Rock Talk
Rock Talk is the official podcast of Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri — where we explore the voices, values, and vibrant life of our Jesuit, college-prep community. Hosted by the Admissions and Marketing team, each episode features conversations with students, faculty, alumni, and special guests as we share stories of academic excellence, faith formation, brotherhood, and service. Whether you're a prospective family, a proud alumnus, or simply curious about what makes Rockhurst unique — this is your inside look at life at The Rock.
Rock Talk
Student Government: Energizing Rockhurst High School
In this episode, we welcome Student Government President Brendan Ortbals and Senior Class President Jack McShane for a conversation about the unique brotherhood that defines Rockhurst High School. They share insights on the traditions, values, and connections that shape the student body, and reflect on how the Freshman Experience sets the tone for four years of growth, camaraderie, and leadership.
Welcome to Rock Talk, the official podcast of Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri, where we explore the voices, values and vibrant life of our Jesuit college prep community, Hosted by the admissions and marketing team. Each episode features conversations with students, faculty alumni and special guests, as we share stories of academic excellence, faith formation, brotherhood and service. Whether you're a prospective family, a proud alumnus or simply curious about what makes Rockhurst unique, this is your inside look at life at the Rock, and I'm your host, Steve Redman, Class of 2004, Director of Admissions and Marketing, and I'm here with my co-host, who is also a Director of Admissions and Marketing, Beth Van Dyke, and today we got Brennan Ortballs and Jack McShane. Welcome to the podcast, fellas.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're excited to have you. We're excited to kick off this new venture at Rockhurst High School, where we are telling our story and doing our best to highlight what we have going on here, from the great students we have, faculty staff and just the work that we do. So why don't you talk to us a little bit about who you are in terms of your history, grade, all of that kind of stuff, and what you're looking forward to this year?
Speaker 2:All right. Well, my name is Brendan Orpals and I came to Rockhurst in 2022 from St Peter's Catholic School in Brookside, and so at Rockhurst, the last three years, I've played soccer. I've been involved in many different clubs, like Stress Busters, which help students freshmen in particular get ready for finals and kind of make sure that they have a nice smooth transition into that time. I've also been involved in the Freshman Retreat Court Team, where we plan that special day for freshmen and then, as well as the Rock Collection, a literary collection of poems, art, short films, a bunch of other cool things that showcase the artwork of students across school, and I will be the editor on that next year. And, most importantly, my favorite thing I've ever done at Rockhurst is on student government, and this is my fourth year this year. I am the student body president. In the last couple years I was our class president and then a rep for that, but it's truly one of the greatest things I've done. So that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like Mr Redman said, my name is Jack McShane. I'm also St Peter's kid. Came in here at the same time with Brendan Past. Three years I've been a member of SGA. I've been a rep all three years and then this year I decided to take that next step and now I'm the senior class president. I'm really looking forward and excited about that. I've also been a part of the basketball team for the last three years and then for a little while, fresh from here, I was a member of the culinary club, had a short little stint, great club. Yeah, we have a lot of fun there. And yeah, this year I'm really just excited to you know, welcome these new guys coming in. Keep our energy high and try to maintain that throughout the rest of the year, into the spring, into the end of the year. Just really enjoy my senior year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, that's all. It's about making it the best spring.
Speaker 4:Great. With that in mind, guys, what are some of your goals this year for student government?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the biggest things about student government that we're trying to change bring is increase in energy and an increase of spirit. I want to make sure students know as much of what's going on, as many opportunities as there are for them here at rockhurst, and make that accessible. So you know, we're going to be introducing these monday morning videos every monday where students are going to get a student government ran broadcast and a film the week prior and it's going to tell them the themes for the football games, telling them what the spirit days are. They might be dressed up If it's the Braveheart game where you're wearing the STA or the Scions, skirts, and then you're painted in blue.
Speaker 2:We're going to have someone walk on camera with his face painted blue and his whole body is going to be all ready. Our goal is to try and give students the news in a more fun and exciting way, so definitely sharing everyone, telling everyone what's going on in the best, most rockers way possible and, at the same time, making sure we're able to advocate and support all the clubs and experience the rockers and make as much change Like last year we changed the shorts, we brought back the Spirit Point Contest, so every year we're just trying to keep bringing the energy and making everyone have that Rockhurst experience. That's just so incredible.
Speaker 1:Love it, love it. What about you, jack?
Speaker 3:Yeah, like Brendan said, spirit and energy is a big thing. I always think we start out every year with phenomenal energy. That very first football game that Friday is always just a great time. Home or away game, guys will show up. That pep rally is always great. You can really feel the energy in the halls.
Speaker 3:And something I've noticed my last three years is kind of as we get out of the fall and go into like the winter and the spring, it kind of fizzles out a little bit, and so one of our goals that we've been really trying to work on this year is we're trying to keep that energy alive throughout the rest of the year. So that's more. You know engagement, online social media, getting guys more aware of events that are happening in those winter and spring seasons, not just for sports. You know anything. If we've got a play going on, you know we want guys, we want to pack the rose. You know Band concert, choir concert. You know we want people there. And then you know just also a big thing has just been getting guys to stay at football games.
Speaker 1:So you know that's been an issue that we've been having to deal with.
Speaker 3:But so we had a lot of improvement last year. I think it was a lot of Brendan's ideas, you know, getting halftime events, getting guys like reasons to stay in their seats, you know. You know we had a field goal kick in. Michael Schramm did that last year uh we had a beanbag race and that was a lot of fun. That was really really well done.
Speaker 2:Little mention here. Jack and I were the same leaders for freshman retreat, and ours won the yeah, they did.
Speaker 3:They won the halftime show. Our kids did win that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool, that's cool and our friend brennan, who's just in the audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we got a a lot of name droppers here, so I got a question for you guys, because this is the one thing that I was always really impressed by being here, and I was a relatively mellow dude. I was an athlete, I did football, basketball and track but there's this overarching theme of tradition at Rockhurst.
Speaker 1:You know whether it's, and I don't know if y'all still do this probably, but like I remember the first time we had to do the cheer as freshmen and we didn't know what it was. So they called everybody out and then we were just like, uh, I don't know what to say, but we're just going to scream really loud Um, what is one of your favorite traditions, right, especially as seniors? You've been around four years. You've seen just about everything there is to see what's one of your favorite traditions that you have at Rockhurst.
Speaker 2:Gosh, I mean there's so many. But I mean I think that one of the things that always stuck with me, the energy of that freshman retreat and you got the football game later that night and if it'sheart and I know I keep going back to braveheart, but I I just got to tell you there's an energy of when you're with all your brothers and you're getting painted blue and you're in and you're in the skirt that doesn't belong to you and you're just, you're standing up, you're at the top of the mackie field and you've got the drumline and you've got the bagpipers, you've got like that rich tradition, and then you have someone give the Braveheart speech. You just feel like you're in something bigger than yourself and for me that's just it makes me realize like Rockhurst is 116 years old now. That is something. That, or 100, gonna be 116. It's just that you feel like you're in something much bigger than yourself. And so when you get to that game, yeah, what about you, Jack?
Speaker 3:Yeah, like Brendan was saying, that freshman retreat a different moment really sticks out for me with that and that's going to be at that very first, right after mass.
Speaker 3:You know it's real quiet and you know they're going through the schedule of the day and you know we put things out there and it's okay.
Speaker 3:We have 9 am, we're going to go and we're going to have a one hour prayer, you know service, and then later in the day it's going to be prayer reflection and you know obviously those things are important but that's not really how you get kids interested and really impacted and they're going to participate into the day and then we turn all the lights off and then we get the you know the strobe lights going and everybody, all the leaders, run in and kind of get the energy back up. I can remember sitting in that, uh, in the Rose Theater as a freshman just wondering you know what the heck's going on Like. This is not at all really what I was expecting from the day, and then that turned out to be one of. You know I would mark it as one of the most impactful days for me as a rockers person, like Brendan said. Just, you know, kind of coming into one as a thing that's bigger than yourself.
Speaker 2:That's really, I think, the first day where it's like okay, you know, these aren't just my classmates, these are my brothers a lot and it's the harvest food drive and I know that's been going on for a while and it's the one of the reasons like this tradition means so much to me is because it's you coming together with your classmates, raise money for people, raise, like, as many cans as possible for people that you know need it and go to the food banks. And we had an incredible record the junior class. This year or last year, when we were juniors, we raised I think it was 20,000, not 20. We had 12,000 pounds of cans, like the school total was close to 40, like that 40,000. I mean, that's just to me, that was something that was so cool because you get to, you've seen videos and pictures and like you learn, you want to contribute to that tradition and just make it better, and so for me that was something like getting to get together and make something even better and that was just a tradition. I think that's really powerful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then with Harvest Food Drive Brandon can attest to this. That was our very first sort of project when we came on to SJ that whole week we came into office freshman year as reps that Wednesday, so we had three days really to kind of organize and get cans and that was kind of a whirlwind couple of days. You know. We were going to all these across the city buying out all of their cans. I remember we had a couple of kids got their parents to give us very, very generous donations.
Speaker 2:That's my Venmo. That was crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that was just one thing and it was kind of like that's a great tradition, like Brendan was saying, like right in that fall, just to kind of get kids to see. You know this is what Rockhurst is really about. You know we're a men for others, you know we're a community that gives back. And it's also a fun competition because you know we like to win and we win pretty often.
Speaker 4:Hey, on that note, guys, you've segued perfect into kind of what we're here to talk about. You talked a little bit about Brotherhood already. I look forward to hearing more about that in a minute. But specifically when it comes to the freshman experience, that's a, like you said, jack, it's kind of a jarring experience. You're coming into a class that comes from at least 66 different zip codes, 65 different feeder schools. So what are some of the growing pains or maybe those experiences that you experienced as a freshman that were maybe a little bit more difficult, and who kind of did you go to for advice on on how to move forward? You know faculty staff, students who helped you through that?
Speaker 3:You know, coming into high school, obviously, like you know, coming from me and Brendan, we're at St Peter's, 45 kids in our class, whereas when we came into Rockhurst we were 225. So that's five times as much. So the biggest really adjustment, for me at least, was kind of relearning how to put myself out there. You know these are whereas I was at school with, you know, the same kids for nine years. Now I have to, you know, kind of meet new people and re like kind of create new relationships, and so that was kind of hard for me at first. That was kind of an adjustment, but not really someone that I would go to for verbal advice, but I would just kind of hard for me at first. That was kind of an adjustment, but not really someone that I would go to for verbal advice, but I would just kind of watch kids that I knew in older grades.
Speaker 3:You know I had good relationships with kids in the class of 2024, just because of older brothers and stuff like that, afraid to, you know, do what they liked and, you know, interact with whoever they could, you know, find a new friend, and so that really helped me. I kind of realized like, oh, I can be, you know, my true self, like I can really put myself out there and like I'm not going to be, you know, shunned or made fun of. You know I'm going to be celebrated honestly and I think that's what's so great about our community is Mr Darby says it every single year to the freshmen at Rockhurst it's cool to be good at things and it's cool to like be passionate about the things that you're good at, and so I'd say, probably by Christmas break my freshman year, I was really comfortable and, you know, being able to put myself out there with all my classmates.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, coming from a very similar experience to Jack saying we came from the same grade school I will say I did have a little bit different of an experience once we got into Rocker. So I played soccer here and so I was on the freshman team and so we had practices at 6.15 am every morning for two and a half months and that was a lot of bonding time with guys, but at the same time I kind of clung to the guys I came in with. I I kind of clung to the guys I came in with. Like I was a little bit like wait, it's safe to be with these guys I came with, but those weren't really the guys I'd maybe really hang out with too much when I was back in grade school. So I'm like I should find my people at Rockers, and so you know, I talked around trying to meet some new guys. But you know just, I was too much in my own head, and that was something that I really had to work on, because when you're in your head too much something I do a lot it becomes hard to, you know, realize what you want and realize what's actually in front of you, what's actually real, and so I had to get over that and I did like I met a lot of guys, I talked to a lot of people. I mean on student government I was in different positions with different people and got to you know, see how other people worked and just it became a lot more of me putting myself in new environments. That got me out of my comfort zone and so definitely by playing soccer, being in student government and doing all those other things got me out there more. But I will say I didn't probably feel too like settled until the end of my freshman year and that's okay.
Speaker 2:Some guys I mean maybe it wasn't the sophomore that I felt entirely comfortable. That's when the brotherhood, in my opinion, is the, it feels super comfortable Because when you're in sophomore year you're down your belt, you know all these guys are coming in and you feel comfortable Because I mean when you transition from such a big change in your life, I mean it's normal to feel scared and not feel super set yet. But I mean for me I just had to trust the process and I'm to trust the process and I'm really glad I did because I mean I wouldn't have it any other way. So I just putting myself out there and organizing my I I had an older sister who went to saint teresa's so she knew all the guys in the senior class at rockford so they all knew me and then they made it kind of easy so you know, they would come up and say hi to me or like one.
Speaker 2:I remember I was in the learning and it was dressed up in a halloween costume so I had, let's say so that's the summer top gun came out right, top gun maverick love that movie and I was. I wore my top gun maverick costume from seventh grade and one of her friends came up me. He was wearing the exact same costume. We took a picture and so it was kind of nice having like the nice of having other older guys like come up be friends with you, like that. So I think for me it was. It was different, like that.
Speaker 1:That's cool and it's funny hearing, you know, young guys talk about this, cause you know, when I was a freshman it was really it wasn't a different experience, but it was obviously innately different Cause it's a completely different time. You know, going was completely different time.
Speaker 1:You know, going up or growing up in a parochial you know, league, if you will you know I was coming in and I was going to school with guys that I mean I won't go into it on the airways, but our time in the parochial league was a little chaotic. Me and my cousin were playing and you know we would be beating up on teams and basketballs and what appeared to be guys who didn't like me very much. Now I got to go to school with them.
Speaker 1:It was like, oh, I don't know how this is going to go, and then just having sports as a buffer, having, you know, this environment in general, that forced us to get out of our comfort zone. Some of those guys. You know one of my good friends he just got inducted into the Hall of Fame Jeff Coons, who was in my class right.
Speaker 1:Like he was a, I believe he went to presentation. So, like you know, nemesis up until high school and then we ended up playing together for a long time. So let me ask you this, tying into that when you're thinking about incoming freshmen, which you guys will be seeing here in a couple weeks, and then prospective students, what is one piece of advice that you would give an incoming freshman, or your freshman self as a senior?
Speaker 2:I've got a lot of advice for them, for younger Brendan. Okay, what I would say is I know a lot of guys do this just don't sit on your phone, like if you're gonna be at lunch. Don't just like go in the corner and sit on your phone. Don't just pull up the ipad to game on it. Like have that experience, like meet people, talk to people like I didn't really stick to my phone too much, but it was always kind of like, like if something happens.
Speaker 2:So I think for for me it's definitely like you're going to seem, it's going to seem like every like you're going to be, like you're internally a little like oh no, these guys are too cool. Like I remember I played basketball against our current student body vice president, henry Coppinger. I went down for a breakaway layup. I shot it and he swatted me down behind, thought that guy was going to be like I was. I was like, oh, he's too cool, he's going to be and we're like we work so well together now. So I definitely think like, don't let your like, don't be too scared, just kind of let the Rockers experience happen. So I think kind of just don't assume things, just go in with an open mind is probably the biggest one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've definitely, like you were saying, being the parochial league, there's definitely rivalries that come out. You know, being a St Peter's guy, we always wanted to be visitation and so it was really like I had, through club basketball and stuff. I knew some of those kids and, you know, I knew they were great guys, nice guys. But I always thought that everyone else that I didn't know I thought, oh, you know, they're just, they're those cocky kids that are just super good athletes, they're better than us. Therefore they must be bad people.
Speaker 3:And so I kind of kept those prejudices and prejudgments in the back of my head going into freshman year. And then I can remember Pierce Fisher was a guy that he would always beat up on us in football basketball and I thought that kid, there's no way he's going to be a nice guy. And I can remember freshman football, the very first day we had our lifting and then we had our speed work on the field and I ran next to him and I just started talking to him and I'm like wait, this guy's super nice. He's. You know, pierce is a great guy.
Speaker 3:And so definitely something that I would tell my freshman self and definitely the incoming freshman is like give everybody a chance. You know everybody you know deserves your respect, deserves, you know, the benefit of the doubt and you know, just if you're thinking someone might not be a great person, you know just give them a chance. You know go up and talk to them. You know see what they're all about. And then also, you know, don't judge people based off. If they're better than you at something, understand they want it just as bad as you do. They're in the same boat as you. So just try to be as friendly as possible and just try to not have your prejudices, I guess.
Speaker 4:I think it's kind of cool that you brought up Coach Darby said to you guys about this place kind of where we celebrate excellence in a way that isn't necessarily competitive you know, it's not like you have to be the best to beat out everyone but we kind of celebrate each other's excellence and we strive for that as a community. So I think both of your advice great and hopefully our incoming freshmen will take heed that. That advice so kind of turning the tables a little bit. You know so much of the work that mr redmond and I do here at rockers really focuses on clearly making sure boys take a look at rockers and see if it's the right kind of place for them. But another huge audience we speak to is prospective parents, right, and so if you were asked by a prospective parent, what is the number one reason they should send a Rockhurst? What do you think that would be in your opinion?
Speaker 3:You know the basic answer is the brotherhood. We're a great academic institution, a lot of history here, but those are very surface level kind of answers and so I think, going deeper it's, there's a place for everyone here. Like you don't have to be you know we've been talking a lot about sports, that just happens to be you know the world that we're in. You don't have to just be an athlete to find your place here. You know we have amazing theater program, amazing choir program, band, our conservation club is amazing.
Speaker 3:We have a room we call it the zoo, and so just the biggest thing that I would tell a parent is like, if you're worried of your son, you know kind of not being able to find this place at a school that he's at right now or maybe looking at, you know Rockhurst is the place, I think, where people can find themselves and find their people and their community.
Speaker 3:Like you can just walk in through the Learning Commons during activity period you can tell like there's so much diversity of interest and you know people, friend groups, and then even intermixing between those groups people can find like that common, you know theme of. You know we go to here together. You know we're classmates, we're brothers and so I just think the biggest like thing is you're never going to be alone here, really like there's always going to be people you know there for you, and there's going to be people who you know have the same goals, interests as you, so you'll be really be able to find yourself here yeah, I think the one thing that parents think about is the kind of man their son is going to turn, because the big thing about Rockhurst is you've got all these incredible resources programs, but the thing that matters most is who you are when you graduate.
Speaker 2:That is Rockhurst. They want to see you become an incredible man by the time. That lives up all the gratitude. And I can't tell you how much growth I've had on this podcast since freshman. I mean the amount of just putting myself out of my comfort zone, learning what I like, learning how to study better, learning how to connect with people, just finding out what I truly want to do. I mean it's been incredible. And then giving me the resources to practice my skills and dive deeper into my talents has been something incredible. And Rocker's is not short of anything. I remember Rocker's didn't have this Monday morning news broadcast thing. I simply said I want to start doing this.
Speaker 2:I met with teachers Boom, it's happening, and so it's a magical place. I've said this so many times. You have no idea what happens when you walk in these doors. You're here, there's something in the air. I was here working for student government last Monday. I met alumni who were funding film programs all over the country. There's something in the air. I was here working with for student government last monday. I met alumni who were funding film programs all over the country.
Speaker 2:I met with five different teachers and bounced a bunch of different ideas off with them and just had this incredible moment where I'm like we were almost going to do this on a zoom call and we're like we didn't, because there's something magical about when you step in here, just you. So many opportunities arise and it's just the kind of person that you're able to become is just incredible. Like I said, I can't describe it because you just have to experience it for yourself. I looked at all the schools. My mom made me look at every school that was in the round here. She is a very logical and very she knows she she's a very smart woman. I'll give my mom credit and so she made me look at all these schools and so. But by the end of it, we both knew that Rockhurst was the place for me and now she's she's very happy with that decision Great.
Speaker 4:Guys, thank you so much for joining us today and taking time out of your last moments of summer break to talk to us a little bit more about your hopes and dreams here. So again, this Jack McShane and Brendan Artworkballs our dynamic duo that's going to be leading our SGA and also in our audience today. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention we've got some other SGA folks that are watching us record the podcast in support of their brothers, so that brotherhood is present even in this room right now.
Speaker 4:Looking forward to our next episode, we are going to have Chris Bosco, our Dean of Students for Student Life, come in and talk a little bit more about our CURA program. Our CURA program is a program designed to help boys transitioning from middle school into high school do the best they can.
Speaker 4:So both these guys, I know, are proud Cura graduates, whether they liked it as a freshman or not Loved every second of it, yeah, but they are a true sign of the importance of formation moments like that, where we really take the time to make sure that our incoming Hocklets have a great year and a great experience. So we look forward to welcoming Mr Bosco next week, and, from Steve and I, we'd like to thank you for listening today and look forward to seeing you soon.
Speaker 2:Rock State. Rock State.