John Baxter ‘84 entered the SPHS as a member of the Motivation Program in 1980. At that time, as a 9th Grade student, John joined the Junior Varsity Football team. In his junior year of high school, John split his time between the Varsity and JV football teams and played both the offensive and defensive lines. He was selected as the Most Valuable Player on the JV Football team during his junior year season. Senior year, John was a starting lineman, and named Tri-Captain along with Scott Farnesi and Joe Micali for the Rams. John participated in the annual Thanksgiving Day game against St. John Neumann and had the special privilege of playing in the 50th Anniversary game at Philadelphia’s Veterans Memorial Stadium. John went on, after graduating from SPHS to study finance at the Community College of Philadelphia and then on to a lifelong career with the Internal Revenue Service beginning in 1986. John continues to be a valued employee at the IRS and currently works as a software tester.
In addition to John’s athletic career and vocation, he is passionate about travel. John has traveled extensively to the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Ghana and South Africa. Pending the restrictions of the pandemic, John plans to continue his travel itinerary to Portugal and British Columbia.
Further interests for John include jazz music and “the oldies”.
It is no surprise that John continues his athletic interests as a BIG Sports Fan, most notably our Philadelphia home teams!