Lauren Panageotou is in her fourth year playing volleyball and basketball at Mercy High School, meaning she’s gotten to experience a sort of “before and after.”
The before: locker rooms that hadn’t been expanded in decades, with no room for visiting teams. After: redone locker rooms, a new court dedicated to a school icon and a new scoreboard, to boot.
“A lot of our time is dedicated to sports,” Panageotou said. “After school, being able to go into the locker room, and they’re stadium lockers so you’re able to sit in there and talk with your team before practice starts … it’s special because every single athlete for all three seasons is able to use it.”
These athletics renovations were made possible by $350,000 in capital improvements, including a $150,000 donation from Sara Reitz Folio, class of ’85, and her husband Rick, the single largest alumna gift in school history.
The Mercy community kicked off Homecoming Weekend Oct. 7, a Friday afternoon, by gathering for the dedication of the newly renovated gym floor and locker rooms before the volleyball team’s homecoming game.
The court was dedicated to Mary Ella Marion, ’76, who retired at the end of the 2021-22 academic year following her decorated career as a coach, physical education teacher and administrator.
“At the heart of Mary Ella’s work has been her belief in the potential of girls as leaders to build a better world,” school president Mary Beth Lennon said. “She has always sought opportunities for students to develop their gifts and talents.”
The Reitz Family Locker Rooms honored Reitz Folio’s parents, Dr. Donald and Nancy Reitz. Her father was the archdiocese’s first lay superintendent of schools.
Reitz Folio was motivated to make the gift after learning her son was assigned three separate lockers for school, gym and football at Calvert Hall, an all-boys school.
“It’s not just Mercy, but if you look at all the other girls’ schools, you see that they just can’t keep up,” said Reitz Folio, a parishioner of Sacred Heart, Glyndon. “It really did motivate me when I saw the locker room was very outdated.”
Reitz Folio also praised Lennon, a class of 1985 peer, as she’s led the school in launching a biomedical program, opening a fine arts building and now bolstering the athletics department. The gym renovations followed the installation of The Sisters of Mercy Field, the first field at a Baltimore-area girls’ school with lighting for nighttime games and a digital scoreboard.
Mercy’s varsity basketball, softball and lacrosse moved up in the IAAM into the A Conference this year, while cross country was elevated to the B Conference. Volleyball won the B Conference championship, its first title in 10 years, and will move into the A Conference next year. And the soccer team captured the A Conference title in November, its first since 1991.
Editor’s note: This story was updated Feb. 1 at 9:45 a.m. with the correct name of Mercy’s lighted athletic field
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