Fairfield College Preparatory School (Fairfield Prep) is a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

preparatory school located on the campus of

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull, Easton, Connecticut, Easton, Weston, Connecticut, W ...

. It is an all-male school of about 800 students, founded by the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in 1942.

History

The bishop of

Archdiocese of Hartford The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Hartford () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Connecticut in the United States. It is a metropolitan see. It was established as the Diocese of Hartford in 1843, whe ...

brought the Jesuits to the diocese in 1942, prior to the establishment of the Diocese of Bridgeport in 1953, with the purchase of the adjoining estates of Jennings and Lashar off North Benson Road in Fairfield. The school began operations first; the university followed in 1947. Prep was first accredited by the

New England Association of Schools and Colleges The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC ) is an American educational organization that accredits private and public secondary schools (high schools and technical/career institutions), primarily in New England. It also ...

in 1945. The prep campus is a proper boarding school campus on the east-central side of the university and has its own sports field, while having use of university facilities for many activities. The three, conjoined Prep buildings occupy a hill overlooking

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

on the 200-acre campus it shares with the university. Students come from 51 towns across Connecticut, with the majority of the students from

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...

, Trumbull, Stratford, Norwalk, and Fairfield. Ten percent are students of color.

Program

Qualifying students are admitted to honors courses. Seventeen advanced placement (AP) courses are offered at Prep. Seniors who excel in math, science, and foreign languages are permitted to take courses next door at Fairfield University, at no additional tuition. Admission to the university library is also permitted to Prep students.

Athletics

Fairfield College Preparatory School is part of the Quinnipiac Division in the Southern Connecticut Conference. The school fields 15 varsity sports including football, soccer, cross country, basketball, ice hockey, swimming & diving, wrestling, skiing, baseball, lacrosse, track & field, rugby, golf, crew, and sailing. Prep's athletic teams have won 49 CIAC state championships and numerous other state titles in non-CIAC sports.

Hockey

Prep has won 19 state championships, the most recent in 2023 where Prep defeated Notre Dame West Haven 3-0 at Quinnipiac University. Prep has had four players work their way up to the National Hockey League, including Chris '94 and Ted Drury '89, Jaime Sifers '01 and Mark Arcobello '06. Matt Sather '93 has coached the hockey team since 1999, leading it to eleven state championships. Since 1991, there has not been a 4-year class at Prep that has not won a state title in hockey.

Swimming and diving

Prep posted three straight undefeated regular seasons from 2007 to 2009 and won the CIAC Class L Championship in 2007. The Jesuits placed second behind rival

Greenwich High School Greenwich High School is a four-year public high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. The school is part of the Greenwich Public Schools system and serves roughly 2,700 students. It offers over 295 courses and a wide variety of co-cu ...

in the CIAC Class LL Championship in each season since the Class L title in 2007. In 2012, Fairfield Prep finished undefeated for the first time since 2009, and won their 8th straight SCC championship. The team won the 2012 Class LL and State Open Championships. Fairfield Subsequently lost Conference Championships in 2020 and 2021 to rival Xavier High School from Middletown.

Lacrosse

Prep's lacrosse program has won six state titles since 2006 with three runner-up finishes during that time. The team won most recently in 2013, beating

Staples High School Staples High School is a public high school in Westport, Connecticut, United States. It is named after Horace Staples, who founded the school on April 26, 1884. Westport is one of eight school districts in District Reference Group A (along with ...

, for the school's 5th state championship. Christopher Smalkais coached the team for 33 years from 1983 to 2016 and won six state championships. He was inducted into the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2013. His introduction speech was given by 2011 Hall of Fame Inductee Howard Benedict, longtime New Canaan High School Lacrosse coach and a '63 Fairfield Prep alumnus.

Tennis

Prep's tennis team has won 10 state team championships, with the most recent in 2003. Todd Paul, Class of 2003, won the Class LL Singles Championship four years in a row.

Rugby

Prep Rugby has been perennial contenders under Coach Frank Decker, and have been runner-up in every state championship match except one. Arch rival

won the championship each year. Prep rugby has many notable alumni, including Kenneth Stern '06 who attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and plays for the Philippines national team, and Will Brazier '01 who attended

and played for the USA Tomahawks and the

USA Falcons The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

. In April 2016 Prep sponsored the first annual North-East Jesuit Rugby Tournament, and prevailed over five other Jesuit schools. They have won 3 out of 4 Northeast Jesuit Tournaments.

Rival

Prep's rival is Xavier High School.

List of Championship Wins

Notable alumni

Jeff Davis (writer) Jeff Davis (born June 13, 1975) is an American writer and television producer best known for creating ''Criminal Minds'' and ''Teen Wolf''. Early life Davis was born in Milford, Connecticut. He graduated from Vassar College with a degree in film ...

- creator and director of the popular shows Criminal Minds and Teen Wolf *

Peter J. Denning Peter James Denning (born January 6, 1942) is an American computer scientist and writer. He is best known for pioneering work in virtual memory, especially for inventing the working-set model for program behavior, which addressed thrashing in ...

'60 - computer scientist * Felly '12 - rapper * Kevin Heffernan '86 - actor/comedian/film writer/attorney (

Broken Lizard Broken Lizard is an American comedy troupe that comprises Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan (actor), Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They collaborate on the screen-writing, acting and productions of their films, wi ...

) *

Pat Jordan Pat Jordan (17 July 1928 – 1 September 2001) was a British Trotskyist who was central to founding the International Marxist Group. Jordan was born in Chelsea, London,Cohen, S. 'Pat Jordan (1928-2001) in ''Revolutionary History'' Vol.8 No.3 p ...

'59 - acclaimed author of ''A False Spring'', ranked #37 on Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time *

Peter Jankowski Peter F. Jankowski (born January 8, 1964) is an American television, film producer and film developer. He is President and Chief Operating Officer of Dick Wolf's Wolf Entertainment, headquartered in Universal City, California. His work across bo ...

‘82 - president of Wolf Entertainment * Kevin Kallaugher '73 - cartoonist for the Economist magazine * George F. Keane - founder of the Common Fund * Stephen Kellogg '94 - musician, Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers *

Robert Kowalski Robert Anthony Kowalski (born 15 May 1941) is an American-British logician and computer scientist, whose research is concerned with developing both human-oriented models of computing and computational models of human thinking. He has spent most ...

'58 - logician * William J. Lavery '55 -

Chief Judge Chief judge may refer to: In lower or circuit courts The highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. * Chief judge (Australia) * Chief judge (United States) In supreme courts Some of Chief ...

Connecticut Appellate Court The Connecticut Appellate Court is the court of first appeals for all cases arising from the Connecticut Superior Courts. Its creation in 1983 required Connecticut's voters and legislature to amend the state's constitution A constitution i ...

Justin Long Justin Jacob Long (born June 2, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his film roles, particularly in comedy and horror films, notably appearing in ''Galaxy Quest'' (1999), ''Jeepers Creepers (2001 film), Jeepers Creepers'' ( ...

'96 - actor and spokesman for Geico * Mike McGlone '91 - actor and spokesman for Geico * Sean McManus '73 - President, CBS News and CBS Sports * Brian Monahan '78 -

Attending Physician of the United States Congress The Attending Physician of the United States Congress is the physician responsible for the medical welfare of the members of the United States Congress and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Attending Physician is tasked ...

and Rear Admiral in the United States Navy *

Peter Sarsgaard John Peter Sarsgaard (; born March 7, 1971) is an American actor. He studied at the Actors Studio, before rising to prominence playing atypical and sometimes villainous roles in film and television. He made his film debut with '' Dead Man W ...

'89 - actor * Yohuru Williams - dean of Fairfield University College of Arts and Sciences * Peter Cuong Franklin - modern Vietnamese cuisine chef * Mark Arcobello - professional hockey player,

SC Bern Schlittschuh Club Bern ('' Ice-skating Club Bern'' in English) is a professional ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rin ...

* Will Brazier '01 - rugby player with USA Tomahawks and

Chris Drury Christopher Ellis Drury (born August 20, 1976) is an American professional ice hockey executive and former player. He has served as the president and general manager for the New York Rangers since May 5, 2021. He previously served as the gene ...

'94 - professional hockey player, 1998-99 NHL Rookie of the Year, Member of Team USA in Winter Olympics * Craig Kinsley '07 - 2012 London Olympic track and field athlete * Matt Merullo '83 - major league catcher * Mike Porzio '90 -

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player (

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

) * Bob Skoronski '52 - professional football player, Offensive Captain of Green Bay Packers Super Bowls I & II Champions * Terry Tarpey '12 - basketball player

Notable former faculty

* John McLaughlin - television talk show host and advisor to President Richard Nixon *

Francis A. Sullivan Francis Alfred Sullivan (May 21, 1922 – October 23, 2019) was an American Catholic theologian and a Jesuit priest, best known for his research in the area of ecclesiology and the magisterium. Early life and Jesuit formation Francis "Frank" ...

- Jesuit theologian and ecclesiologist * Charles F. Miller - Jesuit theologian and doctor

References

External links

*
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport
{{authority control Boys' schools in the United States Educational institutions established in 1942 Buildings and structures in Fairfield, Connecticut Schools in Fairfield County, Connecticut Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport Catholic secondary schools in Connecticut Jesuit high schools in the United States 1942 establishments in Connecticut Society of Jesus in Connecticut