St. Xavier High School (Louisville)

St. Xavier High School is an all-male, college preparatory Xaverian Brothers-sponsored school in Louisville, Kentucky. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville. St. Xavier was founded in 1864 by Br. Paul Van Gerwen, C.F.X.^[2] The school currently resides on Poplar Level Road and is known for its excellence in all academics and athletics. St. Xavier is the only school in Kentucky that has received the Blue Ribbon of Excellence Award four times, the most recent of which was awarded in 2016.^[3] St. Xavier is currently renovating the school grounds with Project X, an initiative to raise $28 million for new academic and athletic facilities. In total Project X raised $29.1 million for the school.^[4]

Programs

Athletics

St. Xavier has the largest enrollment of boys among Kentucky high schools,^[5] and had been the only school in Kentucky to have won a state championship in every Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA)-sanctioned sport open to boys before the KHSAA began sponsoring coeducational championships in archery and bass fishing in the early 21st century.

St. Xavier has the most successful athletic program in Kentucky, having won 176 boys' state championships. In 2005, St. Xavier was ranked #14 in "Sports Illustrated" Best High School Athletic Programs. In the 2009 fall semester, Saint X won all four fall sports. This is an unprecedented feat, taking home championships in soccer, football, cross country and golf.^[6]

The annual football game with traditional local rival Trinity High School at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium is promoted by the schools as the most-attended annual regular-season high school football game in the country, typically drawing over 35,000 fans.^[7] The largest crowd was 38,500 and the 2007 edition of the game had an announced attendance of 37,550.

The swim team, the Tiger Sharks, have won twenty-seven consecutive state swimming championships, their 50th swimming title overall which is a national record. The golf team has won the McDonalds Tournament of Champions national event multiple times and sent numerous golfers on to NCAA Division I colleges such as Kentucky, Louisville, Alabama, Wake Forest, Clemson, Cornell, Tennessee, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Purdue.

As of 2015, the cross country team has won 4 of the last 5 State Championships,^[8] and was nationally ranked in the top 15 in 2012-13. In 2012, the team which consisted of 6 future NCAA DI athletes, qualified for and competed in Nike Cross Nationals, the only consensus national championship competition in all of American High School athletics. The Tigers placed 14th. As of 2015, the soccer team has won eight state championships since 2000,^[9] earning top 10 rankings in national polls while doing so.

Project X resulted in 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, opened the football stadium on August 24, 2007, with an 18-14 victory over Ballard and opened the 2,000 seat basketball arena with a 73-53 win over South Oldham on January 20, 2009. With the conclusion of Project X, St. Xavier now boasts some of the best high school athletic facilities in the nation.

Theater

The theatre troupe is known as the Saint Xavier Players, who sponsor four shows which include the fall straight show, a spring musical, and an intermediate student show in the fall. Young women from nearby Catholic girls' schools also serve in the female roles and in the tech crew. The Players include a chapter of the International Thespian Society. In the fall of 2016, they performed The Outsiders and in the spring of 2017 performed Spamalot. eXpress, the improv troupe, performs for grade schools during the winter. This troupe consists of sophomores, juniors, and seniors from St. Xavier, as well as juniors and seniors from nearby Catholic girls' schools. "The Groundlings" is the newest edition to the Theater program at St. Xavier, starting in 2005–06. 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. Xavier Players also run a summer drama camp called Acting Up, introducing middle schoolers to theater and drama.

Music

St Xavier has a music program led by band directors Matthew Yarborough and Rick Mattingly while Mr. Rick Knoop leads the choral group. Within the program are various groups including the Pep Band, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Jazz Combo, Pit Orchestra (for the school musical), a choral group, and African drum ensemble. The Pep band no longer marches shows for halftime, but still plays pep music in the stands for home games. Concert and Jazz Bands practice year round and have two concerts a year, Christmas and spring concerts, along with the choral group. 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 advancement and improvement classes including instrumental music, concert band, honors symphonic band, music theory, AP music theory, Percussion 1 and 2, and many more. The music program is open to any interested participants from local girls' schools and supplies programs for grade school students interested in learning music.

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 United States with 17,000 active members. The organization has distributed hundreds of millions of free rosaries to Roman Catholic missions worldwide.

Notable alumni

See also

• List of schools in Louisville, Kentucky

References

External links

• St. Xavier High School
• Project X
• Project X Construction Photos
• U2Extreme

Archdiocese of Louisville
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Education	High schools (boys) St. Francis DeSales High School, Louisville St. Xavier High School, Louisville Trinity High School, St. Matthews High schools (girls) Assumption High School, Louisville Mercy Academy, Louisville Presentation Academy, Louisville Sacred Heart Academy, Louisville High schools, coeducational Bethlehem High School, Bardstown Holy Cross High School, Louisville Special needs school Pitt Academy, Louisville
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