When classes return after Winter Break, the senior class at Mt. Carmel will be without two familiar faces.
Defensive lineman Braeden Jones, who is committed to play football at the University of Southern California, and Claude Mpouma, an offensive lineman headed to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are the first two athletes who are graduating early from MC.
Traditionally, seniors graduate from MC on the second Tuesday in May, but this year is different. Since those two student athletes have been allowed to complete half of the second and all of the third trimester online, they will be enrolling in their respective universities early.
“I just think its a different day in time,” said head football coach Jordan Lynch ’09. “We’re getting higher profile kids here at Mount Carmel that are Power Four kids.” “Power Four” refers to the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12 conferences in the NCAA, comprised of schools who traditionally compete for the football National Championship. “I think that it’s the right move going forward because usually these Power Four schools want you to graduate early and get ahead with spring practices.”
According to Mrs. Kristina Luster, Mount Carmel’s Director of School and College Counseling, most high profile Division 1 schools have been pushing more for early graduation more recently. “Colleges have been requesting [graduating early] for some time,” said Mrs. Luster.
To ensure that Jones and Mpouma were able to get all the credits they needed, they had to complete their first half of senior credits in an online program over the summer.
“They take half of their first-half credits over summer,” said Mrs. Luster. “From August to December, they take the second half. We have modified elective requirements for them. For example, [in] Theology they have to do a special project for the end of the year.”
For Jones, his decision to leave MC early was an easy decision, but that wasn’t until he found out what graduating early was.
“When I committed to USC, they asked me if I was thinking about early graduating,” he said. “I had no idea what it was,” said Jones.
He has now completed all of his online learning requirements and is looking forward to the transition to college.
“I’m excited to leave,” said Jones. “It’s good to move on to better things and have this opportunity to be around the team.”
Still, it’s not entirely positive for Jones as he exits traditional high school early.
“I’ll miss seeing my friends every day, seeing Coach Brody, Coach Lynch, and just being home in Chicago.”
For Mpouma, the decision did not come without second thoughts.
“It was a hard decision for me,” he said. “Everyone wants their senior year of high school, and to get the high school experience.”
He is glad that he made the decision, though. Coach Lynch says that allowing students to graduate early will change the game for getting student athletes to come to MC, noting that “it’s a huge recruiting tool.” Coach Lynch has never been shy about his love for recruitment, and being able to offer the same promise that a public school can make is huge for his strategy to get players.
Public schools, such as Lincoln Way East, have been open about letting people know that their students can leave high school early. In March of 2025, they posted this on their X account, “Attention Elite 8th Graders! Before making your final high school decision, make sure that school allows the option of you being a mid-year graduate your senior year.” Since public schools can not recruit players from outside their district, they have been able to promise early graduation to highly talented players, which Catholic schools have usually lacked.
Now that MC and other Catholic schools can now also promise that, Coach Lynch is confident that more highly sought after recruits will now choose private school over public school. He added that the program decided to look into early graduation after the COVID-19 season. In 2021, he had a very talented player going to play at the University of Louisville, who wanted to graduate early but was told it was not possible. After hearing this info, he transferred to his local public school, where he was able to graduate early.
“That opened our eyes to the idea, and now were ready,” said Coach Lynch.
MC’s curriculum is challenging, and the online classes Jones and Mpouma have taken were not any easier than a regular in person class at MC.
“The classes were really difficult,” Mpouma said. “You have to learn online, and by yourself. It’s different than having an actual teacher teach you, but that’s Mount Carmel– you get to do what’s hard.”
Despite his different class schedule, Mpouma doesn’t believe that he has fallen behind his fellow classmates and still believes that he got the same education that a typical MC student would get. “[I’m doing] the same thing that they’re doing,” he said. “I’m just finishing a couple months earlier.”
Graduating early means missing many things on campus, such as big time basketball games, such as the Brother Rice game, Walkathon, and the final months of lunch periods and walking the halls with their brothers, but Jones and Mpouma views these missed opportunities as a bigger way to cash in on their future.
“Like every other kid, I want to make it to the league,” Mpouma said, “I feel like this helps me get closer to that.”
