Rochester Lourdes High School

Lourdes High School is a Catholic high school for students in grades 9-12 in Rochester. It is a part of the Rochester Catholic School system [http://www.rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us] and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona.

Background

Lourdes High School (LHS) of Rochester, MN evolved from Saint John's High School which was established in 1910 by the "Sisters of Saint Francis of the Third Order Regular of Our Lady of Lourdes", as an extension of their all-girls school, Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes. This version of the high school was initially for girls only and went coeducational in 1925 when nearby boys-only Heffron High School closed. When the school relocated to its present location on Center Street in 1941 it was renamed Lourdes High School. Currently it is seen by most as a top-notch Catholic, college-prep school and thus attracts a good number of non-Catholic students. Lourdes is non-public, not private and welcomes anyone looking for an excellent Catholi-Christian education in a smaller, family-like environment.

Administration

Dennis L. Nigon, Principal of Lourdes High School from 1987-2007, became President of Rochester Catholic Schools in 2007. Mr. Nigon has 39 years of experience in Catholic high schools, and is in charge of the Lourdes Building Our Future project, to build a new facility for Lourdes High School. He also works to build endowments and relationships for the RCS system which includes 5 school sites.

Thomas J. Donlon, is Lourdes High School Principal. Mr. Donlon has 20 years of experience and has taught and worked in administration in two dioceses (St. Mary's, Owatonna, MN, Our Lady of Peace, Minneapolis, MN).Fact|date=September 2008

Dave Doty, Director of Rochester Catholic Schools, oversees the LHS principal as well as the other 4 administrators of RCS.Mr. Doty has 26 years of experience and has been an administrator in three dioceses and 4 schools (Our Lady of Grace, Edina, MN; John Ireland, Hopkins/Minnetonka, MN; St. Michael, Newark, NY, All Saints, Rochester NY.) In addition to supervision of RCS building principals, Mr. Doty is responsible for the day to day operations of the 5 school sites.Fact|date=September 2008

Academic Performance

LHS uses modular scheduling, students usually having classes in two 40-minute class periods, with each class meeting about four of five days of the school week. Teachers use class time to give instruction and require the bulk of the material and content to be learned on their own, much like would be done in most colleges.Fact|date=September 2008

Lourdes High School has additional academic requirements beyond those commonly found at public high schools, specifically requiring each student to pass 8 semesters of religion classes (any less will almost always result in not graduating) [ [http://www.rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us/html/attendance_and_admission_guide.html Attendance and Admission Guidelines ] ] . Current tuition for the 2008-2009 academic year is $6,445 [ [http://www.rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us/html/rcs_tuition_rates_and_fees.html RCS Tuition Rates and Fees ] ] . There is over $100,000 of scholarship money available to offset tuition.

Lourdes students averaged a score of 25 on the ACT examination in the 2006-2007 academic year, meaning that the average Lourdes' student scored higher than 81% of national ACT takers. [http://www.rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us/rcsinfo/Test_Scores_ACT_Press_Release_LHS_2006.doc]

Extra Curricular Activities

Math League

The Lourdes High School Math League in 2008 won first place in the Hiawatha Division, as well as attending the State Competition on March 12, 2007, taking second place in the Small Schools Division. Fact|date=June 2007 LHS student, Karl Schaettle, won first place of all high schools in the division for highest individual score. 6 of the top 10 students of all high schools in 2008 were from Lourdes high school. (Post Bulletin, page A4 Feb. 15, 2008)

Other Activities

Other activities include Drama, Student Council, Marching Band, One Act Play, Color Guard, Film Club, Yearbook, Speech Team, The Cultural Exchange Club, Key Club, Jazz Band, Center Street Singers, WGI Winter Drumline, Chess Club, and Lego Robotics.

Athletics

In 2006 the Lourdes varsity football team advanced to the semi-finals of the state tournament. [ [http://lhsfootball.com Official Site of Lourdes High School Football ] ] The Lourdes varsity Girls Tennis team had won the Minnesota State Championship 10 years in a row, but did not reach the finals in the fall 2007 season due to a clerical error by their coach Kevin Rust. Because of this error, two of the seven games were forfeited and Lourdes lost the match 4-3. The team went on to win the consolation championship, becoming the first girls Tennis team from Lourdes in the last decade to not bring home a state trophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Minnesota_State_High_School_League_State_Championships_(Fall)#Girls_Tennis] .

occer

1997 was the first year that Lourdes had a boys soccer team.The Lourdes boy soccer team won the Minnesota State Soccer Championship for Class A in 1998 and 1999. In 1995 Tom Kane, the current varsity coach for boys soccer at Lourdes, campaigned heavily for a school sanctioned team and has played exceptional young men, such as Ben Garry (who went on to play at the University of Pittsburgh and as a semi-pro).

The 1998 Boys team (the first out-state Minnesota soccer team to win state) beat LaCresent (4-3), Mankato West (2-0) and Caledonia (2-0 section championship game) on their way to state. At state, Lourdes came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 against Benilde-St. Margaret in overtime in the state quarterfinals. They then proceeded to beat Duluth Marshall 1-0 to claim the championship.Fact|date=August 2007

The 2006-2007 season found Lourdes falling to Benilde-St. Margaret's 222-53 in the semi finals and tying Totino-Grace 1-1 for third place. [ [http://www.trupreps.com/FanPages/Team.mxp/SchoolID-6f94da0d-7dec-4593-bfa0-8546ceb20257/Boys_Varsity_Soccer_Fall_06-07/Minnesota/AreaID-65a1ea00-4f5f-454b-a358-c6d718cebb5f MaxPreps Lourdes High School Boys Soccer Fall 06-07 ] ]

Lourdes has a girls soccer program led by Sarah Groven (varsity coach and Academic Dean). This program has had teams make it to state but the state championship still has eluded them.

Coaches

Lourdes has had many successful athletes throughout the years. Myron Glass has had one of the most successful coaching careers in the state of MinnesotaFact|date=September 2008, coaching the Girls Varsity Basketball team to the State Tournament 14 times and winning eight. In 2008 he had established the record of winning 600 games in his career as a coachFact|date=September 2008.

Hockey

Lourdes has a hockey program, capturing the Rochester Kiwanis Holiday Tournament Championship in 1998,1999, 2001, and 2005.

More importantly, they have made four state tournament appearances from 2000-2003 and produced over 20 college hockey players, including many DI athletes.Fact|date=September 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.rochestercatholicschools.org Official site]
* [http://rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us/html/rcs_assessment.html Rochester Catholic Schools testing facts]
* [http://lhsfootball.com Lourdes High School Football Website]
* [http://www.lhsmusic.org Lourdes Music Dept site]
* [http://www.laacp.org/about.php Official LAACP Website]
* [http://www.lourdesboyssoccer.com Lourdes Boys Soccer Team]
* [http://www.rochester67.com Class of '67 Reunion for Mayo, John Marshall, and Lourdes High Schools]
* [http://classreport.org/usa/mn/rochester/lhs/1983/ Class of '83 Reunion website]