08/Oct/2009
Are All Around Baton Rouge
Editor’s note:
After 25
years in the business of educating young people in
Dr. Beau Clark is
an
emergency room physician who
serves as Louisiana State EMS Medical Director with the Department of Health
and Hospitals.
He works out of St.
Elizabeth’s Hospital in Gonzales.
Dr.
Clark actually began his high school career at Catholic High.
He wanted something different from what he
found there, however.
So, for his
sophomore year he switched to Bishop Sullivan.
“I remember that first day was a little strange because everyone else was in uniform but I did not have mine yet,” he said. “I can remember how very accepting everyone was even though I looked different and was new to the school. I really liked that.”
Dr. Clark was the Salutatorian of the first graduating class in 1991. His wife (the former Vanessa Young) also graduated from Bishop Sullivan in 1993.
“I think our teachers prepared us very well for college,” he said. “And the social transition from high school to college was easier than if I had continued attending an all- boys high school.” Before going to medical school Dr. Clark graduated Cum Laude from Louisiana Tech.
The
Jim Urdiales is
the owner of Mestizo’s Restaurant on South Acadian and I-10 and the
new La Mestiza Restaurant in Prairieville.
He only attended Bishop Sullivan for three
years because the school was not ready for students when he was in the ninth
grade.
Like Dr. Clark, Urdiales was a
member of the 1987 class of only 34 students.
He recalls that there were 91 in the next class.
“I remember when Mr. Scimeca was the vice principal before he became principal,” he said. “Everything was a big deal for us because we were the first to do everything.” The first class got to vote on the name Warriors and they chose the school colors. There was no cafeteria at first. Urdiales remembers eating a lot of delivered pizza and burgers for lunch.
Urdiales said his dad, who also owned a restaurant, would not accept a C in anything and made him attend summer school because he received a D in geometry. “Dad also said as long as he was paying the bill I was not going to waste my senior year.He made me take advanced math and physics even though I did not need the courses to graduate.”
Among the teachers Urdiales remembers best is Ms. Willis who taught English. “She was fresh out of school and she was tough,” he said. “I thought of her and the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken that she taught us about when I chose the road ‘less traveled’ and left my dad’s restaurant to start my own business.”
For a young person who is questioning and trying to become an adult you just can’t beat a Catholic education according to Urdiales. “They gave us a solid foundation that tied religion and God and knowledge all together in one big package,” he said.
Drew Hart is the basketball
coach, assistant athletic director, and IT director for St. Michaels all at the
same time.
He manages over 400 computers
and teaches biology at
the school where
both he and his wife, the former Kimi Melancon, graduated in the early Bishop
Sullivan days.
Hart is the fifth Robert Andrew Hart to play an important
role in making
“We have a really wonderful family atmosphere here at St. Michaels,” said Hart. “The faculty is called on to do a whole lot of stuff in and for the community both before and after school.Thankfully, I have a very giving wife.”
Hart said that while St. Michael is still a relatively young school the students get to do it all. “Our kids participate in truly outstanding programs in everything from band to every kind of sports team.”
Titus Warmsley graduated
from Bishop Sullivan in 1995 after playing point guard with Chris Gilmore and
Djole Palfi on a basketball team that won two district championships.
He was very highly recruited as a high school
All-American and was the first athlete named to the school’s Gold Hall of
Fame.
“I accepted a full scholarship to play at the
After college Warmsley played with the Boston Celtics and on
championship teams in the European Basketball League.
For the past several years he has been coaching
and doing basketball broadcasts locally for Cox Communications.
He appeared as famous NBA player Jojo White
in the
Most recently Warmsley published a book titled Don’t Talk About It – Be About It, and he works as a project specialist with the Department of Homeland Security when not conducting seminars for student athletes.
The first day at Bishop Sullivan was a test for him. “It felt like I had landed in a bowl of rice after attending nearly all black public schools,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out very well and I got a great education. I was the first African American male to graduate from the school.”
Warmsley said there was little time for partying while he worked toward a college scholarship. “I don’t remember ever attending a party in high school. I just remember practicing hard, studying hard and playing hard to make sure my mom did not have to pay for my college.”
He said he was pleased and proud recently when the library at St. Michael purchased five copies of his book.
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