page_title: St. Xavier High School (Ohio)
section_title: Athletics
hierarchical_section_title: St. Xavier High School (Ohio) / Extracurricular activities / Athletics
caption_attribution_description: English: The entrance gate to Ballaban Field at St. Xavier Stadium, the football stadium on the grounds of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. This entrance was built in 2004. To the left of the gate are flags representing each of the Greater Catholic League member schools. To the right are the U.S. flag, along with flags representing St. Xavier students' home states (Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky) and exchange students' home countries (Germany, China, Spain, Catalonia, and Brazil). Catalonia is called out separately due to St. Xavier's longstanding relationship with Col·legi Casp-Sagrat Cor de Jesús in Barcelona.
context_page_description: Saint Xavier High School is a private, college-preparatory high school just outside the Cincinnati city limits, in the Finneytown neighborhood of Springfield Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The independent, non-diocesan school is operated by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus as one of four all-male Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Aside from colleges and universities, St. Xavier is the second-largest private school in Ohio and one of the 100 largest schools in the state, with 1,514 enrolled students as of the 2018–19 school year. It is the second-largest of the 35 all-male high schools run by the Society of Jesus in the United States.
  St. Xavier is the oldest high school in the Cincinnati area and one of the oldest in the nation. It grew out of the Athenaeum, which opened in 1831 in downtown Cincinnati. From 1869 to 1934, the high school program formed the lower division of St. Xavier College, now Xavier University. The high school moved to its present location in 1960.
  The Bombers football team and Aquabombers swimming and diving team have a national profile, appearing frequently at state championships and in national rankings.
context_section_description: St. Xavier's large athletic program was ranked 13th in the nation in 2008 by Sports Illustrated. The school offers 17 Division I athletic programs – baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, rugby union, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. The teams are members of the Greater Catholic League (GCL). As one of four all-male institutions that participate in the GCL's South Division, St. Xavier competes with nearby Elder, La Salle, and Moeller high schools.
  St. Xavier's sports teams were originally nicknamed the "Conquistadors", or "Conquerors". Eventually, the teams came to be known as the Bombers. Competing explanations of the name change credit American success in World War II, "bombs" thrown by George Ratterman to Charley Wolf in football or basketball games, and a corruption of the nickname given to Jesuit missionaries in World War II, the "Balmers". The Cincinnati Enquirer first referred to St. Xavier's basketball team as the "Bombers" on January 19, 1944; however, it continued to refer to the football team as the "Conquerors" through the end of the year.
  The official school mascot is "Benny the Bomber", a bomber pilot. He was reintroduced in 2019 after a 22-year hiatus. Another school mascot is the "Blue Monster" – a shaggy, Muppet-like mascot that takes its name from the student cheering section – appears at games wearing a Bomber football jersey.
  Bomber games are often broadcast on Waycross Community Media. Football games are simulcast on Fox Sports Radio affiliate WSAI, clear-channel ESPN Radio affiliate WCKY, and iHeartRadio.
  As of February 10, 2017, 1,178 St. Xavier students were eligible to participate in OHSAA-sanctioned competitions, placing the school in the AAA boys class for the 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years. OHSAA bylaws prohibit residents of Kentucky and Indiana from competing. In 1985, a lawsuit was filed against OHSAA and St. Xavier on behalf of four St. Xavier students who were residents of Kentucky, claiming that the rule violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the rule in Alerding v. Ohio High School Athletic Association.
caption: The entrance to Ballaban Field at St. Xavier Stadium.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD450", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:10:25 13:48:48", "Image ExifOffset": "174", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:10:25 13:48:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:10:25 13:48:48", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}