Saint Joseph High School (Denver, Colorado)

St. Joseph's High School (commonly referred to as St. Joe) was a fully accredited Catholic high school located at 601 Fox Street in Denver, Colorado. It was one of several parochial high schools in the Denver Metropolitan Area. Saint Joseph High School served students in grades 9 through 12. The entire student body averaged less than 300 students. This small school size may have contributed to their tremendous pride. It was built in one of the original settlement areas of historic Denver. The adjoining Saint Joseph Church is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Earliest History

In the early 1900s, Saint Joseph Parish was one of the largest parishes in Denver. It served the area south of Colfax Avenue and west of Cherry Creek. “St. Joseph School, which had been squeezing kindergarten through ninth-grade pupils into the church basement, built a $29,000, brick, three-story facility at 601 Fox Street in 1908. A high school program initiated that fall featured a practical business curriculum designed to make its graduates employable.” In later years, Saint Joseph Parish was split into Saint Francis to the south and Presentation to the west.

Academics

Saint Joseph's academic year followed the semester system. This provided for the school’s core of college prep, honors, basic courses and a selection of academic electives. The school also offered foreign language classes in Spanish, German, Latin, and French. There were also music and performing arts classes along with concerts and plays. Its journalism class produced the school newspaper and yearbook “The Santa Fe Trail”.

Sports

Saint Joseph earned many team and individual championships in their history. They participated in the Denver Parochial League and then later in the Denver Metro League. Notable achievements were earned in football, basketball, baseball, boxing, and wrestling. The school also had track, cross-country and golf teams.

Alumni

Alumni of Saint Joseph's High School have gone on to pursue a broad spectrum of careers and entrepreneurships in many areas. Those areas include business, entertainment, environmental, government, information technology, health care, law, law enforcement, military, telecommunications, and travel.

God & Country

“During World War II, St. Joseph parish more than proved its patriotism. The church made itself a center for USO activities to comfort and entertain the military. Nuns and parish women taught school children to knit, quilt, and make scrap books that were sent to fighting men overseas. The school's Genes Club, made up of future secretaries and stenographers, sent letters of encouragement to the many men of St. Joseph's at the front. Students also worked on scrap metal and war material drives as well as war bond sales.” Saint Joseph alumni have fought and served in the armed forces in every American conflict from WWI to the Persian Gulf War.

Closure

Saint Joseph's High School was closed by the Archdiocese of Denver

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver

The Archdiocese of Denver is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for Denver, Colorado and the Colorado counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Jefferson, Larimer, Logan and Weld in the northern part of the state. The Archdiocese's home is at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate...

in 1987. Saint Francis High School was closed at the same time. Saint Joseph, Saint Francis, and Cathedral High School were merged into a new school, Central Catholic High School. Central Catholic High School closed in 1982.

Notable Alumni and Coaches

Bob Burns (basketball coach) is recognized as being one of the elite coaches from the Denver Parochial League.
Bob Cortese
Bob Cortese
Bob Cortese is a former American football player and coach. He was the 19th head college football coachfor the Fort Hays State University Tigers located in Hays, Kansas and he held that position for eight seasons, from 1990 until 1997. His career coaching record at Fort Hays was 55 wins, 32...

(football coach) started his stellar head coaching career at Saint Joseph and went on the have numerous successes at other high schools and at the college level.
Danny Hermosillo fought in the Golden Gloves, for the Denver Rocks boxing club, and as a professional boxer.
Christopher Kelly is a retired Air Force three star general, an accomplished pilot, and commander.
Kevin Kelly is a retired Captain with the Denver Sheriff Department.
Dan O’Hare is a retired Division Chief with the Denver Police Department.
Janice (Galla) Payan is a professor at the University of Northern Colorado. She was awarded the Fulbright - Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration Distinguished Chair.
Rudy Payan is the retired Manager of the Denver division of the Government Accounting Office (GAO).
Richard Yribia is a news director for KMGH television station in Denver. His news team was nominated for an Emmy.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.