St. John's High School (Massachusetts)

This article is about a school in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. For the similarly named school in Danvers, Massachusetts, see St. John's Preparatory School (Danvers, Massachusetts).

Saint John's High School
Ryken Center
Address
378 Main Street Shrewsbury , (Worcester) , Massachusetts 01545-2299 United States
Coordinates	42°17′33″N71°43′45″W / 42.29250°N 71.72917°W / 42.29250; -71.72917 Coordinates: 42°17′33″N71°43′45″W / 42.29250°N 71.72917°W / 42.29250; -71.72917
Information
Type	Private High school
Motto	Latin: Concordia Res Parvae Crescunt (In Harmony Small Things Grow.)
Religious affiliation(s)	Xaverian Brothers
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Established	September 1898 (1898-09)
CEEB code	222-515
Chairperson	Carl Rapp
Principal	Margaret Granados
Headmaster	Alex Zequeira
Chaplain	Rev. Edward Niccolls '66
Teaching staff	70
Grades	9–12
Gender	Boys
Enrollment	872 (2019-2020)
•  Grade 9	226 (Class of 2023)
•  Grade 10	213 (Class of 2022)
•  Grade 11	225 (Class of 2021)
•  Grade 12	208 (Class of 2020)
Campus	Suburban
Campus size	125 acres (0.51 km2)
Color(s)	Red and White
Athletics	16 interscholastic sports
Athletics conference	Central Mass Conference
Mascot	Pioneer
Nickname	Pioneers
Team name	Pioneers
Rival	St. John’s Prep (Danvers), St Peter-Marion, Shrewsbury High School, Wachusett Regional High School
Accreditation	New England Association of Schools and Colleges [1]
Newspaper	The Red & White
Tuition	$14,825.00
Academic Dean	Dr. John Morse '89, Mrs. Jeanne Depasse
Dean of Students	Mr. Christopher Cowan, Mr. Sean Hastings '87
Athletic Director	Mr. Michael Mead
Website	www.stjohnshigh.org

Saint John's High School is a private Catholic boys' high school located in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester. The school was founded and is currently sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers.

History

The Xaverian Brothers' association with Worcester dates back to September 1893, when a pioneer community of four Xaverians arrived in the city to formally open Saint John's Parish Grammar School for Boys. In 1898 a three-year high school curriculum was introduced. A fourth, or senior year, was added in 1906, when the College of the Holy Cross dropped that institution's college prep or high school senior course to concentrate solely on college-level work.

In November 1953, John Cardinal Wright, who was then Bishop of Worcester, transferred the high school property under the new title of Saint John's Preparatory School of Worcester to the Xaverian Brothers. This event coincided with the centennial celebration of the Brothers' arrival in America in 1854. The school population in 1954 consisted of eleven Brothers and 354 students. The brothers purchased a large acre estate in neighboring Shrewsbury. This acquisition was the first step in the expansion of Saint John's to a regional high school serving all of Worcester County. In 1959, one hundred twenty-five acres at the foot of Main Street hill were purchased, and Pioneer Field came into being. In 1962, all classes had transferred to the Shrewsbury location. A gym and cafeteria were added in 1963 and 1964. ^[2]

From an enrollment of slightly over 410 and a staff consisting of four Brothers, Saint John's has emerged during the last ten decades as a regional, private, catholic, college-preparatory school with a student body of over 1,000. After the January 2008 retirement of Brother Plunket Doherty, there are no longer any Xaverian Brothers on the faculty, which is now composed solely of lay men and women.

Academics

Saint John's is a four-year college preparatory school. Students are tracked into several levels: Advanced Placement, Honors, Level I, and Level II. Along with traditional courses, students are required to take courses in religious studies including an Introduction to Religious Studies, Introduction to Biblical Literature, and Christian Morality and Justice. Seniors are offered religious studies electives such as Bioethics, World Religions, Christian Life, or The Catholic Church in History. Saint John's offers twenty four Advanced Placement courses and each year students take approximately 700 AP exams. In 2007, Saint John's was honored by the Siemens Foundation as the top Math, Science, and Technology AP high school in the state of Massachusetts. St. John's is the top Advanced Placement school of Massachusetts and one of the top AP schools in the nation.

Athletics

Boys' sports
Baseball
Basketball
Crew
Cross country
Football
Golf
Hockey
Indoor track
Lacrosse
Ski
Soccer
Swimming & diving
Tennis
Track & field
Volleyball
Wrestling

The Pioneers baseball team won the 2017 D1A Super 8 State Championship. The baseball team also won the Division 1 State Championship in 1952, 1976, and 2002.

The school's basketball team won the Division 1 State Championship in 2000 and 2009.

The football program won three consecutive Central/Western Mass Super Bowls from 2004-2006. They also won super bowls in 1977, 1985, 1988, 2001, 2009, 2010, and 2017. One highlight to the football season is the annual Thanksgiving football game between Saint John's and rival St. Peter-Marian. The game is held at Fitton Field in Worcester. The St. John's-Saint Peter-Marian football rivalry is the oldest Catholic high school rivalry in the nation. ^[3]

The Saint John's ski team won the 2007 state championship.

The Saint John's golf team won three consecutive state titles from 2005–2007, and two more in 2011-2012.

In 2006, the 4 by 400 meter relay team won both state and New England titles.

In 2016, the 4 by 800 meter relay team placed 6th at New Balance Indoor Nationals, earning All-American status.

In 2017, the 4 by Mile relay team placed 4th at New Balance Indoor Nationals, earning All-American status.

The cross country team captured its first state title in 2017 after finishing as runners-up in 1998, 1999, 2006, and 2015.

The indoor track team won a state title in 1991.

In wrestling, the Pioneers hold several state and New England titles in individual weight classes.

In 2007 Saint John's won the Division 1 soccer state championship for the first time since 2002.

The Saint John's hockey team won a state championship in hockey in 1999 and 2004.

In 2004, the crew team won the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) Championship Regatta. In the mid-1980s St. John’s established itself as a presence in the international rowing world by competing in Ireland and at the Henley Royal Regatta in England, seven times from 1984-1996. They have won the New England team championship, competed in the 2001 and 2006 National Championships and since 1996 been consistently one of the top seven crews in New England. They compete annually in the Head of the Charles in the fall and the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) Championship Regatta in the spring.

Championships

Saint John’s claims 38 state championships.

• Boys' (38)
  • Baseball (4): 1952, 1976, 2002, 2017
  • Basketball (2): 2000, 2009
  • Crew (2): 2001, 2004
  • Cross Country (1): 2017
  • Football (10): 1977, 1985, 1988, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2017
  • Golf (7): 1984, 1986, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012
  • Hockey (2): 1999, 2004
  • Indoor Track (1): 1991
  • Ski (1): 2007
  • Soccer (4): 1985, 2001, 2002, 2007
  • Tennis (4): 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities include academic programs such as the Model United Nations, Policy Debate, Mock Trial, Academic Decathlon, Spanish Club, and Math Team.

There are other activities such as the Cycling Club, Automotive Club, French Club, Strategy Game Club and the Chess Club. Students have opportunities to develop their journalistic and creative writing skills as part of SJ's student-produced publications, the Red and White newspaper and ICON literary magazine. Saint John's has a variety of Intramural sports teams as well.

Through two student-run clubs, the Entrepreneurship club and the Investment Club, students learn the process of starting a new company, developing a business plan, investing and analyzing stocks, and the ins and outs of wall street. St. John's now has an annual business plan competition in which students pitch their plan to a panel of investors with the chance of winning money for their venture.

The St. John's Improv Society is a student-run club which puts on two to three shows per year in the Black Box Theater.

The Drama Club sponsors a number of performances a year, including two plays, a Spring Spectacular variety show and a student-directed play each spring.

Recently the Campus Ministry began a program called "Global Encounter." Similar to a college Alternative Spring Break, this program sends students on national and international service trips during February and April vacations to places such as New Jersey, West Virginia, Haiti, New York City, and Ecuador.

Campus

The Saint John's campus covers the one hundred and twenty-five acre hillside of the former Dunmorlan estate on Main Street in Shrewsbury. Campus facilities include several academic buildings, athletic fields, a chapel, and the Xaverian Brothers' residence.

Academic buildings

The principal academic building is (Brother) Conal Hall. Conal Hall holds all mathematics, English, and religious studies classes, as well as some science, foreign language and history classes. In addition to its classrooms, Conal Hall houses two computer labs, a writing center, a math resource room, an art studio, and administrative offices.

The Ryken Center was built in 1998 as a Library, Performing Arts and Science Center. ^[4] The building was completed in 1998 at a cost of $5.2 million. The Ryken Center houses many of the school's science classes, with the exception of a single laboratory and a classroom used for the study of biology in Conal Hall. The Ryken Center is also home to the Black Box Theatre, the performance center used by the theatre art classes and clubs and host to various performances throughout the year, including productions by the Improv Society. Remillard Hall serves as a meeting and assembly space in the Ryken Center, used as both lecture hall and musical performance stage by students.

Flavian Hall, which was refurbished in 2006, houses the foreign language departments of Spanish and French (Chinese courses are held in Conal Hall) and several social studies classes.

Flavian Hall was demolished over the summer of 2014, and in its place, a new building, Founder's Hall, was built in June 2015. Founder's Hall now houses classrooms for languages, arts, and history. Additionally, along with new classrooms, Founder's hall contains a theatre for plays and performances.

The Coaches Pavilion is the school's gymnasium, which was renovated in 2005 and again in 2007. The floor was renovated in the fall of 2008, 2009, and 2014.

Late 2006 saw the construction of the Salem Student Commons, a new cafeteria and study hall area. During the summer of 2008, Conal hall underwent a major renovation, in which many aspects of the hall were upgraded, most notably: the installation of larger and more energy-efficient windows; the addition of LCD projectors in every room; the replacement of traditional blackboards with whiteboards, as well as the replacement of all lockers, ceilings, and lights; and upgrading the electric and network infrastructure of the campus.

Notable alumni

Politics

• Joseph Early (1951) – former member of the United States Congress
• Peter Blute (1974) – former member of the United States Congress
• Dan Grabauskas (1981) - CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation
• Tim Murray (1986) – former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
• John A. Durkin (1954) - former United States Senator from New Hampshire
• Steve Kerrigan - candidate for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, 2012 CEO of Democratic National Convention, 2013 CEO of Presidential Inaugural Committee
• Matthew Beaton (1996) - Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Business

• John F. Smith Jr. (1956) – former CEO/Chairman General Motors

Media/arts

• Frank O'Hara (1943) – Museum of Modern Art curator; Poet, Meditations in an Emergency, which was featured in Mad Men (there is an episode in season 2 of the television series Mad Men named after the book)
• Charlie Pierce (1971) – sportswriter and columnist for The Boston Globe
• Michael Ritchie (1975) – Artistic Director, Los Angeles Center Theatre Group
• John Dufresne (1965) – author and university professor
• Andrew J. Olmsted (1988) – U.S. Army major and Iraq War correspondent
• Mike Birbiglia (attended for one year) – Comedian, NPR contributor; ^[5] wrote about his freshman year at St. John's in his book Sleepwalk With Me & Other Painfully True Stories

Athletics

Football

• Richard Rodgers (2011) - tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles. On December 3, 2015, Rodgers caught the longest game-winning, game-ending Hail Mary in NFL history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. ^[6]
• Rob Blanchflower (2009) - tight end for Pittsburgh Steelers, 2014–15
• John Andreoli (1978) - played for USFL Boston/New Orleans Breakers

Basketball

• Tom Moore (1983) – Quinnipiac University head men's basketball coach, 2007–17
• Rob Hennigan (2000) - General Manager for NBA's Orlando Magic 2012-17

Baseball

• Ron Darling (1978) – broadcaster, former MLB All-Star pitcher, Gold Glove winner, and World Series champion
• Pat Bourque (1965) – former player for the Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, and Minnesota Twins organizations, 1973 World Series champion
• Tim Lahey (2000) – Phantom ballplayer, was on the Philadelphia Phillies active roster, but never appeared in a game
• Lance Zawadzki (2003) – shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals organization, briefly played for the San Diego Padres
• Brian Abraham - assistant director of player development for the Boston Red Sox, bullpen catcher for 2013 World Series champion Boston Red Sox
• Ryan O'Rourke (2006) - pitcher for the Minnesota Twins
• John Andreoli (2008) - outfielder for the Chicago Cubs organization, played in the Southern League All-Star Game in 2014.

References

1. NEASC-CIS. "NEASC-Commission on Independent Schools". Archived from the original on 2008-06-24. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
2. "Saint John's High School - History".
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
4. "Saint John's High School - Academic Facilities".
5. Corcoran, Lindsay (17 October 2011). "Comedian from Shrewsbury publishes new book, visits home first". The Daily Shewsbury. Linear Publishing. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
6. Demovsky, Rob (4 December 2015). "Richard Rodgers, the perfect answer to Packers' Hail Mary prayer first". ESPN.com. ESPN. Retrieved 4 December 2015.

External links

• School website
• In The News

Template:Central Mass League