Walsh Jesuit High School is a private,

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 ...

co-educational 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 ...

college preparatory high school located in

Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Cuyahoga Falls ( or ) is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 51,114. The second-largest city in Summit County, it is located directly north of Akron and is a suburb of the Akron metropol ...

, approximately 30 miles south of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Walsh Jesuit is reputed to be one of Ohio's leading college preparatory schools and is consistently ranked among the top high schools in Northeast Ohio for college scholarships in Crain’s Cleveland Business. Its campus covers 110 acres and is just minutes from the

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Cuyahoga Valley National Park is an American national park that preserves and reclaims the rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. The park is administered by the National Park Service, but within ...

. It is a member of the Jesuit Schools Network with a motto of “Men and Women for and with Others,” with a stated mission of instilling in its students the spirit of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. The school’s patron saints are the North American Jesuit Martyrs and its chapel, topped with the distinctive metallic cross which has become the school's most prominent symbol and landmark, is named in their honor.

History

Walsh Jesuit High School was funded by a generous gift from Cornelius Walsh (b. 1864), a prominent industrialist and Catholic layman who had lived his entire life in Cuyahoga Falls. Upon his death in 1932, Cornelius bequeathed his entire fortune to his wife, Jane, who continued to donate generously to Catholic institutions and, with the assistance of her nephew, William A. Walsh, designed her will to include a large gift for the foundation of a Catholic high school. William, partial to the Jesuits, convinced his aunt to bequeath to the Society of Jesus her property and $100,000 for the building of an all-boys school that would be a memorial to her husband. William approached the Chicago Province of the Jesuits with the proposal, but the gift lay dormant for years until found during a transfer of files from the Chicago Province to the Detroit Province in 1959. William urged Fr. John McGrail, S.J., the head of the Jesuits' Detroit Province, to reconsider the proposal made in Jane's will. The school's campus was originally planned to be built in downtown Cuyahoga Falls near St. Joseph Parish School, but using the gift from Jane (which had grown to $2 million under William's stewardship, and to which the Cleveland Catholic Diocese added $1 million), 50 acres were purchased from the Conway family farm north of downtown, with an additional 50 acres purchased later. Groundbreaking ceremonies for Walsh Jesuit took place in 1964, and the school opened its doors to 153 freshmen on September 7, 1965. The school was dedicated in May 1966, and the first class graduated in 1969. All Students were required to wear neckties, a shirt with a collar, and hair not falling over the ears. A "tie strike" was organized in 1969, which was easily quashed. Initially founded as an all-boys institution similar to other prominent Northeast Ohio Catholic high schools, Walsh Jesuit's leadership decided to go co-ed in 1991 amid excess capacity and financial challenges to the school's continued existence. The decision was initially met with resistance by many Walsh Jesuit alumni and students, culminating in a student

walkout In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace and withholding labor as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an ...

, which received extensive local media coverage, when the news of the decision was made public. Despite the protests, the first girls entered the school at the beginning of the 1993-1994 academic year.

Athletics

Walsh Jesuit won a total of 39

Ohio High School Athletic Association The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) is the governing body of athletic programs for junior and senior high schools in the state of Ohio. The OHSAA governs eligibility of student athletes, resolves disputes, organizes levels of compe ...

team state championships and claims seven national team championships. The school is also home to 113 individual state championships in various sports. Walsh Jesuit currently competes in the

Crown Conference The Crown Conference is a high school athletic conference for Catholic schools in Greater Cleveland, Ohio. The conference began play in fall 2021 and will disband in June 2024. Members Former member History The Crown Conference was est ...

, since the beginning of the 2021–22 school year. Walsh Jesuit was previously a member of the

North Coast League The North Coast League (NCL) was a high school athletic conference for Catholic schools in Greater Cleveland, Ohio. The NCL was founded in 1984 by six parochial high schools: Cleveland Central Catholic, Holy Name, Lake Catholic, Pacua Francis ...

from 2011 to 2020.

National championships

* Boys'

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 ...

- 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 * Girls'

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 ...

- 2000, 2006, 2010

State championships

* Boys' Cross Country – 1984, 2002 * Boys'

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 ...

– 1999, 2004, 2006, 2008 *

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

– 1999 * Boys'

– 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 * Boys'

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 ...

– 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997 * Boys'

– 1982, 1990, 2006 * Girls'

– 2001, 2004, 2007 * Girls' Soccer – 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 *

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 ...

– 2002, 2004, 2016 * Girls'

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 ...

– 2005

Notable alumni

Ryan Armour Ryan Patrick Armour (born February 27, 1976) is an American professional golfer. His father is David Armour and his mother is Jude Armour of Silver Lake, Ohio. His grandfather was Frank Armour Jr. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who was president o ...

(1994), professional golfer on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

* Christopher Connor (1974), CEO of Sherwin-Williams Co. *

Connor Cook Connor Cook (born January 29, 1993) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans and was their starting quarterback from 2013 to 2015. He holds the record for most career wins at Michigan ...

(2011),

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the school colors are green and wh ...

and

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

* Ryan Feltner (2015), MLB

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the Colorado Rockies * Steve Fitzhugh (1982), former NFL

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

Drew Kaser Andrew James Kaser (born February 11, 1993) is an American football punter who is a free agent. He played college football at Texas A&M. College career In Kaser's first season with the Texas A&M Aggies, he played in only one game, punting twic ...

(2011), former NFL punter * Brock Kreitzburg (1994), member of the USA-1 four man

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

team that placed seventh in the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

* Tom Lopienski (1998), former Notre Dame and NFL fullback * Kenneth Merten (1979), United States Ambassador to

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Tim Murphy Timothy Murphy may refer to: Politics * Tim Murphy (American politician) (born 1952), American Republican Party politician from Pennsylvania * Tim Murphy (Canadian politician) (born 1959), Canadian politician * Timothy J. Murphy (1893–1949), I ...

(1970), member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

Michael Nanchoff Michael Nanchoff (born September 23, 1988) is an American retired soccer player who is currently an assistant coach for the Akron Zips men's soccer team. Career College and Amateur Before college, Nanchoff played for Walsh Jesuit High School i ...

(2007), 8th overall pick of the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

* Kevin O'Neill (1993), former NFL

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

* Adam Redmond (2011), NFL

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

Jason Rohrer Jason Rohrer (born November 14, 1977) is an American computer programmer, writer, musician, and game designer. He publishes most of his software into the public domain (Public domain software) and charges for commercial platform distributed ve ...

(1996), game designer *

Mike Vrabel Michael George Vrabel (; born August 14, 1975) is an American football coach and former linebacker who is the head coach of the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State, where he earned con ...

(1993), former NFL

and current head coach for the Tennessee Titans

References

External links

Walsh Jesuit High School official websiteJesuit Secondary Education Association official website
{{authority control Jesuit high schools in the United States High schools in Summit County, Ohio Catholic secondary schools in Ohio Educational institutions established in 1965 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland 1965 establishments in Ohio