Is Loyola’s New Principal

By Jim Muyo

A FAMILIAR FACE is returning to Loyola to serve as its next principal, and he can’t wait to get started. Alumnus, past parent, teacher, coach, administrator and new principal Jamal Adams ’90 brings a wealth of experience and a deep-rooted appreciation for all that makes Loyola the unique and special place that it is.

“I struggle with the words to describe it and my level of excitement is hard to quantify. I am beyond thrilled,” Mr. Adams says about his return to Loyola. That affection has been built from his earliest experience when he entered Loyola as a 13-year-old freshman, though Mr. Adams admits to not being fully on board with the notion of attending Loyola.

“I came to Loyola kicking and screaming,” he says. “I was a public school kid and I didn’t know much about Loyola other than my dad said it was the best school in town and he wanted me to have the best education I could. In terms of my student time here, it was my first real experience with faith and my relationship with God.”

That relationship quickly deepened under Loyola Principal Fr. (now Bishop) Gordon Bennett, SJ ’64, and later Fr. Stephen Barber, SJ, who baptized Adams when he was an adult and led him on guided meditations, retreats and the annotated version of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. “Those relationships really cemented in me the idea that being an educator was something that I really strove to be,” he says. For Mr. Adams and the many students he has taught and student-athletes he has coached, the experience has been transformational and it informs his vision for Loyola going forward.

“I’m trying to be careful not to come in and be prescriptive,” says Mr. Adams, whose Loyola body of work is extensive and includes stints as assistant varsity basketball coach (1997–2005), head varsity basketball coach and social science teacher (2005–2021), director of faculty (2018–2021) and the school’s first director of equity and inclusion (2015–2021). The success of Loyola’s basketball teams included many league titles, two CIF Division I-A titles and four top 25 national rankings. In 2022, he was inducted into the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.

“I really believe that often times the best things that happen in your life happen in community. I want us to not only be charitable, but I’d also like us to learn how to advocate for those folks to understand the systems that cause these different inequities and how we can be solution-oriented so that everybody feels like they have an opportunity to be their best selves, be it in Loyola or outside of our gates.”

Mr. Adams’ route back to Loyola was not direct. Upon his graduation in 1990, he was off to Columbia University to play basketball and earn his bachelor’s in economics. He then spent 12 years in finance working for Merrill Lynch and UBS. However, his younger brother, Kenan ’94 was diagnosed with brain cancer and later died at age 31. Mr. Adams returned to the LA area to be with his family and support Kenan. He joined Loyola as assistant boys’ varsity basketball coach. “It was during that five-year battle with cancer when I became disillusioned with working on Wall Street. At the time I was becoming more and more enamored with the opportunity to be in young men’s lives at Loyola on a permanent basis.”

“My hope and dream is to be a spark of inspiration, to hold the Loyola mission very close to my heart, to exude it in both words and actions, and to also have others think about the mission as they go about their daily business.”

—Jamal Adams ’90

His new position as principal affords him the opportunity to be involved and instrumental in the lives of Loyola’s 1250-plus students.

“My hope and dream is to be a spark of inspiration, to hold the Loyola mission very close to my heart, to exude it in both words and actions, and to also have others think about the mission as they go about their daily business,” said Mr. Adams. “From how we teach classes to the way we offer our co-curriculars, the way we think about athletics, and the way we invite everyone in our community to think about practicing their Catholic faith, that is my goal.”

For Mr. Adams, his return to Loyola is much more than simply a new job. It’s coming back to an institution that has had a profound impact on his life. “Hopefully, I can continue to build on Loyola’s rich legacy in my new role. I’m really excited about being back at a place that feels very much like home.”