St. Viator High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| St. Viator High School |
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| Established | 1961 |
| Type | Private coeducational secondary |
| President | Fr. Mick Egan, C.S.V. |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Location | Arlington Heights, Illinois USA |
| Colors | White and navy blue |
| Mascot | Lions |
| Newspaper | The Viator Voice |
| Website | www.saintviator.com |
St. Viator High School is a Catholic co-educational secondary school in Arlington Heights, Illinois. It serves the mid- and outer-northwest suburbs of Chicago and has an enrollment of about a thousand students.
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[edit] History
Like many schools in the suburbs, St. Viator was founded as children of the post-World War II baby boom were reaching high school age. The Archdiocese of Chicago reallocated some land it had already owned — tentatively designated for a future cemetery — for educational purposes, and assigned the Clerics of St. Viator to build and run a boys' secondary school. It opened in 1961 to a small class of freshmen and a few sophomores, graduating its first class in 1964.
Enrollments waxed and waned over the next few decades. Faced with declining numbers in the mid-1980s, the choice was made to merge with Sacred Heart of Mary High School of Rolling Meadows, with which St. Viator already had a sister-school relationship. The merger was effected in the summer of 1987; St. Viator absorbed the faculty, staff, and student body of Sacred Heart beginning with the 1987–88 school year, and admitted a co-educational freshman class (the class of 1991).
The physical plant remained largely unchanged from its original 1961 footprint, but a co-educational student population required the construction of a girls' locker room. This kicked off a string of renovations to occur throughout the 1990s, including a renovation of the boys' locker room, the chapel, and science labs. Most recently, after a major capital campaign, the school was able to construct a huge multipurpose athletic addition, and the Boler Center was dedicated in summer of 2005.
[edit] Academics
St. Viator follows a college preparatory curriculum. Students are required to take classes from a breadth of areas, including math, English, fine arts, science, social science, and religion; a foreign language is required for a minumum of two years. The school requires students to complete a fixed number of community service hours in order to graduate. The classes of 2007 and 2008 were required to complete 20 hours, while the '09 class was required to do 75 and '10, 100 hours. Instruction in the Spanish, French, German, and Italian languages is offered. As of the 2007/2008 school year, students will be able to take courses in Mandarin Chinese.
[edit] Athletics
For most sports, St. Viator plays in the East Suburban Catholic Conference; for swimming and water polo, the Metro Catholic Aquatic Conference; and for lacrosse, the Mid-Suburban Conference of the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association.
- St. Viator Varsity Football were named the 2006 ESCC Conference Champions.
St. Viator won the 2003 Class A Boys Soccer State Title with a record of 23-2-4.
[edit] Fight Song
- Ye fighting men of Viator
With banners of White and Navy Blue
Fight, fight with might and main
Loyal hearts beat for you
RAH! RAH! RAH!
Bold defiant conquerors
Fight, fight, fight for victory
The cheers ring out, one mighty shout
For Viator's Varsity!
[edit] Famous former St. Viator students
- Brett Basanez- Record breaking Quarterback for Northwestern University, and signed to Carolina Panthers.
- Rob Eiter - 1992 Olympic Silver Medallist
- Ben Foster aka Ben Weasel - Lead singer of Screeching Weasel
- Ted Nugent - Rock Musician known for conservative and pro-hunting views. (Class of 1966)
- Jarrett Payton - NFL Running Back for the Tennessee Titans and son of the late Walter Payton.
- Brian Stack - Performer and writer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
- Jonathan Spector - Defender of the West Ham United of the English Premier League.
