FMMS Fundraiser at Pineville Icehouse

March 8, 2012 By Christin M Leave a Comment

There will be a Skate Night this Friday at the Pineville Ice House to raise money for the Fort Mill Middle School Athletic Booster Club. The School District cut funding for middle school sports a few years ago and now all middle school sports teams must be funded through donations and fundraisers. The Pineville Ice House will donate $3.50 for every admission to the FMMS Athletic Booster. Skate night takes place from 7:30-10:30 pm Friday March 9. It is $10 for admission and skate rental. Let them know you are there to support Fort Mill Middle School when you purchase admission.

Get ready to have some nice, cool fun and support middle school sports and a great local business at the same time!

Remember to dress warmly- it’s chilly in there.

Pineville Ice House

400 Towne Centre Blvd

Pineville, NC 28134

Filed Under: Schools, Uncategorized Tagged With: Fort Mill Middle School Sports, Pineville Ice House

Weekend In Florence, SC with Nation Ford Tennis Team

March 5, 2012 By Christin M 5 Comments

We spent a wonderful weekend in Florence, SC with the Nation Ford Tennis Team. They competed in the Florence High School Tennis Tournament for the second year in the row. The tournament, sponsored by the Florence Tennis Association, brings together 16 teams for a pre-season tournament. The teams are among the most competitive in both North and South Carolina.

The Brand new Florence Tennis Center just opened last year and includes 24 hard courts, 6 clay courts, and a beautiful low-country style club house. This year’s tournament had to overcome several challenges including a power outage Friday night and a total rain out Saturday.

Friday night Nation Ford played Bishop England, a very tough school from Daniel Island. Bishop England won the match, but the Nation Ford players looked good, taking 2 out of 6 matches and playing competitively in the remaining 4. (The format for High School Tennis in SC is 5 singles matches and a doubles match which is referred to as #2 doubles. If the teams split the matches 3-3, the top two seed from each team pair up to play a doubles match, referred to as #1 doubles, to see who wins the overall match.)

Saturday was spent bowling. It rained all day. The boys all had a great time as their personalities mesh really well.

Chase and Kyle

Coach Billy

Play resumed Sunday morning, with play changed to 8 game pro-sets to make up for lost time. For the first match, Nation Ford played Chapin, last years 3-AAA State Champions. Again, the Falcons played a very close match against an excellent team, but came up just a little short. Nation Ford won #1 singles and #5 singles. They lost #2 doubles in a tie-breaker after leading the entire match and also had a tough loss in a tie-breaker at #2 singles. Knowing that they were within points of upsetting last years state champions will surely give the team a big confidence boost.

Chase

Madison

Coach Billy and Chris

Danny

Last match of the tournament was played against another strong team from Beaufort. Over all it was a loss with wins at #2 singles and #2 doubles, but #4 singles and #5 singles played extremely close matches. Overall the tournament was a huge success and the boys now know what needs to be done to make a run at the 3-AAA State Championship this year. With Coach Billy Mckinney’s excellent coaching skills, they have real shot at taking home the title.

Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: Florence High School Tennis Tournament, Nation Ford High School Fort Mill, Nation Ford Tennis

Dancing With The Stars Is Coming To Fort Mill, SC

February 26, 2012 By Christin M Leave a Comment

The Dance Floor is about to Heat Up! April 28 the Fort Mill School District Athletic Board will host a Dancing With The Stars Fundraiser featuring local celebrities paired with Fort Mill area dance instructors. The Athletic Board hopes to raise $15,000 for middle school sports through both ticket sales and celebrity fundraising. Funding for middle school sports was cut by the Fort Mill School Board in 2010. Shortly after parents banded together to fund athletics at the four Fort Mill Middle Schools through fundraisers and donations. More than 50 teams and 1,000 middle school students benefit each year at a cost of around $60,000.

Local celebrities include:

Dee Christopher- Principal of Fort Mill High School since 2006

Stafany Holmes- local Restaurateur (Towne Tavern)

Lucas McFadden- anchor/producer CN2 News

Patti Mercer- former Mrs. South Carolina and Director of the SC Strawberry Festival Pageant

Alison Rauch- Reporter and Photographer for CN2 News

Jeff Schaefer- former major league baseball player

Training for Dancing with the Stars is well underway. Visit fortmillathletics.org to find blog updates from the stars as well as rehearsal videos. Online dancer voting is at Dancer Online Voting. Minimum donation is $10.

Tickets are on sale for $100 or $150 for VIP tickets. The event is semi-formal and will take place at the Glennon Center in Tega Cay, SC April 28 at 6PM. All tickets include food and beverage. VIP Tickets include front row parking and reserved front row seating.

Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: Dancing with the Stars Fort Mill, Fort Mill Middle School Athletics, Fort Mill Schools

Nation Ford Band to be in Macy’s Parade

November 23, 2011 By Christin M Leave a Comment

The Nation Ford Band will be one of only 8 high school bands marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow. Fort Mill High School’s Band marched in the parade back in 1986. The NaFo Band will be doing a piece of music arranged especially for them by renowned composer Jay Kennedy from the Berkley School of Music. It is entitled Carolina Medley and is a compilation of “Nothing Could be Finer”, James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, “The Twist” by Chubby Checker, and “Carolina on my Mind” by James Taylor. The on-air coverage will be sometime between 10 and 12am. Apparently they will need to be awake and fully dressed before 1:45 am.

In addition, if you are up bright and early cooking that bird, WCNC will be airing a special on the Nation Ford Band on their morning show sometime between 5 and 7am.

Filed Under: Local News, Schools Tagged With: nafo band

Banks Trail Middle School Opens

August 17, 2011 By Christin M Leave a Comment

Fort Mill’s 4th middle school finally opened its doors today to students after sitting empty for a year. For this school year, Banks Trail will house only 6th and 7th graders. Eighth graders will be added next year.

Student input was used to select the school colors (purple, black, and silver) and mascot (the Timberwolves). The adopted school slogan is “I am the Trail”. Banks Trail contains 65 classrooms all with computer access. Apparently the school also features TVs in the lunch room which will air CNN. Not sure this is a good idea. Do kids really need to be encouraged to watch more TV, even if it is the news? How about just focusing on eating and getting to know your classmates during lunch period? I definitely see a CNN vs. Fox News debate coming.

Television opinions aside, I am sure Banks Trail will be another jewel in the Crown of Fort Mill Schools. It is so refreshing to live in a community where the vast majority of citizens are proud and supportive of their public schools.

Banks Trail Middle School

1640 Banks Road

Fort Mill, SC 29715

Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: Banks Trail Middle School