Loyola Blakefield

Loyola Blakefield, formerly Loyola High School, is a Catholic, college preparatory school established by the Society of Jesus, to educate boys. Loyola Blakefield is located in Towson, Maryland within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Students from Baltimore County, Baltimore, Harford County, Carroll County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County and Southern Pennsylvania attend the school. There are over nine hundred students today at Loyola Blakefield in grades six through twelve.

History

In 1843, Archbishop Francis Kenrick asked the Jesuits to oversee the formation of a school for laymen that would incorporate the Jesuit standards of excellence and build new men conscious of a religious purpose. His request was prompted by the 1852 closure of nearby St. Mary's College. Construction of Loyola High School began on Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland in early 1852, and on September 15, 1852, the school enrolled its first students.

In the early 1930s the growing and cramped high school began to look toward moving north of the city. In 1933, with the support of the Blake family, Loyola purchased the land known today as Blakefield in Towson, Maryland. In 1941, the students moved to the new campus. Between 1981 and 1988, a Middle School was gradually introduced, and in recognition of the two levels of education, Loyola High School officially became known as Loyola Blakefield.

Physical improvements in recent years have included the construction of Knott Hall which houses the student commons and dining hall, athletic center, and alumni areas, the Burk Hall academic wing, the renovations to the 60-year-old science laboratories, and the construction of an additional section to Wheeler Hall.

Bradley M. Kuhn, an alumnus of Loyola Blakefield who is a well-known activist in the free software movement, has written of his experiences of violent bullying by other students at Loyola Blakefield during the 1980s. Kuhn describes an atmosphere of appeasement of bullying by John M. Stewart, then the Loyola Blakefield school official in charge of discipline of students (later Dean of Students). Kuhn asserts that Stewart had a "willful ignorance" policy towards bullying that was motivated in part by Stewart's own corruption.^[2]

In 2001 the Rev. Kenneth J. Martin, who was a lay teacher at Loyola Blakefield in the 1970s, pleaded guilty to having sexually abused a Loyola Blakefield student during 1977-1980.^[3][4]

In 2010 anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled on the locker of a Loyola Blakefield ninth grader.^[5]

Loyola Blakefield has a tradition of honoring alumni from 50 years earlier at its graduation ceremony. "Bring back the men from 50 years before to see a new generation graduate," writes James Maliszewski, whose grandfather died a year before they could have attended together as 1937 and 1987 graduates.^[6]

Academics

Among Catholic schools in Baltimore, Loyola Blakefield is highest-ranked in terms of its average graduating SAT scores, number of National Merit Finalists, AP exams taken, and other metrics of success. Loyola students frequently attend leading universities in the United States. Some alumni have gone on to earn additional academic honors such as the Rhodes Scholarship.

While the curriculum, emphasizing liberal arts and holistic development, is standard for all students, there is increasing flexibility in course selection as one moves from the sixth through the twelfth grades. Some extremely popular electives include Visual Arts, Classical Languages, History of Music, and a wide variety of AP courses.

The Loyola Forensics team, which was led by English instructor Tom Durkin and is currently led by Science teacher Charles Donovan, was the champion of the National Catholic Forensic League in 2005 and 2010. The team has also garnered great success on the state and district levels- having captured the state title for the majority of the past two decades and the Chesapeake District title in 2011.

Athletics

Loyola Blakefield competes in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) for all interscholastic sports; in addition to the MIAA, the basketball team is also a member of the Baltimore Catholic League.

The Loyola Blakefield football team also plays every Thanksgiving Day in one of the oldest continual national Catholic high school football rivalries against cross-town rival Calvert Hall College. The game, known as the Turkey Bowl, is held at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The game is broadcast on television and radio by WMAR-TV.

The Loyola lacrosse program is among the school's most recognized. The lacrosse team won eight championships in the 1980s and recently won championships in 2001, 2007, 2008 and 2013. In 2007, they defeated Boys' Latin 10-6 in the MIAA championship game. In 2008, they defeated previously undefeated Gilman 12-11 in the championship game at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium in front of over 8,000 spectators. Loyola has produced numerous players who have continued on to play collegiate lacrosse, including National Lacrosse Hall of Famer John Stewart, and Peter Kimmel. Current teaching staff include recent alumni Matt Pinto and Tim Sullivan.

The soccer program won the Maryland Championship in 2001, 2012 and 2014 and has produced Division I talent. Loyola soccer is currently coached by Lee Tschantret, a former longtime player in the Major Indoor Soccer League who won several championships with the Baltimore Blast.

The Loyola basketball program^[7] reached regional prominence in the 1970s when it was led by head coach Jerry Savage, who won over 600 games from 1969 to 2003. He produced several Division I players. Savage also coached the 1997 MIAA Championship team, the last championship of any sort for the Dons basketball program. Loyola has been in the most Baltimore Catholic League finals with 13 total and 6 championships. More recently, the program had several disappointing seasons and experienced a four-year period with four different head coaches. Currently, Josh Davalli, a former All-Metro player at Cardinal Gibbons in the mid-90's, serves as varsity head coach while also teaching in the Middle School.

Loyola were MIAA champions in rugby for three consecutive years from 2008 to 2010.^[8]

Cross country running and Track and field have recently gotten a turn in the spotlight, with some of the best athletes in the United States for high school.

Notable alumni

• Tom Clancy, author
• Jim McKay, Emmy-winning Olympic sports caster and host of the Wide World of Sports
• Ephraim Francis Baldwin, architect for B&O Railroad.
• J. Joseph Curran, Jr., former Attorney General of Maryland
• Nathaniel Fick, former USMC captain and author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
• Jason La Canfora, NFL Network analyst
• Brendan Hines, actor in Fox's Lie to Me.^[9]
• James Cardinal Stafford, Apostolic Penitentiary, former President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and former Archbishop of Denver
• Thomas F. Monteleone, author
• Bruce McGonnigal, former National Football League player
• Carl Stokes, member of the Baltimore City Council
• Bill Stromberg, College Football Hall of Fame wide receiver
• Bradley M. Kuhn, free software activist
• John Moag, former head of the Maryland Stadium Authority, was instrumental in bringing NFL football back to Baltimore^[10]
• Steele Stanwick University of Virginia lacrosse player, recipient of the Tewaaraton Award.
• Chris Stover, John Weiffenbach, and John Finnegan of the legendary hardcore band Void (band)^[11]
• Akira Fitzgerald, North American Soccer League player
• Mike Lookingland, Baltimore Blast soccer player
• Terence Garvin, current National Football League player for the Pittsburgh Steelers

See also

• List of Jesuit secondary schools in the United States
• National Catholic Educational Association
• Parochial school

References

External links

• Jesuit Secondary Education Association
• Loyola Blakefield Homepage
• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore

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