DeMatha Catholic High School is a private, Catholic four-year college preparatory high school in Hyattsville, Maryland. The only high school run by the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, the school was founded in 1946.
DeMatha is renowned for both academics and athletics. Academically, the U.S.
Department of Education recognized DeMatha as a "National School of Excellence" in both 1984 and 1991(Most schools only receive recognition one year, if any). Athletically, DeMatha's records speaks for itself. In fact, Sports Illustrated ranked DeMatha as the #2 high school athletic program in the
United States in 2005, and former coach Morgan Wootten is a member of the National Basketball Hall of Fame.
As an alumnus, I can say that I never played organized sports for DeMatha. In fact, I participated in the
National Honor Society and Mock Trial team, which won the Maryland state championship the year I graduated. We accomplished this by defeating
approximately 130 other high schools, all either Catholic, public, co-educational, or some combination of those three.
The athletic program does not recruit its players. The school has 900 to 1,000 young men from the DC Metropolitan Area. Naturally, they have more candidates for all-male sports teams than a smaller, co-ed school. That's just mathematics.
Additionally, I graduated with honors in
2001, and continued my education at a Jesuit university and a Catholic law school. I doubt either of these schools would have accepted me had I received a poor academic foundation during my high school years.
DeMatha's biggest rival is Gonzaga College High School, a Jesuit-run prep school in Washington, and another fine Catholic institution.
