Stanstead College is an English-language independent boarding school in Stanstead, Quebec,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, for boys and girls in Grades 7 through 12. The school is located on a campus in Quebec's Eastern Townships – just north of the Canada–United States border – and enrolls approximately 265 students. The school was established in 1872 as Stanstead Wesleyan College. The school was founded as a co-educational school. In 1959 it became 'boys only.' In 1979, the school returned to its original co-educational status.

History

In June 1871, the Wesleyan Conference of Canada selected what was then Stanstead Plain, Quebec, as the location of its new college for the Eastern Townships. Construction of the school began in fall 1872, with official incorporation of Stanstead Wesleyan College taking place on December 24, 1872. First classes were not held, however, until January 1874, with Rev. A. Lee Holmes serving as the first principal. Initially the school was financed through the sale of shares and tuition. However, due to the slow sales of shares and low tuition, the stockholders transferred the property of Stanstead Wesleyan College to the Montreal Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada in December 1876. Association with the Methodist Church of Canada (and later the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

) continued until the 1980s, with the school reincorporating as a fully independent and non-denominational Stanstead College. In addition to providing education to boarding students, Stanstead Wesleyan College served as the local Protestant high school. In 1903, the Holmes Model School was opened, serving as the local grade school until Sunnyside School opened in 1952. The college also operated the Bugbee Business College and the Eastern Townships Conservatory of Music until 1958. In 1938, a fire destroyed the college's main building. Its replacement, Colby House, opened in 1940. During World War II, Stanstead College hosted a number of evacuees from Oldfeld School in Swanage, Dorset. In 1951, Pierce Hall was destroyed by fire. In 1959, Stanstead College became an all-boys residential school and remained so until 1979. In 1977, after Quebec adopted

Bill 101 The ''Charter of the French Language'' (french: link=no, La charte de la langue française), also known in English as Bill 101, Law 101 (''french: link=no, Loi 101''), or Quebec French Preference Law, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada ...

, Stanstead College became fully independent by choosing to no longer accept subsidies from the Quebec government. The decision allowed the school to continue admitting students without certificates of eligibility. In 2001, the school’s Rec Hall was destroyed by fire, replaced eight months later by the new Eric T. Webster Student Centre. Working in collaboration with the Town of Stanstead and with grants from the federal and provincial governments, the college opened the Pat Burns Arena in September 2011. In September 2019, the school opened Cowen House, a co-ed Grade 12 residence, with boys and girls living in separate wings with a shared common area. In the fall of 2022, construction began on a new junior girls residence to accommodate an increased enrolment in younger girls partly due to the addition of a second girls hockey team in 2021. In addition, construction began on a new wellness centre to replace the outdated health centre.

Facilities

There are four residences on campus for boarding students: Davis House (boys Grades 10-11); Webster House (girls Grades 7-11 ); Bugbee House (boys Grades 7-9); and Cowen House (boys and girls Grade 12). Cowen House is a co-ed residence, with boys and girls living in separate wings with a shared common area. It opened in September 2019. The campus also includes the LeBaron Dining Hall, the W. John Mackay Gymnasium, the Amaron Gymnasium, the Pat Burns Arena, Pierce Hall, Holmes Model School, Centenary Church (purchased by the school in 2015), a health centre, a physio clinic, Alumni House, faculty housing, athletic fields and numerous academic facilities.

Athletics

Involvement in the athletics program is mandatory in all three terms for all students, in accordance with their age, ability and interests. The teams of Stanstead College are called the Spartans. Despite being a small school, Stanstead College fields a number of interscholastic teams and has achieved success at the regional, provincial and national level. Fall sports offered include

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

, soccer,

cross-country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

ultimate frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

, co-ed

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. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

, and

outdoor pursuits Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...

. Winter sports include ice hockey,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

and

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

, girls' volleyball, and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. Spring sports include

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

, badminton, volleyball, and track. In 2014, the senior girls' soccer team won the school's first-ever

Canadian Accredited Independent Schools Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS) is a national organization for independent schools in Canada. The current Executive Director is Patti MacDonald. History Canadian Association of Independent Schools The Canadian Association of Independ ...

(CAIS) national tournament title at

Bishop's College School Bishop's College School or BCS is an English-language non-profit independent boarding prep school in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada for students in Grades 7 to 12.Thomson, Ashley; Lafortune, Sylvie (1999). Handbook of Canadian Boarding Schools. To ...

. The senior boys' basketball team won three consecutive Visser Provincial Basketball Tournaments in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The senior girls' basketball team won the MacLeod Provincial Basketball Tournament for the first time ever in 2017, repeating in 2018 and 2019.

Ice hockey

The school also operates an elite varsity ice hockey program for boys and girls. Unique among the other sports at Stanstead College, varsity ice hockey spans two terms, both fall and winter. The boys compete in the

Midwest Prep Hockey League The Midwest Prep Hockey League (abbreviated MPHL) is a highly elite prep school ice hockey league in North America. The Midwest Prep League was founded in 2000; the original six league members were Culver Academies (IN), Gilmour Academy (OH), Lak ...

(MPHL) and the girls compete in the North American Prep Hockey Association – winning their league and playoff championships in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 – and in the

Junior Women's Hockey League The Junior Women's Hockey League is an ice hockey league established in 2007 by Bill Driscoll and Kush Sidhu, coaches of North American Hockey Academy and the Washington Pride, respectively, in order to provide opportunities for young females to d ...

(JWHL). At the

2012 NHL Entry Draft The 2012 NHL Entry Draft was the 50th NHL Entry Draft. The draft was held June 22–23, 2012, at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first time that Pittsburgh hosted the draft since the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. The top thr ...

, Stanstead College senior

Mark Jankowski Mark Jankowski (born September 13, 1994) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre currently playing for the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (N ...

was drafted in the first round, 21st overall, by the

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and ...

. Czech women's national ice hockey team player Michaela Pejzlová attended Stanstead College for two years, during 2014 to 2016.

References

External links