Mount Carmel may known for its success in sports, but that doesn’t mean MC students are “dumb jocks” in any way. 78 of Mount Carmel’s fall sport athletes made it to the honor roll this past trimester. Of these 78, 45 played on the football team, 14 competed in soccer, 11 represented golf and 8 ran cross-country.

These fall sports put students in a tough situation, as many of them didn’t leave school until 7pm. One senior, Kyle Czubak, St.John the Baptist, admits, “There is a ton going on senior year; between college applications and playing varsity football, it has been rough.”

Those 78 students who played fall sports are just a small portion of the first trimester Honor Roll, as overall 377 out of 670 students made their way onto the Honor Roll. That represents over 50% of the students in the school.

Out of the four grade levels, the freshman had the most representatives on the Honor Roll with 122. There were 99 sophomores, 98 juniors, and 58 seniors. Mr. Tom Eisenbraun, Guidance Counselor,  detailed why these numbers drop off over the years. “We have an increased emphasis on teaching our younger levels to start fast academically. We also emphasize on how important homework is.”

Eisenbraun spoke about the senior class and why there are so few on the Honor Roll. “Seniors have the most rigorous schedule out of all four grades; also seniors sometimes lose that emphasis on homework over the years. Often times the first trimester is a wake-up call for these seniors.”

These 377 students proudly represent many grammar schools; some of the most represented Catholic schools are St.Barnabas, St. John Fisher, and St.Cajetan. Each of these schools in the Beverly area have nine representatives on this trimester’s  Honor Roll, but they are all blown away by St.John the Baptist in Indiana, which was represented by 16 students.

Also strongly represented on the Honor Roll are a few public schools. The Chicago public schools system was well represented by Clissold, in the Beverly area, with six representatives,  the most  from any public school. Right behind Clissold were two Indiana schools. Both Kahler Middle School and Clark Middle School provided five representatives.

Mount Carmel’s Honor Roll is filled with alumni from the area’s top grammar schools, but also boasts three students who were homeschooled for their grammar school education.  One of them, junior Kevin Breakey, was also on the varsity golf team, and admitted it wasn’t easy to balance both golf and classes. “I started out slow but I figured out how to manage my time as the trimester went on.”