Mater Dei Catholic High School (often called Breese Mater Dei), is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

co-education 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 ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

in Breese, Illinois, United States, in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville The Diocese of Belleville () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the Southern Illinois region of the United States. It is a suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdioc ...

. It was founded in 1954 through the merger of St. Dominic's High School in Breese and St. Mary's High School in

Carlyle, Illinois Carlyle is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,253 at the 2020 census. Carlyle is located approximately east of St. Louis, Missouri, and is home to Illinois' largest man-made lake, Ca ...

. The academic program is accredited by

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It ...

, and holds a Certificate of Recognition from the

Illinois State Board of Education The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) administers public education in the state of Illinois. The State Board consists of nine members who are appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Senate. Board members serve four-year terms, wit ...

. Recent developments at Mater Dei include the construction of a new east wing, expanding facilities by adding a new band room, weight room, and gym. In addition, they added an outdoor football / soccer facility with a turf playing surface

Parishes represented

St. Boniface, St. Mary-Centralia, St. Bernard, St. Mary-Edwardsville, St. Rose, St. Felicitas, St. Stephen-Caseyville, St. Francis, St. Teresa-Marydale, St. George, St. Josephs, St. Paul, St. Dominics, St. Mary-Carlyle, St. Augustines, St. Cecilias, St. Marys-Trenton, St. Anthonys- Beckemeyer, and St. Damian. The school also has many students with other religious affiliations, most predominantly among those is that of the Protestant tradition.

Student activities

The school offers over 23 clubs covering areas from academic and performing arts to ministry and leadership. Clubs include: Chess club, Book club, Science Club, Scholar Bowl, Teens for Life (Prolife Group), Saint Vincent DePaul Society, Student Council, Student Ambassadors, Peer Advisers, Liturgical Planning Core, Liturgical Music Group, Spring Musical, Fall Play, and others. The high school also has a student newspaper (Lance) and a student designed yearbook (Knight).

Athletics

The school sponsors teams in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

, cross country,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, and

track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...

for both boys and girls. The school sponsors teams in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

for boys, while girls also compete in

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. The school is an independent school which does not participate in a conference or league, but is a member of the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National F ...

(IHSA) which sponsors and governs statewide competition in many sports. For most of its history, Mater Dei competed in the Class A, or smaller school classification. In recent years, the use of a multiplier on private schools has raised the school to the larger class (AA). They now compete in class 3A of the newly implemented four-class system. The following teams have won their respective state tournaments sponsored by the IHSA:IHSA record page for Mater Dei
/ref> * Cross Country (girls): 2003-2004 * Golf (boys): 1993-94, 2019-2020 * Volleyball (girls): 1987–88, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 2001–02, 2010–11, 2011-2012, 2023-2024, 2024-2025 * Basketball (girls): 2022-2023 * Basketball (boys): 2019-2020 (Final Four- cancelled due to Covid-19)

Notable athletic events

Every September, the school and neighboring Central Community High School play a football event named the Milk Bowl. A traveling trophy in the shape of a traditional milk can is awarded to the winning team to hold for the following year. The event gives both schools the most profit out of all athletic games, activities, etc. and is evenly shared between both. The game's location alternates each year between the schools' football fields. Mater Dei High School also hosts an annual Christmas Basketball Tournament beginning on December 26 every year since 1960.

Notable alumni

* Trevor Richards, MLB pitcher for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

Josh Thole Joshua Michael Thole (pronounced toll-EE) (born October 28, 1986) is an American former professional baseball catcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays. Early life Thole grew up in Breese, Ill ...

, MLB catcher

References

External links

Mater Dei High School, Breese
{{authority control 1954 establishments in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1954 Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville Catholic secondary schools in Illinois Schools in Clinton County, Illinois