sluh.org/prep-news
St. Louis University High School | Friday, May 8, 2026
Volume XC, Issue XXIX
At a Glance It’s Senior Follies! Seniors jazz walk, trash talk on stage BY Logan LaVear and Owen Williams Core Staff
news
Tarter English teacher, Prep News Advisor, and substitute teacher Sam Tarter bids farewell to SLUH after an incredible year of making SLUH a much brighter and better place. Page 2
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Curdt Sophomore English teacher and assistant band director Thomas Curdt will be leaving SLUH to pursue his greatest love, coffee! Young Curdt, expresses how SLUH has shaped the person he has become. Page 2 news
Band Band and Orchestra springs into their final concert, filling the theater with a magnificent melody. Page 4 sports
AOTW Who’s that cheerful sophomore? It’s this week’s athlete of the week Porter Bottomley, an unstoppable shooter on the Lax pitch. Page 10 sports
26in26 They’re back?! Fitz and Shorley have returned to analyze the spring seasons of athletes which they have spent so much time with in the 26IN26 series. Page 10 sports
Lacross Jr. Bills bounce back: Lax triumphs over Vianney, Blue Valley SW and Ladue to launch into MSLA playoffs Page 7
INDEX 2,4
News
3
Features
5-8
College Map
9-11
Sports
12
Entertainment
The weekly student newspaper of St. Louis University High School 4970 Oakland Ave. St. Louis, MO 63110 @prepnews on Instagram online at sluh.org/prep-news prepnews@sluh.org ©2026 St. Louis University High School Prep News. No material may be reprinted without the permission of the editors and moderator.
Seniors Wesley Balsamo (left) and Jake Fitzpatrick (right) perform in Madame Lulu’s Tent scene. photo | Logan LaVear
enior Follies — a St. Louis U. High senior tradition — graced the stage of the Schulte Theater last Sunday night to signal the last week for the Class of 2026. Performed by a group of 24 seniors, Senior Follies was directed by Director of Campus Ministry Brian Gilmore and mathematics teacher Daniel Becvar; choreographed by Fine Arts Department Chair Simonie Anzalone; assisted musically by Principal Fr. Matt Stewart, SJ; and supported technically by Director of Theater Operations Eddie Teshara and AP Psychology teacher Sam Herbig. Senior Follies — meaning senior foolishness — is an annual assortment of skits put together by Becvar and Gilmore, though seniors contribute heavily to the writing of each of the sketches. Follies is unique in that it brings in many seniors who haven’t engaged with SLUH’s theater department before. “I think watching kids who would have never done theater before kind of flourish and get into the role that they had picked was re-
ally cool,” said senior Titus Ziegler. “It was really awesome to see them somewhat uncomfortable at first, but then they kind of grow into the acting and grow into the persona of those who they were acting out.” Apart from the sketches themselves, the students had to learn new choreography and music for the opening and closing scenes. The night began with the traditional “It’s Senior Follies” number. Composed and written by retired Choir Director Joe Koestner and supported by Anzalone and Stewart, the group of students performed through dance and song, all while dressed in white dress shirts, pants, and a blue cumberbund. Inside SLUH For the first skit, the seniors poked fun at the seventh grade visits to SLUH. Senior Max Marnatti played Admissions Coordinator Kara Mauzy and led prospective “students,” including a 6-foot-4 seventh grader played by senior Jake Fitzpatrick, and their parents on a tour through the school. Along the way, they encountered “C” students in
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Gallery show features art students, special solo show BY Tyler Roach Core Staff
T
he second floor J-Wing art gallery and the library opened their doors Tuesday night for the spring student art show. Students and parents traveled between the two galleries between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. looking at the displays; the JWing gallery held pieces from various art classes, and the library featured a solo show of works by senior Leo Hahn from his spring independent study. The gallery was meant to be a culmination of visual art work from throughout the school year, and it serves as the most important event of the year for the Visual Art Department. Plans for the gallery took
shape on the very first days of the semester, allowing art students and teachers to cultivate a meaningful collection. “This was our last big event of the school year, so I was definitely thinking about it as I was working with my classes near the end of January,” said art teacher Sarah Rebholz. “I have this idea in the back of my mind constantly like ‘this would look good in the show’ but we really don’t start planning until a couple weeks beforehand.” Planning the exhibit involved more than just picking what art pieces belonged in the gallery — the art staff had to clean and lay out the exhibit to make it appealing for people to come and visit. Upon arrival,
continued on page 4 Ceramic ladybug in the student art gallery.
photo | Leo Hahn
Commentary An invitation to discernment BY Jake Fitzpatrick Sports Editor
O
n August 5, I will be packing up a duffel bag (or two) and driving to South Bend, Indiana, where I will step into the undergraduate seminary for the Congregation of Holy Cross. However, there was no angel that magically appeared in my bedroom to deliver the news. No burning bush, no booming voice from the clouds. It was through a process that so many young people in our day and age tend to forego: discernment. The purpose of this piece isn’t to tell you how to live your life or make decisions, but rather to extend an invitation. An invitation to take a step back, slow down
at certain points and truly discern how you are called to live as a son of Christ. Not just the big decisions, but the mundane, everyday choices that quietly shape who we become. Discernment, for a SLUH student in 2026, is a refusal to drift. It is an active, courageous choice to live deliberately rather than reactively. Whether you are weighing a call to religious life, deciding which college roommate you are rooming with, or simply deciding how to spend your Friday night with friends, the invitation is the same. Don’t blindly choose. Lean on those who have walked the road before you. Lean on prayer, on honest conversation, on the interior compass that St. Ignatius spent his life teaching us to trust. And for so many of you reading this article,
I believe it is a choice to trust. Discernment and decision making are commonly confused. To me, decision making is the end of the road, the finish line. Discernment is the winding journey through hills and valleys to get there. Think about the process that I and my fellow seniors have gone through in choosing where to spend the next four years of our lives. Atmosphere, academic programs, campus culture, distance from home, sports and a plethora of other variables were weighed in this process. After carefully working through all of those considerations, we arrived at a decision. That journey of careful, prayerful, honest weighing of options is discernment. In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ig-
natius of Loyola described discernment not merely as a tool for major life choices, but as a daily posture of the soul to best be able to “direct all my intentions, actions and operations … purely to the praise and service of the Divine Majesty” (Spiritual Exercise, 46). Ignatius urged his followers to pay attention to interior movements and ask: what brings genuine consolation and what brings desolation? These serve as a compass for navigating both the monumental and the mundane. I would like to offer you something that may shock you. I truly believe that every young Catholic man, especially one with the great privilege of a Jesuit education at St. Louis U. High, ought to genuinely ponder the
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