Bergen Catholic High School is an all-male Roman Catholic high school in Oradell, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, serving students in ninth through twelfth grade.About BC, Bergen Catholic High School. Accessed September 28, 2025.
Bergen Catholic operates under the supervision of the Archdiocese of Newark.Bergen County Catholic High Schools, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. Accessed September 28, 2025. The school draws students from a wide geographic area that includes over 100 North Jersey communities, Rockland, Orange, Westchester counties and New York City.
Accreditation The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1989, and is accredited until January 2026.Bergen Catholic High School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Accessed December 27, 2022.
Enrollment As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 721 students.School data for Bergen Catholic High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed September 1, 2025.
Activities
Mock trial team The Bergen Catholic mock trial team has won 13 county championships (in 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2000-2002, 2010, 2015-2017, 2019, and 2023) and five state titles (in 1985, 1989, 1991, 2000, and 2016), as well as a National Championship. Bergen Catholic's team is nearly entirely student-run. In 1991, Bergen Catholic High School won the National High School Mock Trial Championships held in New Orleans, Louisiana.Participant History & Past National Winners, National High School Mock Trial Championship. Accessed September 28, 2025. Bergen Catholic returned to the national championship hosted in Columbia, South Carolina in 2000 after going undefeated in the county, Regional and State tournaments. The 1999-2000 team ultimately finished 4th in the country, with three "Outstanding Attorney" awards. The 2016 team won the New Jersey state championship, sending it to the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Boise, Idaho."Bergen Catholic High School Wins 2016 NJ State Bar Foundation's High School Mock Trial Competition", New Jersey State Bar Foundation, March 23, 2016. Accessed March 31, 2016. "Bergen Catholic High School, Bergen County, captured the coveted state title in the New Jersey State Bar Foundation's 2016 Vincent J. Apruzzese High School Mock Trial Competition finals on March 21 at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. The school goes on to represent New Jersey in the national competition in Boise, Idaho, May 12–15.... This was the Bergen Catholic's third state championship, following victories in 1991 and 2000. In 1991, Bergen Catholic also won the national competition."
In the 2008–09 season the team made it to the county finals, losing to Indian Hills High School. In 2010, the team defeated Mahwah High School to win the Bergen County championship, but the team lost in the regional semi-finals, ending its season as one of the top ten teams in the state.Staff. "Bergen Catholic Mock Trial Team wins", Clifton Journal, March 26, 2010. Accessed September 28, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "The Bergen Catholic High School Mock Trial Team recently won the Bergen County Mock Trial championship and advanced to the North Regional of the 28th annual Vincent Apruzzese Mock Trial competition before suffering its first loss of the season.... In the playoff section, B.C. defeated The Frisch School, Torah Academy, and Mahwah High School to win the Bergen County championship... Bergen Catholic, which finished as the Bergen County runner-up in the 2009 competition, won the Bergen County Mock Trial championship for the ninth time overall (having also won in 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2001, and 2002). B.C. also won the New Jersey state championship in 1985, 1989, 1991, and 2000, and was crowned national champions in 1991." The Bergen Catholic team fell in the semi-final round of the county tournament at the end of January 2011 to the Mahwah High School team that went on to win the 2011 Bergen County Championship.Mazzola, Jessica. "No Objections: Mahwah Mock Trial Champions Of Bergen County; The team will compete at a regional competition today against teams from other Northern NJ counties", Mahwah Patch, February 8, 2011. Accessed September 10, 2012. "Mahwah High School's Mock Trial Team won the county championship title last week.... Both advisors were extremely proud of their team's performance, which had them beat competitors from Lodi, the Torah Academy, Paramus Catholic, New Milford, Bergen Catholic, and IHA."
Bergen Catholic's Mock Trial team finished undefeated in the regular season in 2014 and finished third overall in the county. In the 2015 season Bergen Catholic again finished undefeated in the regular season. In the "playoff" tournament Bergen Catholic defeated Northern Valley Demarest in the first round. Then on January 29, 2015, in a double header, defeated Mahwah (2014's county champion) in the semifinals and Indian Hills in the finals.
Athletics The Bergen Catholic CrusadersBergen Catholic High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. compete as a member of the Big North Conference (United Division), a super conference that is comprised of public and private high schools in Bergen and Passaic counties that operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. Until the NJSIAA's 2009 realignment, the school had participated in Division C of the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League, which included high schools located in Bergen County, Essex County and Passaic, and was separated into three divisions based on NJSIAA size classification., Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League, backed up by the Internet Archive as of May 9, 2009. Accessed December 16, 2014. With 984 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Non-Public A for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 381 to 1,454 students in that grade range (equivalent to Group I for public schools).NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020. The football team competes in the United Red division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions, making it the nation's biggest football-only high school sports league.Cooper, Darren. "Here's what we know about the new Super Football Conference 2020 schedule", The Record, July 23, 2020. Accessed March 22, 2021. "The Super Football Conference (SFC) is a 112-team group, the largest high school football-only conference in America, and is comprised of teams from five different counties."Cooper, Darren. "NJ football: Super Football Conference revised schedules for 2020 regular season", The Record, July 23, 2020. Accessed March 22, 2021. "The Super Football Conference has 112 teams that will play across 20 divisions." The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Non-Public Group A (equivalent to Group III/IV/V for public schools) for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 738 to 1,404 students.NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2024–2026, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated September 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024.
Bergen Catholic has a long-standing rivalry with fellow Catholic schools Don Bosco Preparatory High School in RamseyLawlor, Christopher. , New York Daily News, October 2, 2010. Accessed August 27, 2011. "The New Jersey rivalry between the all-male Roman Catholic schools from upper Bergen County had added juice this time. They entered as the state and tri-state region's top two teams (Don Bosco is No. 1 in both cases) and both were fixtures in the national ranking services." which was ranked first in the state by NJ.com (with Don Bosco holding a 38-28-2 lead in the series) and with Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, which was listed at 14th on NJ.com's 2017 list "Ranking the 31 fiercest rivalries in N.J. HS football" (with Bergen Catholic leading with a 31–17 overall record as of 2017).Stypulkoski, Matt. "Ranking the 31 fiercest rivalries in N.J. HS football" , NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, October 27, 2017, updated May 15, 2019. Accessed December 1, 2020. "14-Bergen Catholic vs. St. Joseph (Mont.) - Nine times these two Bergen County rivals have met on Thanksgiving (1989, 1999-2003, 2006-2008), but it's been this rivalry's non-Thanksgiving recent history that has produced some of the state's most memorable games.... All-time series: Bergen Catholic leads, 31-17... 1-Bergen Catholic vs. Don Bosco Prep: Our No. 1 rivalry in New Jersey dates back to 1958 (though the teams did not play in the regular season from 1992-98, but resumed in 1999), with these two programs separated by just over 10 miles set to clash for the 69th meeting all-time this Friday.... All-time series: Don Bosco Prep leads, 38-28-2"
Bergen Catholic offers 17 sports at the varsity level:
Fall sports: football, soccer, and cross country Winter sports: wrestling, basketball, swimming, indoor track, bowling, ice hockey, and skiing Spring sports: baseball, lacrosse, golf, tennis, outdoor track, volleyball, and crew
Football Bergen Catholic has one of the most successful programs in New Jersey. The Crusaders are 20-time state champions: they were awarded the Parochial A North title by the NJSIAA in 1963, 1965 and 1966,"State Champs", The Record, December 29, 1969. Accessed March 3, 2021, via Newspapers.com. and won via playoffs in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.Football Championship History: 1974-2024, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated December 2024. Accessed February 1, 2025. Through the 2019 season, the team had an overall record against in-state teams of 420-156-10 (a winning percentage of .725).Media Guide and Record Book: 2019, Bergen Catholic High School. Accessed May 25, 2023. A record of 99–10 between 1990 and 1999 made Bergen Catholic the winningest football program in the state of New Jersey for the decade of the 1990s.Frezza, Harry Jr. "Hillsboro hopes to seize big opportunity", Courier News, September 8, 2000. Accessed September 28, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "The Crusaders had a 99–10 record for the 1990s the most wins and fewest losses by any team in New Jersey during that period."