St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Dover, New Hampshire)
Encyclopedia
St. Thomas Aquinas High School is a coeducation
al Catholic
high school in Dover, New Hampshire
, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester
. It has a student population of approximately 650, and a faculty of 55.
, Bishop
of Manchester
, opened the fundraising drive for St. Thomas Aquinas High School. When Bishop Brady suddenly died, Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston
kept his last project alive. Cardinal Cushing greeted the new bishop, His Excellency Ernest J. Primeau, with the advice, "Go on with St. Thomas Aquinas."
The diocesan co-educational school opened in 1960 with a freshman class only. Serving seventeen parishes in southeastern New Hampshire
, the school was staffed by two diocesan priests, seven School Sisters of Notre Dame and one layman. When STA graduated its class of 219 in 1964, the faculty had grown to six priests, twenty-one sisters (requiring a new convent) and four lay teachers.
By the late 1960s, enrollment topped nine hundred students, making St. Thomas a Class L power in athletics. A nationwide trend toward declining enrollments, combined with the higher cost of salaries as the number of teaching sisters fell, brought St. Thomas through a series of challenges throughout the 1970s.
Beginning in the mid-1980s through the 1990s St. Thomas showed a steady and dramatic increase in enrollment. During this period the school enhanced and expanded the academic and extracurricular programs available to students. The convent, named Notre Dame Hall, was converted to provide additional classroom space and to house the Guidance Department, which includes offices, a library, and a conference area. Today the school is at its maximum enrollment. Admission has become competitive and many classes have waiting lists.
, soccer, swimming
and diving
, ice hockey
, basketball
, lacrosse
, wrestling
, tennis
, track
, alpine skiing
, cross country, and baseball
. In 2006-2007, the school's football team was crowned Division IV champions, and its girls' soccer team won the Class I championship. The girls' swimming team and girls' tennis team were state champions in 2008. Its girls' soccer team won the Class I championship again in 2009. The baseball team won a state championship in 2004, and were runners-up in 2009 and 2011. Also in 2009, the girls' ice hockey team won the Division I title. In 2010, the girls' tennis team repeated as champs. The tennis doubles pair of Julia Keenan and Anna Hayes were the doubles champs in 2011. Julia Keenan is the current three-time New Hampshire girls' tennis singles champion.
Overall, St. Thomas has won 23 state team championships in the last 13 years, along with dozens of individual titles.
, comic book and pulp writer best known for his work on The Green Hornet
, and Brendan DuBois
, author of numerous novels including Resurrection Day
.
Offering them the opportunity to develop their unique gifts;
Strengthening their personal faith and integrity;
Fostering within them a commitment to justice, service, and moral leadership.
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
al Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
high school in Dover, New Hampshire
Dover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. The population was 29,987 at the 2010 census, the largest in the New Hampshire Seacoast region...
, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester
Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the region of New England in the United States comprising the entire state of New Hampshire...
. It has a student population of approximately 650, and a faculty of 55.
History
In August 1959, His Excellency Matthew F. BradyMatthew Francis Brady
Matthew Francis Brady was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Burlington and Bishop of Manchester .-Biography:...
, Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Manchester
Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the region of New England in the United States comprising the entire state of New Hampshire...
, opened the fundraising drive for St. Thomas Aquinas High School. When Bishop Brady suddenly died, Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States. It comprises several counties of the state of Massachusetts...
kept his last project alive. Cardinal Cushing greeted the new bishop, His Excellency Ernest J. Primeau, with the advice, "Go on with St. Thomas Aquinas."
The diocesan co-educational school opened in 1960 with a freshman class only. Serving seventeen parishes in southeastern New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, the school was staffed by two diocesan priests, seven School Sisters of Notre Dame and one layman. When STA graduated its class of 219 in 1964, the faculty had grown to six priests, twenty-one sisters (requiring a new convent) and four lay teachers.
By the late 1960s, enrollment topped nine hundred students, making St. Thomas a Class L power in athletics. A nationwide trend toward declining enrollments, combined with the higher cost of salaries as the number of teaching sisters fell, brought St. Thomas through a series of challenges throughout the 1970s.
Beginning in the mid-1980s through the 1990s St. Thomas showed a steady and dramatic increase in enrollment. During this period the school enhanced and expanded the academic and extracurricular programs available to students. The convent, named Notre Dame Hall, was converted to provide additional classroom space and to house the Guidance Department, which includes offices, a library, and a conference area. Today the school is at its maximum enrollment. Admission has become competitive and many classes have waiting lists.
Athletics
The school's sports teams compete as the "Saints". Teams of note include footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, soccer, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, alpine skiing
Alpine skiing
Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
, cross country, and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
. In 2006-2007, the school's football team was crowned Division IV champions, and its girls' soccer team won the Class I championship. The girls' swimming team and girls' tennis team were state champions in 2008. Its girls' soccer team won the Class I championship again in 2009. The baseball team won a state championship in 2004, and were runners-up in 2009 and 2011. Also in 2009, the girls' ice hockey team won the Division I title. In 2010, the girls' tennis team repeated as champs. The tennis doubles pair of Julia Keenan and Anna Hayes were the doubles champs in 2011. Julia Keenan is the current three-time New Hampshire girls' tennis singles champion.
Overall, St. Thomas has won 23 state team championships in the last 13 years, along with dozens of individual titles.
Notable alumni
Among St. Thomas' graduates are Ron FortierRon Fortier
Ron Fortier is an American author, primarily known for his Green Hornet and The Terminator comic books and his revival of the pulp hero, Captain Hazzard. Early in his career he also wrote short stories and co-authored two novels for TSR....
, comic book and pulp writer best known for his work on The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
, and Brendan DuBois
Brendan DuBois
Brendan DuBois is an American mystery fiction and suspense writer. In this field he has won a Shamus Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He also had his short story "The Dark Snow'" published in Best American Mystery Stories of the Century edited by Otto Penzler and Tony Hillerman ISBN 0618012710...
, author of numerous novels including Resurrection Day
Resurrection Day
Resurrection Day is a novel written by Brendan DuBois in 1999. It is an alternate history where the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated to a full scale war, the Soviet Union is devastated, and the USA has been reduced to a third-rate power, relying on Britain for aid...
.
Mission
The mission of St. Thomas Aquinas High School is to transform the lives of our students through a rigorous Catholic education guided by the light of the Gospel...Offering them the opportunity to develop their unique gifts;
Strengthening their personal faith and integrity;
Fostering within them a commitment to justice, service, and moral leadership.