Bishop Kearney High School is planning a new state-of-the-art fitness center, including a regulation hockey rink.
That announcement comes fresh off a winter Olympics in which five of its alumnae took the gold in women’s hockey representing the United States.
The new facility is expected to open in the 2027-2028 school year and will feature a broad range of student amenities. Alongside the ice rink, the facility will include an indoor turf for soccer training, a field house, and different types of fitness training equipment.
Paul Colontino, president of Bishop Kearney, a Catholic school in Irondequoit, declined to put an exact dollar figure on the project, citing different estimates and phases of the plan. He said it’s currently projected to cost upwards of $10 million.
Despite the announcement coinciding with the Olympics win, the plan has been years in the making. Colontino called it “good timing.”
Participation in sports among high school students is at an all-time high, records show, and schools have been investing heavily in new and upgraded facilities for years.
“This is about all of our students,” Colontino said. “This is about, how do we create the next step for BK in terms of its foundation, but also in terms of what it can offer all of our students here. And the vision grew to a facility that could house and provide a space for not only things on the field, but off the field.”
In February, the women’s hockey team defeated Canada 2-1 at the Olympics in Milan, Italy, earning the team the gold. Laila Edwards, a 2022 alum of Bishop Kearney, took home the most valuable player of the tournament. Two alumnae, Nina Christof and Julie Schiefer, played for Germany, and another, Michaela Hesová, played for Czechia. All formerly played for the BK Selects hockey team.
But in their time at Bishop Kearney, they never played at their school itself. The girls’ hockey team at the school practices at the Tim Horton’s IcePlex on Brighton-Henrietta Townline Road, while the boys’ team uses the Rochester Ice Center in Fairport.
Colontino said he hopes the new facility will be a benefit not only to Bishop Kearney students, but the community as a whole.
“It's a changing world out there, and the amount of time and effort that a lot of our families put into their passions, whether it be in the theater or whether it be on the soccer field or in the hockey rink, or the football field, we want to do that justice,” he said. “And we want to make sure that they have the area, the technology, and the resources to achieve what they're trying to achieve.”
