Marian Catholic High School
Encyclopedia
Marian Catholic High School is a co-educational, college preparatory secondary school
in Chicago Heights, Illinois
. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
.
The Dominican
Sisters of Springfield, Illinois agreed to oversee and staff the new school in 1955. Ground breaking occurred on January 6, 1957, and opened in September, 1958. The school was dedicated by Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer on January 11, 1959.
In September, 1961, the first group of seniors preparing to graduate stood at 165, but the incoming freshman class was 450. The initial staff of six nuns was now at 18, and had outgrown the capacity of their convent in nearby Homewood
. The Dominican Sisters also added on a new convent to the school to accommodate the growing staff. Without a male religious order to sponsor the male school, plans were eventually dropped to build the second school. Mobile classrooms were brought in to help with the overcrowding.
In 1970, the Sisters and the Archdiocese reached an agreement that would leave the sisters as the sole sponsors of the school, while the Archdiocese committed more money to build an addition. While the Archdiocese did not cover all of the needed additions, over the intervening years the school continued to raise money and make needed additions and renovations.
The address of the school and convent was 666 Ashland Avenue until the city changed the address to 700 in the autumn of 1991 following requests from the administrators.
The school received some criticism over tuition payment issues in March 2009, with an article appearing in the Chicago Tribune
and various local media outlets. 100 students who were late on their fees, causing a $450,000 hole in the budget, were temporarily sent home from the school. Most quickly returned to class after working out payment plans with Marian. The Chicago Tribune was charged with bad reporting by many parents, who felt that many vital facts were not accurately represented in the initial article.
and participates in state tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association
.
The school sponsors interscholastic sports teams for both men and women in basketball
, cross country
, golf
, soccer, tennis
, track and field
, and volleyball
. The school sponsors baseball
, football
, and wrestling
for men, while sponsoring cheerleading
, softball
, water polo
, and swimming
and diving
for women.
While not sponsored by the IHSA, Marian Catholic also sponsors interscholastic teams for men and women in lacrosse
and fencing
. The men's lacrosse team competes in the West Suburban Conference, while the women compete in the Southwest Suburban Conference. The fencing teams compete as a part of the Great Lakes High School Fencing Conference.
The following teams have placed in the top four of their respective state tournament sponsored by the IHSA:
. In 1991, the concert band received the Sudler Flag of Honor, another international award given for outstanding concert performance. Marian Catholic is one of only ten schools in the world (as of 2008) to have received both awards.
The Marian Catholic Band has won seven Bands of America
Grand National Championships and five Bands of America Summer National Championships, the most of any band, as well as holding the record for most consecutive Finals appearances. The Band also has won their class in the Illinois State Marching Band competition consecutively since 1980, a 30 year feat unmatched by any other Illinois High School Association
program - band or otherwise.
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in Chicago Heights, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
The Archdiocese of Chicago was established as a diocese in 1843 and as an Archdiocese in 1880. It serves more than 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties in Northeastern Illinois, a geographic area of 1,411 square miles. The Archdiocese is divided into six vicariates and 31 deaneries...
.
History
In 1949, after making a request to Samuel Stritch, Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, a priest at St. Agnes parish in Chicago Heights was given permission to purchase land and begin raising funds for the construction of a coed high school. By 1951 enough capital had been raised to hire a local architect to design the building. The Cardinal then mandated that there were to be two cooperative schools, one for women and one for men, each to be run by a religious order. The new plan called for the first school to accept coed classes until the boys school was ready, about four years after the school for women was open.The Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
Sisters of Springfield, Illinois agreed to oversee and staff the new school in 1955. Ground breaking occurred on January 6, 1957, and opened in September, 1958. The school was dedicated by Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer on January 11, 1959.
In September, 1961, the first group of seniors preparing to graduate stood at 165, but the incoming freshman class was 450. The initial staff of six nuns was now at 18, and had outgrown the capacity of their convent in nearby Homewood
Homewood, Illinois
Homewood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,543 at the 2000 census. Homewood is a sister city to Homewood, Alabama.- Geography :...
. The Dominican Sisters also added on a new convent to the school to accommodate the growing staff. Without a male religious order to sponsor the male school, plans were eventually dropped to build the second school. Mobile classrooms were brought in to help with the overcrowding.
In 1970, the Sisters and the Archdiocese reached an agreement that would leave the sisters as the sole sponsors of the school, while the Archdiocese committed more money to build an addition. While the Archdiocese did not cover all of the needed additions, over the intervening years the school continued to raise money and make needed additions and renovations.
The address of the school and convent was 666 Ashland Avenue until the city changed the address to 700 in the autumn of 1991 following requests from the administrators.
The school received some criticism over tuition payment issues in March 2009, with an article appearing in the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
and various local media outlets. 100 students who were late on their fees, causing a $450,000 hole in the budget, were temporarily sent home from the school. Most quickly returned to class after working out payment plans with Marian. The Chicago Tribune was charged with bad reporting by many parents, who felt that many vital facts were not accurately represented in the initial article.
Athletics
Marian Catholic is a member of the East Suburban Catholic ConferenceEast Suburban Catholic Conference
The East Suburban Catholic Conference is an athletic conference consisting of 13 Catholic high schools in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois . The conference became independent in 1974....
and participates in state tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association is one of 521 state high school associations in the United States, designed to regulate competition in most interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High...
.
The school sponsors interscholastic sports teams for both men and women in 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...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, soccer, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, and 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...
. The school sponsors 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...
, football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
, and wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
for men, while sponsoring cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
, 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...
, water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, and swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
for women.
While not sponsored by the IHSA, Marian Catholic also sponsors interscholastic teams for men and women in lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
and fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
. The men's lacrosse team competes in the West Suburban Conference, while the women compete in the Southwest Suburban Conference. The fencing teams compete as a part of the Great Lakes High School Fencing Conference.
The following teams have placed in the top four of their respective state tournament sponsored by the IHSA:
- Football •• 2nd place (1999—2000); State Champion (1993—94)
- Woman's Basketball •• 4th place (2003—04); 3rd place (2006—07); 2nd place (2001—02)
- Woman's Golf •• 4th place (2006—07); 3rd place (2007—08); 2nd place (2005—06)
- Softball •• 4th place (1986—87); 3rd place (1984—85)
Band program
The Marian Catholic Band is, to date, the only marching band in Illinois to receive the Sudler Shield, "an international award recognizing high school, youth, and international marching bands of world class excellence" from the John Philip Sousa FoundationJohn Philip Sousa Foundation
The John Philip Sousa Foundation is a non-profit foundation dedicated to the promotion of band music internationally. The foundation administers a number of projects and awards supporting high quality band performance, conducting, and composition....
. In 1991, the concert band received the Sudler Flag of Honor, another international award given for outstanding concert performance. Marian Catholic is one of only ten schools in the world (as of 2008) to have received both awards.
The Marian Catholic Band has won seven Bands of America
Bands of America
Bands of America , a division of Music for All, Inc., is an organization that promotes and organizes marching band competitions for high school students. Competitions include both Regional and Super Regional Championships as well as the Grand National Championships...
Grand National Championships and five Bands of America Summer National Championships, the most of any band, as well as holding the record for most consecutive Finals appearances. The Band also has won their class in the Illinois State Marching Band competition consecutively since 1980, a 30 year feat unmatched by any other Illinois High School Association
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association is one of 521 state high school associations in the United States, designed to regulate competition in most interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High...
program - band or otherwise.
Alumni
- Colin EgglesfieldColin EgglesfieldColin Egglesfield is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal as Dr. Josh Madden in the long-running soap opera All My Children, as well as Auggie Kirkpatrick in The CW's short-lived teen drama Melrose Place....
(class of 1991) is a professional actor, best known for playing Joshua Madden on the soap operaSoap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
All My ChildrenAll My ChildrenAll My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
. - Rodney HarrisonRodney HarrisonRodney Scott Harrison is a retired professional football player of the National Football League. Harrison played safety for the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots...
(class of 1991) is an NFL defensive back who played for the San Diego ChargersSan Diego ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
& New England PatriotsNew England PatriotsThe New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
(Super Bowl XXXVIIISuper Bowl XXXVIIISuper Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game played on February 1, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas to decide the National Football League champion following the 2003 regular season....
& XXXIXSuper Bowl XXXIXSuper Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played on February 6, 2005, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, to decide the National Football League champion following the 2004 regular season...
). - John HolecekJohn HolecekJohn Francis Holecek is a former professional American football player who played linebacker for eight seasons for the Buffalo Bills, the San Diego Chargers, and the Atlanta Falcons. After retiring, he returned to Illinois to coach high school football at Loyola Academy, a private college...
(class of 1990) was an NFL linebacker for the Buffalo BillsBuffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and San Diego ChargersSan Diego ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. - Mike PriorMike PriorMichael Robert Prior , is a former American professional football player who was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 7th round of the 1985 NFL Draft. A 6'0",...
(class of 1981) was an NFL defensive back for the Indianapolis ColtsIndianapolis ColtsThe Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
, Tampa Bay BuccaneersTampa Bay BuccaneersThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
, & Green Bay PackersGreen Bay PackersThe Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
(Super Bowl XXXISuper Bowl XXXISuper Bowl XXXI was an American football game played on January 26, 1997, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1996 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American...
). - Shonda RhimesShonda RhimesShonda Rhimes is an American screenwriter, director and producer. Rhimes is best known as the creator, head writer, and executive producer of acclaimed television series Grey's Anatomy and its spin-off Private Practice. In May 2007, Rhimes was named one of Time magazine's 100 Time 100 people who...
(class of 1987) is the creator of the TV show Grey's AnatomyGrey's AnatomyGrey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
and Private Practice.
Faculty
- James Conroyd MartinJames Conroyd MartinJames Conroyd Martin is an American historical fiction author and teacher.-Personal: received his bachelor degree from Saint Ambrose University and received a Master of Arts in English literature from DePaul University...
is the author of Push not the RiverPush not the RiverPush Not the River is a historical romance novel by author James Conroyd Martin. The setting takes place in Poland in the times leading up to and during the 1792 Partition of Poland. It is based on the unpublished diary of Countess Anna Maria Berezowska....
and its sequel Against a Crimson Sky.