Shrine Catholic High School

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Shrine Catholic High School
Established	1941
Type	Private co-ed secondary
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
President	Msgr. William Easton
Principal	Mrs. Gabrielle Erken
Students	306
Grades	9–12
Location	Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
Colors	Blue and Gold
Mascot	Knights
Website	[1]

Shrine Catholic High School is a private, co-educational, Roman Catholic secondary high school located in Royal Oak, Michigan, affiliated with National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. It has an attached middle school called the "Academy". Originally founded as an all-girls school in the late 1930s as "Little Flower High," the parish added the all-boys school "Shrine High School," eventually merging the two.

Father Charles Coughlin helped establish the institution while serving as one of the first Roman Catholic priests to preach to a widespread audience over the medium of radio during the Great Depression. His program became increasingly anti-semitic as World War II approached, bringing national attention to the parish and the Catholic Church finally pulled him off the air. The school maintained the title "Shrine of the Little Flower High School" into the 1960s, when it became "Shrine High School" until its latest name change in 2001.

The school was originally more than double its current enrollment of approximately 300 students in the 1960s and 1970s, but changed circumstances in the metropolitan Detroit area coupled with higher admissions standards steadily reduced enrollment over the decades. Principal Thomas P. Kirkwood led the school for 40 years before his recent retirement.

Shrine offers several Advanced Placement courses, including Calculus and English, World History and US History, and prides itself in requiring four years of religion courses for all students. Shrine has a National Honor Society chapter and honors seniors annually through Phi Beta Kappa. The student body is a majority Catholic, but a substantial minority of Protestants and believers of other faiths also attend. Additionally, it is ethnically diverse, reflecting roughly the composite of the metropolitan region.

Annual tuition (2006-'07) for parishioners $6450, and for non-parishioners $8550. (In 2007-'08 that is $6850/$9050.)

[edit] Athletics

Shrine participates in the Michigan High School Athletic Association and is a member of the Catholic High School League in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.

Its American football team won the Class CD League Championship in 2000 and 2001, and won the league's Charity Bowl in 1970. Its baseball team performed well 2003, led by pitcher Dan Kapala, who was drafted by the Seattle Mariners and now pitches for the University of Notre Dame.

Shrine women's volleyball has won the last four Class CD League Championships.

Shrine's other sports include men's and women's basketball, bowling, cross-country, men's golf, men's hockey, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, and track.

Shrine looks forward to its first year of having a men's varsity hockey team, in the 2008-2009 school year, after 3 years as a club team. This will be the second time the school will have a varsity hockey program with the first being in the early 1960s.

The school's most notable rivals in terms of athletics are Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights, Michigan, Cabrini High School in Allen Park, Michigan, Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes in Waterford, Michigan and Notre Dame Prep in Pontiac, Michigan.

[edit] Alumni

Kristen Bell, 1998 - actress best known for her title-role on the television series Veronica Mars, who also performed for Shrine High School's Department for the Performing Arts in a variety of roles
Alan Gillespie, 1993 - former actor in the touring company of Miss Saigon
Patrick Guarino, 2000 - video game developer for World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions, Left Field Productions
Dan Kapala, 2003 - pitcher, University of Notre Dame, 2003 draft pick for the Seattle Mariners, 2007 draft pick for the New York Yankees
Keegan-Michael Key, 1989 - actor and comedian best known for his comedy sketches on MADtv
Kevin Bell, 1989 - p/k/a DJ Head Grammy Award Winning producer and DJ best known for his music production for Eminem
Tom Lewand, 1987 - executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Detroit Lions
Robert Morgan, 1963 - defense attorney, named the top lawyer in eastern Michigan by the district's Federal Bar Association in 1988, who successfully defended Chris Webber's father against perjury charges
John Riley, 1981 - opera/musical theatre performer