# Bishop O'Connell High School

Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School (also known as DJO) is a private, Catholic college preparatory school founded in 1957 in Arlington County, Virginia. It was established by the Diocese of Richmond, but it has been under the direction of the Diocese of Arlington since 1974. The school is named for Bishop Denis J. O'Connell, Bishop of Richmond from 1912 to 1926.

## Brief History

On September 9, 1957, under the auspices of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School opened its doors as a co-institutional college preparatory school, admitting 360 ninth-graders. Greeting the class of 1961 were Brothers of Christian Schools and Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), who would guide their education. Since then, Bishop O'Connell has graduated more than 18,000 men and women. Today, the school serves the students from more than 80 different schools throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

## Academics

Bishop O'Connell High School holds high expectations for its students, faculty, and staff. The academic program is organized around required courses that aim to achieve desired learning goals for each student. All students follow a demanding college preparatory curriculum designed to ready them for admission to the leading colleges and universities. The Muller Academic Services Program provides support for students with documented learning disabilities. Coursework is available at the Honors and Advanced Placement levels. Dual credit and dual enrollment opportunities are also available through a partnership with Marymount University. The Global Studies Certificate Program offers optional beyond-the-classroom learning experiences focused on themes of world importance. The school also offers Expanded Services for students with intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

### Advanced Placement Program

These AP Courses are offered to students:
| Social Studies: European History United States History United States Government Comparative Government Human Geography Science: Biology Chemistry Physics 1 Physics C (Electricity & Magnetism) Physics C (Mechanics) Environmental Science | Language: English Language and Literature Spanish Language and Literature French Language German Language Latin: Vergil Fine Arts: Studio Art: Drawing Art History Music Theory | Mathematics: Calculus AB Calculus BC Statistics Others: Psychology Microeconomics Macroeconomics Computer Science A |

### Honors Program

Honors classes are also offered in a variety of academic areas. These courses are offered at the honors level:
| Accounting 1 Advanced Art Algebra 2/Trigonometry Analysis Calculus Chemistry English | French 3 and 4 Geometry German 3 and 4 Intro to Humanities Latin 3 and 4 Physics Spanish 3 and 4 | Spanish for Speakers 4 Special Topics in Religious Thought World Religions and Christian Morality Symphonic Band U.S. Government U.S. History World History |

## Activities
### Athletics

Bishop O'Connell High School participates in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). In this league, O'Connell participates in all major sports against other Catholic high schools of the D.C. metro area.

#### Rivalries

Since the mid-1980s, the school's primary athletic rival has been Paul VI Catholic High School, located in Chantilly.
Bishop Ireton High School, located in Alexandria, Virginia, is another major athletic rival.
Starting in the early 2010's, DJO has had a Major Rivalry with Gonzaga High School in Washington D.C.

#### Basketball
##### Boys' Varsity Team

These are some statistics from the last five years of O'Connell Varsity Boys' Basketball:
* 137 Victories
* 2 WCAC Regular Season Championships
* 1 WCAC Tournament Championship
* 3 Alhambra Catholic Invitational Championships
* .815 Winning Percentage

#### Soccer

The Girls' Varsity Soccer team were National Champions in 2004.

### Clubs

O'Connell has over 100 student-organized clubs. Their focuses are generally academic, service, and/or common interest. Some current clubs include: (listed alphabetically)
| Altar Society Anime Club Art Club Best Buddies Bird Watching Club Chess Club Chinese Culture Club Creative Writing Club CyberKnights Debate Drama Drum Corps Ecology Club Encouragement Club FBLA Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) French Club French Honor Society Gaming Club German Club German Honor Society G.I.V.E. | Guitar Club Helping Hands It's Academic Key Club Keyettes Largesse Latin Club Latin Honor Society Legion of Mary Local Bands Club Lost Club Martha's Table Math Club Model United Nations Music Honors Society (TRI-M) Nap Club National Honor Society (NHS) O'Connell Brothers O'Connell Sisters Pennies for the Poor Photo Club Philosophy Club | Ping Pong Club Polish Club Pro-Life Club Pure Love Club Red Cross Club S.A.V.E. Science and Engineering Club Shield (Yearbook) Soldiers of Christ Club Speech Club St. Ann's Tutors Stock and Finance Club Student Council Association (SCA) Student Trainers Student Ushers Students Against Destructive Decisions (S.A.D.D.) Teens Against Cancer Club Ultimate Frisbee Club Visor (Newspaper) Weight Training Club Young Democrats Club Young Republicans Club |

### Charitable events
#### Superdance

The O'Connell Superdance is an annual 12-hour dance-a-thon held at the school which raises money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The Superdance is organized and run by students. It was started under the administration of principal Msgr. James McMurtrie. O'Connell students began holding the Superdance in 1976 because students wanted to speed the discovery of a cure for cystic fibrosis (CF), a fatal disease of the lungs which had claimed the life of sophomore Brenda O'Donnell on April 14, 1975. Her sister, Maura, was a senior in 1976 and also suffered from cystic fibrosis. Their brother, Sean, died of cystic fibrosis that same year.
Maura O'Donnell graduated and went on to nursing school at Marymount University, continuing to support the Superdance in hopes that a cure would be found. Her last Superdance was in 1978 when she came out of the hospital just for the event. In a speech delivered to the O'Connell community, she stated:
   "All of you I know have dreams – dreams of college, of success, of love and happiness – dreams of the future. We with cystic fibrosis have dreams too. Your wonderful all-out efforts and work for this dance-a-thon may help make some of our dreams come true."
Two months later, she died of this disease.
As of 2018, O'Connell students have raised over $4,300,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.

#### Hearty Soup Drive and Living Rosary

The Hearty Soup Drive is held annually throughout the month of October. Students have a month to collect as many cans of hearty soup as possible. At the end of the month, cans are collected and donated to the local Catholic Charities food bank. The school collects approximately 10,000 cans of soup each year. At the end of the week, all the cans are displayed on the football field (weather permitting) or inside the auditorium. The student body gathers to celebrate their successful event and pray a special Living Rosary, praying for those who will ultimately benefit from their soup collection.

## Notable alumni

* Mary Catherine “Taffy” Nivert (Class of 1962) - Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter
* Robert Kimmitt (Class of 1965) - Former United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Ambassador to Germany
* Bob Asher (Class of 1966) - Played for the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears.
* Mark Kimmitt (Class of 1972) - Former Assistant Secretary of State
* Mike Brooks (Class of 1973) - Television news correspondent
* James Nealon (Class of 1973) - Former U.S. Ambassador
* James Morhard (Class of 1974) - Former Deputy Administrator of NASA and deputy sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate
* Mike Storm (Class of 1977) - Former pentathlete and Olympic silver medalist
* Edward DeMarco (Class of 1978) - Former acting director of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA)
* Eric Metcalf (Class of 1985) - Former University of Texas and NFL player and three-time Pro Bowl selection for the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Chargers. Was also a college long jumper who won the NCAA National Long Jump Championship in 1986 and 1988
* David Monahan (Class of 1989): Actor
* Pat McGee (Class of 1991): Singer-songwriter, guitarist; founding member and frontman of the Pat McGee Band
* Jimmy Lange (Class of 1993) - Former professional boxer
* Terrence Wilkins (Class of 1994) - Former University of Virginia and NFL player, and won Super Bowl XLI with the Indianapolis Colts
* Casey Crawford (Class of 1995) - Former University of Virginia and NFL player, and Super Bowl XXXVII winner with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; CEO and co-founder of Movement Mortgage
* Geoff Sprung (Class of 1996) - Member of the band Old Dominion
* Gibran Hamdan (Class of 1998) - Former Indiana University and NFL player, played for the Buffalo Bills
* Nataly Arias (Class of 2004) - Member of the Colombia National Soccer team during the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany and the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada. Two-time Olympian representing Colombia in the 2012 Olympics in London, England, and 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
* Marcus Ginyard (Class of 2005) - Former University of North Carolina and professional player
* Kate Ziegler (Class of 2006) - Former world record holder in the 1500m freestyle
* Kika Toulouse (Class of 2007) - Former professional player in the NWSL
* Kendall Marshall (Class of 2010) - Former University of North Carolina and professional player
* Jason Clark (Class of 2008) - Former Georgetown and current professional player
* Keljin Blevins (Class of 2014) - Former Montana State and current Portland Trail Blazers player
* Junior Etou (Class of 2014) - Congolese basketball player for Hapoel Be'er Sheva of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
* Kamrin Moore (Class of 2014) - Former Boston College and NFL player, played the New York Giants
* Melo Trimble (Class of 2014) - Former University of Maryland and current professional player
* Matt Lewis (Class of 2017) - Former James Madison University and current professional player for the Iowa Wolves
* Xavier Johnson (Class of 2018) - Former University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University player

## Controversy

On the morning of May 7, 2002, on D.C. metro area shock jock Elliot Segal's radio program, DC101's Elliot in the Morning was conducting a contest. The winners of this contest would be cage dancers at an upcoming Kid Rock concert at George Mason University's Patriot Center. Two sixteen-year-old O'Connell pupils, claiming to be eighteen, called the show, and disclosed alleged sexual activity at O'Connell. The principal addressed pupils over the PA system and criticized the content of the radio show. The two days of broadcasting were ruled indecent by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As a result, in October 2003, sixteen months after the incident, DC101's parent company Clear Channel Communications was fined $55,000.

## Footnotes

* 1 2 Statistical information gathered from O'Connell's official site's O'Connell: Academic - Profile
* ↑ SACS-CASI. "SACS-Council on Accreditation and School Improvement". Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
* ↑ "Tuition & Financial Aid". bishopoconnell.org. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
* ↑ "DJO" is an abbreviation for "Denis J. O'Connell."
* ↑ Advanced placement course listings taken from Academics: AP Program Archived May 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine on O'Connell's official site.
* 1 2 Only offered as a combined AP Physics C Electromagnetism and Mechanics class
* 1 2 Only offered as a combined Macro/Micro Economics class
* ↑ Honors course listing found on individual department pages within O'Connell's Academics: Available Courses Archived May 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine page.
* ↑ Statistics taken from O'Connell Boys' Basketball page Archived October 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
* ↑ "National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)". Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2009.
* ↑ Club names/info taken from O'Connell Clubs Page Archived May 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
* ↑ Helping Hands
* ↑ Martha's Table
* ↑ Pure Love Club
* ↑ S.A.V.E.
* ↑ Hailey, Jean R. (May 13, 1978). "Sister of 3 Other Victims Dies From Cystic Fibrosis". Washington Post. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
* ↑ "Annual Bishop O'Connell Superdance raises $155,000". INSIDENOVA.COM. March 24, 2018. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
* ↑ DJO SCA [@djo_sca] (October 6, 2017). "Extremely happy to announce that this year we have broken the can count record with a whopping 14,595 cans! Good job O'Connell!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
* 1 2 3 4 Clark, Charlie (August 29, 2012). "Our Man in Arlington". Falls Church News-Press.
* ↑ Houk, Steve (February 6, 2012). "Music Notes: Pat McGee's Living Dream". Washington Life.
* ↑ Maske, Mark (May 2, 2003). "A Challenge Getting Here". The Washington Post.
* ↑ Goff, Steven (July 18, 2012). "Former All-Met, University of Md. soccer star Nataly Arias gets Olympic chance with Colombia women's soccer team". The Washington Post.
* ↑ El-Bashir, Tarik (December 5, 2004). "Ginyard Has the Goods, Attitude". The Washington Post.
* ↑ Lindsay, Drew. "Making of a Winner". Washingtonian Magazine. No. August 2007.
* ↑ Breen, Matt (June 27, 2012). "2012 NBA draft: Kendall Marshall stood out at a young age". The Washington Post.
* ↑ Facinoli, Dave (May 4, 2018). "O'Connell grad Kamrin Moore drafted by New Orleans Saints". Inside NOVA.
* ↑ Bracken, Matt (December 13, 2012). "Melo Trimble, 2014 combo guard, commits to the Terps". The Baltimore Sun.
* ↑ Fawcett, Dave (November 25, 2020). "After flirting with the NBA, Woodbridge resident, O'Connell graduate Matt Lewis returns as JMU's leader". Inside NOVA. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
* ↑ Atlantic Magazine article on the incident: Air Pollution
* ↑ Mission Statement: "Our mission is to provide students an education rooted in the life of Christ and to foster the pursuit of excellence in the whole person." (quoted from O'Connell Website Archived February 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine)
* ↑ FCC Announcement of Fine (Released October 2, 2003)