St. Xavier High School (Louisville)

Infobox Private School
name = Saint Xavier High School


motto = Numen Lumen (“Let God be our light.”)
established = 1864
type = Private, All-male, college preparatory
religion = Roman Catholic Xaverian Brothers
head_name = President
head = Dr. Perry E. Sangalli
Principal = Brother Edward Driscoll
streetaddress = 1609 Poplar Level Road
city = Louisville
state = KY
zipcode = 40217
country = USA
campus = Urban, 72 acres, 6 buildings
enrollment = 1407
faculty = 122
class = 24
ratio = 12:1
year = 2006
SAT = 585 Critical Reading
594 Math
592 Writing
Students taking SAT II's as well scored:
713 Critical Reading
707 Math
694 Writing
ACT = 24
athletics = 10 KHSAA Sports
4 Club Sports
Intramurals
colors = Green █ and
Gold █
mascot = Tigers
conference = Kentucky High School Athletic Association
homepage = [http://www.saintx.com/ www.saintx.com]
|

St. Xavier High School is a Xaverian Brothers sponsored school in Louisville, Kentucky. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville. St. Xavier, also known as St. X, was founded in 1864 by Br. Paul Van Gerwen, C.F.X.ref|founder The school currently resides on Poplar Level Road and is known for its excellence in both academics and athletics. St. Xavier has received the Blue Ribbon of Excellence Award three times. St. Xavier is currently renovating the school grounds with Project X, an initiative to raise $28 million for new academic and athletic facilities. As of June 30, 2008, over $25.4 million had been raised.

Athletics

St. Xavier is the only school in Kentucky to have won a state championship in every Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA)-sanctioned sport for boys. St. X has the most successful athletic program in Kentucky, having won 133 boys' state championships. In 2005, St. Xavier was ranked #14 in "Sports Illustrated" "Best High School Athletic Programs". The swim team, The Tiger Sharks, have won twenty consecutive state swimming championships, their 44th swimming title overall which is a national record. The annual football game with traditional rival Trinity at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium is the most-attended annual regular-season high school football game in the country, typically drawing over 35,000 fans. The largest crowd was 38,500 and the 2007 edition of the game had an announced attendance of 37,550. The St. X powerlifting team has won five consecutive National Titles at the USA Powerlifting Teenage National Championships. Likewise the dominance continues for the Tigers on the links as they have been the power of the South in golf. They have won the McDonalds Tournament of Champions national event multiple times and sent numerous golfers on to NCAA Division I colleges such as Kentucky, Louisville, Wake Forest, Clemson, Cornell, Tennessee, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma State, and Ohio State.

Project X has already completed a new tennis facility, complete with concessions and seating for 300 spectators, a new baseball stadium and a new 6,100 seat football stadium, complete with two private suites, an 8-lane rubberized track, new space for offices and locker rooms. The Tigers opened the new baseball complex on March 26, 2007, with a 10-0 win over Meade County and opened the football stadium on August 24, 2007, with an 18-14 victory over Ballard. Ground has broken on Phase Three of Project X. This phase will provide a 2,000 seat basketball arena. Upon completion, St. X will have some of the best high school athletic facilities in the nation.

Academics

Academics are broken up into three different groups: EXCEL, Academic, and finally Honors. St. X graduates often matriculate to top colleges and universities including Stanford University, Harvard University, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt University, Tulane University, Northwestern University, United States Air Force Academy, United States Military Academy, United States Naval Academy, and Yale University. 31 different AP courses are available to students. In 2006, 97% of students taking AP courses earned qualifying scores for college credit. The class of 2006 had 97 students honored by the National Merit Scholarship Program and earned $34.5 million in scholarships.

Theater

The theatre troupe is known as The Saint Xavier Players, or simply the St. X Players. The Players sponsor four shows which include the fall straight show, eXpress (an improv troupe), a spring musical, and a student-faculty show.

Young women from nearby Catholic girls' schools also serve in the female roles and in the tech crew.

The St. X Players include a chapter of the International Thespian Society. However, there are also two special ranks specific to the St. X Players. Player Kings are those students who have dedicated a set amount of hours to drama, with a lower number of hours in specifically acting roles. The tech crew equivalent is the status of Rude Mechanical. An honorary Player Queen is chosen at the conclusion of every school year from among the young women who are seniors and have taken part in St. Xavier productions during the year.

In the 2005-6 school year, the St. X Players put on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare in October and "Damn Yankees" in March.In October of the 2006-7 school year, the St. X Players performed "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare. The players finished production of "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" which was performed this March. Currently a production of "A Guy's Guide to School, Love, Immortality, and everything in between." is currently airing. This was a production written by St. Xavier students.

eXpress, the improv troupe, performs for grade schools during the winter. This troupe consists of sophomores, juniors, and seniors from St. X, as well as juniors and seniors from nearby Catholic girls' schools.

"The Groundlings" is the newest edition to the Theater program at St. X, starting in 2005-2006. Unlike eXpress, "The Groundlings" consists only of St. Xavier freshmen. These freshmen take a crash course in improv acting and also perform a small skit in each eXpress performance.

The St. X Players also run a summer drama camp called Acting Up, introducing middle schoolers to theater and drama.

Religious Impact

In 1949, a teaching Xaverian Brother Sylvan Mattingly formed "Our Lady of Fatima Rosary Making Club" in the basement of St. Xavier High School with $25 donated by an old couple for a typewriter. Although Brother Sylvan died in 1951, the organization grew to be Our Lady's Rosary Makers, the largest Rosary making group in the Unites States with 17,000 active members. The organization has distributed hundreds of millions of free rosaries to Catholic missions worldwide.

Music

St Xavier has a notable music program led by band directors Mr. Matthew Yarborough and Mr. Rick Mattingly while Mr. Rick Knoop leads the choral group. Within the program are various groups including the Marching Band, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Pit(musical), a choral group, and drum circle. The Marching band plays "pep" music in the stands for home games as well as performing a show at halftime during football season. Concert and Jazz Bands practice year round and have two concerts a year, Christmas and spring concerts, along with the choral group, sometimes in combination with the presentation "Pressets". The music program also supplies musicians for live performances during the St. X Players yearly musical. Aside from extracurricular, the music program supplies a variety of musical advancment and improvement classes including instrumental music, concert band, honors symphonic band, music theory, AP music theory, Precussion 1 and 2, and many more. The music program is open to any interested participants from local girls' schools as well as supplying programs for grade school students interested in learning music.

Notable alumni

;Academics
*Rudy Rucker – computer scientist, mathematician, and science fiction author
*Michael Dorris – prominent novelist (The Broken Cord, The Yellow Raft in Blue Water, as well as others) and scholar. The Broken Cord won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction.

;Athletics
*Frank Beard – former PGA golfer
*Chris Burke – MLB player for the Arizona Diamondbacks
*Ray Burse – Major League Soccer (MLS) goalkeeper for FC Dallas
*Paul Byrd – MLB pitcher for the Boston Red Sox
*Mo Moorman – former National Football League (NFL) player for the Kansas City Chiefs
*Bobby Nichols – professional golfer, winner of the 1964 PGA Championship
*Scott Padgett – National Basketball Association (NBA) player
*Lee Reherman – former American Gladiator, NFL player for the Miami Dolphins, and actor
*Bob Talamini – former NFL lineman, 2nd Team All-Time All-AFL
*Will Wolford – former NFL player and owner of the Louisville Fire
*Mike Silliman - Olympic gold medalist and NBA player

;Business
*Anthony Miller CEO, and Founder of Qdoba.;Entertainment and media
*Bob Edwards – "Sirius XM Radio" host
*Jim James – lead singer in the band My Morning Jacket
*William Mapother – actor and cousin of Tom Cruise
*William Gornet – PADI Master Instructor and Founder of OnlineScuba.com http://www.onlinescuba.com

;Politics
*Frank W. Burke – former Democratic member of United States House of Representatives and mayor of Louisville
*Romano L. Mazzoli – former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives
*Jack Conway – Kentucky Attorney General

ee also

*List of schools in Louisville

External links

* [http://www.saintx.com/ St. Xavier High School]
* [http://www.saintx.com/project_x/ Project X]
* [http://community.webshots.com/user/BuddyBW/ Project X Construction Photos]

References

# cite web| author= saintx.com| title=Saint Xavier High School Founder| work= | url= http://www.saintx.com/support_givenow.asp | accessdate= January 29| accessyear= 2007