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EVENTS CALENDAR
APRIL 8, 2020
Easter Choir Concert @ East Hills Community Church
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EVENTS CALENDAR
PLAN TO JOIN US AT THESE UPCOMING EVENTS
JANUARY 25, 2020
Homecoming & Reunion Weekend
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FEBRUARY 1, 2020
Missions Banquet
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FEBRUARY 7, 2020 Prospective Family Dinner & Tour
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MARCH 6,7, 12-14, 2020
Spring Play: The Little Mermaid
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APRIL 24, 2020
Woodcrest Christian Day School Band & Choir Concert
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MAY 16, 2020
Choir Concert in the Park
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MAY 1, 2020
Woodcrest Christian Day School Open House
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MARCH 17, 2020 Band Masters Concert @ Sandals Church Woodcrest
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MARCH 20-28, 2020
Spring Missions Trip to Alaska and Belize
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MAY 9, 2020
Band Spring Benefit Concert
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High School Graduation @ The Grove Community Church MAY 28, 2020
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MAY 28, 2020
PHOTO: » WCMS students serve Primera Iglesia Bautista Church during a mission trip to Calexico, CA.
TIPS FOR FAMILY TRAVEL
abroad to Belize, Alaska, Peru, or Costa Rica, every student has returned with more than a stamped passport. The trip has left a permanent impression upon their hearts as well. Often in travel—and most definitely in mission trips—the most profound experiences are often the unplanned. The detours. The hidden variables that redirect the day. These unplanned experiences are clearly part of God’s divine plan and evidence of His sovereignty. Every year after our high school mission teams return from their trips, our student body shares a Mission Trip Chapel where each group reports. The repeated themes quickly emerge as team after team shares. I fell in love with the people. God’s church is so much bigger than just here. I will never forget. I will never be the same.
Plan together – Ask the kids what they want to see during a visit.
Read / Listen to novels set in the location you plan to visit before the trip.
Bring along a new album or playlist unique to this trip–these songs will spur memories for years to come.
Attend a worship service – This opens your kids’ eyes to the global church and also teaches them to attend church no matter where life takes them.
Plan downtime – Intentionally leave a few hours or even a day empty to allow room for new discoveries or sometimes just to take a nap.
Embrace the unexpected – Laugh in the middle of the travel mess (they are inevitable!) for these are some of the best memories.
Eat the thing! Whatever it is in each culture! Gelato, haggis, pierogi, curried goat?! Yes, please!
Shoot a quick video of each kid at the end of the day sharing their highlight of the day.
Add to the National Heritage trip to D.C., the annual mission trips, the recent Choir trips to New York and Boston, Band trips to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon, and the summer Europe trip, and there is no doubt our students are graduating with minds that know, but also eyes that have seen and hearts that understand. Perhaps the greatest lesson of travel is one of perspective. When beginning a trip often the world appears huge. Hundreds of countries, thousands of cultures, billions of people. However, the more one travels you see the commonalities every culture shares. A mother preparing food for her family, commuters on the way to work, kids celebrating a goal in a heated match, neighbors chatting, grandparents walking and holding hands. These scenes are repeated every day, every where between similar sunrises and sunsets. So many people. So many needs. So many victories. So many hurts. And the Lord sees every. single. one. When the trip is over and the luggage returned to its shelf, the greatest lesson that travel impresses is that as big as the world may be, our God is so much bigger still.
PHOTO: » High school mission trips, such as this 2019 Belize trip, allow students to share God’s love and to encounter Christ in unique ways that further develops their own spiritual growth.
PHOTO: » The closeness of a canon makes the realities of the Civil War more real for WCMS students on the annual National Heritage trip to Washington D.C.
To know the heart of Woodcrest Christian’s Cross Country athletes, you’ve got to meet the coaching team behind them. THE TEAM behind the team
you can measure the success of an athletic program in many ways—wins and losses, championships, records broken. However, in order to accurately assess the success of a program, you have to know what its goals are. Perhaps no other incident reflects the goals of the Woodcrest Christian Cross Country team and the school’s athletic program as a whole as the CIF Finals in November of 2012. On that morning, the team learned that a student from another competing school had died earlier that week. This was a competitor. A challenger to making the cut to attend the state championships. A team that was hurting. If you had been there that morning, you would have seen a hurting team surrounded by students in purple and gold praying for them. That’s the heart and truest measure of success. There is nothing wrong with working hard and winning. But when you measure success by hearts that have been changed by Christ, by students who have found a place to belong, and by a program that is just as well known for its championship success as its heart success, then you have a glimpse of what Woodcrest Christian Cross Country is all about. Such a program doesn’t just happen. It begins with coaching and takes commitment, perseverance, and passion. Eric Reynolds, Ben Nunnally, Steve Voges, and James Flores make up the coaching staff for
the Royals Cross Country teams. Together they have 60 years of coaching WCS Cross Country with three of them having coached for over 15 years. Each of them are in very different lines of work including a retired Motorola Strategic Business Manager who now coaches multiple school-to-career programs, a sports park manager, a Caltrans worker, and an associate pastor and music director. But what makes these men, all of whom have had children in the Cross Country program, stay on years beyond their sons’ or daughters’ graduation? Each of them have a different story; for Steve and James, they helped when their own student was in the program and they stuck around. For Ben Nunnally, his son Grant was on the team when he was killed in a car accident his junior year. Ben’s time with Cross Country is both giving back and personal therapy. For head coach Eric Reynolds, he ran under legendary Billy York in the 1980s and has returned to take over the program. We sat down with them and dug deep into why they stay and what their goals are for our athletes.
What do you love about coaching? Listen to these men and you can’t help but note the raw excitement that fills their voices as they talk about Cross Country. In answering why they keep doing it, two answers are clear: it’s a blessing to each of them to be able to share
PHOTO: » The WCS Cross Country team has won 30 consecutive league championships since 1990.
“We want students to be an example to the fellow believer and unbeliever.” ~ steve voges, wcs cross country coach
the truth of Christ to each of the students and they get energized working with students every day. As James Flores said, “I truly get a joyous satisfaction when I see these kids awakening to the things of God that we share.” That is the heart of the coaching staff. Sharing the truth of Scripture every day with these students, our coaches help them see that running is fun and valuable in lifelong health, but also understand the power of Christ to guide them through life’s journeys is much more important.
What has been the most memorable moment you’ve experienced as a Cross Country coach?
Steve: Although we’ve had the privilege to go to
PHOTO (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT): » Together, Steve Voges, Eric Reynolds, James Flores, and Ben Nunnally have 60 years of coaching WCS Cross Country.
many Cross Country championships, the first trip and first victory is the most memorable. During my first year coaching with Billy [York], we went to the State Championships for the first time and came in fourth place, then to return the next year and finish in first place (which was finally given to us after one of the opposing teams protested the results). It was a cold and rainy day. We were all soaked and muddy.
James: There are many, but I believe when I’ve seen a runner fall down from sheer exhaustion after [crossing] the finish line because that’s how I believe we should run the race for our Lord.
Ben: Being part of the first State Championship team along with each of the winning State Championships.
Eric: The first year I took over as head coach I implemented a policy for our teams to each pray together with an individual from a competing team before the races. The impact on athletes, coaches, and spectators was incredible.
One of the areas where Cross Country stands out from many sports at Woodcrest Christian is in the close-knit nature of the teams. The word “family” has been used for decades. If you ask the coaches what makes the team so unique, you’ll hear about how cross country runners race as both individuals and as teammates as it takes five runners to qualify with a team score but you can also achieve individually. You’ll hear how each athlete runs the same distance, on the same course, in the same conditions and that such conditions create a unique bond of camaraderie that is not easily broken. What you won’t hear from the coaches is how each of them pour into the students spiritually day in and day out as they practice. They won’t tell you that they have created a team where parents are welcome and encouraged to join the “fun” from the team dinner the night before each race to helping during the races. They won’t tell you about the many alumni runners who speak of the powerful impact the coaches had on their life while running cross country. You won’t hear about that because that’s not what they are about. Woodcrest Christian is blessed to have four men who faithfully serve the Lord with a passion and commitment to making Christ known to each of our Cross Country athletes and to helping them learn how to make Him known to others. While good race mechanics are taught every day, it is the long term learning of living for Christ which is at the heart of the coaching staff. Head coach Eric Reynolds says it best, “The greatest thing I believe we teach them is that God has given them so much, and every day is an opportunity to use the gifts He has given them.”
CROSS COUNTRY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
As you enter the Royals Pavilion, what you immediately notice is purple and gold. Along the walls hang banner after banner representing athletic league championships in each sport. There are larger banners that represent CIF championships for Baseball, Swimming, Softball, and Cross Country. Then there are the gold banners...huge 14ft banners cascading from each corner of the building, standing out in their size and color, representing State Championships. There is only one sport at Woodcrest Christian to have earned a State Championship—Cross Country. There have been other Cross Country accomplishments such as the five times the school won the prestigious Mt. Sac Invitational (enough to earn former coach Billy York a spot in the Mt. Sac Hall of Fame), and this year’s California record of most consecutive league championships by any sport in any athletic division (30), but it’s the gold State Championship banners that stand out. They stand out because each of them represents a level of commitment unknown by most teams but shared by a small group of students over the years who have been blessed to achieve such a victory. It’s not easy making it to the winners’ podium at Woodward Park in Fresno, California, but it is worth the effort.
MT. SAC INVITATIONAL PODIUM APPEARANCES (BOYS & GIRLS SINCE 2004) 9 CROSS COUNTRY CIF CHAMPIONSHIPS (BOYS & GIRLS SINCE 2001) 8 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP PODIUM APPEARANCES (BOYS & GIRLS SINCE 2001) 9 CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS (BOYS CONSECUTIVE WINS SINCE 1990) 30
