Saint Stephen’s celebrated its 46th graduating class on Saturday, May 22, with a beautiful commencement ceremony under sunny skies at the Moore Athletic Complex at Turner Fields.

After cruising to district and regional titles, the SSES boys’ tennis team fell one victory short of its first state championship since 2015.

The members of the Class of 2021 announced their college destinations at our annual College Pennant Ceremony on April 28 at the Moore Athletic Complex.

Saint Stephen’s lacrosse swept district competition, with both the boys and girls winning their respective tournaments on April 15 to advance in the postseason.

The Falcons cruised to a win the 1A-District 11 Tournament on April 12-13 at Payne Park in Sarasota, capturing their third district title in four seasons and the 16th in school history.

The annual golf tournament to raise funds for the Saint Stephen’s Athletic Department – the Green & Golden Golf Scramble – is scheduled for Saturday, May 1, at The River Club Golf Course in Bradenton.

Join us on Facebook on Friday, March 12 at 6 p.m., as we continue our celebration of the school’s 50th anniversary year. The Green & Golden Game Show broadcast will be an evening of fun that’s filled with surprises!

On the strength of a thrilling 2-1 victory on the road at local rival and top-seeded Bradenton Christian, the Falcons (11-4-1) captured the Class 2A-District 10 tournament championship on Thursday evening (Feb. 11).

On Wednesday (Feb. 11), Saint Stephen’s students and faculty were treated to a visit from Kirby and Curry, two African penguins who traveled to campus with their keepers from Busch Gardens in Tampa.

How do we do this? What will it look like? Are we ready? Teachers across the country were asking these questions and many others in August as they prepared for the beginning of the academic year. While each school faced its own unique

After battling for two days, the Falcons finished seventh at the state golf tournament and brothers Ben and Alex Long both placed in the top 10 individually.

This summer, in keeping with an FCIS mandate that independent schools take stock of the success of their alumni, Saint Stephen’s tracked the graduates of the class of 2016 to ascertain their progress toward a degree. Of the 69 grads that year, we were able to account for 66 of those alumni. To date, 51 (77% of those reached) have graduated from college in or before 2020. The remaining 15 are all still pursuing their degrees.

Our 2020 AP test scores have arrived and Saint Stephen’s students, once again, excelled. Despite the challenge of the virtual environment and significant changes in the test format, SSES test takers achieved passing scores (3-5) on 89-percent of their Advanced Placement exams.

Long-time assistant A.J. Brown enters his first season as the Falcons head football coach in 2020. Coach Brown sat down for a quick Q&A session as he prepared for his inaugural campaign leading Saint Stephen’s:

Former pro player and coach Ken Bolek has been named the next leader of SSES baseball. Coach Bolek brings a long and impressive resume to the Falcons that started at the University of Arizona, where he was a member of the school’s 1976 College World Series championship team.

Falcon student-athletes were honored on Thursday (June 2) when the Florida High School Athletic Association named Saint Stephen’s as the recipient of this year’s Fred E. Rozelle Sportsmanship Award in Class 3A.

Saint Stephen’s celebrated its 69 graduating seniors with a unique drive-through commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 23.

The entire Saint Stephen’s community was saddened on May 19 by the passing of beloved former Headmaster John Howard, following a brief battle with cancer.

The international Water is Life Conference, which SSES was set to host June 22-26, has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tod Creneti, the head coach who built Saint Stephen’s football into an independent school powerhouse, has resigned his position after nine seasons at the helm. Veteran assistant coach A.J. Brown has been named as Creneti’s successor.

The SSES girls basketball team’s historic season came to a close in the Class 3A State Final Four on Wednesday night (Feb. 26) with a 67-30 loss to Carrollwood Day School at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

Brittany Skoda, a 2005 Saint Stephen’s graduate, has been named Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Software Banking at Morgan Stanley. Following SSES, Brittany attended Georgetown University, where she competed on the golf team for one year and was named a Big East Conference Academic All Star.

Ryan Roslansky, a 1996 Saint Stephen’s graduate, has been named the CEO of LinkedIn. The business-networking company owned by Microsoft has been led by Jeff Weiner for the past 11 years, but Weiner will hand the reins to Roslansky on June 1.

With their victory on Tuesday night (Jan. 21), the 2019-20 SSES girls basketball team is now in the record book as the winningest team in school history.

Four of the eight 10-minute plays selected for production from 46 entries in Theatre Odyssey’s eighth annual student competition were written by SSES students.

For the sixth year in a row, the Falcons are the Manatee County Academic Challenge team champions.

The fall season wrapped up on Nov. 9, and football, boys golf, swimming, and boys cross country all advanced deep into the postseason. The football Falcons (9-2) fell one step short of returning to the independent state championship game for the fifth straight year, losing to Orlando’s The Master’s Academy in the semifinals.

We are proud to announce that we have six winners and three honorable mentions in the Manatee County Section of the 2019 Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport Art Show contest.

“I pay tuition, so why am I being asked to give?” We hear you. It’s a fairly common question that’s asked at independent schools everywhere.

Our sincere thanks go out to the entire Saint Stephen’s community for showing its amazing support over the past few weeks for the relief efforts in the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

For the fifth year in a row, Saint Stephen’s Latin students returned from the National Junior Classical League’s annual convention with national championship recognition. Sophomores Tyler Kadivar and Michael Thomas were part of the Florida team that won the title at the Intermediate Level of Certamen – a Jeopardy-style quiz.

Thanks to the many generous donations from parents at the end of the 2018-19 school year and the inventory that remained following the closing of the Community Thrift Shop, we have dozens of used – but still very good quality – Saint Stephen’s logo uniform shirts, pants, pullovers, and more available for new and returning Lower and Intermediate School families.

The 71 members of the Class of 2019 proudly received their diplomas on May 25 at Neel Auditorium on the campus of State College of Florida.

Falcons head baseball coach Mike Verrill has been selected for induction into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Mike coached high school baseball for 20 years in the state and also led the program at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

The Falcons boys and girls tennis teams dominated the 1A-District 9 tennis tournament (April 15-16) at the Payne Park Tennis Center in Sarasota, winning all four doubles titles and nine of 10 singles to advance to regional play.

For the first time in school history, Upper School Latin students took first place in Senior Division Academics at the Florida Junior Classical League state forum in Orlando, April 3-6.

Eighth grader Jackson Nealis finished first on the U.S. History Bee Exam, third in the National History Bee Quiz, and fourth in the International Geography Bee Exam at the 2019 Central Florida History Bee and Bowl Championships at Shorecrest Prep in St. Petersburg on March 23.

The Falcons completed a sweep last week, with both soccer teams winning 1A-District 7 soccer titles.

The Saint Stephen’s Academic Team is once again the champion of the annual Manatee County academic challenge, going undefeated and winning the overall title by 132 points over the second-place team.

Despite the dejection on the field after the Falcons fell, 35-14, to Orlando Christian Prep on Nov. 17 in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference Independent State Championship Game, the 2018 season might go down as SSES’s most noteworthy.

Led by sisters Maria and Catherine Huang, the SSES girls golf team finished in 10th place at the 2018 Class 1A State Championship Tournament, Oct. 30-31 at the Mission Inn Resort, Howey-in-the-Hills.

Saint Stephen’s, in collaboration with New College of Florida, has been named the host site of the international Water is Life Conference, June 22-28, 2020.

If you were to wander onto the practice field at Saint Stephen’s where I coach high school football, there are any number of phrases you might hear that, without some context, make absolutely no sense.

Hannah Sage, a 2016 Saint Stephen’s graduate and current UCF student, will appear on the annual Jeopardy!

Saint Stephen’s has added another high-caliber coach with a championship resume to its already impressive roster with the hiring of Guy Virgilio to lead its girls soccer program.

More and more families are considering non-public options for their children, primarily because of the smaller class sizes, the safe campuses, the excellent college preparation, and the access to extracurricular activities.

With the ever-changing landscape of education, it is important not only for educators, but also those in the community to pay attention to the trends and forces that influence and impact schools and students.

Can kindness be taught? At Saint Stephen’s there is concensus.

The Saint Stephen’s Academic Team defended its Manatee County championship for the fourth consecutive year on Dec. 5, hosting and winning the final meet and the season title.

Saint Stephen’s football completed an undefeated 2017 season and defended its Sunshine State Athletic Conference Independent State Championship with a 49-21 Florida Bowl win over Windermere Prep on Nov. 18 at the Master’s Academy in Oviedo.

The SSES girls and boys golf teams successfully defended their 1A-District 16 titles on Monday, Oct. 16, advancing to their respective regional tournaments on Oct. 23.