Keeping the faith: Catholic schools show Red Sox pride

From the first pitch of the American League Championship Series to the final out of the World Series, Red Sox nation has been on a roller-coaster ride.

The apparently insurmountable obstacle — losing the first three games of the ALCS, winning the pennant after three straight defeats — gave way to a winning streak that resulted in a World Series sweep, and area Catholic schools have celebrated in a variety of ways as the Curse of the Bambino was finally laid to rest.

Middle-school students at Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester drew on the victory as a source of inspiration. Speaking to a student body clad in red in honor of their team, Sister Frances Butler, SSND, the school’s principal, asked students to focus on the Red Sox players’ characteristics in order to better themselves as students and as people.

“Watching a great team play can be exciting and inspiring,” began the prayer service held the morning after the ALCS victory at Mother Caroline Academy. Stressing key phrases, such as “we never gave up” and “we just believed in ourselves,” used by Red Sox players immediately following the ALCS Game 7 win, the students were asked to “take this advice to be the best team members we [could] be,” her prayer continued.

Several other schools, such as Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree and Lowell Catholic High School celebrated by allowing their students to forgo their uniforms in honor of “Red Sox Spirit Day.”

Other schools took their celebrations to another level.

Students in Sacred Heart High School in Kingston were serenaded by English teacher Michael Duchaney after the Red Sox defeated the Yankees in Game 7.

Duchaney, an “avid” Yankees fan and fellow English teacher Eugene Boyles, a “tried and true” Red Sox fan, made a “gentleman’s bet,” according to assistant principal Dr. Douglas Trudeau. The bet was that the losing team’s fan would have to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at all three lunch periods the following day.

“Mr. Duchaney boasted after the first three games,” laughed Trudeau, “but then he had his day when he had to sing for all of us in the cafeteria.”

“This was a long time coming,” Trudeau continued, noting that the two teachers made the same bet last year. “Only then it was Mr. Boyles who had to do the singing.”

In addition, after the Red Sox won the World Series, Duchaney wore a Red Sox jersey “which he wore very gracefully,” added Trudeau.

At Malden Catholic High School, students were also the victors in a friendly wager made with students from Xaverian High School in Brooklyn.

As the ALCS games began, five Malden Catholic students made a bet with five Brooklyn students. The losing team’s students would have to travel to the rival school, wear the rival team’s uniforms and perform a community-service project.

As a result, the New Yorkers, together with a Xaverian High School teacher, will be arriving in Malden Nov. 9, explained Brother Henry Marino, CFX, assistant director of campus ministry at Malden Catholic High School. They will don Red Sox uniforms, label and bag donated clothing for St. Francis House, and then cook and serve dinner at the St. Paul Supper Club, a local soup kitchen.

“They will be served a real New England meal of clam chowder” by graduate Joseph O’Donnell, and then will return home, Brother Henry said.

“It was a good-spirited rivalry that went on between brother schools,” stated Brother Henry.