St. Catherine's High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Racine, Wisconsin. It is a member of Siena Catholic Schools of Racine and the Catholic Schools of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
St. Catherine's traces its origins to the fall of 1864 when the Racine Dominican Sisters established an all-girls' day and boarding academy. In the fall of 1864, the Racine Dominican Sisters opened a day and boarding school for girls on property they purchased at Twelfth Street and Park Avenue. The school was named St. Catherine's Academy. In 1874, the Academy was chartered by the State of Wisconsin, with the power to confer academic honors.
In 1907, the facilities of the Park Avenue building were no longer able to accommodate all the young ladies who made application for study there. Accordingly, the Sisters erected a boarding school, known as Holy Rosary Academy at Corliss, (Sturtevant), Wisconsin; day students continued to attend St. Catherine's Academy. Holy Rosary was closed in 1917.
In 1924 St. Catherine's (coed) High School opened and the all-girl academy was closed. A statue of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican saint and scholar, was enshrined in a niche above the main entrance, for the institution was originally to be named in his honor (to be known as St. Thomas High School.) The academy girls, however, convinced authorities to retain the name of St. Catherine's.
In the fall of 1945, in order to accommodate all the students seeking admission, St. Catherine's inaugurated a double-shift schedule. Excavation for a new wing was begun in March 1947, and Archbishop Kiley of Milwaukee dedicated the building extending 175 feet south on Park Avenue in August 1949.
The lot on the east side of Park Avenue is now used as an athletic field by the school. It was given to the school to use when the Dominican Sisters built their new motherhouse, Siena Center, and had the old convent building which stood on that property demolished. The North Central Association has accredited St. Catherine's High School since 1937.
On August 1, 2018, St. Catherine's became part of the newly-founded Siena Catholic Schools in Racine operated under the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and is no longer a sponsored ministry of the Racine Dominicans. However, a member of the Racine Dominicans will sit on the board of trustees for the indefinite future.
St. Catherine's is well known in the state for the success of the boys' basketball program. 3 of the team's coaches, Bob Letsch, John Mcguire, and Jim Kersten, have been inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (WBCA).
The Angels own a total of 15 state championships, nine from the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (WISAA) and its predecessor, the Wisconsin Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association (WCIAA), and seven championships since joining the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) in 2000 (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2021 and 2026).
Coach John Mcguire, (1951-1962,1965-1979) finished his career with team with a record of 511âÂÂ112, six WISAA state championships, five runner-up finishes and nine conference titles. His teams went undefeated in 1960, 1968, and 1970. He was inducted as a charter member into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 1979 and into the Racine County Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Coach Robert "Bob" Letsch, (1979-2016) finished his career with a record 661âÂÂ250, as the second-winningest high school basketball coach in Wisconsin's history. During his tenure, his teams compiled eight state championships in 1985, âÂÂ92, âÂÂ93, âÂÂ05, âÂÂ06, âÂÂ07, âÂÂ09 and âÂÂ10. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Racine County Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. His 2005-06 team went undefeated and holds the record for the largest victory margin in a state-title game, when the Angels pounded Westby 69âÂÂ29 in the Division 3 championship game. Letsch was named Associated Press All- State Coach of the Year twice, in 1992 and 2007, and Racine All-County Coach of the Year 5 times: 1985, 1992, 2000, 2003 and 2005.
In 2016, the team named Coach Nick Bennett to replace Letsch. He earned a state title in 2021, and was named Racine All-County, Associated Press All-State, and WBCA Coach of the Year. In July 2021, Bennett announced he was stepping down as coach of the Angels. He finished his career at St. Cat's with a record of 106-20.
On August 7, 2021 Coach Ryan Thompson was chosen to take over the basketball program as head coach.
St. Catherine's High School is a member of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association(WIAA) and the Metro Classic Conference. The school offers the following sports:
Fall: football, boys' cross country, girls' cross country, boys' soccer, girls' volleyball, girls' swimming, girls' tennis, girls' golf, girls' pom pons
Winter: boys' basketball, girls' basketball, boys' bowling, girls' bowling, boys' swimming, girls' pom pons
Spring: baseball, boys' track & field, girls' track & field, boys' tennis, boys' golf, girls' soccer, girls' softball
St. Catherine's athletic program began in 1926 with the hiring of Coach and Athletic Director Fred "Bud" Beyer, a law student from Marquette University. The first sports introduced were basketball, football, and coed bowling. The first competitive game played was basketball, versus St. John's Cathedral of Milwaukee on Friday, January 8, 1926, in which St. Cat's lost 24 to 15. Beyer resigned in February 1927 and Eugene âÂÂScrapironâ Young, a law student from the University of Notre Dame, was hired that March to fill the position. Baseball was introduced the same year with the hiring of Coach J. George Fay, a former Wausau Lumberjacks player from Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Catholic Conference
In 1930, former Chicago Bear and Green Bay Packer, Thomas âÂÂRedâ Hearden, took the reins of the athletic program. That same year St. Cat's joined the Catholic Conference; which originally consisted of Pio Nono, St. Bonaventure, Messmer, Cathedral, and Marquette High Schools. In 1938, Don Bosco was added to the conference, and in 1948, Pius XI and St. Benedict's joined; making a total of 8 teams.
WCIAA
In 1957, the school joined the newly formed Wisconsin Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association (WCIAA). At that time, private schools were barred from the WIAA, so the WCIAA was formed to sanction tournaments to determine their own state champions.
WISAA
In 1968, St. Cat's joined the 58 member Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (WISAA) which combined all private schools. In 1972, the WISAA launched the girls' sports program, which officially sanctioned volleyball, basketball, tennis, and track state tournaments.
WIAA
In 1997, the WIAA members passed a vote which paved the way for St. Cat's (and all private schools in the state) to join the association in 2000.
Originally nicknamed the "Saints," the school's team nickname was changed to the "Angels" beginning in the fall of 1940 in order to avoid confusion with other local high school teams with the same name.