By John George
Once again, Perham High School has proven itself to have one of the best extra-curricular programs in the State of Minnesota. The Yellowjackets finished in second place in the Minnesota State High School League 'Challenge Cup'.
The Challenge Cup is an awards program designed to recognize Minnesota high schools for excellence in athletics and fine arts activities. The Challenge Cup is awarded to two high schools, one Class A school and one Class AA school. Schools will earn Challenge Cup points based on their participation and finish in both section and state tournament competitions. Teams, and in some cases, individuals will be awarded points for their success in section and state fine arts and athletics tournaments.
Perham earned 465 points in the 2006-07 school year. The Blake school, a private school in Minneapolis, won the Challenge Cup for the second time with 503 points. They also won the Cup in the 2004-05 school year.
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Since it's inception prior to the 2003-04 school year, only private school's have won the Challenge Cup. St. Cloud Cathedral won the Class A Challenge Cup last year and in 2003-04.
For the third time in those four years, Perham has been the top public school on the list.
"We're the second place champions, as our speech coach would like to say," said Fred Sailer, PHS Activities Director. "It's a great honor to be the top public school."
Perham was also runner-up in Class A in the 2004-05 school year. They finished third last year and they were fourth in the first year of the Cup in 2003-04. That year, Staples-Motley was the top public school.
The majority of Perham's points came from Cross Country and Gymnastics, both of which won State Championships, and the wrestling team, which finished second at the Class AA State Tournament. All three sports also scored a number of individual points, with Kevin Lachowitzer winning the State cross country title and Mike Guehna winning the 152-pound championship in Class AA wrestling.
Also winning a State title was the girls 4x800 relay team of Brittany Gigstead, Maddie McClellan, Alli Januszewski and Abby Anderson.
The Challenge Cup not only rewards athletic excellence, but it recognizes all MSHSL State sponsored events, including speech, one-act play and debate. Other fine arts activities like choir and band are not included, but they should be, according to Sailer.
"If you can get up in front of a crowd and sing a song, or play a solo piece on an alto sax, it's no different than standing on the free throw line in a State basketball game," he said.
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"We've really tried to show our young kids that all extra curricular activities are important," Sailer added. "We'd like to see that the kids participating in the activities that are "under the radar" that they are important too and should be recognized. There's more to extra curricular activities than just sports."
Sailer added that the Challenge Cup is something that's actively talked about among coaches, other than as a point of interest and a fun thing to take a look at. He's surprised at the amount of interest shown by the fans in Cup standings throughout the year.
"I think that's a good sign we have strong interest in our programs," he said. "It's a credit to our coaches, supervisors and our kids."
