St. Paul’s remembers its past, hangs championship banners

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

WORCESTER – When the St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School girls’ volleyball team hosts Notre Dame Academy on Monday, Sept. 8, in the first sporting event this fall in the St. Paul gymnasium, the gym will have a new, improved look.

For the first time since St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic Jr./Sr. High School and Holy Name Central Catholic Jr./Sr. High School merged and formed St. Paul on the former Holy Name campus in the fall of 2020, championship banners from the two merged schools will adorn the gym walls.

Prior to the opening of St. Paul in the fall of 2020, the walls of the gym were painted and the floor was refinished, but all of the Holy Name championship banners were removed and stored in a closet in the office of St. Paul’s athletic director ,Jim Manzello. The St. Peter-Marian championship banners were kept in a closet by St. Paul’s business manager Rosemary Scott near the media room at St. Paul.

Mr. Manzello had always wanted the banners from both schools to decorate the gym walls, and Father Jose F. Carvajal, who was appointed head of school at St. Paul in July of 2024, agreed with him. So as soon as the school year ended last June, the banners were brought out of storage and facilities director, Kobe Akana, and electrician, Tim Evans, both Holy Name graduates, hung them on the gym walls within two weeks.

Banners ranging from 1970 through 2019 were grouped mostly by decade and hung on three of the gym’s four walls. The south wall was reserved for banners for St. Paul athletic teams. Mr. Manzello expects to hang black and gold banners within about a month for the Central Mass. Athletic Directors Association championships won in softball in 2022, hockey in 2024 and boys basketball in 2025.

There are 42 Columbia blue and white Holy Name banners and 23 purple and white St. Peter-Marian banners on the walls, but some of St. Peter-Marian banners honor several teams. One lists nine district softball champions from 1977-1985 and another lists eight district girls’ basketball champions from 1978-1991. The banners honor teams in boys and girls basketball, softball, baseball, football, boys cross-country, field hockey, boys and girls soccer, ice hockey, boys tennis, and cheerleading for winning Super Bowls, capturing district and state championships and finishing as state finalists.

“It just adds so much life and spirit and tradition,” Mr. Manzello said, “and the two colors look great together, blue and purple.”

Mr. Manzello said he felt as if something was missing by not having any banners on the gym walls for the past five years.

“You go in everybody else’s gym and there’s banners out there,” he said, “and you just felt uncomfortable.”

He feels very comfortable with the banners up.

“Now it feels like St. Paul is complete,” Mr. Manzello said. “We have our history, our traditions of what we were before 2020 and now kids can come in and see this is what we did.”

Mr. Manzello said alumni of the two merged schools were pleased to learn that their championship banners are displayed on the gym walls again.

“Of course, they’re excited,” he said. “Holy Name is gone and St. Peter-Marian is gone, but at least for some alums, the tradition lives on.”

When Holy Name graduate Ryan Brown coached a girls basketball team in a game at St. Paul this summer, he was able to point to the banners that he helped Holy Name earn by winning the Super Bowl championships in 2005 and 2006 and finishing as the state finalists in basketball in 2006 and 2007.

Father Carvajal pointed out that St. Paul’s past stretches back to the days of Marian High School and St. Peter High School, which merged to form St. Peter-Marian in 1976.

“There are alumni from both of them who are around and are very supportive,” he said. “They want this place to succeed.”
Father Carvajal said he considers himself to be a community builder.

“At St. Paul, we are deeply aware that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us,” Father Carvajal said. “As we put back the championship banners from St. Peter-Marian and Holy Name, we are reminded that our school exists because of the legacy of these two vibrant and faith-filled communities. Their merger gave new life to St. Paul, but we cannot forget that the roots of our new identity are nourished by their history and tradition.”

Ann Zelesky, a Marian High graduate, coached those nine district championship softball teams and seven of the eight district championship basketball teams at SPM. She also coached the Guardians to four state championships in softball and one in basketball, and there are banners for those achievements as well.

She said she’s excited to see the banners up.

“I’m appreciative of Father Jose, Jim Manzello and Rosemarie Scott,” she said, “for putting this together and making this happen. ... I’ve talked to many alumni through the years and they would always say, ‘Where are the banners? Where are the banners?’ Now they’re so excited. Word is spreading that they are in fact up on the walls and I think it’s a great opportunity to bring St. Peter-Marian, Marian, St. Peter’s and Holy Name together to support St. Paul’s and to put history up in the gymnasium at St. Paul’s High School.”

Father Carvajal said when building a new identity sometimes the past can be overlooked.

“Sometimes, when faced with change, it can be difficult,” he said. “Those who led the merger always meant well and worked hard to allow a new identity to emerge, but perhaps in the process we took our eyes off the rich history of these two popular, respected and beloved schools. Just as the Church would not be what it is today without the tradition built through centuries, St. Paul cannot thrive unless we honor the story that gave it life.”

In another step to embrace the school’s history, Father Carvajal announced the formation of the St. Paul Hall of Fame and that the inaugural class of students representing St. Peter-Marian, Holy Name and St. Paul will be inducted on Saturday, April 11.