Quest For Excellence
Perfect score goes from 1600 to 2200
By Sarah Marr
At Valley Christian, the
pursuit of excellence in the athletics, arts, and academic departments
is continuous. Case in point: the Varsity Football team. Unfairly
dominating Division III in the 03-04 playoffs, the team single-handedly
forced the Central Coast Section to change. This resulted in an
Open Division solely for the league’s best teams, regardless
of school population. This year, the Warriors showed CCS it made
the right move by posting a 13-1 record, and easily becoming the
first-ever Open Division champions.
In the Arts Department, the Marching Band continued their quest
for excellence by placing favorably in a series of competitions.
Most notably, on November 20, 2004, the band showed up the competition
at the WBA Championships in Modesto. Not only did they receive
first place for the “Best Music,” they also displayed
the “Best Percussion,” and the “Best Overall
Effect.”
Finally, in the academic realm, the U.S. Department of Education
awarded Valley Christian the “No Child Left Behind”
Blue Ribbon School status, making it one of four private schools
in the nation given this honor. Upon receiving this award, VCS
President/Superintendent Clifford E. Daugherty said, “Although
Valley Christian Schools has always had hard-working, talented
and dedicated students and teachers, questions about VCS’
academic quality were more difficult to answer. Academic scores
are not published in the San Jose Mercury News sports page every
day and there are no sweepstakes or state championships, or major
theater productions for academics.”
But at Valley Christian, regardless of any athletic, artistic
or academic accolades, true excellence transcends any narrow category
we can limit it to. Authentic excellence comes from developing
and sustaining Christ-like character. And because fully achieving
this lofty goal will take more than a lifetime, it can only be
described as a process, or a quest.
