Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-boys, Jesuit, private secondary school located in San Jose, California. Founded on May 8, 1851, as part of Santa Clara College, it is the oldest Jesuit secondary school in California and the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River.
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Overview
A Catholic school in the tradition of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Bellarmine is a member of the West Catholic Athletic League, the Jesuit Schools Network, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
As of 2021, Bellarmine led the CIF Central Coast Section with 140 Division 1 titles. Bellarmine's Speech and Debate Team was ranked in the top 10 programs in the country with its policy debate team ranked #1 after winning the triple crown (NDCA Championship, Tournament of Champions (debate) and NDSA Nationals) in 2021. In 2025, Bellarmine Speech and Debate was ranked #1 in the US according to the NSDA. In addition, the school's FIRST Robotics Competition team, Team 254: The Cheesy Poofs, has been the World Champion (2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2022) for 4 of the past 10 years. The school's publications include its student newspaper, The Bell Online, and its yearbook, The Carillon - named for the instrument consisting of multiple bells.
The school is reputed for its graduates’ contributions and powerful influence in the Bay Area. Bellarmine's list of notable alumni includes 4 Olympians (six Gold Medals combined), 5 living Billionaires, 3 Mayors of San Jose, the former team owners of the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics, 3 World Series Champions, 5 Super Bowl Champions, 1 Academy-Award Winner, 1 Pulitzer Prize Winner, 28 Professional MLB athletes, numerous award-winning authors and several state politicians. Previous Bellarmine alumni have won prestigious postgraduate scholarships including the Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Schwarzman Scholarship, MacArthur Fellowship, and the Fulbright Awards.
History
Bellarmine was founded in 1851 by Fr. John Nobili, S.J., and his companions, as Santa Clara College, a school for secondary and college-age students. In 1912, the college was separated into 2 schools - Santa Clara University and Santa Clara Prep. After sharing the same campus for thirteen years, the secondary school moved to its current College Park Campus after purchasing the land from the University of the Pacific (then known as the College of the Pacific) for $77,500. In 1926, the renovated school opened its doors to a student body of 200 registered students. In 1928, it was named Bellarmine College Preparatory in honor of St. Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit scholar and Doctor of the Church.
In 2011, the Lorry I. Lokey Academic Center was completed after a $15 million gift from the family of the philanthropist and founder of Business Wire. This was the single largest gift in the school's history. The new center houses over 27 classrooms, a faculty lounge and the Craft-Malcolm Family Academic Resource Center.
The College Park Caltrain station is adjacent to the campus since its inception and has been a historic presence for Bellarmine's metropolitan community. Over 140 students take the train to school every day from San Mateo County to Gilroy. The station is served by only 2 northbound trains and 2 southbound trains a day, timed to correspond with the school's hours. In recent years, amidst discussion of the station shutting down, the school has lobbied Caltrain to avoid cutting service to the station.
General stats
As of 2020, Bellarmine's current enrollment size is approximately 1,655 students.
The average class size is 22.5 and the student-to-teacher ratio is 13:1. For the Class of 2019, 99.2% of students went on to attend college. 94.7% of graduating seniors were attending a four-year institution.
Athletic stats
Football
The Bells Football team represents Bellarmine College Preparatory in the West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) of the CIF Central Coast Section. The team has 8 CCS Championships in program history. The Bell's Football team is currently headed by former San Diego Chargers coach and 2-time Super Bowl Champion with the Denver Broncos David Diaz-Infante. In 1965, the John Hanna-coached Bells outscored opponents 310–6 during a 31-game winning streak to earn the first of two state titles (the other was in 1981).
Soccer
The Bellarmine's 2002 varsity soccer team had a perfect 25-0-0 season. As of 2021, the soccer team has won 3 of the past 5 CCS Open Division titles, a NorCal CIF Division 1 Title, and finished the 2021 season ranked #4 in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer and CBS Sports.
Co-curricular programs
Robotics
The Bellarmine Robotics Team, named Team 254: The Cheesy Poofs (also simply known as Team 254), is often considered one of the greatest teams in the program's history. The high school competes in two different divisions: FTC and FRC. The team has won the World Chairman's Award (the highest award in FIRST) in 2004, and have 5 individual World Championships, in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2022. The team also holds the record for most regional events won, having 44 regional wins to their name. In 2008, Bellarmine first entered VEX Robotics and in 2009–2010 won 16 regional competitions, 7 of them in international competition. In the 2010–2011 season, Bellarmine's VEX team 254A won the VEX World Excellence Award, the highest it confers. In 2014, the team won three regionals, the Curie Division, and World Championships. The school shares a partnership with NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. In 2022, Bellarmine's Team 254F won the VEX World Championships in Dallas Texas.
Speech & debate
Bellarmine Speech and Debate has won numerous awards, including 4 consecutive state titles (2021–2025), and 5 consecutive national titles (2020–2025). It also had a run of 9 years of consecutive state championship wins from 2005 to 2014. In 2024, Bellarmine became the 2nd school in history to earn both the 1st and 2nd place national winners in the Policy Debate section of the NSDA US National Tournament. In 2025, it was ranked as #1 in Speech and Debate by the NSDA after they obtained a national champion in both Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate and Original Oratory (OO) Speech.
Student media & publications
In 2008, Bellarmine began its own radio station, KBCP The Bell, as a legal, unlicensed station at 1650 AM which reaches a 1-mile radius of the school. Programs include 30-minute newscasts, sports shows, daily music shows, and political talk radio. Its yearbook service is The Carillon.
In popular culture
Bellarmine's College Park Caltrain station is mentioned in Jack London's 1903 novel The Call of the Wild as the location at which the stolen canine protagonist is fenced, beginning his journey away from civilization.
In his 1960 Lonesome Traveler collection, American poet Jack Kerouac writes about watching the Bells play football in "October in the Railroad Earth."