Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School (Courtice)

History

The Holy Trinity is the Relational Matrix of Life "create, love, act". This school's name honours the prominent place of the Holy Trinity in the Christian faith.

The school was founded in 2002 and has been located at its current site since 2002.

CASA

Holy Trinity is home to a Centre for Autism Spectrum Assistance program (CASA). The program works with autistic children and uses dedicated teachers, specially designed classrooms and a Snoezelen room. The program supports 12 students.

Athletic programs

Holy Trinity has won several championships since opening in sports such as football, basketball, soccer, hockey, and have had students earn medals in wrestling. The Senior Girls' Basketball team has made two consecutive appearances in the provincial championships (2005, 2006). Senior Boys' (2005, 2009) and Senior Girls' (2007) Soccer teams have also made appearances in the provincial championships. The school is home to the 2007 'AA' LOSSA Junior Girls', Senior Girls' and Junior Boys' Soccer champions.

Senior

Football has been played at Holy Trinity since 2004, when the school started with a junior team only. Senior started the following year in 2005.

Under head coach Fred Zinkie, the senior team finished the 2005 season 1-6 with its only win vs Courtice Secondary School. Although a losing season, it was the first for the senior team, and the team and coaching staff were not deterred.

One year later, Holy Trinity finished with a 4-2 regular season, qualifying for the LOSSA playoffs in only their second year of existence. They faced a then strong Dunbarton, where they lost 42-13. However, this was a vast improvement from the year before, and laid the path for team that would become one of the strongest and most consistent in LOSSA.

As the seasons went on, the team moved up the rankings. In 2008, the senior team captured first place in the Tier 1 Hiron Division with a 5-1 record. As a note, this was reached due to a technical win against Pickering High School, who fielded an ineligible player in the season opener. However, the senior team played in its first LOSSA Final, losing to a very strong Donald A. Wilson. This started a rivalry that would last for years.

In 2009, the senior team went undefeated during the regular season with a 6-0 record. Eastdale was defeated 46-7 in the quarter finals. Rival Wilson was the opponent in the semi final with home field advantage. Holy Trinity was leading until the last minutes of the game, when Wilson would score to move ahead 20-15, denying Holy Trinity to return to the LOSSA Final. The rivalry with Wilson grew stronger.

In 2010, the senior team had another good regular season. The last regular season game was against Wilson, where Holy Trinity lost a close 25-21 game. However, the team still qualified for the LOSSA playoffs. During the semi final vs St. Mary on their home field, Holy Trinity came back from a 27-28 deficit to win 29-28 with two rouges from punter Tyler Ganhao in the final minutes of the game. The team would move to the final vs Wilson, who had defeated Pickering 15-0 in the other semi final. In the LOSSA Championship on November 13th at Clarington Fields, the two rivals were locked in a back and forth final game. With only 47 seconds left in the 4th quarter, Holy Trinity scored with a Stephen Thompson touchdown and a Joe Mastromarco single point to go ahead 33-31. However, Wilson was not to be counted out. At the start of the drive in their end, a late hit on the Wilson quarterback by Akil Goodridge after a successful long pass put Wilson in field goal range with only 5 seconds on the clock. Surprisingly, Chivon Gallagher, one of Wilson's best players, missed the field goal attempt wide to gain only the single point, ending with a 33-32 victory for Holy Trinity over its bitter rival Wilson in the school's first LOSSA championship. The team would go on to defeat first Upper Canada College in the Metro Bowl semi final, and then dominating the King City Lions 28-3 at the Roger's Centre in Toronto for the team's first Metro Bowl Championship.

The rivalry with Wilson continued into the 2011 season. Tier one this season consisted of only four teams: Holy Trinity, Donald A. Wilson, Pickering and St. Mary. All were very good teams ensuring that there would be no easy games. Holy Trinity would lose its first two games. First to Pickering 28-13, and then to Wilson 49-28. With a 15-7 win vs St. Mary, Holy Trinity had to face Pickering in the semi finals. The team beat Pickering 21-13, and Wilson beat St. Mary 55-14. Holy Trinity and Wilson would meet in the final once again. The game remained extremely close, with the half time score 1-0 for Wilson. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Holy Trinity was leading 7-4. However, Wilson would score two touchdowns and a field goal to pull ahead. Holy Trinity had a late game touchdown, but it was not enough and was defeated 18-7.

The 2012 season was almost a repeat of the previous, with only four teams in Tier one: Holy Trinity, Wilson, Pickering and Paul Dwyer (St. Mary had moved to Tier two and Dwyer had moved up). Holy Trinity would lose to Wilson 34-24 in the season opener, and then again to Paul Dwyer 35-30. The Dwyer game was their Homecoming game on Saturday, September 29th. Holy Trinity was leading 30-11 with only 2:32 left in the 4th quarter. Incredibly, Paul Dwyer successfully completed three consecutive onside kicks and touchdowns in less than one minute of game time to win the game 35-30. Holy Trinity would avenge the loss beating Paul Dwyer 30-7 later in the season. With two wins also against Pickering, and a win against Wilson 14-9, Holy Trinity would face Paul Dwyer again in the semi final. Holy Trinity quickly fell behind in the 1st quarter, and hopes of moving to the final were waning. However, Holy Trinity scored 20 unanswered points to finish the game with a narrow 28-27 victory. They would again face Wilson, who had beat Pickering 32-6. In the final, Wilson would score three unanswered touchdowns in the 1st quarter. Holy Trinity came back in the 2nd quarter with two touchdowns and a field goal, but again it wasn't enough and again lost to Wilson 42-20 in the LOSSA final.

The 2013 season saw all teams in one tier again. Holy Trinity opened with wins against Eastdale, Paul Dwyer, and Ajax. They would then lose the next two, first 20-8 vs St. Mary, and then 13-7 vs Pickering. Holy Trinity finished the regular season with a sound 21-0 win over former rival Wilson to move to the LOSSA playoffs. In the semi final, Holy Trinity beat Pickering 17-6 to face St. Mary, who had beat Dwyer 35-14. It was again another very close LOSSA final, with Holy Trinity trailing 28-20 late in the 4th quarter. As a last hope, Holy Trinity had the ball on the St. Mary 1-yard line, but was unsuccessful in two attempts to score with the possibility of tying the game and going to overtime. Holy Trinity would lost in the championship again, but this time to St. Mary, who would go on to beat Westgate from Thunder Bay in the OFSAA Bowl.

The 2014 season was the first time that Holy Trinity did not make it to the LOSSA Senior Final since 2010. Holy Trinity finished with a 4-2 regular season. They would beat St. Mary in the quarter final, but then lose to Pickering in the semi final. Pickering would go on to lose to Dwyer in the LOSSA Final. This would be the last year that Fred Zinkie would be the Holy Trinity Senior football coach.

In 2015, Holy Trinity would finish with a perfect 6-0 regular season. The most memorable game was the regular season final vs Paul Dwyer in the tail end of the hurricane that hit the area. Under heavy winds and rain, Holy Trinity would defeat last year's champions Paul Dywer in overtime. However, they met again in the LOSSA Final. Holy Trinity gained a healthy lead early in the game, but Dwyer would crawl back to tie the game in the 4th quarter. A last minute rouge attempt to pull ahead for the win was unsuccessful, so overtime was again required. Dywer would score first in overtime, and Holy Trinity could not respond. Holy Trinity would again finish second in LOSSA for the 5th time.

Junior

The Junior Football team captured first place in the LOSSA Tier I Hiron Division in 2008, carrying a 5-1 record. They advanced to the Championship game, but failed in their attempt to capture the first LOSSA Junior Football title for the school. They earned a berth into the Ontario Regional Junior Football Championship playdowns, where they travelled to Blessed Trinity Catholic Secondary School in Grimsby four days after losing in the LOSSA Championship. The team also went down to defeat in this game, ending the longest and most successful Junior Football season in school history.

Other extra-curricular programs

The school offers a variety of non-athletic programs including dramatic, musical, academic, and social justice clubs. The Holy Trinity drama department puts on a performance every year.

Holy Trinity has a Student Cabinet, elected each spring, that has donated over $100 000 to the community since its inception. The HT Student Cabinet led a Terry Fox Foundation fundraising campaign in September 2010, setting a school fundraising record of over $30 000.

Holy Trinity has a student-teacher-run program named Trinity Earth that raises awareness of environmental issues.