The Bolles School Explained

The Bolles School
Motto:The Bolles Way: Pursuing excellence through courage, integrity, and compassion.
City:Jacksonville and
Ponte Vedra Beach
State:Florida
Country:USA
Type:Private, day, boarding
Established:1933
Head:Tyler Hodges
Faculty:295
Grades:Pre-K 12
Enrollment:1,742
Campus Size:84acres
Nickname:Bulldogs
Newspaper:The Bugle
Yearbook:The Turris
Campus:Suburban
Tuition:2023-24 Tuition
Lower School: $12,780-$21,680
Middle School: $29,890
Upper School: $30,810
Boarding: $62,920
Colors:Blue and Orange

The Bolles School is an American private college preparatory day and boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. It has a lower school (including pre-kindergarten), a middle school, and a high school, spread across four campuses around the Jacksonville area, and enrolls about 1,800 students a year.[1] The school was founded in 1933 as an all-boys military academy. It dropped its military focus in 1962 and became coeducational in 1971. Its athletics programs have been recognized as some of the best in the Florida High School Athletic Association by Sports Illustrated magazine.

History

The school was founded as an all-boys' military academy in 1933 by Agnes Cain Painter, a friend of philanthropist Richard J. Bolles. The original campus, now known as the San Jose Campus, was formed from San Jose Hotel, a former hotel on San Jose Boulevard near the east bank of the St. Johns River.[2] Bolles announced that it would drop its military status in 1961 and the graduating class of 1962 ended the military era. It began admitting girls in 1971. Today, male and female students are enrolled in relatively equal numbers.

International students have enrolled at Bolles since the late 1930s,[3] and the school maintains separate boys and girls boarding facilities for 90 students from other states and 22 foreign countries.[4] The school also has an active student exchange program with schools in China, Japan, France and Spain. Participants live with the host family while attending school.

John E. Trainer, Jr. served as the sixth Bolles President/Headmaster from 2002 to 2012, overseeing the growth of the Bartram campus, creation of an elementary school in Ponte Vedra Beach, and boosting the school's endowment.[5] He was succeeded by Brian E. M. Johnson for the 2012–2013 school year, who was succeeded by Bradley R. Johnson '79, who was succeeded by David J. Farace who was then succeeded by the previous Assistant Head of School Tyler Hodges the ninth head of school since its founding.

The school's campuses include:

Academics

Bolles has been a fully accredited Florida high school since 1934. Bolles operates on a two-semester academic year, with each semester split into two quarters. Bolles offers Advanced Placement courses.

Athletics

In 2005, Sports Illustrated named Bolles's athletic program the ninth best in the country, and second best in Florida. Of the top twenty-five schools, Bolles was the only one with an Upper School enrollment of under 1,000 students.[6] Bolles has received the Florida High School Athletic Association's Dodge Sunshine Cup/Floyd E. Lay All-Sports Award (given to the best overall athletic program in each school type/size classification in Florida) 27 times.[7] During the 2015–2016 school year, Bolles won 7 different Florida state championships, including boys swimming, girls swimming, girls cross country, boys basketball, girls soccer, girls track and field, and baseball, bringing the school's all-time state championship total to 123.

The outdoor field where its seven outdoor sports teams practice is called "George H. Hodges Field" and in 2016 it was converted to an artificial turf.[8]

The swim team has been coached by Gregg Troy, current head coach at the University of Florida, and 2012 US Olympic men's team head coach. Troy was followed as head coach by Olympic medalist Sergio Lopez until 2014 when Lopez left to become the Singapore national swimming team's head coach. The current Bolles coach is Peter Verhoef. The school's swimming facility has its own offices, weight room (separate from the weight room that the rest of the school uses), and two swimming pools (one Olympic-sized)., the boys swim team has won 45 Florida state championships and 9 national championships, while the girls team has won 37 state championships and 9 different national titles. Bolles has had at least one alumnus or student competing in every Summer Olympics since 1972, including 2016 Summer Olympics gold medal winners Ryan Murphy and Joseph Schooling.[9] The Bolles Sharks, Bolles's club swim team, compete and practice year-round.

The school's football team was coached by Charles "Corky" Rogers from 1989-2016. Rogers is the all-time winningest Florida high school football coach with 466 wins. The team has won eleven state championships, ten under Rogers., Rogers compiled a record of 325-46 during his tenure at the school.[10] For the 2009 season, the Bulldogs went 12–1, losing only to Cocoa High School, 44–37 in overtime. They defeated Tampa Catholic in the state championship game on December 12, 21–7.[11]

Activities

The school's drama program performs a musical every second year and a Shakespeare play every third year. Performing groups include Jazz Ensemble, Stage Band, Choir, Choral Music and Dance.[13]

Notable alumni

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/371 Boarding School Review: Directory/Florida/The Bolles School
  2. Web site: Reuse . Adapt + . This '20s Florida Luxury Hotel is Now an Elite Private School . Adapt + Reuse . 12 March 2020.
  3. Web site: Bolles History & Characteristics. Bolles School. 1 May 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130510215311/http://www.bolles.org/s/864/currentsp/index.aspx?sid=864&gid=1&pgid=2290. 10 May 2013.
  4. Web site: 24-7: Boarding at Bolles. https://web.archive.org/web/20110825085746/http://www.bolles.org/s/864/currentsp/index.aspx?sid=864&gid=1&pgid=571. dead. 25 August 2011. Bolles School. 1 May 2013.
  5. News: Humphrey. Joe. Bolles president focusing on future growth of school. 30 July 2013. Florida Times-Union. March 23, 2002.
  6. https://www.si.com/vault/issue/720978/67/2 Sports Illustrated Magazine: May 16, 2005-Best High School Athletic Programs
  7. http://www.fhsaa.org/news/2007/0611.htm FHSAA News Release: Jun 11, 2007-St. Thomas Aquinas, Bolles, P.K. Yonge, Port St. Joe, Maclay sweep Dodge Sunshine Cup all-sports awards
  8. Scanlan, Dan (August 16, 2016) Bolles's football field goes green with artificial turf Jacksonville Times-Union
  9. Web site: Bolles in the Olympics. The Bolles School. 13 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160818192721/http://www.bolles.org/page.cfm?p=623. 18 August 2016. dead.
  10. News: Frenette. Gene. Washington too fast for Bolles in state title rematch. 1 May 2013. Florida Times-Union. December 9, 2012.
  11. Cushnir, Chad: "Bolles Wins Class 2B Football Title" First Coast News, December 12, 2009
  12. Web site: Bolles School website: Athletics . 2008-04-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080323152415/http://www.bolles.org/upper/athletics . 2008-03-23 . dead .
  13. http://www.schools.com/directory/adv_search/schooldetail.cfm?id=258 The Association of Boarding Schools website: The Bolles School
  14. http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/072997/0729TVRa.html "Bolles School grad hangs 10 to land 'Melrose Place' role"
  15. Web site: Bolles Alumna’s “Lightlark” Picked Up by Universal . Bolles . bolles.org . 2022-01-02 . The Bolles School.
  16. Web site: Barney . Justin . Bolles grad Jackson Baumeister hears name called in MLB draft . News4Jax . 10 July 2023 . 12 July 2023.
  17. https://nwhof.org/hall_of_fame/bio_by_name/chris-bono Chris Bono
  18. "Auburn swimmer adds to proud family tradition", Austin American-Statesman, March 28, 2003.
  19. "Florida's Bolles School claims top spot", USA Today, November 26, 1996.
  20. "Molly Hatchet biography"
  21. Web site: Max Ferguson - Baseball . University of Tennessee Athletics . en.
  22. "Swimmers Receive Goodwill Invitations", Orlando Sentinel, April 17, 1994.
  23. http://www.collegeswimming.com/news/2007/may/30/sergio-show-moves-jacksonville/ "Sergio Show Moves to Jacksonville"
  24. Zapotosky, Matt. "FBI's Andrew McCabe is fired a little more than 24 hours before he could retire". The Washington Post. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  25. http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/072005/lif_19278906.shtml "Waycross' forgotten son"
  26. "In Wake of Injury, It's Skinner's Job", Hartford Courant, September 14, 2006.
  27. http://jacksonville.com/sports/football/jaguars/2008-12-15/packers_have_failure_to_communicate "Packers have failure to communicate"
  28. [Travis Tygart]
  29. [USADA]
  30. "Tyler Gets Back in Swim of Things", Orlando Sentinel, August 27, 1986.
  31. "Playing with a Passion", The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 20, 1998.
  32. http://www.missamerica.org/competition-info/national-contestants.aspx?state=Florida&year=2006 Miss America contestant archive
  33. Web site: 2018-05-01. The Way We Were: George Stallings, Jr.. 2022-01-04. The Resident Community News Group, Inc..