The group Fr. John Doyle O.S.B. ranks first in group rankings, according to St. Benedict’s senior leaders, who made the announcement in Convo earlier this month.

 Throughout last semester, members in Fr. John “had a lot of motivation from their Group Leader, Carlos Presina, Assistant Group Leader Jorge Izurietta, and White Section leader Kevin Calle,” said Transfer Leader Khyri Brewer SY. Student leaders also praised the efforts of the group’s faculty moderators, who include History Teacher Ms. Susanne Mueller and Math Teacher Mr. J’Ream Lewis ’10 Two years ago, Fr. John was in 16th place, and it was Ms. Mueller’s first year as the group moderator. The following year, the group came in 4th place.

Overall, Fr. John won because it had the highest GPA and high attendance, senior leaders said. When it comes to calculations for group rankings, the senior leaders calculate each group’s GPA and attendance. In terms of weight, attendance is the most important variable. Last year, attitude was a variable in group rankings and did not work well as a standard for comparison because a lot of section leaders weren’t able to accurately pinpoint the attitude number for each group. 

Dr. Glenn Cassidy ‘90 compiled the attendance data (absents, lates, and total present), and Mr. Elliott McFarland ‘12 calculated each group’s GPA average. The worst attendance by the senior leaders’ calculations was Fr. Casmir Finley O.S.B., with 121 lates and absences combined, and a GPA of 2.49. Since the group had the worst ranking it was the first group allowed to pick in the freshman draft. Leaders calculated that group’s attendance by “taking the number 130 since it’s a nice round number close to 121 and we take every amount of lates and absences from other groups and we subtract 130 by that number and whatever number equals that was their score. So the higher your attendance was, the better your score,” said Gray Section Leader Chrisley Alexis SY.

Mr. McFarland printed the report of each group’s GPA and sent it to the senior leaders to calculate the ranking in terms of GPA. Mr. McFarland ranked groups based on their percentage on time and percentage present and he averaged those two together. “It’s not all just based on whether you are at school or you are on time but it’s both things at the same time,” said Mr. McFarland. 

“It is not unusual to see us perfect in attendance,” said Emory Rodrigues UDII. Carlos encourages his group to do better everyday, Rodrigues added, and, as a group, members took everything seriously. “I just feel like in our group we have more of a community rather than just a group of boys,” said Jorge Izurieta.

Fr. John’s second faculty moderator, Mr. Lewis ‘10, joined the group this year. He was in Fr. John when he went to school at St. Benedict’s. He felt very proud of what Fr. John has done so far. Their main goal at the beginning of the year was to reach top three in the group rankings. “At that point we wanted to make sure that we were one of the top groups,” said Mr. Lewis. “But they already knew that they should be on top.”