victory over Kean!

Volts get some well-deserved ink from VI Daily News for their 3-1 victory over Kean last night.

Go Volts: School Participation Winners - Rotary Triathlon

Volts bring home the school participation award...again!  Pretty sure we are undefeated in this.  Way to go  VIMSIA athletes!

Special shout-out to our medalists

12 - 15 year olds:  Taber - 1st place; Kaia - 1st place; Relay Anapia, Aviela, Nicholas - 1st place; Relay Skyler and Axel - 2nd place; Relay (mixed school) Gabriella, Christian and Thomas - 3rd place

9-11 year olds:  Maia T - 1st place; Relay Mariana, Aurora and Sofie - 2nd place

5-8 year olds:  Lyle - 3rd place; Relay (mixed school) Charlie, Willie and Connor - 1st place

Full List of Medalists

Elementary Track Team Celebrates A Great Season!

Coach Nurse and his Elementary Track Volts got a much deserved treat last week at SnoMoon!  Kudos on a great season, Volts!

#GoVolts