Closing Just Shy of a Celebration

The news yesterday that Mater Dei Prep was closing its doors in June was shocking but at the same time not surprising. 

In its 50^th year of existence the high school in Middletown simply can’t go on financially with losses expected to reach $1 million for the current school year.  Many if not most parochial schools are facing financial challenges with less assistance coming from local parishes which puts greater emphasis on tuition-paying students. 

Mater Dei’s current enrollment is 340 students and in making the announcement yesterday Father Jeff Kegley, the pastor of St. Mary’s Parish said that downward financial trends cannot be reversed.

St. Mary Elementary School, with nearly 700 students is not affected and will remain open.

Ironically the Seraphs football team is coming off an 8-3 season led by record-setting senior quarterback Christian Palmer whose father Craig is the school’s principal. Sophomore wide receiver Eddie Lewis recently received a scholarship offer from the University of Iowa and will be among several sought after transfer students.   

Mater Dei alumni include a trio of shore high school basketball coaches: Dennis Devaney (St Rose), Sean Devaney (Holmdel) and John Tierney (Pinelands).  Probably the best known graduate is NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, a member of the Class of 1977.

Today is National Signing Day which is the first day high school senior football players can sign binding National Letters of Intent with the colleges of their choice.  Among the more high-profile signings will be Manny Bowen of Barnegat with Penn State and teammate Sam Madden with Georgia.  Two other Bengals to make it official will be Cinjun Erskine (Bucknell) and Xavier Young (Stonehill).

Lakewood High School’s Chapelle Cook will sign with Temple today and Piner teammate Datrell Reed will also announce his college choice.  A complete list is available at shoresportsnetwork.com and we will have pictures on the site throughout the day of players signing.  I will be at Monmouth University today with details on their group of incoming recruits. 

Many boys and girls soccer standouts will also be inking scholarships today, among them a pair of Central Regional standouts with Amanda Carolan to sign with Georgetown and Erin Trapp bound for Columbia University.  Toms River South’s Taylor Troutman is headed to Auburn University.