Bishop Connolly High School

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Bishop Connolly High School is a co-educational Catholic high school in Fall River, Massachusetts. It currently enrolls approximately 306 students.

Contents 1 Campus and Building 2 Academics 3 Athletics 4 Clubs and Activities 5 President's Message

[edit] Campus and Building

Connolly's campus is approximately 60 acres. The campus is bounded on the north by Langley Street and Bristol Community College. It is bouded to the east and south by Route 24 and President Avenue. To the west it is bounded by Elsbree Street. B.M.C Durfee High School, Fall River's public high school is located directly across Elsbree Street. The campus contains a football field with bleachers and a concession stand, a soccer field, an outdoor track, several tennis courts, a baseball field, a sofball field, and several practice fields.

The main school building is composed of three sections. The activities section contains a 1000 seat gymnasium, an 800 seat auditorium, and 200 seat cafeteria at the far west end. The middle section contains the classrooms and most offices. At the far east end is the former faculty house, which is now the Cardinal Medeiros Residence, a retirement home for diocesan priests. The library is located in a circular building in back of the main building and is connected to the rest of the school by a small breezeway.

[edit] Academics

Bishop Connolly's academic structure is similar to that of most other high schools. There are individual academic departments (i.e. Mathematics, Social Studies), each headed by a department chair. There are approximately 3-5 teachers per department under the department chair. Aside from regular college preparatory classes, Connolly has extensive honors and advanced placement offerings. The average class size is 22 to 25 students. Honors sections average 15 to 18 students, while advanced placement courses tend to number 8 students or less.

Bishop Connolly High School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

[edit] Athletics

Connolly offers 23 different interscholastic sports for boys and girls and 38 separate teams throughout the year. Connolly is a member of The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Associations's Eastern Athletic Conference. The athletic squads are called the Cougars.

During the 1990’s Connolly athletic squads routinely qualified for state tournament play. The hockey program was the first to produce a state championship hockey team from southeastern Massachusetts. The student-athletes have also won state championships in baseball and tennis; as well as state sectional titles in basketball, hockey, baseball, cross country, and tennis.

In 2003 after years of speculation, Connolly fielded its first football team in school history.The first season as a varsity team, Connollys record that year would go to be 1-8. Of course they expected to face hardships as a young program. The next year got a little better as they improved to 3-8. Their third season of varsity football would stay at the record of 3-8. They were certain games such as the seekonk game that season that Connolly probably should have won but for one reason or another lost. For the 2007-2008 season Connolly is looking to co-op with Westport high school for football.

[edit] Clubs and Activities

Students at Bishop Connolly have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of extracurricular activities including:

- Liturgical Committee

- Student Government

- Student Ambassadors

- Theatre Company

- Chorus

- Liturgical Ensemble

- National Honor Society

- Speech and Debate Team

- Math Team

- Mock Trial

- Yearbook

- ROV-Club

- French Honor Society

- Spanish Honor Society

- Portuguese Honor Society

[edit] President's Message

Excerpt from the President's Message:

"...Founded in 1967 by the Society of Jesus, the school maintains the original values and traditions of its Jesuit beginnings.

Long recognized for its excellent academic program, our school also provides extensive offerings in the arts as well as athletics. Serving students from the greater Fall River area and nearby Rhode Island , the Connolly campus is the largest of the four diocesan high schools and comprises over 72 acres. Playing fields, outdoor recreational facilities and environmental field laboratories are all available to our student body..."