Bishop Donahue Memorial High School is a private

Private school

Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...

, Roman Catholic high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in McMechen, West Virginia

McMechen, West Virginia

McMechen is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,937 at the 2000 census.-History:...

. It is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southern United States comprising the state of West Virginia. It is a conjoined diocese with two centers of worship, one day expected to be split into two separate...

. It was named after Bishop Patrick James Donahue

Patrick James Donahue

Patrick James Donahue was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Wheeling from 1894 until his death in 1922....

(1849–1922), who served as the third Bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling from 1894 until his death in 1922.

Background

Bishop Donahue was opened in September 1955. It graduated its first class in 1959. It is the only Catholic high school in Marshall County. It was originally opened because the only other Catholic high schools in the Ohio Valley were Wheeling Central in Ohio County and Weirton Madonna in Hancock County. Saints James and John School in Benwood, West Virginia and Saint Francis Xavier School in Moundsville, West Virginia are Roman Catholic elementary schools in Marshall County considered to be the main feeder schools to Bishop Donahue. Some students from Our Lady of Peace School, a Roman Catholic elementary school in the Mount Olivet section of Wheeling that lies in Marshall County, also attend Bishop Donahue. The Roman Catholic Parishes of Saint John (Benwood), Saint James (McMechen), Saint Francis Xavier (Moundsville), Saint Jude (Glen Dale) and Our Lady of Peace (Mount Olivet) in Marshall County support Bishop Donahue High School.

Sports

Bishop Donahue is host to many varsity athletic teams, such as volleyball, cheerleading, football, basketball, golf, baseball, softball and track. Their main rivalries are Wheeling Central, Weirton Madonna, Cameron and Saint John Central (Bellaire, Ohio). They are a Single A high school in the state of West Virginia that is part of the River Valley Conference and the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference. They have multiple state championships, including one from their football team and two from their boys basketball team, as well as several from their other athletic teams, such as softball. They have been the state runner-up for many of their athletic teams as well. Bishop Donahue's mascot is a Bishop, and their emblem is a star with the letters B and D inside of it.