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 ...
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 ...
in
Alameda, California
Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...
, United States.
History
On March 27, 1881, at the invitation of Father William Gleeson, pastor of St. Anthony Church in Brooklyn, (East Oakland), Sister Marie de Sacre Coeur and the
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (Congregationis Sororum a Domina Nostra Namurcensi) are a Catholic institute of religious sisters, founded to provide education to the poor.
The institute was founded in Amiens, France, in 1804, but the opposi ...
founded an academy for girls, grades one through twelve, on a plot of land on the corner of Chestnut Street and San Jose Avenue in Alameda. Notre Dame Academy educated the young women of Alameda in grades one through twelve.
St. Joseph's was, at that time a "mission" church of St. Anthony's. In 1885, Saint Joseph's Parish was established, with Father Michael McNaboe as first pastor. In 1887 Fr. McNaboe requested the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to staff a boys elementary school.
In 1916 Father James Bernard Praught opened Saint Joseph Elementary School for the boys and girls of the parish. In 1922 a new co-ed grammar school was donated to the parish by Theresa Ettinger in memory of her husband, the late Victor Ettinger. When St. Joseph Elementary Grammar School was built, the original school buildings became part of the girls high school, the Academy was renamed Notre Dame High School, a combined boarding and day school. In 1960, Monsignor Alvin P. Wagner demolished the antiquated girls high school and built a new Saint Joseph's Notre Dame High School for girls. He erected the Gymnasium/Auditorium in 1964. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur stayed with the elementary and high schools until 1990.
Saint Joseph's Boys High School was founded in 1935 by Father Praught and Father Joseph Tetzlaff, provincial of the Brothers of Mary (
Marianists
The Society of Mary ( la, Societas Mariae) abbreviated SM is a clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (brothers and priests) commonly called the Marianists or Marianist Brothers and Priests. Its members add the nominal l ...
) on the same city block as Saint Joseph's Church, Saint Joseph's Elementary School and Notre Dame Girls High School. The Brothers of Mary (Marianists) departed in 1970.
In 1972,
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...
honored Monsignor Wagner and the people of the parish by making the church a minor basilica, renamed Saint Joseph
Basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...
.
In 1983, Msgr. Wagner retired. Oakland Bishop
John Stephen Cummins
John Stephen Cummins (born March 3, 1928) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Oakland in California from 1977 to 2003 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento in California f ...
plans were set in motion to no longer staff the parish with diocesan priests. Cummins invited the Fathers of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart. The new pastor, Father Patrick A. Goodwin, SSCC decided to consolidate the two schools. These plans were completed in 1985 with the consolidation of the two single-sex schools into the coeducational St. Joseph Notre Dame High School. In 2007, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary decided to leave Saint Joseph's Community. Oakland Bishop
Allen Vigneron
Allen Henry Vigneron (born October 21, 1948) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the current archbishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit in Michigan and Ecclesiastical Superior of the Cayman Islands, serving since 2009. Vi ...
returned the parish to the diocesan priests. Pastor (2008–2013) Father Fred Riccio. Archbishop Alexander Joseph Brunett, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Oakland named Rev. George Alengadan, pastor of St. Joseph Basilica, Alameda, June 1, 2013.
Students
SJND enrolls approximately 470 students in grades 9 through 12. SJND students come from over 27 public, independent and Catholic schools. Approximately 50 percent of the students live in Alameda, 25 percent live in Oakland, and 25 percent live in neighboring East Bay communities. Student demographics reflect the Bay Area's cultural and ethnic diversity: African-American 13%, Asian 11%, Euro-American 29%, Filipino 12%, Latino 16%, Native American 1%, Multiracial/Other 17.7%.
Curriculum
St. Joseph Notre Dame has a college preparatory curriculum. The school offers honors level courses in English, Math, Science, and Foreign Language and offers
Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...
courses in U.S. History, World History, English Literature & Composition, English Language, American Government & Politics, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology, Spanish Language, Environmental Science, and Art Studio.
The school offers project-based learning and innovative courses including Coding, Mandarin, and a Biomedical Sciences program with STEM curricula. Ninety-nine percent of the senior class of 2014 enrolled in college, and graduates were offered just under $6 million in scholarships and awards. 2014 graduates will attend colleges universities including Brown University, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, Cornell University, Dominican University of California, New York University, Saint Mary's College of California, University of California schools, University of San Francisco, and others.
Arts
SJND boasts a comprehensive arts program that includes visual, performing and literary arts offered in more than a dozen courses as well as a host of related student clubs. SJND student artists have been honored for their work in several areas. Each year since 2007, student photographers, illustrators, painters, digital and mixed media artists have garnered honors in competitions including First Place and Best in Show honors in the Congressional Art Competition and other competitions and exhibitions.
The 2014 SJND musical In the Heights was among the top six high school musicals in California in the California State Musical Theater Honors competition.
For more than three decades the school's arts magazine Prisms has showcased student visual and literary works as well as original musical scores, earning first place awards and other honors from The American Scholastic Press Association and National Council of Teachers of English.
Athletics
St. Joseph Notre Dame offers interscholastic sports teams in
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
,
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 (appr ...
,
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 activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...
,
crew
A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involve ...
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
,
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
,
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
,
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
,
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
,
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
, 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 does not field a football team.
Despite being a small school, SJND has a reputation as a basketball state and national powerhouse, having won six
California Interscholastic Federation
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have a s ...
(CIF) State Championships, a modern-era record for a Northern California school. Most notably, SJND won two Boys' Division I state titles, despite having a student body less than half the size of virtually all CIF Division I schools, defeating Fremont High School of Los Angeles in 1991 and Mater Dei High School of Santa Ana in 1992. SJND reached the Boys' CIF Division I Finals two more times in 1997 & 1998, losing to
Crenshaw High School
Crenshaw High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located on 11th Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
The school first opened in 1968 and currently enrolls aroun ...
and Westchester High School, respectively. In 2004, SJND won the Boys' Division IV Championship against
Verbum Dei High School
Verbum Dei Jesuit High School, also known as the Verb, is a private Catholic Church, Catholic all-boys college preparatory school sponsored by the Society of Jesus in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1962 by the Divine Word Missionaries ...
of Los Angeles, 49–47. Most recently, SJND won the 2011 Boys' Division V State Championship against St. Bernard High School of
Playa Del Rey
Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...
, in 2014 against Renaissance Academy, and once again against St. Bernard in 2016. SJND also appeared in the 2009 Boys' Division V Finals, losing to
Windward High School
Windward High School is the newest of two public high schools of the Ferndale School District (district 502), in Bellingham, Washington. Windward is part of the Small Schools Project, funded in part by a grant from the Gates Foundation, which se ...
of Los Angeles, 69–53.
SJND boasts five former All-Americans, three of which were named to the prestigious McDonald's All-American game. These include Cal, Bay Area, and NBA Hall-of-Fame inductee, two-time California High School Player of the Year, and the recipient of the Naismith Award and the National High School Player of the Year by USA Today, Jason Kidd ('92); Villanova alum Calvin Byrd ('89); and UCLA alum and Slam Magazine's High School Diary featured columnist, Ray Young ('98). Adrian Ealy ('92) and Stanford graduate, Justin Davis ('99) were also recipients of All-American honors. The school has a long list of players who went on to compete at the collegiate level. Among this list are the alums who went on to compete at the Division I level. This includes: Cameron Ba ('18-UCD); Kevin Butler ('00-UCR); Hondre Brewer ('98-USF); Blandon Ferguson ('99-Illinois); Jon Gordon ('96-SMC); Alex Harris ('04-UCSB); Allen Hester ('05-Ohio); Renee Jacques ('98-CSUS); Brandon Keane ('11-N.CO); Adrian McCullough ('96-UNR); Nate Murase ('98-CSUS); Miles Tarver (UoM); David Victor ('93-UNR/CSUS); Ari Warmerdam ('02-UCD); Temidayo Yussuf ('14-LBSU). Pilots Rashawn Fulcher ('96) and Benjamin Ortner ('01) were also Division II National Champions for Metropolitan State of Denver.
The basketball program has also included two of the winningest and most revered California coaches of all-time in the late Frank LaPorte (735 wins) and current head coach Don Lippi (908 wins). Frank LaPorte is one of just two Northern California coaches to be named head coach of the McDonald's All-American game ('92), while Don Lippi has been the recipient of multiple regional and statewide honors. Lippi is also the all-time winningest high school coach in Northern California and currently ranks 4th in California state history.
In men's tennis, St. Joseph Notre Dame won three BSAL Singles Championships in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The men's volleyball team enjoyed similar success as they captured three successive BSAL titles from 2006 to 2008.
Recently, SJND's cross-country team has enjoyed great success as well. They were the state champions in their division in 2012 and 2013. In the 2011 season, the team won the BSAL breaking St. Mary's decade-long winning streak. They also won NCS Division V with a record-setting time by Gabe Arias-Sheridan. The team placed 3rd in the State meet with a 3rd-place finish by Nick Ratto. Later that year, Ratto fished 3rd statewide in the 800m race. Cooper Teare won the Division V State Championship cross country races in 2015 and 2016 with times of 15:07 and 14:58 respectively. Teare continued his success winning the California All-State 3200 in 2016 and the Indoor National Titles for the 5k and 1-Mile in 2017. On April 14, 2017, Cooper ran a 4:00.16 Mile. At the time, this was the 10th fastest mile by an American high schooler ever.
St. Joseph Notre Dame's mascot is the Pilot, in honor of the city's former Naval Air Station.
Notable alumni
*
Dennis Breedlove
Dennis Eugene Breedlove (14 September 1939, Oakland, California – 4 June 2012) was an American botanist, herbarium curator, and plant collector. He is "best known for his collections and floristic studies in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and his ...
, botanist and herbarium curator
* Mark Curry, comedian/actor, star of the popular 1990s television show '' Hangin' with Mr. Cooper''
*
Jason Kidd
Jason Frederick Kidd (born March 23, 1973) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Regarded as one of the greatest point guards ...
, former professional basketball player and head coach of the
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...
. Won two
championships
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
: one as a player with the Mavericks in
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
and one as an assistant for the
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...
in
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
*
Joe Nelson
Joseph George Nelson (born October 25, 1974) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher.
High school
Nelson attended St. Joseph's High School in Alameda, California. At St. Joseph, Nelson played basketball with NBA star Jason Kidd.
Colle ...
, Florida Marlins pitcher
*
Don Perata
Don Richard Perata (born April 30, 1945) is a California lobbyist and former Barry Reed (author), Barry Reed, novelist, author of ''The Verdict'' later a movie starring Paul Newman
* Gail Rodrigues, Dedicated educator and role model. Still an active part of the school's community
* Harmit Mann, President and CEO CREShomes.
*
Cooper Teare
Cooper Teare (born August 18, 1999) is an American distance runner who races events such as the 1500m, 3000m, 5000m. As a runner at the University of Oregon, he won the 5000m in 13:12.27 at the 2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Champio ...
, competitive distance runner
*
Damian Lillard
Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Weber State Wildcats and earned ...
, NBA point guard for the
Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...
* Alex Harris, 3rd all-time leading scorer at UCSB