Cathedral Catholic High School (CCHS) is a private
coeducation
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 t ...
al
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
college preparatory day school in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
serving grades 9–12. It is operated by the
Diocese of San Diego. It was founded in 1957 as the University High School (UHS or Uni), later the University of San Diego High School (USDHS), which was located in the
Linda Vista neighborhood of San Diego.
Construction began on CCHS at its current location on Del Mar Heights Road in
Carmel Valley in 1999. In 2005 USDHS, including all faculty, administration, and students, moved to that campus and changed its name to Cathedral Catholic. Cathedral Catholic High School is accredited by the Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA), the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and holds membership with the College Board.
History
University of San Diego High School
University High School (known as UHS or Uni) was founded in 1957 as a Catholic college preparatory high school for boys. It was located in the San Diego neighborhood of
Linda Vista, on a site overlooking
Mission Bay to the west and
Mission Valley
Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Missi ...
to the south, across the street from the
University of San Diego
The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...
which had been founded in 1949.
[ The first principal was Reverend Father James Cadden, a scholar of church history. For the first few years of the school's existence the faculty consisted entirely of ordained priests.
Its sister-school Cathedral Girls High School had been founded in 1943 and was located on a downtown campus. In 1970 it merged with UHS to become a co-educational high school.] The class of 1971 was the first co-educational graduating class in UHS history. In 1986 the name of the school was changed to University of San Diego High School (USDHS). As of 2005 over 10,000 students had graduated from the school.
Students at Uni were also afforded opportunities to participate in a wide variety of extracurricular activities including fine arts, athletics, clubs, service organizations and leadership roles. The athletic teams were the Dons, and all students and alumni were referred to as Dons, with the motto "once a Don, always a Don". In 1998 USDHS was honored by the United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
as a Blue Ribbon School
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...
.[
The Linda Vista campus held 1,450 students. In 1999, the Diocese of San Diego proposed a plan to relocate the school to a larger campus. Construction was begun on a brand new campus in a location in Carmel Valley. The new school was to have larger facilities to accommodate up to 2000 students, and host many extracurricular activities and sports such as football, swim/dive, water polo, basketball, sailing, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, softball and baseball. The majority of these activities had been holding practices and events outside of the Linda Vista campus due to the lack of facilities. Dr. Richard Kelly was the principal from 1991 to 2004, the longest-serving principal of that school. He did not transition to CCHS but facilitated the move.]
Transition
The new campus was completed in summer of 2005, and USDHS officially shut down after the 2004–2005 school year. The new school opened as Cathedral Catholic High School in August 2005, with all the same faculty, administration, and the remaining three classes of students from USDHS (Classes of 2006, 2007, and 2008). On May 31, 2008, the final class of USDHS students, who had been freshmen at the time of the transition, graduated from CCHS.
Cathedral Catholic continued all of the traditions from USDHS, including the Dons mascot for the athletic teams. The names of the yearbook ''(Presidio),'' newspaper ''(El Cid),'' and art/literary magazine ''(El Sol)'' were also preserved.
The Dons Athletic Hall of Fame was moved to the gymnasium at CCHS. The statues and relics from the old campus, such as the Mary statue from the quad, were all moved to locations around the Cathedral Catholic campus. The dedicated walk of fame from the quad at Uni was originally proposed to be moved and installed on the quad of CCHS around a new memorial fountain. But due to deterioration and costly efforts, the stones were not brought to CCHS. Those who had names there were honored with a memorial display, which was hung in the USDHS Library at CCHS during the 50th Anniversary Celebration. Notable dedications for major Uni/CCHS contributors have been engraved into the stone benches and lamp posts around CCHS' quad as well.
The Linda Vista campus was temporarily occupied by Notre Dame Academy from June 2005 to January 2006, while that school's new campus, also in the Carmel Valley area, was being completed. In 2008 the Linda Vista campus was sold to The Irvine Company
The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...
for development. The site is now the home of a 500+ unit apartment complex called Carmel Pacific Ridge.
Cathedral Catholic High School
The CCHS campus in Carmel Valley opened in 2005. It is designed to resemble a Tuscan village.[ The founding principal was Mike Deely, himself a graduate of USDHS; he served as principal until 2015. In 2021 the diocese appointed the school's first female principal, Marlena Conroy.
At approximately 1600 students, CCHS is the largest high school in the Diocese of San Diego.] The 54-acre campus includes ten major buildings including a chapel, theater, and gymnasium.
Academics
AP classes
CCHS 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 ...
classes in art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
, biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, calculus AB & BC, chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
, English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
, English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
, environmental science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...
, Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole.
For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...
, Physics C
In the United States, Advanced Placement (AP) Physics collectively refers to the College Board Advanced Placement Program courses and exams covering various areas of physics. These are intended to be equivalent to university courses that use best ...
, Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
, studio art
An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...
, US history
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...
, US government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
and World history
World history may refer to:
* Human history, the history of human beings
* History of Earth, the history of planet Earth
* World history (field), a field of historical study that takes a global perspective
* ''World History'' (album), a 1998 albu ...
.
Dual-enrollment classes with MiraCosta College and Mesa College are also offered, as well as honors courses.
Visual and Performing Arts
Visual and performing arts classes at CCHS include drama and advanced drama 1–2, multimedia authoring 1–2, CCTV broadcast and video journalism, journalism, photography, digital imaging, art 1–2, art 3–4, ceramics, 3D design, introduction to guitar, choral music, concert and pep band, AP art history and AP studio art. After-school courses in band, journalism and Yearbook are also available.
Student life
CCHS offers more than 80 extracurricular activities including music, drama, publications, and robotics.
Schoolwide masses are held on various feasts and solemnities of the Church throughout the school year. In addition to the schoolwide liturgies
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
, daily mass and lauds
Lauds is a canonical hour of the Divine office. In the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours it is one of the major hours, usually held after Matins, in the early morning hours.
Name
The name is derived from the three last psalms of the psalter (148, ...
(morning prayer) are held each morning before school in the St. Therese Chapel on campus.
Athletics
Cathedral Catholic has the following sports:
* Fall sports: cross country, field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
, American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
, women's 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 ...
, women's 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 ...
, women's 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 ...
and men's water polo
Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...
.
* Winter sports: men's 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 ...
, women's basketball, men's and women's 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 ...
, rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
, women's water polo, wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
and surfing
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
.
* Spring sports: badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...
, 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 ...
, men's golf, men's tennis, 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 ...
and diving
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), a ...
, men's and women's 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 ...
, 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 men's volleyball.
* Non-seasonal sports include: sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
, 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 ...
, rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
, fencing
Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...
, equestrianism
Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, Driving (horse), driving, and Equestrian vaulting, vaulting ...
and dance team A dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or song team, is a team of participants that participates in competitive dance. A dance squad can also include: a jazz squad, ballet squad, or any kind of religion dance squad. Dance squads ...
.
Cathedral Catholic's mascot is the Don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
. The Dons maintain a longstanding rivalry with the Catholic all-male high school St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
, known as the Saints; the high-profile annual game between the rivals is called the Holy Bowl.
Between USDHS and CCHS the Dons have won a CIF
Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries.
Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competit ...
championship 161 times; that includes 46 championships as CCHS.
Notable alumni
USDHS
* Mike Carey – football referee
*Steve Dunning
Steven John Dunning (born May 15, 1949) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher between and for the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, California Angels, Montreal Expos and ...
– baseball player
*Billy Eppler
Billy Eppler (born September 16, 1975) is an American baseball executive who is the general manager of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels from 2015 to 2020. Befo ...
(1993) – baseball executive
* Justin Green – football player
*Dave Kellett
Dave Kellett is the creator and cartoonist of two webcomic titles, ''Sheldon'' and '' Drive'', and the co-author of ''How To Make Webcomics''.
Early years and education
Kellett is a southern California native. He graduated from the University o ...
(1992) – cartoonist
*Gloria Calderon Kellett
Gloria may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music
* Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise
* Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise
** Gloria (Handel)
** Gloria (Jenkins) ...
(1993) – television writer
*Phil Mickelson
Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer who plays for LIV Golf. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six Men's major golf championships, major championships: three Masters To ...
(1988) – golfer
*Scott Peterson
Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American convicted murderer. In 2004, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, who was pregnant at the time, and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in Mod ...
(1990) – convicted murderer
*Mark Prior
Mark William Prior (born September 7, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current coach. A onetime top prospect of the Chicago Cubs, he pitched for the team from 2002 to 2006 in a career that was marred by injuries. In ...
(1998) – baseball player
*Carlos Quentin
Carlos José Quentin (born August 28, 1982) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres. In 2008 and 2011, Quentin was selec ...
– baseball player
* Chris Richard – baseball player
*Kelly Rulon
Kelly Kristen Rulon (born August 16, 1984 in Point Loma, California) is an American water polo player. She won a gold medal with the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the water polo competition. She is also a bronze medalist from the ...
(2002) – water polo player
*Jerry Trainor
Gerald William "Jerry" Trainor (born January 21, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for playing Spencer Shay in the teen sitcom ''iCarly'', winning three Kids' Choice Awards for his performance, and reprises the role on its revival series o ...
(1995) – actor
*Moriah van Norman
Moriah van Norman (born May 30, 1984) is an American water polo player who has played for the University of Southern California and the National team, who won the Peter J. Cutino Award in 2004, recognized as the best female collegiate player in ...
– water polo player
*Luke Walton
Luke Theodore Walton (born March 28, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 10 seasons in the NBA as a fo ...
(1998) – NBA player and head coach
*Barry Zito
Barry William Zito (born May 13, 1978) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. His pitching repertoire consisted of a curveball ...
– baseball player
CCHS
* Brady Aiken, first overall pick of the 2014 MLB Draft
* Megan Faraimo, college softball pitcher
* Tyler Gaffney
Tyler Gaffney (born April 20, 1991) is an American football running back who is a free agent and former professional baseball outfielder. He was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college footbal ...
, NFL running back
* Stephen Gonsalves
Stephen William Gonsalves (born July 8, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Chicago Cubs organization. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox. Listed at and , the throws and ...
, MLB pitcher for Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
*Brandon McCoy
Brandon Lee McCoy (born June 11, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the UNLV Runnin' Rebels. He stands 7’0’’ (213 cm) tall and plays ce ...
, basketball player for the Wisconsin Herd
The Wisconsin Herd are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and are affiliated with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Herd play their home games at Oshkosh Arena.
History
On June 29, 2016, it was anno ...
* Casey Toohill, NFL Defensive End
See also
* Primary and secondary schools in San Diego, California
This is a list of primary and secondary schools in San Diego, California, organized by school district.
The San Diego Unified School District, also known as San Diego City Schools, is the school district that serves the majority of the city, it ...
References
{{authority control
Catholic secondary schools in California
1957 establishments in California
High schools in San Diego