Mr. Joseph Nies was born into a large family in 1957. He was inspired to go to Prep by his neighbors who were about five years older than him. He grew up playing basketball with them and decided to follow their example into high school. His favorite things about Prep were the rallies, classes, and camaraderie. He graduated in 1975, and he did not attend college. Now, Mr. Nies is a successful building and remodeling contractor. Prep gave him the foundation to do this kind of work, along with the proper set of values he needed to be where he is today.
Based on the responses Mr. Nies gave, Cathedral Preparatory School used to be much different than it is now. His favorite memory from the historic building was simply being in the auditorium during a Prep rally or some other kind of gathering. According to him, the auditorium would be so full of students that even the balcony would be filled. His freshman class had over 400 students in it, nearly four times the average class size at Prep today. The balcony is seldom used now. It is only accessible by maintenance and it is used as the tech booth for controlling the lights and audio during a play/rally/etc. Mr. Nies said the wrestling room and weight rooms used to be an indoor track and rifle range.
He ran cross country during his years at Prep, and he still likes to check up on the team’s status from time to time. He is still friends with his original core group of friends from Prep. This just goes to show the impact that Cathedral Prep has on its students’ lives. The average adult does not still track the progress of their high school sports team, and few people remain friends with their old high school friends. That is not the case for Prep graduates, though.
In his free time, Mr. Nies likes to read, go on walks in the woods, and go snow shoeing. He also has three dogs and claims not to be a cat person. That is very believable due to the amount of dogs he has and the lack of cats. Overall, it’s clear that Prep prepared him to be who he is today.