St. Andrew Abbey and Benedictine High School broke ground for Phase I of their $4 million Centennial Campaign: A Present and Future Community of Faith on Oct. 28.
Chris Lorber, vice president of advancement for the Benedictine Order of Cleveland and a 2004 BHS graduate, said the groundbreaking marks the beginning of the first construction project on the Benedictine campus since Bossu Athletic Field was completed in 2012. The campus, at 2900 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Cleveland, houses both St. Andrew Abbey, where the monks live and pray, and Benedictine High School, the 93-year-old all-boys school that serves more than 300 students in grades 9-12. BHS is the primary ministry of the local Benedictine monks.
The 16-acre campus will be reoriented to increase and maximize green space, said Matthew Joyce, a 1990 BHS graduate and chair of the campaign construction committee. He said countless hours have been devoted to the project. A service building that sits on the edge of a small parking area between the abbey, the gym and the high school will be razed and the parking area will be repurposed in Phase I to create a courtyard uniting the abbey, main classroom building, the wooded grotto area and athletic field. This will pave the way for construction of a new atrium entrance for the high school that will connect the classroom and science buildings.
The courtyard will be named in honor of the late Joe Rufus, a legendary figure at BHS. Rufus, who died in 1996, served as head football, baseball and basketball coach and later athletic director at BHS 1946-1987. The Benedictine Bengals became an athletic powerhouse and the name Home of Champions was adopted in the 1940s as the school’s nickname.
The new, lighted courtyard will be built in the shape of a cross, “Which is why we’re here,” Joyce added. He thanked the monks of St. Andrew Abbey for their support, as well as school officials and the philanthropists, who he said “recognize the value of a Benedictine education” and whose generosity make the campaign projects possible.
Joyce also told the approximately two dozen people gathered for the groundbreaking on what will become the new courtyard that they have provisional approval for six lots nearby to expand Benedictine’s footprint.
Ryan Ryzner, BHS president and principal and a 1995 graduate, said the centennial campaign and projects will further cement Benedictine’s decades-long commitment to the Buckeye neighborhood. He said the projects will help the school to further its mission of educating young men through development of the mind, body and spirit.
Ryzner said the new courtyard will provide space for neighborhood gatherings, outdoor education and performances and more.
“It will inspire future Bengals as we launch into the next century. I can’t wait to see where we will go,” Ryzner added.
Lorber said Rufus’ impact continues at BHS through the annual Joe Rufus Spirit Award, a coveted honor that both he and Ryzner received during their time at the school. He thanked Rufus’ son, Greg, a 1974 BHS graduate, and his daughter, Mary Kay Popovich, both of whom attended the ceremony, for all their father did to make the school a special place.
Abbot Gary Hoover, a 1974 BHS graduate, offered a prayer and blessed the ground for the new courtyard, noting the campus “is being transformed for our Men of Benedictine.”
Auxiliary Bishop emeritus Roger Gries, a 1954 BHS graduate, a Benedictine monk and abbot until his elevation to bishop, also served as a teacher, coach, bus driver, assistant principal and principal at BHS. He recalled playing for Rufus and said his former coach, who was an educator and a disciplinarian, “inspired me to be who I am. I am so happy to be here today and to share my connection with Joe Rufus,” he added, before offering a blessing on those gathered for the groundbreaking.
In addition to the new Rufus Courtyard, Phase II of the centennial campaign will follow next summer with construction of a new atrium connecting the BHS classroom and science buildings. The atrium will open to the large parking lot in front of Bossu Field, named for legendary BHS football and baseball coach Augie Bossu. It will replace a bridge walkway that has connected the two buildings since 1952. This phase also will include replacement of the roof of St. Andrew Abbey Church, which was built in 1984.
Phase III will include capital upgrades and improvements to the school’s science labs and cafeteria.
More than $2.9 million of the campaign’s $4 million goal has been raised.
The campaign leads up to the 100thanniversary – in 2022 – of the arrival of the first Benedictine monks in Cleveland.
In 1922, a small group of Benedictine monks from St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois arrived in Cleveland and assumed administration of St. Andrew Parish at East 52nd Street and Superior Avenue. They established a priory -- a small monastery -- and five years later, in 1927, opened Benedictine High School. In 1929, both the monastery and high school relocated to their current location.