St. Joseph Notre Dame High School
Encyclopedia
St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California
is a coeducational Roman Catholic high school. It is one of the few Catholic high schools in the world to possess an on-campus minor basilica
, the Basilica of St. Joseph, Alameda
. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and by the Western Catholic Educational Association. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland
.
founded an academy for girls, grades one through twelve, on a plot of land on the corner of Chestnut Street and San Jose Avenue in Alameda. San Francisco Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan, erected Saint Joseph's Parish in 1885, Father Michael McNaboe served as first pastor. Father McNaboe died in 1892, succeeded by Father John J. Sullivan. Father Patrick A. Foley served as pastor, 1898 to 1913. The Notre Dame Academy educated the young women of Alameda.
The fourth pastor, Father James Bernard Praught opened Saint Joseph Elementary School in 1916 for the boys and girls of the parish. In 1922, Notre Dame Academy is renamed Notre Dame Girls High School. Saint Joseph's Boys High School was founded in 1935 by Father Praught and Father Joseph Tetzlaff, provincial of the Brothers of Mary (Marianists) on the same city block as Saint Joseph's Church, Saint Joseph's Elementary School and Notre Dame Girls High School. Father Robert J. O'Conner succeeded Father Praught as fifth pastor in 1943. O' Connor's untimely death came in 1957.
In late 1957, San Francisco Archbishop John J. Mitty appointed Monsignor Alvin P. Wagner the sixth pastor. Msgr. Wagner, in 1960, demolished the antiquated girls high school and built a new Saint Joseph's Notre Dame High School for girls. He erected the Gymnasium/Auditorium in 1964. The Brothers of Mary (Marianists) departed in 1970. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur stayed with the elementary and high schools until 1997. In 1972, Pope Paul VI
honored Monsignor Wagner and the people of the parish by making the church a minor basilica, renamed Saint Joseph Basilica
.
In 1983, Msgr. Wagner retired. Oakland Bishop John Stephen Cummins
plans were set in motion to no longer staff the parish with diocesan priests. Cummins invited the Fathers of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart. The new pastor, Father Patrick A. Goodwin, SSCC decided to consolidate the two schools. These plans were completed in 1985 with the consolidation of the two single-sex schools into the coeducational St. Joseph Notre Dame High School. In 2007, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary decided to leave Saint Joseph's Community. Oakland Bishop Allen Vigneron returned the parish to the diocesan priests. The Bishop named as pastor in August, 2008 Father Fred Riccio.
Brother Herman Keck, S.M. 1942-1947
Brother Joseph Becker, S.M. 1947-1951
Father Thomas Hogan, S.M. 1951-1957
Brother Roland Hinger, S.M. 1957-1959
Brother Elmer Dunsky, S.M. 1959-1963
Brother Robert Nunes, S.M. 1963-1966
Brother Richard Britton, S.M. 1966-1967
Brother Stanley Murokami, S.M. 1967-1969
Mr. Anthony V. Aiello, 1969-1985
Sources: 1935-1960, St. Joseph Parish 1960 Diamond Jubliee Book; 1963-1985, SJHS Alumni.
, basketball
, crew
, cross country
, golf
, soccer, softball
, swimming
, tennis
, track and field
, and volleyball
. The school does not field a football team.
Despite being a small school, SJND has a reputation as a basketball powerhouse, having won four California Interscholastic Federation
(CIF) State Championships, a modern-era record for a Northern California school. Most notably, SJND won two Boys' Division I state titles, despite having a student body less than half the size of virtually all CIF Division I schools, defeating Fremont High School
of Los Angeles in 1991 and Mater Dei High School
of Santa Ana
in 1992. SJND reached the Boys' CIF Division I Finals two more times in 1997 & 1998, losing to Crenshaw High School
and Westchester High School
, respectively. In 2004, SJND won the Boys' Division IV Championship against Verbum Dei High School
of Los Angeles, 49-47. Most recently, SJND won the 2011 Boys' Division V State Championship against St. Bernard High School
of Playa Del Rey, 47-44. SJND also appeared in the 2009 Boys' Division V Finals, losing to Windward High School
of Los Angeles, 69-53. Former players include Cal
and NBA star Jason Kidd
'92, UCLA standout Ray Young
'98, Stanford standout Justin Davis
'99, UCSB star player Alex Harris '04, and Joe Nelson
'93 who is now a pitcher for the Florida Marlins
.
In men's tennis, St. Joseph Notre Dame won three BSAL Singles Championships in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The men's volleyball team enjoyed similar success as they captured three successive BSAL titles from 2006-2008.
St. Joseph Notre Dame's mascot is the Pilot, in reference to the now-closed Naval Air Station Alameda
.
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
is a coeducational Roman Catholic high school. It is one of the few Catholic high schools in the world to possess an on-campus minor basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
, the Basilica of St. Joseph, Alameda
Basilica of St. Joseph, Alameda
-Origins:The Basilica of St. Joseph is a Catholic church located in Alameda, California at 1109 Chestnut Street. Its history dates back to early settlement of the City of Alameda, California. The foundation of St. Joepsh's can be traced to Catholic mission in Alameda, created in 1873 by San...
. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and by the Western Catholic Educational Association. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland
Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Northern California. The diocese comprises Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area...
.
History
In 1881, at the invitation of Father William Gleeson, pastor of St. Anthony Church in Brooklyn, (East Oakland), five Sisters of Notre Dame de NamurSisters of Notre Dame de Namur
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, is the name of a Roman Catholic order of religious sisters, dedicated to providing education to the poor.The order was founded in Amiens in 1803, but the opposition of the local bishop to missions outside his diocese led to the moving of headquarters to then...
founded an academy for girls, grades one through twelve, on a plot of land on the corner of Chestnut Street and San Jose Avenue in Alameda. San Francisco Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan, erected Saint Joseph's Parish in 1885, Father Michael McNaboe served as first pastor. Father McNaboe died in 1892, succeeded by Father John J. Sullivan. Father Patrick A. Foley served as pastor, 1898 to 1913. The Notre Dame Academy educated the young women of Alameda.
The fourth pastor, Father James Bernard Praught opened Saint Joseph Elementary School in 1916 for the boys and girls of the parish. In 1922, Notre Dame Academy is renamed Notre Dame Girls High School. Saint Joseph's Boys High School was founded in 1935 by Father Praught and Father Joseph Tetzlaff, provincial of the Brothers of Mary (Marianists) on the same city block as Saint Joseph's Church, Saint Joseph's Elementary School and Notre Dame Girls High School. Father Robert J. O'Conner succeeded Father Praught as fifth pastor in 1943. O' Connor's untimely death came in 1957.
In late 1957, San Francisco Archbishop John J. Mitty appointed Monsignor Alvin P. Wagner the sixth pastor. Msgr. Wagner, in 1960, demolished the antiquated girls high school and built a new Saint Joseph's Notre Dame High School for girls. He erected the Gymnasium/Auditorium in 1964. The Brothers of Mary (Marianists) departed in 1970. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur stayed with the elementary and high schools until 1997. In 1972, Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
honored Monsignor Wagner and the people of the parish by making the church a minor basilica, renamed Saint Joseph Basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
.
In 1983, Msgr. Wagner retired. Oakland Bishop John Stephen Cummins
John Stephen Cummins
John Stephen Cummins is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Oakland from 1977 to 2003.-Early life and education:...
plans were set in motion to no longer staff the parish with diocesan priests. Cummins invited the Fathers of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart. The new pastor, Father Patrick A. Goodwin, SSCC decided to consolidate the two schools. These plans were completed in 1985 with the consolidation of the two single-sex schools into the coeducational St. Joseph Notre Dame High School. In 2007, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary decided to leave Saint Joseph's Community. Oakland Bishop Allen Vigneron returned the parish to the diocesan priests. The Bishop named as pastor in August, 2008 Father Fred Riccio.
Students
SJND enrolls 405 young men and women in grades 9 through 12. SJND students come from over 27 public, independent and Catholic schools. Close to 40 percent of the students live in Alameda, 35 percent live in Oakland, 20 percent live in San Leandro and the remaining students live throughout the East Bay.Curriculum
St. Joseph Notre Dame has a college preparatory curriculum. The school offers honors level courses in English, Math, Science, and Foreign Language and offers Advanced Placement courses in U.S. History, English Literature & Composition, American Government & Politics, Calculus AB, Physics, Biology, Spanish Language, Spanish Literature, French Language, and Art Studio. St. Joseph Notre Dame implemented a block scheduling system in 2006. One hundred percent of the senior class of 2008 were accepted to and enrolled in college.Principals of the Boys High School, 1935--1985
Brother Matthew Betz, S.M. 1935-1941Brother Herman Keck, S.M. 1942-1947
Brother Joseph Becker, S.M. 1947-1951
Father Thomas Hogan, S.M. 1951-1957
Brother Roland Hinger, S.M. 1957-1959
Brother Elmer Dunsky, S.M. 1959-1963
Brother Robert Nunes, S.M. 1963-1966
Brother Richard Britton, S.M. 1966-1967
Brother Stanley Murokami, S.M. 1967-1969
Mr. Anthony V. Aiello, 1969-1985
Sources: 1935-1960, St. Joseph Parish 1960 Diamond Jubliee Book; 1963-1985, SJHS Alumni.
Athletics
St. Joseph Notre Dame offers interscholastic sports teams in baseballBaseball
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...
, 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...
, crew
Crew
A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard...
, 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, 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...
, 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...
, 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 does not field a football team.
Despite being a small school, SJND has a reputation as a basketball powerhouse, having won four California Interscholastic Federation
California Interscholastic Federation
The California Interscholastic Federation is the governing body for high school sports in the state of California. It mirrors similar governing bodies in other states; however, it differs from some of the others in that it covers most high schools in the state of California, both public and...
(CIF) State Championships, a modern-era record for a Northern California school. Most notably, SJND won two Boys' Division I state titles, despite having a student body less than half the size of virtually all CIF Division I schools, defeating Fremont High School
John C. Fremont High School
John C. Fremont Senior High School is a Title 1 co-educational public high school located in Los Angeles, California, United States.Fremont is in a region known as South Los Angeles...
of Los Angeles in 1991 and Mater Dei High School
Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California)
Mater Dei High School is a private, Catholic, co-educational secondary school in Santa Ana, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. With an enrollment of 2,100 students Mater Dei High School is one of the largest Catholic high schools in the United States...
of Santa Ana
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
in 1992. SJND reached the Boys' CIF Division I Finals two more times in 1997 & 1998, losing to Crenshaw High School
Crenshaw High School
Crenshaw High School is a secondary school located in South Los Angeles, California.The school first opened in 1968 and currently enrolls an average of 2,600 students. Its address is 5010 11th Avenue, near the corner of 50th Street. The school colors are blue and gold, and its mascot is the...
and Westchester High School
Westchester High School (Los Angeles)
Westchester High School is a public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Local District 3.It is located in Westchester , USA, a suburban neighborhood adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport and bordered by Playa Vista to the north, Inglewood to the east, El Segundo to the...
, respectively. In 2004, SJND won the Boys' Division IV Championship against Verbum Dei High School
Verbum Dei High School
Verbum Dei High School, colloquially referred to as "the Verb", is an all-male Catholic high school combining college-preparatory academic courses and immersion in corporate work environments. It is operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles with the sponsorship of the of the...
of Los Angeles, 49-47. Most recently, SJND won the 2011 Boys' Division V State Championship against St. Bernard High School
St. Bernard High School (Los Angeles, California)
St. Bernard High School is a four-year coeducational Catholic high school located in Playa Del Rey, California, which is in the West Los Angeles area...
of Playa Del Rey, 47-44. SJND also appeared in the 2009 Boys' Division V Finals, losing to Windward High School
Windward High School
Windward High School is the newest of three public high schools of the Ferndale School District , in Ferndale, Washington. Windward is part of the Small Schools Project, funded in part by a grant from the Gates Foundation, which seeks to establish small intimate learning environments within...
of Los Angeles, 69-53. Former players include Cal
Cal
Cal may refer to:* CAL Actor Language, a dataflow language used within MPEG Reconfigurable Video Coding group to describe MPEG video decoders* Client Access License, a proprietary software license distributed by software companies such as Microsoft to allow clients to connect to its server software...
and NBA star Jason Kidd
Jason Kidd
Jason Frederick Kidd is an American professional basketball point guard who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Raised in Oakland, California, Kidd played college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley and was drafted second overall by the Dallas...
'92, UCLA standout Ray Young
Ray Young
Ray Young is the name of:* Ray Young , vice president of International Operations at General Motors* Ray Young , former member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly...
'98, Stanford standout Justin Davis
Justin Davis
Justin Davis is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.-Playing career:Davis began playing junior hockey with the Hamilton Kilty B's of the OPJHL before joining the major junior Ontario Hockey League . He played with the Kingston Frontenacs, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Ottawa 67's...
'99, UCSB star player Alex Harris '04, and Joe Nelson
Joe Nelson
Joseph George Nelson is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher who is currently a free agent. He is known mainly for his "Vulcan" change up.-High school:...
'93 who is now a pitcher for the Florida Marlins
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are a professional baseball team based in Miami, Florida, United States. Established in 1993 as an expansion franchise called the Florida Marlins, the Marlins are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Marlins played their home games at...
.
In men's tennis, St. Joseph Notre Dame won three BSAL Singles Championships in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The men's volleyball team enjoyed similar success as they captured three successive BSAL titles from 2006-2008.
St. Joseph Notre Dame's mascot is the Pilot, in reference to the now-closed Naval Air Station Alameda
Naval Air Station Alameda
Naval Air Station Alameda was a United States Navy Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay.NAS Alameda had two runways: 07-25 and 13-31...
.
Notable alumni
- Barry Reed, novelist, author of The Verdict later a movie starring Paul Newman
- Jason KiddJason KiddJason Frederick Kidd is an American professional basketball point guard who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Raised in Oakland, California, Kidd played college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley and was drafted second overall by the Dallas...
, professional basketball player - Don PerataDon PerataDon Richard Perata is a California Democratic politician, who was President pro tempore of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008. He came in second place in the November 2010 ballot for Mayor of Oakland...
, teacher and politician - Mark CurryMark Curry (actor)Mark G. Curry is an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the star of the ABC sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and as one of the various hosts of the syndicated series It's Showtime at the Apollo.-Early life and education:...
, comedian/actor, star of the popular 1990s television show Hangin' with Mr. CooperHangin' with Mr. CooperHangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with... - Joe NelsonJoe NelsonJoseph George Nelson is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher who is currently a free agent. He is known mainly for his "Vulcan" change up.-High school:...
, Florida Marlins pitcher