, motto_translation = Glory to God alone , address = 911 Armory Dr , location = , region = , city = Greensburg , county = ( Westmoreland County) , state =

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, province = , postcode = , zipcode = 15601-5209 , country = United States , country1 = , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , other_name = , former_name = , schooltype =

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

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Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

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Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

, patron = , established = , founder = , status = , closed = , locale = , sister_school = , school_board = , district = , us_nces_district_id = , local_authority = , educational_authority = , category = , oversight =

Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg The Diocese of Greensburg is a Catholic diocese centered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, with 78 parishes in Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana, and Westmoreland counties in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. The diocese was founded on March 10, ...

, trust = , authorizer = , superintendent = , trustee = , specialist = , session = , school_number = , school_code = , ceeb = , us_nces_school_id = , president = , chair = , chairman = , chairperson = , dean = , administrator = , rector = , director = , principal = J. Kevin Frye , campus_director = , headmistress = , headmaster = , head_of_school = , head_teacher = , executive_headteacher = , acting_headteacher = , head = , r_head = , officer_in_charge = , chaplain = Fr Mark Dunmire , staff = , faculty = 28.5 , teaching_staff = , employees = , key_people = , grades = 7– 12 , years = , years_taught = , gender =

Coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

, age_range = , lower_age = , upper_age = , enrollment = 329 , enrollment_as_of = 2019-2020 , capacity = , sixth_form_students = , grade_preK = , gradeK = , grade1 = , grade2 = , grade3 = , grade4 = , grade5 = , grade6 = , grade7 = 38 , grade8 = 37 , grade9 = 53 , grade10 = 70 , grade11 = 68 , grade12 = 63 , grade13 = , other = , other_grade_label_1 = , other_grade_enrollment_1 = , other_grade_label_2 = , other_grade_enrollment_2 = , international_students = , classes = , average_class_size = , ratio = 1:11.5 , system = , classes_offered = , language = , schedule_type = , schedule = , hours_in_day = 6.8 , classrooms = , campuses = , campus = , campus_size = , area = , campus_type = Large suburb , houses = , student_union = , colors = Maroon &

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

, slogan = , song = , fight_song = , athletics = , athletics_conference = , sports = , mascot = , nickname = Centurions , teams = , team_name = , rival = , accreditation = , USNWR_ranking = , national_ranking = , test_name = , test_average = , bar_pass_rate = , decile = , publication = , newspaper = , yearbook = , products = , endowment = , budget = , fees = $400 , tuition = , annual_tuition = $14,135 , revenue = , communities = , feeder_schools = , feeder_to = , graduates = , graduates_year = , affiliation = NCEA, MSA , alumni = , alumni_name = , nobel_laureates = , information = , website = , footnotes = , picture = , picture_caption = , picture2 = , picture_caption2 = Greensburg Central Catholic High School (GCC) is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in

Greensburg, Pennsylvania Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city lies within the Laurel Highlands and the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau. The city is ...

, United States. It falls within the

History

Construction of Greensburg Central Catholic High School began in the summer of 1958, only seven years after the founding of the Diocese of Greensburg. The first class of freshmen entered in September 1959, including students from as far east as Ligonier and as far west as

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

and Charleroi. Bishop Hugh L. Lamb dedicated the building on November 29, 1959, before an audience of 2,000, which included Governor

David L. Lawrence David Leo Lawrence (June 18, 1889 – November 21, 1966) was an American politician who served as the 37th governor of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1963. The first Catholic elected as governor, Lawrence is the only mayor of Pittsburgh to have ...

as the featured speaker. This large audience was somewhat surprising given the freezing and snowy weather on the dedication day. In fact, according to the ''

Greensburg Tribune-Review The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Although it transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, it rema ...

'': :The former

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

mayor (Governor Lawrence) not only had to abandon his automobile on a steep grade near the school but was forced to give his address in near darkness and without the use of a public address system. The latter inconveniences occurred when an automobile went out of control, struck a utility pole ... and wrecked the power system. At the time of Greensburg Central Catholic's founding, six

religious institutes provided most of the faculty. The Sisters of St. Benedict were responsible for teaching languages; the

Sisters of Charity Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some ''Sisters of Charity'' communities refer to the Vincentian tradition, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, but others are unrelated. The ...

, science and music; the

Felician Sisters The Felician Sisters, officially known as the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Assisi (CSSF), is a religious institute of pontifical right whose members profess public vows of chastity, ...

, mathematics; the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

, English; the

Sisters of St. Joseph The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for S ...

, social studies; and the

Vincentian Sisters of Charity The Vincentian Sisters of Charity were an American religious congregation of Religious Sisters founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1902 to serve the Slovak American immigrant population in Pennsylvania. History Their foundation started with ...

, business. Lay teachers handled physical education. In 1962, Bishop William G. Connare proposed building a faculty house for all six religious groups, featuring a wing for each community with a common chapel (the Chapel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), dining room, and community room. The first

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

was offered in this chapel on August 31, 1963. The Sisters of Charity are the only remaining religious institute at Central.

Curriculum

The school's original curriculum was primarily academic, but the school soon added a general and business course. Father Shuda, the school's third principal, urged the construction of an addition to the school, also designed by Francis O'Connor Church. The Fathers' Club and Mothers' Club (now replaced by one group, the Parents' Club) helped with furnishings and installation. The school offers a diverse curriculum, including Advanced Placement and college credit courses, as well as business and general study courses. The school built a stadium in 1989 and installed lights in 1998 for night football and soccer games.

Campus

2011 saw the introduction of a new

Junior High A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

program. The school housed a 7th and 8th grade for the first time in its history. The project necessitated multiple renovations to the building. The school converted former art classrooms into multi-purpose classrooms for the new grades and made the former weight room into the library; the current weight room sits where the stage used to be, next to the main gym. Although the junior and senior high schools are mostly segregated, certain high-school-level courses are available for 8th graders.

Athletics

The athletics program at Greensburg Central Catholic is one of the most successful in the state of Pennsylvania. The school has won three state championships and countless WPIAL titles. The most successful sports program at Central is the ice hockey team, which won three state championships in the 90s and has been a state power for the past twenty years. The football program has received widespread notoriety as a result of back-to-back WPIAL championship game appearances in 2005 and 2006, before winning the WPIAL championship and appearing in the PIAA championship game. The girls' basketball program has been dominant for the past few decades, winning the section title consecutively as well as WPIAL titles and PIAA contests. The GCC baseball team also won a Class A PIAA state championship in 2002.

Notable alumni

* Bibiana Boerio * Joe Kenda * Warren Schaeffer

Notes and references

{{authority control Catholic secondary schools in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1959 Schools in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Greensburg, Pennsylvania 1959 establishments in Pennsylvania