Malden Catholic High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Malden Catholic High School
Motto	Plus Ultra (More Beyond)
Established	1932
Type	Private boys secondary
Affiliations	Roman Catholic, Xaverian Brothers
Principal	Brother Thomas Puccio, C.F.X.
Headmaster	Thomas Arria, Jr.
Faculty	53
Students	715
Grades	9–12
Location	99 Crystal St., Malden, Massachusetts, U.S.
Campus	Urban
Colors	Blue, Gold
Mascot	Lancer
Yearbook	The Lance
Newspaper	Crystal 99
Website	Malden Catholic High School Web Site

Malden Catholic High School, founded in 1932, is a private, Catholic secondary school for young men located in Malden, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The school was founded by the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Francis Xavier (the Xaverian Brothers), an international congregation of religious brothers. It is a member of the Xaverian Brothers Sponsored Schools^[1] and the National Catholic Educational Association.^[2] According to the school's Web site, its mission is "to create a community of faith that promotes the dignity of all through Gospel values and an environment that fosters the love of God, of self, and of others."^[3]

Malden Catholic High School has a long history. It has gone through several incarnations and has seen many improvements, particularly in recent years.

In 1932, work began on a new school, officially called Boys' Catholic High School, located on Highland Avenue in Malden, near the Immaculate Conception School. The project was established by the Right Reverend Richard Neagle, then pastor of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Malden, Massachusetts.

Reverend Neagle turned to the Xaverian Brothers to lead the new school. In 1936, Boys' Catholic officially opened. The school's first headmaster was Brother Gilbert. Boys' Catholic, colloquially referred to as "Malden Catholic", was a highly successful school, and for several decades it served as a major academic institution in Malden. Boys' Catholic went through seven headmasters before it closed in 1968.^[4]

After 1968, the building became a junior high school for the Immaculate Conception School. The lab classrooms were used by Girls Catholic High School, (the sister school to Boy's Catholic) until 1991, when that school closed. While both schools were opened, because of their close proximity, and conservative administration, the boys were released from school earlier than the girls so they would not converge in the neighborhood at the same time. Immaculate Conception School closed its doors in 2006 after 125 years of service.

After the school closed, Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, requested that it be re-established. The Xaverian Brothers created a much larger, more regional high school on Crystal Street. The new building contained two floors and 30 classrooms, along with an auditorium and gymnasium, among other things.^[4] The loan given to Malden Catholic by the Archdiocese to build the new complex was later forgiven by Cardinal Cushing.

Malden Catholic gained fame in January 1999 when U.S. News & World Report profiled it in its examination of 96 "Outstanding American High Schools".^[5] The school's first lay headmaster, Mr. Thomas Arria, Jr., took over in 2005.

In recent years, renovation has started on the Crystal Street complex. The $1 million sports field has recently been completed, as well as a new cafeteria.

Malden Catholic High School is sponsored by the Congregation of St. Francis Xavier, known more commonly as the Xaverian Brothers, and for many years the Brothers formed a large part of its faculty. In recent years, its faculty has been made up primarily of lay people, but the school still has the highest number of Xaverian Brothers of any school on the East Coast.

The school wears its Catholic affiliation proudly. Students take four full years of Catholic Theology courses and take part in many forms of charity drive and Christian service.

The school places a strong emphasis on "Christian service", volunteer community service inspired by the teachings of Christ. Such service can take place in many forms. Students are required to perform a minimum number of hours of service each year. Freshmen are to perform at least 10 hours, sophomores are to perform at least 20, and juniors are to perform at least 30.

Seniors take part in a unique Christian service program at the end of the year. Senior classes end in mid-April, and for two weeks after this point, seniors are required to visit a designated service site to do volunteer work for about seven hours per day, for a total of 70 hours of Christian service. (Students with Advanced Placement classes continue taking these classes through this interval, and are given a reduced number of hours to complete.) The goal of this project is to give students a sizable amount of experience and practice using Christian principles of mutual service outside of school.

Malden Catholic is a Division 1 member of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). It is a member of the highly competitive Catholic Conference, a five-school athletics league, alongside competitors St. John's Preparatory School, Boston College High School, Xaverian Brothers High School, and Catholic Memorial School. The school colors are blue and gold, and the team mascot is the Lancer.

Malden Catholic students have a long-standing "rivalry" with St. John's Prep and a rivarly against Xaverian is increasing. This is additionally evident in that every game day against St. John's Prep, the school disciplinarian Mr. Macineny says "Beat the Prep" at the end of the day over the PA during final announcements.

Malden Catholic's main athletic facility was opened in 1988 as Brother Gilbert Stadium and was set with natural grass. The stadium was constructed so that Malden Catholic teams would no longer have to use the public Roosevelt Park, down the street and off campus. It was found that the stadium could not grow grass well and, after a decade or so, it needed heavy repairs.

Following the 2002 football season, the school received a $1,000,000 donation to completely renovate the stadium from James Donovan, a Natick resident. Four other alumni together donated an additional $800,000 toward the project, and reconstruction began.

The natural grass in the field was replaced with FieldTurf, and a new track and lighting system was added. In 2004, the field was reopened as Donovan Field at Brother Gilbert Stadium, with the new track reopened as Brother Myles MacManus Track . The field was named in memory of Donovan's father, James R. Donovan, a Malden Catholic alumnus who later worked as a custodian at the school.^[6]

Malden Catholic's lacrosse team has been coached by Mr. Rick Mazzei to 6 straight Catholic Conference championships. The inaugural rugby union team took third in the NERFU division 3 tournament.

The Lancers Rugby Football Club was started in 2006 and had a very good season going 5-2 and taking third place (Division III) in the NERFU Tourny in Pembroke, NH. In the 2007 season the MC Rugby team went an outstanding 10-1 in the regular season and is quickly becoming one of the best up and coming Rugby programs in Massachusetts. They were recently moved up to Division IIA. The MC Rugby B-side went 5-0 and allowed only one try all season against Seacoast A-side. B-side Victories came against Seacoast, St. John's Prep, Catholic Memorial, Brookline, and Arlington Catholic. MC also outscored their opponents 306-93 in the 2007 regular season. A-side out scored their opponents 193-88. B-side outscored their opponents 152-5. The MC Rugby team finished in third place in the Division IIA NERFU tourny on May 12th, 2007. The Lancers won two out of three matches to secure their third place finish. MC defeated Kearsarge in the first match of the day. MC was defeated by the eventual division IIA Champions Marshfield in the second match. And in the third match they defeated Catholic Memorial to secure their third place finish in the Division IIA bracket of the tournament. The MC Rugby club finished out the season 12-2 with their two tournament wins and one loss.

Malden Catholic High School maintains many clubs and extracurricular activities. Each is moderated by a member of the faculty. Extracurricular activities are considered a crucial element of social and academic development, and students are consistently encouraged to join.

Malden Catholic has a Student Council which organizes many of the school's events and charity drives. The council consists of an executive board of six officers, as well as seven committee chairs and fifty homeroom representatives.^[7]

Main article: Crystal 99

The Crystal 99, Malden Catholic's official newspaper, is a student-written and student-run publication that has been the recipient of many regional awards, including 11 straight all-New England awards from the New England Scholastic Press Association.^[8] Founded in 1943, the paper has a long history and has helped the school establish a strong sense of identity, bringing together its many different social groups and events.

Lancers Drama, the school's theater group, performs several plays per year. Productions are selected from a wide variety of genres by the troupe's director, theology teacher and Malden Catholic graduate Éamonn Casey.

The group most often performs contemporary comedies and Shakespearean plays. Performances in recent years have included William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the 1945 comedy Harvey, and a stage adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Guards! Guards!.

The troupe is notable for performing student-written plays on more than one occasion. In 2005, Lancers Drama performed the one-act comedy Fantasyland, co-written by Casey and then-junior John Ungaro. In 2006, the troupe performed the school's first student-directed play, Ungaro's Ollie's Inferno.

Malden Catholic maintains a chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS), a national organization designed to recognize students' academic achievements. Malden Catholic's chapter, known as the Brother Gilbert Chapter, currently holds 52 tenth grade sophomores, 43 juniors and 41 seniors. The chapter is open to all juniors and seniors who either have a percentage grade of 88 or higher, or who are in the top 15 percent of their class, gradewise.

The club meets six to eight times a year. Members are required to take part in eight hours of Christian service (see Christian service above) per academic quarter. Members also take part in various charity fundraisers.

The Math Team meets six times each year to compete in the New England Mathematics League (NEML), the New England division of the Math League. Math League contests consist of six challenging mathematics problems. Students are given a grade from 0 to 6. The top five scores from each school are submitted to the Math League, with a maximum of 30 points per contest. There are six contests a year, with a maximum school score of 180.^[9]

In addition to the NEML contests, students also take part in a parallel intramural tournament, the Lancers Intramural Mathematics Organization (LIMO). These contests are similar to NEML's, and take place in between the national contests. LIMO contests consist of an Individual Round, in which students score between 0 and 6, and a Team Round, in which students split into groups to work on problems together, with a maximum score of 3.

The Robotics Club was founded by Patrick Napier, along with the help of Patrick Devito, both of the graduating class of 2006. In the contest, students build a team of robots that enter the international BotBall competition. Last year, students won first place for the Documentation part of the judging for the New England Division.

The Model UN Club is a United Nations simulation club that focuses on the study of the United Nations and simulated debate modeled after the UN system. Distinguished moderator Bro. Timothy Hoey, chair of the social studies department, and student delegates attend several college and high school conferences in the region throughout the school year to foster debate skills and experience model diplomacy. Larger conferences include Brown Model UN (BUSUN), Global Classrooms MUN at Northeastern University, and possibly others in the near future. Meetings occur every week or every other week during the school year. During these meetings, the students host a model security council that provides new delegates with a taste of the Model UN atmosphere.

Secretary-General Mark Fahey '08
Under Secretary-General Dennis Hui '08

The new leadership core looks forward to making copious improvements to the organization and increase membership. Meetings next year will operate much more efficiently and seriously in order to maximize our preparedness for upcoming conferences and our own mini-conference. Model UN is currently looking for new membership and hoping for much success in the coming year.