TRADITION AND PRIDE: It's soon gone for three schools! Tradition and pride, some schools have those characteristics, and every school works hard to develop and nurture them!   This will all be gone for Seton Catholic in Pittston, Bishop Hafey in Hazleton, and Bishop O'Reilly in Kingston  if the Bishop's plan goes through.  In that case players and students like Christen D'Eliseo a junior this year at Seton Catholic will have to find a different team and school for next year! In 1891,at the Young Men's Christian Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, Dr. James Naismith devised the game of basketball to create a sport that would offer something to do between football and baseball seasons.

The first Bishop Hafey basketball  team 1970-71 (Left to right)    Robbie Marusak    Brian McBride    Larry Walko    Tommy Boyle    Chico Evans.

 Thirty one years later in 1922, Hazleton St. Gabriel's High School  opened and started to play this new sport.  Forty four years after that, in 1966, as well as 1967, and 1970 St. Gabriel's of Hazleton won the PCIAA Class C Basketball State Championship.  The 1966 team was coached by "Digger' Phelps who went on to fame coaching Notre Dame and then established himself as a basketball analyst for television.  

Robby Marusak

In that 1970 State Championship game,  Robby Marusak, then a junior at St. Gabriel's, scored the last basket in the history of that school.  After  the years of  basketball tradition, he and the other students  received word that their school would be closed.  That fall, the students from St. Gabriel's including Robby Marusak were transfered to the new Bishop Hafey High School.  How far did the students  have to travel to their new school?  They didn't!  The Bishop Hafey High School was not yet completed, so they attended Bishop Hafey in the same old St. Gabriel's building, but under the new name.  It was not until the next year that the new building was completed.

Central Catholic High School in Kingston was established in 1954 "for the spiritual, intellectual, and cultural formation of its students" according to their website and renamed Bishop O'Reilly in 1973, they won the Class AA state basketball championship in  2004, 2005, and 2006- tradition and pride!   But you can bet they won't win it next year.  The new restructuring of Catholic education plan in the Scranton Diocese closes O'Reilly and ends their existence.  Goodbye to tradition!
How's this for tradition: From 1864 to 1881, Seton Catholic (then St. John's Academy) was the only school in the Greater Pittston Area that served the Catholic population.  The present school building, which stands at 37 William Street in Pittston, dates back to 1917.  The school has also been known as Pittston Central Catholic and St. John the Evangelist. In June, 1976, Seton Catholic High School was incorporated as a Central Diocesan High School serving the Greater Pittston Area.
On January 17, 2007,  the Hazleton Standard Speaker reported that Bishop Hafey High School, Seton Catholic, and Bishop O'Reilly High School all learned that they would be closed.  Staff and students of  the schools were herded in front of  television screens to hear a "live" message from Bishop Joseph F. Martino (he didn't have the courage to appear in person).  He reported that Meitler Consultants,  a group hired by the Church had completed studies which showed "parishes were contributing a greater share of their budgets to education."  The closing of the high schools would help reverse that trend and allow for spending in other ways more beneficial to the Church.  Martino said,  in agonizing  over the decision, he traveled to Assisi, where  Catholics believe that the Lord told St. Francis of that city to rebuild the church 800 years ago.  "I asked St. Francis to help me," said Martino. 
Assisi is located in Umbria, Italy.  Fodor's Travel reports that the closest major airports would be in Rome, Pisa, or Florence.  The bishop was looking for help alright, help in distancing himself from the people he was letting down.  Traveling to Assisi, hiring Meitler Consultants, and appearing before the students,  faculty, and parents  by way of television were all very well choreographed maneuvers to elude the unhappiness that the decision was causing.  But look at it this way, with the money the Church was saving by spending less on education, the Bishop had more money to travel around the world to places like Assisi to "agonize over any decisions" that might impact the people of Hazleton, Kingston and other northeastern Pennsylvania communities in the Scranton Diocese to which he administers.
Unfortunately, this is not a new trend.   The following schools have three things in common: they were once Catholic High Schools, they once played for the state basketball championship, and they are now closed: St. Basil's of Pittsburgh, St. Rose of Carbondale, St. Vincent's of Plymouth, St. Leo's of Ashley, St. Michael's of Greenville, St. Francis of McKees Rocks,  Pittston St. John's, Titusville St. Joseph's, Northeast St. Gregory, John's of Uniontown, Williamsport St. Joseph's and the list goes on and on.  Tradition and pride for them exist only in yearbooks buried somewhere in a closet!
Speaking to the Hazleton Standard Speaker, Don Tombasco, a school board director in the Hazleton Area School District said, "little schools have little problems and big schools have big problems."  He was correct.
But aside from the problems these little schools might of had, or the problems the new larger school districts will have trying to find space for incoming students-think about the lost opportunities for young people.  There will be fewer class presidents, fewer spaces for student council members, and at least 60 fewer spaces for kids to play high school basketball next year!  But we can feel good about the fact that "the Church is saving by spending less on education."  And in this case who is the Church?  The very people who are being effected by the decision. 
Have you ever walked into one of these Catholic high schools?  I did in October, visiting Bishop Guilfoyle High School in Altoona.  Quiet well ordered hallways, students in uniforms, young men with blazers, ties, blue shirts, and young women in neat, fashionable uniforms.  But I wasn't surprised, because years ago,  I coached at three different Catholic High Schools, I knew the way in which things were conducted, all positive as far as impacting students, and I can assure you that the Church didn't over spend on the salaries of the faculty and coaches.  We couldn't afford to travel outside of town, let alone Assisi.
In the Standard Speaker article, Agnes Marsicano, a parent who sacrificed to send two daughters through Bishop Hafey, said, "she feels that parishioners in the Hazleton area should boycott the Catholic Church."  But Agnes, how will the Bishop be able to afford to  travel around the world to make the important decisions that effect people  in Hazleton, Kingston and Pittston  if you don't continue to attend Church and give generously to the Sunday collection?

Bill Gaffey, editor
www.pahoops.org

This story is found on the Pennsylvania Basketball Website at www.pahoops.org
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