Pine Castle Christian Academy
Encyclopedia
Pine Castle Christian Academy (PCCA) is a small Christian
private school
founded in Pine Castle, Florida
, an area that sits on a border between Belle Isle
and Orlando, Florida
. Now independent and non-denominational, the school was founded by Pine Castle United Methodist Church under the name Methodist Country Kindergarten; PCCA has been an K-12 academy
since 1983, when it received its current name.
In 1954, Pine Castle United Methodist Church, founded the school as a ministry exclusively for kindergarten
ers, then called Methodist Country Kindergarten. The kindergarten became an academy in 1983, when the church opened PCCA to first through sixth grade students. Each year after that, it successively introduced one more grade level, until, in 1990, the first senior class graduated.
During the mid 2000s, PCCA grew to over 600 students, about 200 of whom were high schoolers. The academy achieved its first state-level athletic victory in 2006; after three more state titles in the following year, all Pine Castle Christian Academy athletic teams were classified as 2A, except for football, which remained a 1B sport.
During the 2009-2010 school year PCCA was informed that their current facilities were no longer going to be available to them. Instead a public charter school would be renting the facilities and so PCCA had to find new facilities. After searching they found their new facilities which were the former Darden training facilities. A grand opening celebration was held on September 7, 2010 and school started for the 2010-2011 school year on September 8, 2010. Since then they have constructed new softball and football fields on nearby fields to enrich the athletic program.
team, led by coach David Langdon, finished its inaugural 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.
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 PCCA has a girls' volleyball
team and, since Spring 2007, a boys' team as well. 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 and advanced to the regional semi-finals, before losing to Orangewood Christian School.
Both girls' and boys' varsity basketball
teams won the Florida state 1A championship in the 2006-07 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 2005-06 season, the boys' varsity basketball team finished 25-4, won Districts, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
The girls' varsity softball
team, in its 2006 season, won the class 1A Florida State Championship, the first state-level championship won by any PCCA team. In 2007, PCCA repeated its victory as the class 1A Florida softball champion.
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. In 2008, the Varsity won the district championship over TFA, then advanced past Orangewood and TFA again to go to the regional finals, hosted by Providence Christian in Jacksonville. They regional final is a three game set, and the Varsity lost 2 games to 1. Providence went on to win its next two games in the Final Four, ultimately winning the state championship.
Pine Castle Christian Academy's boys' soccer program finished its last season in 2004; in 2005, it was replaced by the football team.
Pine Castle is also a part of the SAK Comedy Lab
high school improv
league, started in the 2005-06 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 2006-07 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 2006-07 school year, and in Fall 2007, they were replaced by the department's new head, Caroline Burkhard.
Caroline Burkhard was replaced in the fall of 2008 by Teri Begin, who directed both the fall and spring productions that year. She left after the end of the 2008-2009 school year and was replaced by a part time director. Teri Begin was the last full time theater department head.
List of Plays:
Spring-2009: Pirates of Penzance
Notes
|-
! Active Groups
|-
| Spanish
Club
|-
| National Honor Society
, Eagle Chapter
|-
| Spanish National Honor Society
|-
| Junior National Honor Society
|-
| Improv Team (with SAK Comedy Lab
)
| Culinary Club
|-
| Student Government
|-
| Band
|-
| Bowling Club
|-
| Art Club
|-
! Discontinued
|-
| German
Club
|-
| Robotics
Club
|-
| Book Club
|}Quill and Scroll
Society
Angler's Society (fishing club)
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
private school
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
founded in Pine Castle, Florida
Pine Castle, Florida
Pine Castle is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, United States. Initially settled in 1870, the town's development has been shaped by that of Orlando, about 5 miles to the north. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, an area that sits on a border between Belle Isle
Belle Isle, Florida
Belle Isle is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,531 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2006, the city had a population of 6,457. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:The area now known as Belle...
and Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
. Now independent and non-denominational, the school was founded by Pine Castle United Methodist Church under the name Methodist Country Kindergarten; PCCA has been an K-12 academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
since 1983, when it received its current name.
History
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
ers, then called Methodist Country Kindergarten. The kindergarten became an academy in 1983, when the church opened PCCA to first through sixth grade students. Each year after that, it successively introduced one more grade level, until, in 1990, the first senior class graduated.
During the mid 2000s, PCCA grew to over 600 students, about 200 of whom were high schoolers. The academy achieved its first state-level athletic victory in 2006; after three more state titles in the following year, all Pine Castle Christian Academy athletic teams were classified as 2A, except for football, which remained a 1B sport.
During the 2009-2010 school year PCCA was informed that their current facilities were no longer going to be available to them. Instead a public charter school would be renting the facilities and so PCCA had to find new facilities. After searching they found their new facilities which were the former Darden training facilities. A grand opening celebration was held on September 7, 2010 and school started for the 2010-2011 school year on September 8, 2010. Since then they have constructed new softball and football fields on nearby fields to enrich the athletic program.
Athletics
Pine Castle Christian Academy's footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team, led by coach David Langdon, finished its inaugural 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.
In the 2005 season, Pine Castle Christian Academy began a contest with its rival, The First Academy
The First Academy
The First Academy is a Christian private school in Orlando, Florida. The school was founded in 1986 and will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2012!...
, called the "Showdown for the Scepter." The competition PCCA has a girls' volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
team and, since Spring 2007, a boys' team as well. 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 and advanced to the regional semi-finals, before losing to Orangewood Christian School.
Both girls' and boys' varsity basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
teams won the Florida state 1A championship in the 2006-07 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 2005-06 season, the boys' varsity basketball team finished 25-4, won Districts, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
The girls' varsity softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
team, in its 2006 season, won the class 1A Florida State Championship, the first state-level championship won by any PCCA team. In 2007, PCCA repeated its victory as the class 1A Florida softball champion.
PCCA's baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
program is coached by former professional baseball player, Joe Oliver
Joe Oliver (baseball player)
Joseph Melton Oliver is a former Major League Baseball catcher.Drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2nd round of the 1983 MLB amateur draft, Oliver would make his Major League Baseball debut with the Cincinnati Reds on July 15, , and appear in his final game on October 6,...
. In 2007, the Varsity team won the district for the first time. In 2008, the Varsity won the district championship over TFA, then advanced past Orangewood and TFA again to go to the regional finals, hosted by Providence Christian in Jacksonville. They regional final is a three game set, and the Varsity lost 2 games to 1. Providence went on to win its next two games in the Final Four, ultimately winning the state championship.
Pine Castle Christian Academy's boys' soccer program finished its last season in 2004; in 2005, it was replaced by the football team.
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
SAK Comedy Lab
SAK Comedy Lab is a 200-seat Improvisational Comedy theater in downtown Orlando, Florida, listed as "one of Orlando's most popular entertainment venues" by and as a family-friendly show by . SAK was the first theater of actor Wayne Brady, who has played in several shows since as a guest...
high school improv
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
league, started in the 2005-06 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 2006-07 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 2006-07 school year, and in Fall 2007, they were replaced by the department's new head, Caroline Burkhard.
Caroline Burkhard was replaced in the fall of 2008 by Teri Begin, who directed both the fall and spring productions that year. She left after the end of the 2008-2009 school year and was replaced by a part time director. Teri Begin was the last full time theater department head.
List of Plays:
| Year | Spring | Fall |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Annie Jr. | (none) |
| 2003 | All My Sons All My Sons All My Sons is a 1947 play by Arthur Miller. The play was twice adapted for film; in 1948, and again in 1987.The play opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1947 and ran for 328 performances... |
The Foreigner The Foreigner (play) The Foreigner is a play by Larry Shue.Set in a resort-style fishing lodge in rural Georgia, the comedy revolves around two of its guests, Englishman Charlie Baker and Staff Sergeant Froggy LeSueur. Charlie is so pathologically shy that he is unable to speak... |
| 2004 | Judgement at Nuremberg | Harvey Harvey (play) Harvey is a 1944 play by American playwright Mary Chase. Produced by Brock Pemberton and directed by Antoinette Perry, the play premiered on 1 November 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre on Broadway where it was staged for 1,775 performances before closing on January 15, 1949. The original production... |
| 2005 | Dial 'M' for Murder Dial M for Murder Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American thriller film adapted from a successful stage play by Frederick Knott, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie was released by the Warner Bros... |
God's Favorite God's Favorite God's Favorite is a play by Neil Simon, loosely based on the Biblical Book of Job. It was produced on Broadway by Emanuel Azenberg in 1974.... |
| 2006 | Welcome to Justice | See How They Run |
| 2007 | The Last Night of Ballyhoo The Last Night of Ballyhoo -Plot:The comedy is set in the upper class German-Jewish community living in Atlanta, Georgia in December 1939. Hitler has recently conquered Poland, Gone with the Wind is about to premiere, and Adolph Freitag and his sister Boo and nieces Lala and Sunny - a Jewish family so highly assimilated... |
The Odd Couple The Odd Couple The Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing and... (female version) |
| 2008 | The Secret Garden The Secret Garden The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was initially published in serial format starting in the autumn of 1910, and was first published in its entirety in 1911. It is now one of Burnett's most popular novels, and is considered to be a classic of English children's... |
Notes
Clubs and organizations
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Active Groups
|-
| Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
Club
|-
| National Honor Society
National Honor Society
The National Honor Society is a recognition program for high school students in grades 10-12 in the United States and in several other countries...
, Eagle Chapter
|-
| Spanish National Honor Society
|-
| Junior National Honor Society
|-
| Improv Team (with SAK Comedy Lab
SAK Comedy Lab
SAK Comedy Lab is a 200-seat Improvisational Comedy theater in downtown Orlando, Florida, listed as "one of Orlando's most popular entertainment venues" by and as a family-friendly show by . SAK was the first theater of actor Wayne Brady, who has played in several shows since as a guest...
)
| Culinary Club
|-
| Student Government
|-
| Band
|-
| Bowling Club
|-
| Art Club
|-
! Discontinued
|-
| German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Club
|-
| Robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
Club
|-
| Book Club
|}Quill and Scroll
Quill and Scroll
Quill and Scroll is an international high school journalism honor society that recognizes and encourages both individual and group achievements in scholastic journalism. According to the Quill and Scroll website, over 14,104 high schools in all 50 U.S. states and 44 countries have established local...
Society
Angler's Society (fishing club)