From the Director of Admissions and Alumni Relations

Dear Alumni,

I am honored and excited to be your Alumni Relations Director! As I was reflecting recently on my last 24 years on this campus as a teacher, it really hit home how much this community has impacted me and my family.

I first heard about Brophy as a student at Santa Clara University where I met Pat Moran ‘80 and Ed Walsh ‘80 during my freshman year. If there was one thing I remember about them it was that they were fun to be around and always on the go - I think a typical trait of Jesuit- educated students. I also met Brophy alum, Chuck Carlise ‘81, who was one of my roommates during our senior year at SCU. Not only did Chuck introduce me to new music - namely the Meat Puppets and Iggy Pop - he also was there as a friend who would do anything to help others. So, when my wife and I had the opportunity to move to Phoenix in 1993, I knew there was one school in particular that I wanted to visit, and hopefully, find a teaching opportunity.

After a few phone calls, a meeting with Fr. Peter Pabst ‘72, interviewing with Mr. Mike Klein, Pat Reardon and Fr. Gene Growney, I was fortunate to be hired as a social studies teacher beginning with the 1994-95 school year. Joining me as new faculty members that year were Brophy alumni, Scott Middlemist ‘87, Lane McShane '82, Jose Mendoza ‘88 and Andy Schmidbauer ‘88. To this day, we all continue to be involved on campus as teachers, coaches, and mentors to our students.

The significance of the Brophy community resonates with me as I think back to my own high school career at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California. Although I did not attend a Jesuit high school, there were four teachers there that had either attended St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco or Bellarmine in San Jose, and all attended Santa Clara: Chris Bradford, Mike Mitchell, Ron Calcagno and Ray Calcagno. They were my best teachers, the ones that I always looked forward to seeing every day. As a teacher at Brophy, I am always reminded about the role that they played in my life, and how important it is to stay connected to them and to say thank you. I am hoping that my role as the Alumni Relations Director will bring you back to campus to see what has been happening here over the years. It is truly an amazing place - I love coming to every day. Today. there are over 1300 students on campus from all over the Valley of the Sun, fantastic academic and athletic facilities, and a teaching staff that is wholly dedicated to their students. We would love to have you back on campus to witnesses the great things that are happening and drop in on your former teachers, like Tom Danforth '78, Chris White, Mike Welty '83, and so many others.

For our first major alumni event of the year, we will be hosting a Homecoming Happy Hour on campus in the Chester Jesuit Garden from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 19. We will then head to Phoenix College to watch the varsity football team compete against Basha High School for Homecoming 2018. We'll have special seating on the field for our alumni. I will be providing specific details about the happy hour and the game in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, connect with your classmates and plan on heading over to Brophy for some pregame refreshments. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at mward@brophyprep.org or at alumni@brophyprep.org. I can also be reached in my office at 602-264-5291, ext. 6357.

Have a great week. I look forward to keeping in touch and to reconnecting in person with many of you next month.

Go Broncos!

Mike Ward

Back