An all-boys Catholic high school since 1956, Monsignor McClancy will be a co-ed school beginning in the Fall of 2012, it was announced last month. But athletic director Gerry O’Riordan said the school’s athletic philosophy will remain the same.
“I still think we’ll be as competitive as we have been,” he said. “As a small school of 500 kids, we’ve been competing with the big boys for years now. I can see that being maintained as we move forward.”
Girls will gradually be phased in, beginning with freshmen in 2012, freshmen and sophomores in 2013, freshmen, sophomores and juniors in 2014 and full integration in 2015. O’Riordan said the decision, made by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, was not a desperate measure because of declining enrollment or financial woes.
“It’s been something that’s been floated around now for a few years,” he said. “Rice is closing and there’s a few local Catholic high schools that have been laying off teachers in the last few years. We’ve been fortunate to not have to do that and I think the reason why we made this decision is so we wouldn’t have to get to that point.”
In fact, O’Riordan said, McClancy has “increased the number of academic and extra-curricular programs that we offer at the school” in recent years. According to a release on the school’s website, McClancy has also made $10 million worth of upgrades over the last several years, including classroom and technology modernization, three new science labs, a new media center and art studio, air conditioning and soundproofing of the entire facility, new locker rooms, upgraded gymnasium, athletic field and newly resurfaced running track.
In terms of enrollment, O’Riordan said McClancy has been around 500 for the last few years and ideally would only increase that number by 100.
“We want to make sure we maintain that and obviously by accepting girls we want to increase that a little bit, but not by much,” he said. “We pride ourselves on a small-school atmosphere and we do get to know all the students who come through.”
The biggest challenge, in terms of athletics, is facilities. There is just one gym, and a small one at that, so multiple basketball practices at the same time are impossible.
But O’Riordan said that they will likely utilize nearby Corpus Christi School as a practice facility.
As for the competition level of its girls sports, O’Riordan anticipates McClancy will compete on a similar level as the boys. In baseball, the Crusaders are in the highest level, but many of its other sports are ‘A’ level.
“We’ll probably compete with the smaller schools,” O’Riordan said. “We’ll compete in most sports offered by the girls CHSAA, the exception being sports we don’t already have for boys like swimming.”
O’Riordan said the immediate plan would be to have the girls compete on a junior varsity level, where applicable. But if there is no JV level, the players will immediately compete on the varsity. He also said additional coaches will likely be hired for overlapping sports, like boys and girls soccer and softball.
Overall, though, O’Riordan is excited about the new-look McClancy.
“We see it as a change, a challenge,” O’Riordan said. “But we basically see it as a new chapter in the school.”