Still, the Forest Lake Christian standout focused on the positive after his team lost to Ripon Christian 57-35 Friday night in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoffs.

Ever the team player – albeit one who owns most FLC boys basketball records, ranks high in the statistical categories in which he doesn’t hold records and led the Falcons to back-to-back section title games in his sophomore and junior years – Ritchart was quick to praise his teammates for the effort they put forth Friday night.

“It’s always tough (to lose) knowing you’re not going to play in high school again,” Ritchart said. “But we played our best – we never gave up.

“I would never trade playing with our guys – I love all the guys on our team. We played our hardest, and I have no regrets.”

Ritchart finished the game with a team-high 16 points, including two 3-pointers. However, the 6-foot-7, UC Davis-bound power forward spent much of the second half on the bench due to foul trouble.

“Two of those fouls were on other players, so Josh couldn’t be as aggressive as he wanted to,” Forest Lake coach Dave Thomas said. “That’s basketball.”

Ripon Christian started out using a diamond-and-one defense, with its top stopper, senior forward Steve Vander Molen, assigned to guard Ritchard. When senior guard Garrett Boatman scored Forest Lake’s first nine points to stake the Falcons (13-12) to a 9-2 lead, however, things began to open up a bit for Ritchart.

“Ritchart’s the best guy Steve’s ever had to handle,” Knights coach Ron Vander Molen said. “When Boatman started hitting those shots, we had to go straight man.”

After hitting a 3-pointer to give the Falcons a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, Ritchart netted seven of Forest Lake’s nine points in the second period to put FLC up 21-19 at halftime.

The lead evaporated quickly. Ripon Christian (21-6) opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run and held the Falcons to just six points in the period to take the lead for good.

Even a two-handed dunk by Ritchart off an alley-oop pass from junior guard Randy Van Winkle wasn’t enough to revitalize Forest Lake’s offense in the third quarter. In fact, the dunk was the Falcons’ only field goal in the period’s first six minutes.

“We weren’t running our offense cohesively,” Thomas said. “We were getting open shots when we were being a little more patient.”

Ripon Christian led 40-27 entering the fourth quarter and surrendered just two more field goals the rest of the way.

Boatman finished with 11 points for Forest Lake. Senior guard Jason Camacho added six.

Senior center Tyler Goslinga led Ripon Christian with 20 points, followed by junior forward Logan Vos, who hit five 3-pointers in the second half to finish with 17 points.

“Ripon might be the best team in our district,” Thomas said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them end up at Arco (Arena, in the section final).”

Although his season – and his high school career – are officially over, Ritchart will still be spending plenty of time on the basketball court in the coming months as he prepares to play at the NCAA Division I level for UC Davis.

“For me, next season starts next week,” he said. “It’s a whole ’nother level.”

“He’s the best player we’ve ever had here,” Thomas said. “We’re going to miss him, but we can rejoice that he’ll be in college playing.”

During our last two cycles of accreditation we received the highest level of validation (a six year term) by the external review team and were delighted with their clear affirmation of our entire program. We are nearing the end of our current accreditation cycle and have been working diligently on all aspects of the program in an effort to be prepared for the next external review which is scheduled for the last week of March.

Our accreditation committee is comprised of five individuals representing both ACSI and WASC. The committee will spend serveral weeks prior to their visitation examining our written report and then they will arrive on campus March the 28th for a four day visit. Their time will be spent in observation of and conversation with our stakeholders.

At the conclusion of their visit the committee will write a report of their findings and submit their recommendations concerning our next accreditation cycle to their repective associations. We should be able to communicate their conclusions to our stakeholders by the beginning of the summer.

We have once again truly embraced this process of self-evaluation and look forward to the forthcoming visit from our associates. We are grateful to the many stakeholders who have worked with us over the last few years preparing for this visit and working with us to cast a new vision for the future. We covet your prayers over the next several weeks as we finish the last details of the project and prepare for the visitation.

March 17, 2010
On Tuesday, March 17th the Senior Economics Classes will sponsor their annual “Apprentice Day” project. This class project is based upon the television show of the same name. Students are placed into groups for the sake of competition and assigned a task to accomplish. The project is designed to teach the seniors the many concepts and activities that go into running a business. The goal for each group is to raise as much money as they can and then donate the proceeds. In order to raise money, teams will be selling food, drinks, desserts and raffle tickets.
This year the proceeds will be going to Haiti to help rebuild an orphanage.
All are welcome to attend Apprentice Day.
Please come out and support their efforts by enjoying some great food and fun.

11:30 A.M. to 1 P.M.
In the High School Gym

The ACSI High School Musicale is next week, March 4-5, 2010

This is a two day event located at the Capitol Christian Center in Sacramento, involving choirs from Christian schools all over northern California. Students will be involved in rehearsals and adjudication both Thursday and Friday, and the event concludes with the Command Performance Concert on Friday, March 5^th at 7:00 p.m. The cost is $5.00 for adults and $2.50 for children sixth grade and under. Forest Lake Christian School will be sending our Chamber Choir, and additional students from RMS Men’s Ensemble and Bella Voce Women’s Choir. We encourage you to attend the concert for it is truly spectacular. It is a wonderful experience seeing over 500 students, over 50 from FLCS, singing praise to God together. This year’s guest conductor is Dr. Dan Jackson, from Point Loma University.

Nominations go only to players who have displayed great individual skill, a strong work ethic, teamwork, and leadership on the basketball court and in the classroom. Nominations are made by college coaches who have observed the best players in the nation.

The award certificate was presented to Josh by a McDonald’s representative. All proceeds from the game go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Congratulations to Josh for your accomplishments as a student-athlete here at Forest Lake Christian School.