St. Martin's Catholic High School (SMS) is a Roman Catholic

secondary 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 '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

in Gbarnga,

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. It is sponsored by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, and is considered one of the best high schools in

Bong County Bong is a county in the north-central portion of the West African nation of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has twelve districts. Gbarnga serves as the capital. The area of th ...

History

During the

First Liberian Civil War The First Liberian Civil War lasted from 1989 to 1997. President Samuel Doe had established a regime in 1980 but totalitarianism and corruption led to unpopularity and the withdrawal of support from the United States by the late 1980s. The Nat ...

of 1989–1996 the school was forced to close. The class of 1990, with 49 students, was unable to graduate due to the growing unrest. The school reopened in 2009, six years after the end of the

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a conflict in the West African nation of Liberia lasted from 1999 to 2003. It was preceded by the First Liberian Civil War, which ended in 1996. President Charles Taylor came to power in 1997 after victory in t ...

, with the support of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Torchbearers, an association of former students who were supposed to graduate in 1990. In 2010, for the first time in the school's history, the titles of valedictorian, salutatorian, and the third-place student were all female, out of 70 graduates. This was considered notable because in Liberia, only 35 percent of 12th-grade students were female at the time. In the 2010s, the school began to struggle, mostly due to the effects of the West African Ebola virus epidemic of 2014–2015. This was augmented by a vocal outcry by parents of students enrolled at the school in 2013, who protested "exorbitant fees", saying that the school was exploiting them. The Christian Brothers, who sponsor the school, responded with a fundraising campaign under the auspices of Edmund Rice Development, a Christian Brothers organization. The Torchbearers, an alumni group, organized an online

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign to raise money for scholarships, describing the school as being in "dire straits". In addition, St Mary's College Preparatory School in Crosby, England, a Christian Brothers school, raised £1,300 for St. Martin's, which it said had an "uncertain future".

Athletics

The school has basketball,

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 ...

, and volleyball teams.

Basketball

The school's basketball team was an informal activity until the late 1960s, when members of the team asked Joe Jauregui, a foreign educator doing mission work, to be their coach. He agreed, and organized a more formal basketball program including games with teams from other schools in the area, including Gboveh High School, and W.V.S. Tubman Junior High School (named after William Tubman). The tournaments grew in popularity, but were discontinued after the outbreak of the First Liberian Civil War. In 2012, Liberian Youth and Sports Minister S. Tornorlah Varpilah, himself a St. Martin's alumni, reestablished the league tournaments. The tournaments once again grew immensely popular, and notable persons such as

Vice President of Liberia The vice president of the Republic of Liberia is the second-highest executive official in Liberia, and one of only two elected executive offices along with the president. The vice president is elected on the same ticket with the president to a ...

Joseph Boakai have attended games.

Notable alumni

Michael Kpakala Francis Michael Kpakala Francis (born 12 February 1936 – 19 May 2013) was a Liberian prelate of the Catholic Church who led the Apostolic Vicariate of Monrovia from 1976 to 1981 and then served as the first Archbishop of the newly established Archdioc ...

– Roman Catholic Archbishop of Monrovia from 1981 to 2011 * Franklin Siakor – Liberian politician;

junior senator, Senate of Liberia * S. Tornorlah Varpilah – Liberian Youth and Sports Minister

Torchbearers

The Torchbearers are a group of alumni composed of members of the class of 1990 who were unable to graduate. In addition to helping reestablish the school in 2009, they also provide scholarships for students at the school.

References