St. Xavier High School (Cincinnati)

Downtown origins

St. Xavier, once a part of Xavier University, traces its history to the Athenaeum at Seventh and Sycamore streets in Downtown Cincinnati. The institute, which included a seminary and lay college, was dedicated by the first bishop of Cincinnati, the Most Rev. Edward D. Fenwick, O.P., on October 17, 1831. It was the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory. Just a week later, the city's first public high school, Woodward College, opened its doors. The Athenaeum stood until 1890, next door to The Catholic Telegraph's printing press.

In 1840, at the behest of Bishop Fenwick, the Society of Jesus began operating the Athenaeum's lay college, which it renamed St. Xavier College, after St. Francis Xavier. The Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) took over the seminary in 1841, and the college was granted a 30-year state charter in 1842. St. Xavier College originally offered six years of integrated primary, secondary, and post-secondary education, in keeping with the Ratio Studiorum and the original Jesuit college in Messina, Sicily, predecessor to the University of Messina. Day schoolers came from all over the city, while boarders hailed from the Deep South, Mexico, and Cuba. School closed on Thursdays and Sundays until 1917. Originally, until 1851, admission was granted to students ages 8 to 16. Later, a tuition-free elementary school division opened to complement the college. In 1844, the school's elementary division opened a boarding school campus in Walnut Hills but was forced to close its doors two years later and return downtown.

In the 1850s, falling enrollment, threat of bankruptcy, and cholera brought about proposals to close the high school division. Jesuit schools had opened in the South, contributing to declining enrollment. The situation was worsened by the local anti-Catholic and Know Nothing sentiment that culminated in the Cincinnati riot of 1853. Beginning the fall of 1854, St. Xavier stopped admitting boarders altogether, becoming a primarily local institute, to reduce the financial burden on its students' families.

On May 7, 1869, St. Xavier's charter was extended in perpetuity by an act of the General Assembly. Later that year, the school began distinguishing between academic and collegiate departments. Three years of high school would be followed by one year each of the humanities, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy.

At the close of the 19th century, St. Xavier's athletic teams competed in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Cincinnati.

Expansion and separation

In 1910, St. Xavier College transitioned to an American-style eight-year program. Some students took typing classes at the St. Xavier Commercial School nearby. On October 1, 1906, another branch campus opened in Walnut Hills. This time, St. Xavier Branch High School or "St. Xavier on the Hill" served first- and second-year high school students. Tuition was $60 downtown and $80 at the suburban location. Classes were held in Walnut Hills until December 1911.

In 1912, the Branch High School moved into the Avondale Athletic Club in North Avondale and became Xavier Academy. On September 10, 1919, Xavier Academy closed as the College of Arts and Sciences moved into its campus. However, science classes remained at the high school downtown, for the time being, as did the evening classes from the Schools of Law, Commerce, and Sociology.

In the late 1920s, St. Xavier High School began competing against Elder, Purcell, and Roger Bacon high schools in baseball, basketball, and football. On October 6, 1931, the four schools founded the Greater Cincinnati League, known today as the Greater Catholic League.

On August 4, 1930, the College became Xavier University, to reflect its transition to the American university model and garner more prestige ahead of its centennial the next year. St. Xavier High School formally split with St. Xavier College in 1934, with Fr. Aloysius J. Diersen, S.J., serving as the High School's first president, but the two schools continued to share resources. Xavier's School of Education conducted practice teaching at St. Xavier. Also, St. Xavier's senior classes studied under Xavier professors in Avondale from 1944 to 1946, to compensate for Xavier's loss of cadets from the Army Air Corps 30th College Training Detachment during World War II.

The Finneytown Hilton

St. Xavier began its move from the original location in downtown Cincinnati in April 1955 when its president, Fr. John J. Benson, S.J., purchased a 62-acre (0.25 km²) plot in Finneytown. In September 1960, St. Xavier High School moved into its newly built facilities, designed by local architect Albert Walters, in unincorporated Springfield Township. At the time, the over $4 million facilities were nicknamed the "Finneytown Hilton". The original high school building was later torn down and is now the site of a parking lot.

In 1965, St. Xavier produced its first three African-American graduates, Phil Cox, Michael Walker, and Peter D. Samples. The same school year, Myron Kilgore was hired as the school's first African-American faculty member.

Since its move away from downtown, St. Xavier has expanded its facilities dramatically. In 1969, the school added a natatorium with a $500,000 Olympic-size swimming pool. St. Xavier's worship space was replaced by Xavier Hall, a multipurpose facility, in 1986. In 1998, a $12.6 million expansion project moved science classes from the basement into a new, three-story wing and added the Holy Companions Chapel and a dedicated intramural gym. During the 2003–04 school year, St. Xavier renovated the football stadium around Ballaban Field, which was built in the late 1960s. Along with the stadium, the school opened a 500-seat theater space, as well as a black box theater, art studios, and renovated music rooms. A new track field replaced the track that once surrounded Ballaban Field. St. Xavier also converted the former Girls' Town of America location across the street into its "South Campus", which includes new baseball and soccer fields.

Academics

As of 2015, St. Xavier has 1,603 enrolled students, the most of any Catholic high school in an area with the nation's second-highest private school attendance rate. Tuition is US$13,320.00 for the 2015–16 school year. According to St. Xavier, tuition is $1,000 less than the cost of educating a student there. During the 2015–16 year, 40% of students are projected to receive an average of $6,000 in financial aid, totaling $3.8 million. The faculty consists of 120 full-time teachers, including six Jesuit priests.

Admissions and demographics

Students apply to St. Xavier High School by taking the High School Placement Test (HSPT) and submitting an elementary school transcript, teacher recommendations, and an enrollment application. Other factors are also taken into account. Approximately 70% of applicants are admitted as freshmen. About a quarter of these students are admitted due to legacy, defined as an alumnus or current student in the applicant's immediate family.

Students come to St. Xavier from throughout Greater Cincinnati, Southeastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. As of 2015, students of color make up 12% of the student body. About 82% are Roman Catholic, while 18% are Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim.

In addition to students from the Greater Cincinnati area, St. Xavier admits students from overseas through various foreign exchange programs, such as American Field Service. In particular, partner school Col·legi Casp–Sagrat Cor de Jesús in Barcelona has sent students to St. Xavier and received them into its batxillerat (baccalaureate) program since 1995.

Curriculum and scheduling

All students at St. Xavier are part of the school's college preparatory program, requiring 23.5 credit units for graduation. The program is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Jesuit Secondary Education Association (of which the school is a member), Ohio Catholic School Accrediting Association, and Ohio Department of Education.

The college preparatory program encompasses a variety of subject areas as part of an emphasis on cura personalis ("well-rounded individuals"). The school offers 25 electives aligned with Advanced Placement curricula:

As a Roman Catholic school, St. Xavier requires all students to study various aspects of religion and theology each year.

St. Xavier students may receive credit for work completed at the school's partners, Canisius-Kolleg Berlin and Xavier University. During the summers of even-numbered years, a Marine Science elective is offered to St. Xavier students at Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii. In partnership with the Confucius Institute at Miami University, St. Xavier opened the region's first Confucius Classroom in 2016 to support its Chinese language program.

The school year is divided into two semesters for grading and course scheduling purposes, but exams are administered quarterly (see Academic term). St. Xavier meets on a traditional, nine-period schedule, in which students attend each class daily, ordinarily from 8:00 am to 3:05 pm.

Since 2011, St. Xavier students have been permitted to use personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones at school under a voluntary bring your own device policy. Beginning with the class of 2018, St. Xavier is phasing in a one to one computing policy in which students are required to own an iPad for use at school.

Recognition and graduation

Each year, a number of St. Xavier students receive honors from standardized testing programs. From 1970 to 2012, 1,000 students were named semifinalists or finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. In 2006, 137 students received Scholar Awards for their high scores on Advanced Placement tests; of them, three were named National AP Scholars, the highest distinction awarded. In addition, 16 were named finalists and 24 named Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program. In 2007, five won the National Merit program's highest distinction. In 2015, 15 reached the semifinalist level. The U.S. Department of Education recognized the school itself as a Blue Ribbon School for the 1983–84 year. In 1984, St. Xavier was one of 60 schools recognized by the Council on American Private Education's Exemplary Private School Recognition Project, which surveyed 358 schools nationwide.

Graduation exercises are held at the Cintas Center in late May. On average, about six percent of students in a given class year leave St. Xavier before graduation. Of those who graduate, 99% enter a four-year university and 82% are admitted into their first choice school. The University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, and Miami University received the most students from the classes of 2008–2012. According to BusinessWeek, nearly a third of the Class of 2004 pursued a major in business. In 2007, St. Xavier published a directory of over 16,000 living alumni, listing "511 living graduates as medical doctors or dentists, 624 as attorneys, and 610 as engineers".

School traditions

The largest of the 35 all-male high schools run by the Society of Jesus in the United States, St. Xavier shares many Jesuit traditions with other secondary institutions run by the order. For example, graduating students are expected to have acquired the five characteristics defined in the "Graduate at Graduation" profile: Open to Growth, Intellectually Competent, Religious, Loving, and Committed to Justice.

The school holds school-wide Masses on holy days of obligation and other important events, as well as optional daily Mass in Holy Companions Chapel at the center of campus.

Ignatian retreats are offered frequently at St. Xavier. Besides class-wide programs held at the Jesuit Spiritual Center in Milford, optional retreats include Knightwatch for sophomores and Kairos, which was introduced in February 1985 for seniors.

Alma mater

St. Xavier's alma mater is adapted from that of another Jesuit high school, St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland; in 1958, St. Ignatius gave St. Xavier permission to adapt the song. St. Xavier modified the final two lines, which refer to the school name and colors. This adaptation is sung after school assemblies, athletic events, and commencement exercises:

Fundraising

St. Xavier's financial aid program benefits from a pair of annual fundraisers, each held annually since 1973. The Walk For X is a 10-kilometer (6.2 mi) student walkathon through Finneytown neighborhoods that preempts classes once a year. The X-Travaganza is a themed dinner auction modeled after that of Loyola Academy in Chicago. It is held in the fall to avoid competing with WCET-TV's Action Auction in the spring.

Campus

St. Xavier's 110-acre (0.4 km²) suburban campus is located to the north and south of West North Bend Road, bounded by the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science to the south, Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway to the north, and residential areas to the east and west.

The school grounds include a wooded walking trail, a mock courtroom, and a school history exhibit. The Fred Middendorf, S.J., Nature Trail runs about a third of a mile (0.54 km) behind the athletic fields. Indoors, the Mock Trial team makes use of a specially built classroom that imitates the layout of a courtroom. Along the school's main hallways, recent student artwork hangs beside the Living Walls project, a graphical timeline accompanying 90 years of class photos. St. Xavier maintains 11 computer labs with over 330 computers available for student use. The school library, named for alumnus and Ohio state representative John D. "Jay" Carroll III, contains 23,000 volumes.

St. Xavier's Finneytown campus features athletic facilities comparable to most colleges, including a new football stadium and a modernized Natatorium which it shares with the Cincinnati Marlins. The Charles H. Keating Sr. Natatorium houses an Olympic-size swimming pool and seats 626. St. Xavier's soccer field was home to the now-defunct Cincinnati Cheetahs professional soccer team during their 1994 season.

The school's most prominent art installation is the sculpture Open End, a 1983 work by Australian sculptor Clement Meadmore.

Athletics

St. Xavier's large athletic program was ranked 13th in the nation in 2008 by Sports Illustrated. The school offers 17 Division I athletic programs – baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, rugby union, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. The teams are members of the Greater Catholic League (GCL). As one of four all-male institutions that participate in the GCL's South Division, St. Xavier competes with nearby Elder, La Salle, and Moeller high schools.

St. Xavier's sports teams were originally nicknamed the "Conquistadors", or "Conquerors". Eventually, the teams came to be known as the Bombers. Competing explanations of the name change credit American success in World War II, "bombs" thrown by George Ratterman to Charley Wolf in football games, and a corruption of the nickname given to Jesuit missionaries in World War II, the "Balmers". Though there is further disagreement over exactly when the move took place, alumni accounts place it sometime in the 1930s or 1940s. The "Bomber" is not represented on the field in costumed form. Instead, the "Blue Monster" – a shaggy, Muppet-like mascot that takes its name from the student cheering section – appears at games wearing a Bomber football jersey.

Bomber games are often broadcast on Waycross Community Media. Football games are simulcast on Fox Sports Radio affiliate WSAI, clear-channel ESPN Radio affiliate WCKY, and iHeartRadio.

As of October 31, 2014, 1,217 St. Xavier students were eligible to participate in OHSAA-sanctioned competitions, placing the school in the AAA boys class from 2015 to 2017. OHSAA bylaws prohibit residents of Kentucky and Indiana from competing. In 1985, a lawsuit was filed against OHSAA on behalf of two St. Xavier students who were residents of Kentucky, claiming that the rule violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the rule.

Swimming and diving

The swimming team, known as the "Aquabombers", has won district, sectional and citywide titles in every year since 1970, capturing 31 Ohio state championships during this span. In 2008, St. Charles Preparatory School of Columbus broke the Aquabombers' nine-year state title streak. The team has earned the distinction of Swimming World Magazine national high school swimming champions in 1973, 1992, 2001, and 2007. From 1988 to 2015, head coach Jim Brower led the Aquabombers to 21 state titles, the most of any men's coach in Ohio high school history. The program produced Swimming World Magazine high school swimmers of the year Joe Hudepohl in 1992 and Jayme Cramer in 2001. Hudepohl was also a member of the United States Olympic Swim Team in 1992 and 1996 and still holds several school, state and national records in swimming. As of 2015, junior Grant House holds a junior world record in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.

Football

In 1999, the Bombers football team appeared on Team Cheerios cereal boxes, alongside St. Ignatius High School, in recognition of the schools' football and community service programs, as well as their records in the National Merit Scholarship Program. On December 3, 2005, under Coach Steve Specht, the Bombers defeated Massillon Washington High School to earn the 2005 state football title, the first in team history, after having finished as state runners-up in 1992, 1998 and 2001. The Bombers ended their season with a perfect record: undefeated in the regular season and the playoffs. For this occasion, the City of Cincinnati declared December 14, 2005 "St. Xavier High School Day". In 2007, the Bombers were rated first or second high school football team nationally in a number of pre-season rankings; the same year, St. Xavier defeated DeMatha Catholic High School in a game nationally televised on ESPN. St. Xavier went on to win their second state championship that year in a 27–0 victory against Mentor High School, as well as the National Prep Poll's mythical national championship. The football program's national exposure continued with losses against Highlands High School on CSTV in 2009 and against Our Lady of Good Counsel High School the next year on ESPN. Specht won the 2013 Don Shula NFL High School Coach of the Year Award and joined the USA Football board of directors later that year. Saint Xavier won its third football state championship on December 2, 2016, defeating St. Ignatius High School, 27-20, in double-overtime. With the win, the Bombers became the first Ohio high school football team to win a state championship after losing five games during the regular season.

As of 2016, the Bombers are one of 15 football teams in the U.S. that wear GPS-based activity trackers developed by Catapult Sports to prevent injuries.

Basketball

St. Xavier won the state basketball championship in 2000 and finished as runners-up in the 2005 and 2007 state basketball tournament. The Cross Country team has also enjoyed a great deal of success, winning Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) championships in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2012, and 2013 as well as runner-up finishes in 1999 and 2009. The team has been one of the most consistent teams in Ohio, having qualified to the OHSAA State Championship Race 28 of the past 29 years since 1987.

Championship titles

As of November 2016, the Bombers have won 53 boys team Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) state titles, 2nd most by a single school in Ohio. Unless otherwise noted, the titles listed below were won at the Division I level.

St. Xavier's OHSAA-sponsored titles are:

Additionally, St. Xavier students have won state titles for singles or doubles Division I tennis in 1946, 1947, 2002, and 2006.

St. Xavier's non-OHSAA state titles include:

Non-state championship titles include:

The arts

St. Xavier's arts program is centered around three disciplines: performing arts (drama), visual arts, and musical arts. The drama and music disciplines are supplemented by a number of extracurricular programs.

Theatre Xavier

St. Xavier's co-ed drama group, Theatre Xavier (TX), organizes a drama or comedy each fall, a comedy each spring, and sometimes a smaller January production. St. Xavier students perform alongside students from a dozen public and Catholic high schools throughout the region. Of the 200–225 participants annually, 65%–70% are male. TX performs in the Walter C. Deye, S.J., Performance Center, a 510-seat thrust stage theater space whose size rivals many college theaters. It opened in 2004 as the St. Xavier Performance Center as part of a new fine arts wing.

TX was directed by performing arts teacher Michele Mascari from 1982 to 2015. It participated in the Cappies of Greater Cincinnati from the awards program's founding in February 2002 through 2012. During that time, TX consistently led the city with 80 awards, including five for Best Musical and one for Best Play. Since 2013, TX has participated in The League of High School Theatres along with Anderson, Indian Hill, and Sycamore high schools.

Musical groups

St. Xavier sponsors a variety of musical programs, ranging from the marching band to a liturgical music group. The Marching Bombers perform at varsity football games. The drumline's two trademark cadences are "Stroker Style", played while marching into the stadium, and "Jungle Groove", played while exiting. A subset of the marching band also performs at varsity basketball games as the Pep Band.

Off the field, many St. Xavier students participate in musical groups that primarily perform at school concerts and national competitions. The jazz ensemble, known as Out of the Blue, is considered the St. Xavier select band. The wind ensemble consists of over 100 members. The string ensemble consists of two groups: Chamber Blues, made of bowed instruments, and a larger group called Men in Black that includes guitars.

Community service

In 1974, St. Xavier became one of the first Cincinnati-area high schools to incorporate service-learning into the curriculum, in response to Jesuit Superior-General Pedro Arrupe's call to "form men for others". Community service at St. Xavier is voluntary, in contrast to mandatory service hours at other area Catholic schools. Seventy-five to eighty percent of the student body voluntarily participates in community service programs.

The school's largest community service program is an Advent canned food drive, organized annually since 1926. Each year, students collect hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and delivers them directly to hundreds of families as well as to food pantries in Greater Cincinnati and rural Appalachia.

Student publications

The Blueprint, the school's student-run paper, is published monthly. Until 2007, the Blueprint was a member of the National Scholastic Press Association. It replaced the Xavier Prep, which was published until at least the 1940s. After a brief online stint in 1996, the Blueprint returned to the Internet in 2010.

The school's other two student publications are X-Ray, the annual yearbook, and Xpressions, a student literary magazine founded in 1964.

Other clubs

Notable alumni

St. Xavier collectively refers to its graduates as the "Long Blue Line", after the school colors and the blue attire worn at graduation. The school's living graduates number over 18,000, as of 2013. Many St. Xavier alumni are well-known figures in the Cincinnati area, and many others have gained recognition nationally and abroad as well. The following list includes those who completed the high school program at St. Xavier College between 1869 and 1934:

Notable faculty and staff

Other notable people