ST FRANCES ACADEMY ATHLETICS | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Address | |
![]() | |
501 East Chase Street , 21202 | |
Coordinates | 39°18′8″N76°36′30″W / 39.30222°N 76.60833°W |
Information | |
Type | Private |
Motto | Providentia Providebit (Providence will provide) |
Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic (Oblate Sisters of Providence) |
Denomination | Catholic |
Established | 1828 |
Founder | Mother Mary Lange, OSP |
Oversight | Oblate Sisters of Providence |
CEEB code | 210185 |
Head of school | Deacon Curtis Turner, Ed.D. |
Teaching staff | 14 |
Grades | 9–12 |
Gender | Coeducational |
Enrollment | 260 |
Average class size | 18 |
Student to teacher ratio | 15:1 |
Campus size | 2.96 acres (1.20 ha) |
Campus type | Urban |
Color(s) | Blue & White Athletics: Black & Gold |
Slogan | "We can. We will. We must." |
Athletics | MIAA, IAAM |
Mascot | Panthers |
Nickname | SFA |
Team name | Panthers |
Rival | Everybody |
Accreditation | Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools [1] |
Yearbook | The Counsellor |
School fees | $0 |
Tuition | $12,400 (2024–25) |
Affiliation | Catholic school |
NCEA School ID | 1026047 |
Website | www |
Saint Frances Academy is an independent Catholic high school in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1828 to educate African-American children, it is the first and oldest continually operating Black Catholic school in the United States.
On June 13, 1828, the Oblate School for Colored Girls opened for its first year at 5 St. Mary's Court in Baltimore's Seton Hill neighborhood, northwest of downtown, near St. Mary's Seminary and College. The seminary was then located on North Paca Street; founded in 1791, it was the first Catholic seminary in the United States. [2] [3] It was established with the mission to teach "children of color to read the Bible". But teaching enslaved children was prohibited by law. [4]
The following year in 1829, the school operated from 610 George Street and then 48 Richmond Street (now West Read Street), a few blocks away. [5] In 1832 the school graduated its first class, with ceremonies.
By 1853, the school changed its name from the Oblate School for Colored Girls to the Saint Frances School for Colored Girls, named after St. Frances of Rome (1384–1440). The title was later shortened to the Saint Frances Academy. [6]
In 1871, the school moved to its current location in inner East Baltimore at 501 East Chase Street. This is now within the Johnston Square neighborhood.
In the 20th century, the school focused on higher grades. It started admitting boys in the 1970s. [7] The school now offers a traditional, co-educational, college-preparatory curriculum for students in grades nine through twelve.
An honors program is available to select students. All students complete a community service component. Independently owned and operated by the Oblates, the school is approved by the Maryland State Department of Education and is accredited by the Commission on Secondary Schools of the regional agency of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
The student population is still predominantly African-American.
In 2012, Camille Cosby, an alumna of a school in Washington run by the Oblates, and her husband Bill Cosby made a donation to assist St. Frances Academy in building a community center in East Baltimore. [8] The community center was originally named after both her and her husband, but his name was removed after the revelation of multiple sexual offenses by him. [9]
In the late 2010s, St. Frances' football program became the subject of controversy in Maryland. After former Gilman School coach Biff Poggi took over as head coach, he began aggressively recruiting talented players from inside and outside Maryland, to a greater degree than other private schools in the state. Within a few seasons, St. Frances became effectively unbeatable by their traditional opponents in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), regularly defeating them by wide margins. [10]
Before 2018 those teams told St. Frances they would no longer play them, citing safety concerns as many of St. Frances' recruits were well outside the typical height and weight range for high school players and more in line with college football teams. Some St. Frances supporters believe the opponents' real motives were racial, since there had been no complaints when predominantly white teams such as Gilman had been similarly successful in earlier seasons. The team won the MIAA championship before the season even started, as those opponents who refused to play had to forfeit their games. The school scheduled intrasquad scrimmages, opponents from as far away as Canada, and road trips to the South for the players' benefit. [10]
Poggi departed the program in July 2021. The St. Frances team continued its winning ways, finishing the following season in the top 5 of MaxPreps ' 10 national rankings. [11]
Loyola Blakefield is a private Catholic, college preparatory school run by the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus in Towson, Maryland and within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It was established in 1852 by the Jesuits as an all-boys school for students from Baltimore, Baltimore County, Harford County, Carroll County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, and Southern Pennsylvania. It enrolls over 900 students in grades six through twelve. The school was originally called Loyola High School when it was established in 1852. The name change occurred when it added a middle school.
Gilman School is an all-boys independent school located in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. There are three school divisions: Lower School, grades pre-kindergarten through five; Middle School, grades six through eight; and Upper School, grades nine through twelve. Founded in 1897 as the Country School for Boys, it was the first country day school in the US. It is named for Daniel Coit Gilman, the first president of Johns Hopkins University and an early supporter of efforts by Anne Galbraith Carey to form an all-boys day school.
Mount Saint Joseph College is a Catholic college preparatory school and secondary school / high school for young men from ninth to twelfth grade sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers and founded in 1876. It is located within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland.
St. Mary's High School is a small, co-educational, college-preparatory Catholic high school located in downtown Annapolis, Maryland. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. St. Mary's is accredited by AdvancED, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and is recognized and approved by the Maryland State Department of Education.
Concordia Preparatory School (CPS) is a co-educational parochial secondary school serving grades 6-12. Originally known as Baltimore Lutheran School, the school is located in Towson, Maryland, United States. CPS is operated by the Baltimore Lutheran High School Association, Inc., an association of Lutheran churches in the Baltimore area.
St. Paul's School for Boys is an Episcopal, coed, private school located in Brooklandville, Maryland. It occupies a 120-acre (0.49 km2) rural campus in the Green Spring Valley Historic District, ten miles (16 km) north of the city of Baltimore in suburban Baltimore County.
Glenelg Country School is a nonsectarian, co-educational independent day school in Howard County, Maryland, adjacent to Columbia, Maryland and between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The School offers a continuous college-preparatory program from age 2 through grade 12. GCS was founded in 1954, enrolling 35 students in grades one through seven. In the fall of 1985, the new Upper School division opened with 10 students. The first class graduated in June 1989. Today, Glenelg Country School enrolls over 750 students.
The Baltimore Catholic League (BCL), locally known as the Catholic League is a competitive basketball association composed of private Catholic high schools in the Baltimore, Maryland geographic area.
The Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSP) is a Catholic women's religious institute founded by Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, and Father James Nicholas Joubert in 1829 in Baltimore, Maryland for the education of girls of African descent. It was the first permanent community of Black Catholic sisters in the United States.
The Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (M.I.A.A.) is a boys' sports conference for private high schools generally located in the Baltimore metropolitan area but extending to various other regions, including the state's mostly rural Eastern Shore. The M.I.A.A. has 27 member schools and offers competition in 17 sports. In most sports, it offers multiple levels of competition, including Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Freshmen-Sophomore teams, and the conference is broken down by separate leagues in each. In addition, members are sorted in accordance to continual performance; categories include 'A', 'B', or 'C' Conferences. Teams of the Association (League) may move up or down according to their performance spanning over the course of a year or so to maintain the competition at appropriate levels. Such levels vary for each sport; a school with a "B-Conference" lacrosse team can have an "A-Conference" soccer team: it all depends on the athletic performance of that particular sport.
The Chicago Catholic League (CCL) is a high school athletic conference based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. All of the schools are part of the Illinois High School Association, the governing body for Illinois scholastic sports. While some of the schools are coeducational institutions, the conference only supports athletics for male teams.
Archbishop Spalding High School is a private, Catholic co-educational high school located in Severn, Maryland, USA. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. Most of its students live in Annapolis, Crownsville, Arnold, Pasadena, Severna Park, Crofton, Millersville, Glen Burnie, or Davidsonville in Anne Arundel County. Some also travel from southern Baltimore County, east Prince George's County and parts of Howard County. Spalding has numerous clubs for student involvement and/or academic competition, including Academic Bowl, Mock Trial, Strategic Gaming, HOPE and a NAIMUN award-winning Model United Nations team. It also has many competitive sports teams, such as rugby, soccer, cheerleading, dance, basketball, softball, american football, ice hockey, baseball, lacrosse, track and cross country. These athletic teams compete in the MIAA and the IAAM Conferences. The school sponsors a highly competitive music program, in which students participate in interstate competitions each year. Archbishop Spalding's mascot is the Cavalier.
The Cardinal Gibbons School, also referred to as Cardinal Gibbons, CG, and most commonly as Gibbons, was a Roman Catholic high school and middle school for boys in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. A private institution for grades 6–12, Gibbons drew its enrollment from the neighborhoods of southwest Baltimore City and the counties surrounding the Baltimore metropolitan area, with some as far away as Harford County, Carroll County, and Frederick County.
Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, all-girls Roman Catholic, independent school in Towson, Maryland. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. Notre Dame Preparatory School is one of Baltimore's oldest Catholic, college preparatory schools for girls. Founded in 1873 by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a teaching order from Germany, Notre Dame Prep is located in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore.
Saint John's Catholic Prep is a private, Roman Catholic, coeducational, college preparatory high school in Buckeystown, Maryland, located just southwest of Frederick City. At the time of its founding in 1829, it was located on Second Street in eastern downtown Frederick. Beginning in 1958 and for 45 years thereafter, the school was housed in the historic "Prospect Hall" mansion, (1787–1803), also just southwest of Frederick. St. John's was the first independent Roman Catholic school in the state of Maryland. It was also the first Roman Catholic secondary school in the state of Maryland.
Maryland has a number of major and minor professional sports franchises. Two National Football League teams play in Maryland, the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore and the Washington Commanders in Prince George's County. The Baltimore Orioles compete as Major League Baseball franchise in Baltimore.
Calvert Hall College High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school for boys, located in Towson, Maryland, United States. The school was established in 1845 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools as a Catholic college preparatory high school for boys. It is the oldest Christian Brothers school in the United States.
Jaelyn Alexander Duncan is an American football offensive tackle for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Maryland and was drafted by the Titans in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL draft.
Jaishawn Barham is an American football linebacker for the Michigan Wolverines. He previously played for the Maryland Terrapins.
Darrian Dalcourt is an American football offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide.