A longtime educator with experience overseeing high school athletic programs will take the helm of Mater Dei High School amid ongoing controversy over an alleged hazing scandal involving its storied football program.
Michael Brennan will start at the Orange County private school on Feb. 1, Diocese of Orange officials said Friday. He has been president of St. Anthony High School in Long Beach since last year.
The news comes less than a week after the abrupt resignation of the school’s former president, Father Walter E. Jenkins, who started at Mater Dei in July. Officials have said Jenkins is expected to return to South Bend, Ind., to “take on a new assignment” with his religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross.
His departure followed weeks of controversy for Mater Dei’s powerhouse football program and storied head coach Bruce Rollinson. A lawsuit filed in late November by the family of a former football player accused Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange of trying to cover up a brutal locker room altercation that left the player with a traumatic brain injury.
School officials have said Jenkins was not fired and that there is no connection between the litigation and his departure. They have declined to provide additional information about why he is leaving the program after less than a year on the job. Jenkins could not be reached for comment.
After news of the lawsuit broke, Jenkins hired a Sacramento-based law firm to conduct an investigation into safety protocols at the school and its athletics programs. Brennan will oversee the review, which is scheduled to begin this semester, according to the diocese.
Brennan said in a prepared statement that he’s “dedicated to ensuring that the campus has a safe, productive and educational environment based upon Mater Dei’s core values of Honor, Glory and Love.”
“I am excited to return to Orange County and thrilled at the opportunity and promise of leading Mater Dei, one of our nation’s preeminent…