Pine Castle Christian Academy

Pine Castle Christian Academy (PCCA) is a small Christian private school in Pine Castle (near Orlando), Florida that was founded in 1983. Since Fall 2001, PCCA has been led under the vision of its headmaster, Dr. Lorne Wenzel. With its relatively small enrollment, the school has kept its average class size down to 18. The school has seen tremendous growth during the past few years. The K-12 enrollment will peak at 700 this year with the largest growth in the high school grades. There are three main divisions of the school headed by Brenda Oliver/Elementary Principal, Jack Grimm/Middle School Principal, and Bob Burris/High School Principal.

History

Originally Methodist Country Kindergarten, a ministry of Pine Castle United Methodist Church for pre-schoolers and kindergarteners founded 1954, the inception of the school as an academy came in 1983, when PCUMC opened PCCA to first through sixth grade students. Each year after that successively introduced one more grade level, until, in 1990, the first senior class graduated.

To accommodate its broadened range of students, the Academy constructed the Family Life Center (FLC) in 1985 as its primary campus building. In recent years, only high school and eighth grade students have attended class in the FLC; lower school classes were moved to the Lighthouse Educational Center, completed in 2000. Other classes, such as art, music, photography, and athletic training are located in the smaller Candler Center. The Beacon Foundation, a non-profit group that supports PCCA, and the Admissions Office are located inside the Beacon House, an early-1900's Florida "cracker" style house. Many school functions occur on the adjacent Crawford field or in the Pine Castle United Methodist Church Sanctuary. Due to sustained growth in the Academy's student body, all sports are scheduled to be reclassified as 2A in the 2007-2008 school year, except football, which will remain 1B.

Athletics

Football

Pine Castle Christian Academy's football team finished its inaugral 2005 football season with an 8-2 record, although it did not make the play-offs. In the 2006 season, Pine Castle again finished with an 8-2 record, this time winning districts 2006. As of spring 2007, the Eagles football team was classified as 1B, ranked lower than the Academy's other, 2A, sports; the classification is due to the recentness of the program's inception.

In the 2005 season, Pine Castle Christian Academy began a contest with its rival, The First Academy, called the "Showdown for the Scepter." The competition centers around a wood scepter painted in each school's colors (black, maroon, and white for PCCA; blue, yellow, and white for TFA), and symbolizes the two academies' rivalry. Each year, when the two schools face each other, the winner of that game brings the scepter back to its campus. In 2005, The First Academy won the Showdown; in 2006, Pine Castle Christian Academy took back the scepter. The team's head coach is David Langdon.

Volleyball

Beginning in Spring 2007, the Pine Castle will offer a boys volleyball team; previously the academy had only girls volleyball. In 2005, the Pine Castle Christian Academy girls' varsity volleyball team advanced to the Elite Eight and won the District Championship. In 2007 the girls team won districts advanced to the regional semi-fianls and lost to rival Orangewood in 5 games.

Basketball

Both girls' and boys' varsity teams won the Florida state 1A championship in the 2006-2007 season. Girls' won with a 38-37 victory over runner-up Malone High School; boys' finished with a 55-46 victory over The Rock. In the 2005-2006 season, the boys' varsity basketball team finished 25-4, won Districts, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.

Softball

The girls' varsity softball team, in its 2006 season, won the class 1A Florida State Championship. The administration hailed this as a landmark for the academy, as it was the first State Championship won by any PCCA team. In 2007, PCCA repeated as the class 1A Florida softball champion.

Baseball

PCCA's baseball program is coached by former professional baseball player, Joe Oliver. In 2007, the Varsity team won the district for the first time. Despite losing four seniors, and two being key pitchers, they have high hopes for this year, feeling that they need to "follow up" the softball's two state championships, and both of the basketball team's state championships. The Varsity defeated Central Florida Christian in the Distrct Championship, snapping their six year district champs streak. This was emotional not only for that reason, but also because of a minor altercation between the two school's Junoir Varsity teams earlier in the season. The baseball program at Pine Castle has come a long way since Joe Oliver has taken over, going from many consecutive losing seasons to possibly a state berth.

Soccer

Pine Castle Christian Academy's boys' soccer program finished its last season in 2004; in 2005, it was replaced by the football team.

Competitive Improvisational Comedy

PCCA participates in the SAK high school improv league. The team name is "Not of This World" and they took first place in 2006 and second place in 2007. The team captain is currently Jake Link (Member since 2005). The Co-Captain is Lauren Gordon (Member since 2005). Other notable players include A.C. Caracker, Nick Owen, David Banks, and Mark Lee.

Theater Department

Each year, the Pine Castle Christian Academy Theater Department puts on two plays: a drama in The Spring and a comedy in the Fall. Many plays feature a dinner or desert theater. Since Spring of 2006, each play has also had a "Parent PREview Night," which allows relatives of the actors to view a dress rehearsal free of charge.

Pine Castle is also a part of the SAK Comedy Lab high school improv league, started in the 2005-2006 school year. Students meet once per week in the Fall to practice improv games together, then compete in against other schools in the Spring. PCCA won in the league's first season and took second in the 2006-2007 competition.

Although the theater department usually produces pre-existing scripts, PCCA's eighth high school play, Welcome to Justice, was an original play by the academy's drama department head at that time, Dan Buck. The showing of Justice was a test-run and last chance for revisions of the script, before it went into full production in professional theater.

The first theater director/teacher at Pine Castle was Dan Buck. Later in his time there a second director, Tess Card, was also hired. Both left at the end of the 2006-2007 school year. In the fall of 2007, they were replaced by the department's new head, Caroline Burkhard.

List of Plays:

Clubs and Extracurricular Activities