First review / Kirkus

Playing on God’s team.

In the summer of 1967, Newark, New Jersey, was beset by violence and arson. Civil unrest forced the city’s premier Catholic high school, St. Benedict’s, to close in 1973, but a devoted band of Benedictine monks revived the campus. Over the next 50 years, St. Benedict’s became one of the most demanding and rewarding private high schools in the U.S. DePalma, author of The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times, writes that the school has become the pipeline for historically underrepresented urban youth, educating them in mind, body, and spirit. “Second chances remain a hallmark of St. Benedict’s.” “Strict” does not fully convey the toughness and the love that teachers bring to their students. A better word might be “uncompromising,” for there are no gives and takes, no negotiations here. You make it or you don’t. And if you do, you gain not just an education. You gain a soul. Sport is central to the curriculum. Students learn to work as a team. Some of those teams have become the best in the country. “St. Benedict’s doesn’t hold traditional pep rallies. It doesn’t need to.” Some readers may find this book overripe praise for times gone by. “Opening yourself to the divine might seem a remote message to teenagers today,” the author writes. Honor codes script daily life. Indeed, “it is the honor code that keeps locks off all lockers.” And as we follow a group of students through their senior year up to graduation, we may well ask just what the secret sauce is that makes these kids so successful. “St. Benedict’s teaches character and integrity, pushing kids through difficult challenges, and helping them bounce back after failures.” Such nostrums may sound like clichés now. Not everything here translates into every classroom. But for a select few, it has been a blessing.

A love letter to an inner-city Catholic high school, full of praise for faith and rigor.