Lafayette Central Catholic Jr/Sr High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (August 2007)

Location
Lafayette Central Catholic
Lafayette, Indiana
Information
Principal	Mr. Dennis Musial
Students	338^[1]
Type	Catholic, Private
Motto	He Shepherds, We Shape, They Shine
Mascot	Knights
Color(s)	Navy Blue and White
Established	1956
Homepage	www.lcss.org

Lafayette Central Catholic Jr/Sr High School (often referred to as CC, LCC, or Lafayette Catholic) is a Roman Catholic high school located on the south side of Lafayette, Indiana, which lies 65 miles northwest of Indianapolis. The school was founded in 1956 under the direction and guidance of Bishop John George Bennett of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana.

The current enrollment is close to 400 students. Grades seven and eight, the junior high, occupy their own wing of the school. Central Catholic is the first Catholic high school in the diocese and draws most of its students from the six local parishes, although some students come from parishes outside of the county. The vast majority of Central Catholic students come from the three Catholic elementary schools, St. Mary, St. Boniface, and St. Lawrence. 95% of the student body is Catholic.

Central Catholic has a high number of students that graduate with degrees beyond the state's core 40 requirement; at least one-fifth of the students have graduated with the Indiana Academic Honors Diploma (AHD) over the past two years. Only one out of 220 students graduated with the Standard Diploma (STD). This may be in large part due to the characteristics of the school community and the city of Lafayette which creates a good environment for high school institutions:

The presence of Purdue University and Ivy Tech not only populate the county with highly educated citizens, but may also keep the community focused on the value of education.

The local economy, dominated by Purdue and a growing high-tech sector, needs a highly-educated workforce, thus forcing area schools to have high academic standards.

The competition from local schools also demands high academic standards. For Central Catholic to survive and flourish, families must be willing to give up a free education in exceptional public schools to send their children to a private school with tuition costs.

Central Catholic has a high college attendance rate—89% over the past four graduating classes.

[edit] Athletics

Central Catholic has a long tradition in the IHSAA and is a member of the Hoosier Heartland Athletic Conference along with Rossville, Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Tri-Central, and Carroll. The Knights have had much success in class sports, most notably in boys basketball when the state switched to the class system in 1998, and more recently in baseball where they have been a state finalist 5 out of the last 6 years. As of 2008, no other Indiana Class A school has experienced as much athletic success as Central Catholic.

Central Catholic Champions

Baseball

Sectional Champs: 1991, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007

Regional Champs: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007

Semi State Champs: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007

State Finalist: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007

State Champions: 2004, 2007

Boys Basketball

Sectional Champs: 1973, 1987, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Regional Champs: 1973, 1987, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008

Semi State Champs: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003

State Runner-Up: 1999