Washington Catholic Athletic Conference

Last updated

The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) is a major high school athletic league for boys, girls, and co-ed Catholic high schools of the Archdiocese of Washington & Diocese of Arlington Schools located in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The WCAC is regarded as one of the best boys and girls basketball and football conference in the nation, with at least 1 team nationally ranked by USA Today every year. The WCAC also has at least one very strong team in all other sports.

Contents

Members

The conference is known for its nationally renowned Basketball, Football, Lacrosse, Track and Field, Wrestling, Soccer, and Baseball programs.[ citation needed ]It has produced numerous professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB and MLL.

School Archdiocese- Diocese ColorsTeam nameLocationFoundedEnrollment

Archbishop Carroll High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Lions Washington, DC 1951400
Bishop Ireton High School Diocese of Arlington
Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington (recolored).svg

  Cardinals Alexandria, VA 1964800
Bishop McNamara High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Mustangs Forestville, MD 1964870
Bishop O'Connell High School Diocese of Arlington
Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington (recolored).svg

  Knights Arlington, VA 19571,170
Trinitarians - old cross.jpg
DeMatha Catholic High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Stags Hyattsville, MD 1946800
Elizabeth Seton High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Roadrunners Bladensburg, MD 1959570
Gonzaga College High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Eagles Washington, DC 1821970
Our Lady of Good Counsel High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Falcons Olney, MD 19581,200
Academy of the Holy Cross Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Tartans Kensington, MD 1868530
St. Paul VI Catholic High School Diocese of Arlington
Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington (recolored).svg

  Panthers Chantilly, VA 1983957
St. John's College High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Cadets Washington, DC 18511,200
St. Mary's Ryken High School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

   Knights Leonardtown, MD 1885700
The Heights School Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.svg

  Cavaliers Potomac, MD 1969540

Holy Cross and Elizabeth Seton are girls only, while Gonzaga, DeMatha and the Heights are all boys.

Sports

The WCAC sponsors competitions in the following sports:

Football Champions

[1]

Champions
SchoolChampionships
DeMatha24
Archbishop Carroll14
St. John's13
Good Counsel6
Gonzaga4
St. Mary’s Ryken4
Bishop McNamara3
St. Paul VI1

Boys Basketball Champions

[2]

Champions
SchoolChampionships
DeMatha41
Gonzaga8
St. John's4
St. Paul VI4
Carroll3
O'Connell2
McNamara1

Girls Basketball Champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
St. John's13
Good Counsel5
Elizabeth Seton4
St. Paul VI3
Bishop McNamara3
O'Connell1
Holy Cross1

Baseball

Champions
SchoolChampionships
DeMatha24
St. John's15
Good Counsel5
O'Connell3
St. Paul VI4
Carroll2
Gonzaga2

Boys soccer champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
Gonzaga14
DeMatha11
O'Connell8
Good Counsel5
St. Paul VI4
Ireton3
Carroll2
The Heights2
St. John's1
McNamara1

== Boys Lacrosse champions ==

Champions
SchoolChampionships
DeMatha17
Gonzaga14
Bishop Ireton1
St. Mary's Ryken1
St. John's3

Wrestling champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
DeMatha25
Good Counsel9
O'Connell5
St. John’s4
Bishop McNamara2
Carroll1
St. Mary’s Ryken1

Golf champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
Gonzaga14
Dematha14
Good Counsel7
St. Paul VI4
St. John's4
Bishop McNamara3
O'Connell1

Boys Tennis champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
Gonzaga23
Dematha11
O'Connell2
St. John's2
Good Counsel2
Archbishop Carroll1
Bishop Ireton1

Boys Ice Hockey champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
DeMatha4
St. John's3

Boys Swim and Dive Champions

Champions
SchoolChampionships
Gonzaga3

Alumni

Archbishop Carroll

Bishop Ireton

Bishop McNamara

Bishop O'Connell

DeMatha

Gonzaga

Caleb Williams, Current NFL player Olu Fashanu, Current NFL player

Good Counsel

St. Paul VI

St. John's

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Coast Conference</span> College athletics conference

The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of nine member schools across the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gonzaga College High School</span> School in Washington, D.C., United States

Gonzaga College High School is a private Catholic college-preparatory high school for boys in Washington, D.C. Founded by the Jesuits in 1821 as the Washington Seminary, Gonzaga is named in honor of Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian saint from the 16th century. Gonzaga is the oldest boys' high school in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Ignatius College Preparatory</span> School in San Francisco, California

St. Ignatius College Preparatory, colloquially referred to by Bay Area locals as SI, is a private, Catholic preparatory school in the Jesuit tradition, serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1855. Located in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, in the Sunset District of San Francisco, St. Ignatius is one of the oldest secondary schools in the U.S. state of California.

Morgan Bayard Wootten was an American high school basketball coach for 46 seasons at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He led the Stags to five national championships and 33 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) titles. In 2000, he was the third high school coach to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the first high school only coach to be inducted.

St. John's College High School is a Catholic high school in Washington, D.C. Established in 1851, it is the third oldest Christian Brothers school in the United States, and was one of the oldest Army JROTC schools until the program was abolished in 2019 in pursuit of a private "leadership academy" program with no relationship to the United States Armed Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of Good Counsel High School (Maryland)</span> Private, coeducational school in Olney, Maryland

Our Lady of Good Counsel High School is a private, Catholic, college-preparatory high school in Olney, Maryland, an unincorporated area of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop O'Connell High School</span> Catholic high school in Virginia, USA

Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School is a Catholic college preparatory school founded in 1957 in Arlington County, Virginia. It was established by the Diocese of Richmond, but it has been under the direction of the Diocese of Arlington since 1974. The school is named for Bishop Denis J. O'Connell, Bishop of Richmond from 1912 to 1926.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop McNamara High School</span> School in Forestville, Maryland, United States

Bishop McNamara High School(BMHS, McNamara, or Mac) is a private, Catholic coed high school in Forestville CDP in unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland.

St. Mary's Ryken High School, located on an 87-acre (350,000 m2) waterfront campus on Breton Bay, is a coeducational, secondary school sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers. SMR is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools and is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and recognized as an independent, Catholic school by the Archdiocese of Washington and the Maryland State Department of Education.

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.

St. Paul VI Catholic High School is a Catholic college preparatory school in Chantilly, Virginia, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports in Maryland</span>

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.

DeMatha Catholic High School is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States. Named after John of Matha, DeMatha is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burger King Classic</span> Basketball tournament

The Burger King Basketball Classic, formerly known as the McDonald's Classic from 1983 to 2010, is a four-team boys high school basketball invitational tournament held each year since 1983 in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The Trinity League is a high school athletic conference in Southern California, part of the CIF Southern Section. The League is regarded as one of the most competitive high school leagues in the United States. Most famous for football, the Trinity League is extremely competitive in its other sports as well. Baseball, tennis, and water polo players are top recruits and are some of the most talented Division 1 players in the nation. This makes the Trinity League the toughest league in high school sports. For the fall 2023 season, High School Football America rated it the toughest league in the nation, with the top two nationally ranked teams and five out of the six ranked the top 300. In 2021, three of the six programs had been ranked in the top 10 in the country, with five in the top 200.

The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) Boy's lacrosse league in the US began crowning a champion in 1987. The league comprises ten teams from Catholic high schools of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington. The schools are all located in the Washington metropolitan area. Only three teams have won multiple championships since the league's inception - DeMatha Catholic High School (17), Gonzaga College High School (14) and St. John's College High School (3).

References

  1. "50 Years List of WCAC Football Champions". dc.thesportsfannetwork.com. Archived from the original on 2011-12-08. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  2. "Boys Catholic Champions Since 1969" (PDF). www.dematha.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2011-03-15.