The best-kept secret in Baltimore is not going to be a secret much longer. Not the way they're playing basketball at St. Frances Academy.
Two days ago, the school's boys team defeated Calvert Hall, 45-34, at UMBC to win the Catholic League tournament championship.
On the same day, St. Frances beat Mount de Sales, 58-39, at Archbishop Spalding in the championship game of the girls Catholic League tournament.
I don't know much about the girls league, but I do know a few things about the boys.
I know that Calvert Hall, Loyola, Mount St. Joe and Cardinal Gibbons have basketball traditions. I know that St. Maria Goretti, in Hagerstown, produced a great player, Rodney Monroe, who went on to star at North Carolina State.
And -- after watching the boys game Sunday -- I know that St. Frances has the best team in the Catholic League.
The team is 22-4 and won both the regular season and tournament championships, earning the right to play in the Alhambra tournament in Frostburg March 16-18.
All this is only part of the secret of St. Frances. The bigger part is the school itself.
What is it? Where is it? Who goes there? Who runs it? How long has it been there?
At the championship game, I asked some friends those questions. They couldn't answer any of them.
All I knew about St. Frances was that it had produced Devin Gray, who was the best high school player in town four years ago and went on to Clemson.
As for the rest of it, even my questions led to fuzzy answers. A man who had been to St. Frances to recruit Devin Gray told me the school was "near the penitentiary," which is correct.
At halftime Sunday, with St. Frances leading, 23-14, and heading for the dressing room, I went to the team's bench to talk with two members of the school's staff.
They turned out to be two of the most dedicated -- would the word saintly be too strong? -- educators I have ever run across:
Sister Kathryn Dougherty, a graying nun who teaches religion and is in charge of the campus ministry, and Brother Brian Henderson, assistant principal and dean of students.
"Where in the world is your school?" I asked.
Brother Brian informed me it is at 501 E. Chase St., one block north of the Maryland penitentiary.
"Who runs St. Frances?" I asked Sister Kathryn. "The Oblate Sisters of Providence," she said.
"I never heard of St. Frances," I told the nun, "until Devin Gray came along. How long has it been in existence?"
"Since 1828," she said.
Hey, I told you this school is a well-kept secret. I just didn't tell you for how long.
"St. Frances was founded," said Brother Brian, "to educate black girls. We were educating blacks when it was illegal to do so."
"What's your enrollment?"
"Our principal, Sister John Francis [Schilling], is sitting right behind us in the stands," Sister Kathryn answered, trying now to get the head nun's attention. "Sister -- what's our enrollment?"
"One hundred seventy-four," answered the principal.
"What's the breakdown, boys and girls?" I asked.
"Half and half," said Sister John Francis. Boys weren't admitted until 1974.
"Are most of your students African-American?" I asked.
"All of them are," answered Sister Kathryn.
"We're open to anybody, though," added Brother Brian.
"Do your graduates go on to college?" I asked.
"Ninety-five percent of them did last year," said Brother Brian.
Here's a school with 85 boys and no gym that's playing better basketball than the Loyolas and Calvert Halls. Fascinating.
Yesterday morning I visited St. Frances and saw, for one thing, that it is in a handsome, old brick building similar architecturally to the nearby Institute of Notre Dame.
St. Frances' students come from all over -- from Reisterstown, from Loch Raven Village. One student takes the MARC train from Washington every day.
.' The boys basketball team walks
seven blocks to practice at the Madison Recreation Center and plays its games at the University of Baltimore on Charles Street. The girls play at Loyola College.
In school, the students are as well behaved as any I've seen. The halls and classrooms are in excellent condition.
"The school," said Brother Brian, "is a safe and healthy environment for our students. To some who come to us in the ninth grade, discipline and demanding academics are new."
"People think," said William Wells, the coach, "because we're in a bad neighborhood nothing good happens here. This is a place where good things do happen."
Wells, 50, has been working at the Madison Center for 27 years. He coached Muggsy Bogues, Skip Wise, Keith Booth, Donta Bright.
Wells was asked about Mark Karcher, the 6-foot-4 10th-grader who was voted the Most Valuable Player in the Catholic League VTC for the regular season and for the tournament.
"He reminds me of Duane Ferrell," he said. "Same style, same mannerisms."
Ferrell played for Mark Amatucci's national champions at Calvert Hall in 1982, then at Georgia Tech. He's now with the NBA Indiana Pacers.
Wells says Devin Gray, who had a heart problem, which led to an academic problem at Clemson, is sitting out this season but hopes to play pro.
"More than that," Wells said, "I want Devin to get his degree. I like black kids to see that basketball isn't everything."
At St. Frances, basketball means a lot. But it's only one of the good things the nuns and brothers are accomplishing at this remarkable place.