A Successful Weekend

Well, here are the results from the Forensics meet this past weekend. We traveled to Ridge High School in Basking Ridge. There were about thirty five Union Catholic students that competed and did very well. We finished third in our league out of about eighteen schools. We had eight students that made finals in five different categories. The team of Seniors Edward Sagendorf and John Rotondo placed first in Duo Interpretation. Seniors Sean Gaynor and Liz Casserly placed third in Public Forum, which is a new category in our league. We also won three of the top six trophies in the category of Declamation.

Our next tournament will be Saturday, November 11th at Montville High School. It should be very exciting because our team is very young and they are working hard and improving every time they practice. We are expecting to have many more successful Saturday’s this year!

UC Forensics

One of the more successful teams over the last decade here at Union Catholic has been our Forensics team. For those that are not familiar, Forensics is the speech and debate team, and it is definitely a club worth joining. This Saturday is our team’s first league meet. We compete against such high schools as Ridge, Seton Hall Prep, and St Peter’s Prep.

Our students are really pumped up for the weekend and have been working hard for almost two months now. They will compete in such categories as, Drama, Duo Interpretation, which is a partner acting scene, and Original Oratory, where the students write their own speeches. I am one of the coaches of the team, and the coaching staff and I are also very excited for the students to compete.

We have high aspirations for this team and expect to have a very successful year; so successful that we have made the commitment to traveling all over the country so our students can compete against national competition. We already attended a national meet at the University of Pennsylvania, on Columbus Day Weekend, and will travel to Princeton University, Harvard and the University of Houston before the year is up. At UPenn we won trophies in two different categories, placing in the top five nationally. Very exciting!

For all of our grammar school Forensics team members, we are looking forward to seeing you at our Annual Grammar School Forensics Meet in May.

Stay tuned for results from the weekend.

-Mr. L

My first blog!

First, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Dave Luciano and I am the Director of Recruitment at Union Catholic High School. I’m sure that many of you have met me before, either at your schools or here at Union Catholic. For those of you that I have not had a chance to meet yet, let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a graduate of Union Catholic, Class of ’99. Being back at UC has been great. I teach History and Communications. I am the coach of the JV baseball team and the Forensics Team. I also moderate clubs such as the Big Brother Big Sister club, the Ambassador club and the Blue Crew. As you can see I’m pretty busy, but it is what I love to do. My main job as recruitment director is to tell all of the students what we offer here at Union Catholic.

For many of you, you have already gotten an opportunity to see firsthand what we have to offer. You have met the student ambassadors that come to the schools with me and have seen how happy they are as UC students. You have seen them in action at the Days of Recollection and have witnessed how excited they are to welcome you into our building. You have connected with them on student tours and in the halls at our Open House. You have been their sidekicks during school hours as a Freshman For a Day. For those of you that have not had an opportunity to experience any of these events, I just summed up what we have to offer. We have great students who are proud to be a part of our community here at Union Catholic. Whether in your school or in ours, they are excited to meet you and share their experiences with you.

The good news is you have not missed out on your opportunity. Our Freshman For a Day program has again gotten off to a great start this year, with large numbers of eighth graders visiting our school daily. We match you up with one of our students that have some of the same interests as you. It could be academically, athletically or the arts. You will go to all of their classes, see our laptops in action, sample our famous French Fries and even get a nice gift at the end of the day. Quite an experience!

I recently surveyed freshmen in our building and simply asked them what they enjoy most about Union Catholic. Through their answers, I have formulated the…

Top Ten things freshmen enjoy most about Union Catholic.
10) The Lockers
9) The Food
8) The Classes They’re Taking
7) The Fun Environment
6) The Friends That They Have Made
5) Clubs and Activities
4) The Sports Program
3) Teachers
2) Laptops
1) The Friendly Students

Don’t be a stranger. Come and visit us as a Freshman For a Day or at a sporting
event. Our teams are still playing in County and State Tournaments. See the excitement firsthand!