Rochester Lourdes High School

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Lourdes High School is a Catholic high school for students in grades 9-12 in Rochester. It is a part of the Rochester Catholic School system [1]and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona.

Contents

[edit] Background

Lourdes High School (LHS) was established in 1910 as Saint John's High School by the "Sisters of Saint Francis of the Third Order Regular of Our Lady of Lourdes", an extension of their all-girls primary school, Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes. The high school was initially for girls only and went coeducational in 1925 when nearby boys-only Heffron High School closed. The school relocated in 1941 and was renamed Lourdes High School. Currently it is seen by some as a top-notch Catholic, college-prep school and thus attracts some non-Catholic students who wish to attend a college-preparatory academic high school in Rochester. Lourdes does not require students to practice catholicism. LHS provides a welcoming environment to all students while being a traditional Catholic school with non-compulsory Mass once a week and Reconciliation available four days a week in the Our Lady of Lourdes chapel. Exposition of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Himself occurs in the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel once each month in the form of the Blessed Sacrament.

[edit] Administration

Dennis L. Nigon, Principal of Lourdes High School from 1987-2007, became President of Rochester Catholic Schools in 2007. Mr. Nigon has 39 years of experience in Catholic high schools, and is in charge of the LBOF project Lourdes Building Our Futureto build a new facility for Lourdes High School. He also works to build endowments and beneficial relationships for the RCS system which includes 5 school sites.

Thomas J. Donlon, is Lourdes High School Principal. Mr. Donlon has 20 years of experience and has taught and worked in administration in two diocese (St. Mary's, Owatonna, MN, Our Lady of Peace, Minneapolis, MN).

Dave Doty, Director of Rochester Catholic Schools, oversees the LHS principal as well as the other 4 administrators of RCS. Mr. Doty has 26 years of experience and has been an administrator in three dioceses and 4 schools (Our Lady of Grace, Edina, MN; John Ireland, Hopkins/Minnetonka, MN; St. Michael, Newark, NY, All Saints, Rochester NY.) In addition to supervision of RCS building principals, Mr. Doty is responsible for the day to day operations of the 5 school sites.

[edit] Academic Performance

Lourdes students averaged a score of 25 on the ACT examination in the 2006-2007 academic year, meaning that the average Lourdes' student scored higher than 81% of national ACT takers. [1]

The Rochester Catholic School website shows that the average LHS students scores significantly higher than other students in the state. Even though Rochester's other three major high schools Century, John Marshall, and Mayo also have exceptional ACT scores, we see LHS students still scoring considerably higher. [2]

Lourdes High School has no additional academic requirements beyond those commonly found at public high schools [3]. Current tuition for the 2008-2009 academic year is $6,445 [4]. There is over $100,000 of scholarship money available to offset tuition. In the past 20 years, no family has been turned away who needed assistance.

[edit] Extra Curricular Activities

Lourdes High School has a number of extra curricular activities, ranging from Chess Club to Yearbook.

[edit] School Newspaper

The Eagle is Lourdes's school student newspaper, published irregularly and with a heavy emphasis on creative works.

[edit] Math League

The Lourdes High School Math League in 2008 won first place in the Hiawatha Division, as well as attending the State Competition on March 12, 2007, taking second place in the Small Schools Division.[citation needed] LHS student, Karl Schaettle, won first place of all high schools in the division for highest individual score. 6 of the top 10 students of all high schools in 2008 were from Lourdes high school. (Post Bulletin, page A4 Feb. 15, 2008)

[edit] Other Activities

Other activities include Drama, Student Council, One Act Play, Color Guard, Film Club, Yearbook, Speech Team, The Cultural Exchange Club, Key Club, Jazz Band, Center Street Singers, Drumline, Chess Club, and Lego Robotics.

[edit] Athletics

In 2006 the Lourdes varsity football team advanced to the semi-finals of the state tournament.[5] The Lourdes varsity Girls Tennis team had won the Minnesota State Championship 10 years in a row, but did not reach the finals in the fall 2007 season due to a clerical error by their coach Kevin Rust. Because of this error, two of the seven games were forfeited and Lourdes lost the match 4-3. The team went on to win the consolation championship, becoming the first girls Tennis team from Lourdes in the last decade to not bring home a state trophy.[2].

[edit] Soccer

1997 was the first year that Lourdes had a boys soccer team. The Lourdes boy soccer team won the Minnesota State Soccer Championship for Class A in 1998 and 1999. In 1995 Tom Kane, the current varsity coach for boys soccer at Lourdes, campaigned heavily for a school sanctioned team and has played exceptional young men, such as Ben Garry (who went on to play at the University of Pittsburgh and as a semi-pro).

The 1998 Boys team (the first out-state Minnesota soccer team to win state) beat LaCresent (4-3), Mankato West (2-0) and Caledonia (2-0 section championship game) on their way to state. At state, Lourdes came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 against Benilde-St. Margaret in overtime in the state quarterfinals. They then proceeded to beat Duluth Marshall 1-0 to claim the championship.[citation needed]

The 2006-2007 season found Lourdes falling to Benilde-St. Margaret's 222-53 in the semi finals and tying Totino-Grace 1-1 for third place.[6]

Lourdes has a girls soccer program led by Sarah Groven (varsity coach and Academic Dean). This program has had teams make it to state but the state championship still has eluded them.

[edit] Coaches

Lourdes has had many successful athletes throughout the years. Myron Glass has had one of the most successful coaching careers in the state of Minnesota, coaching the Girls Varsity Basketball team to the State Tournament 14 times and winning eight. In 2008 he had established the record of winning 600 games in his career as a coach. Mr. Glass is exceptional at teaching his girls how to effectively play basketball while never having played basketball in his undergraduate career. Mike Carol, recently retired, coached for many years at Lourdes and is regarded as one of the best coaches they have ever had.

Hockey

Lourdes has a quality hockey program as well, capturing the Rochester Kiwanis Holiday Tournament Championship in 1998,1999, 2001, and 2005.

More importantly, they have made four state tournament appearances from 2000-2003 and produced over 20 college hockey players, including many DI athletes.

New head coach is Aaron Gill, a Rochester native who was Notre Dame's athlete of the year where he played hockey.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us/rcsinfo/Test_Scores_ACT_Press_Release_LHS_2006.doc
  2. ^ RCS Assessment
  3. ^ Attendance and Admission Guidelines
  4. ^ RCS Tuition Rates and Fees
  5. ^ Official Site of Lourdes High School Football
  6. ^ MaxPreps Lourdes High School Boys Soccer Fall 06-07

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 44°01′25.5″N, 92°28′18″W