Paging Dr. Page...

Killian Page '09 got a taste for surgery at Mass General Hospital last Thursday. As a student in Mr. Donovan's senior lab in anatomy and physiology, Page and a dozen of his classmates made their way to Mass General's etherdome, where the first administration of an anesthetic was recorded in1846.

Page, pictured here practicing thoracic surgery (to remove a Lifesaver with a surgeon's tools), underwent three training sessions with a Mass General surgical team: setting up a ventilator, using instruments to recussitate a patient, and conducting surgery with the aid of a arthroscopic camera.

Mr. Donovan knows that doing it beats studying it--and so took his students to see one of his hometown's proudest accomplishments in medical research, Building 149 in Charlestown. That's home to Mass General's top research facilities in genetics and MRI imaging. There they met genetic researchers like Dr. Calum MacRae of the Cardiovascular Research Center, who spoke of his current genetic research with the zebra fish. They also spoke with post-doctorate research fellows about their work as they conducted live research on subjects with Siemens 7 and 9-tesla scanners, magnets that are hundreds of times stronger than the force of the earth's gravitational pull.


Mass General is the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, the oldest hospital in New England, and the recipient of the most research funding of any hospital in North America.

Pictured: Mr. David Donovan and his class of surgeons-in-training.

Brennan Williams '09, All-American

Turn on NBC on January 3rd at noon and you'll see Brennan Williams '09 representing Catholic Memorial School in the annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

At a press conference on the Catholic Memorial campus November 10, representatives from the All-American Bowl presented Williams with his game jersey and praised his high school performance, his team's credentials, and the school.

Knights head coach Alex Campea, who will attend the East-West matchup in January along with Williams and his family, was proud to congratulate Brennan, the only Massachusetts player in this year's All-American Bowl. Campea spoke enthusiastically about Brennan's accomplishment.

"This is truly an honor for Catholic Memorial School, for Brennan and for our entire football program," Coach Campea said. "We're very proud of having Brennan Williams represent Catholic Memorial in San Antonio, and I'm sure he'll take care of business down there as we continue to take care of business here."


Watch Brennan don his game jersey and speak at the press conference by clicking on the video above.

Since its inception, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl has been considered the nation’s premier All-American game by high school football players, coaches, and fans from across the country, as it’s the preeminent launching pad for America’s future college and NFL stars. Reggie Bush, Vince Young, Adrian Peterson and Brady Quinn all made their national debuts as U.S. Army All-Americans.

CM XC at the Eastern Mass Finals, November 8

Ed Colvin '10 finished 2nd for the Knights with a final 100-meter sprint in the final seconds of the 5k race Saturday afternoon at Franklin Park. With the 2nd-place finish, Colvin qualified for the All-State meet next Saturday, also to be held at Franklin Park.



Colvin finished in 16:15. Team captain Nahed Lakkis '09 finished a minute later, while Nolan Schmidlein '11 came in third for the Knights (19:55), Lance Murray '10 fourth (21:04), and Nicholson Durand '09 fifth (21:36).

Leadership with Heart: NHS inductees receive their commission

Forty top scholars in the junior class pledged their devotion to service, character, leadership, and scholarship on Thursday evening, October 6 in the annual induction ceremony of the Monsignor Donahue Chapter of the National Honor Society.

Photo credit: Mrs. Ellen Eberly

Advisor Mr. Andrew Malionek and NHS President Josh Boyd '09 emceed the ceremony. They recognized both the juniors and seniors who have maintained an 88.5 cumulative grade point average and shown a dedication to those four pillars of the NHS over their high school careers.

"Self respect and the respect for others is what builds our character, and we must always stay true to what these pillars mean," said Boyd to his classmates.

Vice president Nahed Lakkis '09 gave his advice to the juniors before calling forth the inductees. "Leadership is not just in position but it is also in action," he said.

CM president Paul E. Sheff '62 spoke of the community of scholarship that came and went at Brook Farm, just up Baker Street, in the 1940s, and encouraged these young men to continue that spirited tradition of open-mindedness and creativity. "This evening we celebrate the part of you that is the thinker," Sheff said. "Combine the mind with how that talent might benefit others. Share what you know and let it enrich the lives of others."

Guest speaker of the evening Mr. Tom Beatty '68 drew a rousing applause as he honored his friend Tim Russert and his colleague Mr. Joe Perfetti as two models of that wisdom benefiting others. "As good a teacher as Mr. Perfetti is I would say that he is even a better person," Beatty said of the soon-to-retire Perfetti. "In 35 years, I cannot remember a negative thing that anyone had to say about Mr. Perfetti. Of course that doesn’t count the comments by some of his students after they leave one of his tests."

"Mr. Perfetti always puts his students first," Beatty said. "The number of students whose lives he has touched would be difficult to calculate on a TI-84."

Inducted on November 6 were the following juniors: Ben Alves, Eric Anderson, Chris Bastarache, Brian Besinger, Thomas Bryan, Eric Butts, Gordon Coleran, Sean Conley, John Cooper, Nicholas Coppola, Thomas Coughlin, John dePierro, Sean Donaghy, William Donovan, Michael Embleton, Gjergji Evangjeli, David Falco, Andrew Fanikos, Alejandro Flores, Daniel Haley, Andrew Jagelski, Brad Jones, Jinhoung Kim, Jonathan Lott, Brendan MacNabb, Kyle Macneil, Nima Masomi, Christopher Masterson, Timothy McLaughlin, Michael Murphy, Byron Okwesili, Dan O'Loughlin, Sungeun Park, Patrick Simas, Shane Smith, Troy Starrett, Todd Taylor, Shane Walsh, Dennis Weir, and Michael Woodall.

In Sickness and in Health: WCVB reporter Kelley Tuthill visits CM

Channel 5 Boston reporter Kelley Tuthill visited Catholic Memorial School on Thursday morning, November 6 to speak with the sophomore class about her courageous struggle with and victory over breast cancer. A member of Team 5 Investigates and former co-anchor of NewsCenter 5's Weekend Edition, Tuthill chronicled her story of surviving breast cancer on her own blog at The Boston Channel website.

After a majority of the sophomore class participated in the Making Strides against Breast Cancer Walk on October 5, they invited Tuthill to speak to them and give them one survivor's own story.

"I grew up in a house with three sisters and two daughters so this is not my comfort zone! But I'm happy to be here with you guys. And I'm really grateful that you've given so much to this cause--that means so much to me."

Tuthill spoke about coping with breast cancer on a daily basis and the hope she has for a cure. She spoke of her faith, her family, and the daunting statistics about breast cancer in the United States that still worry her.

"There are amazing strides that are happening and your help makes a difference," Tuthill told the students. "No matter how much support you have, you can still feel alone. When you see other people come out in support it really makes a difference."

Sophomore team leader Mrs. Peg Sittig, who co-organized the event with campus minister Mr. Brian Scott, was impressed by Tuthill's inspiring message. "She spoke about her husband, who was with her in sickness and in health. You hope that these young men will be able to do that for whomever--moms, wives, sisters, aunts.."

"This event really had an impact on the boys," Mrs. Sittig said, "some of whom have already known someone afflicted with breast cancer."

The sophomore team of teachers developed the interdisciplinary topic of breast cancer that would run as a thematic thread through all classes this year. In science classes, Dr. Frisardi's students will study the causes of cancer. In history classes, Brother Oxx will discuss how different diseases have affected different ethnic populations over time. In English, Mrs. Demoura's students will write interpretatively about Tuthill's poetic credo: "Bitter or Better?"

CM 12, St. John's Prep 7

There's just something perfect about 7.

CM's Varsity Football team improved to a perfect 7-0 on Saturday afternoon against St. John's Prep, remaining undefeated in the conference as well. Though they got seven on the board against a strong Knights defense, it wasn't perfect at all for St. John's Prep as Delroy McDonald '09, Andrew DiBartolo '09, and Lorenzo Warren '10 ran for over 170 yards and Tom Byrne '11 's two field goal kicks made it through the crossbars.

(Photo credit: Mrs. Ellen Eberly)

Having the lead the entire game, CM made sure to watch for desperate offensive moves by St. John's Prep and the Knights defense held up to keep them out of the endzone in the second half.

"I told these kids earlier in the week that it would come down to defensive stops," Coach Alex Campea said after the game. "We answered the call. We made the plays that we had to."


Video footage forthcoming.

XC at the CCC

CM's Cross-Country team competed in three separate races at the Catholic Conference Championships on Saturday morning, October 25, at Franklin Park.

In the freshman race, Matt Engel '12 came in 6th place (11:25), while Ryan Reid '13 came in 7th place (11:29).

In the JV race, Ryan Curley '11 led CM with a time of 21:30. Jake Uminski (23:15) and Elliot Simmons-Uvin (23:16) followed.

Ed Colvin '10 took an early lead in the varsity race over Xaverian and Malden Catholic's top runners, but was a few steps behind coming out of the woods on the third mile. He finished 3rd in the race with a time of 16:16. Nahed Lakkis '09 came in 10th (17:14); John Labelle '09 (19:12), Nolan Schmidlein '11 (19:13) Lance Murray '10 (21:07), and Nicholson Durand '09 (21:50) followed.



Watch highlights of the varsity race and hear comments from Colvin and Lakkis afterwards by clicking on the video above.

Silver outshines Gold

The Knights took some luster from the Golden Eagles of Trumbull, CT on Friday, October 10 with a 23-20 win. The Knights have had an impressive 5-0 start to the season but begin facing Catholic Conference opponents this Friday with a visit to Malden Catholic.

Watch highlights of the game versus Trumbull by clicking on the video above. Producer Ed Horan '09 suggests you play it loud.

Charity on the Charles--by Nicholson Durand '09

On Sunday, Oct. 5th, 300 students participated in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk--40% of the student body. 23 faculty members joined the walk along with parents and families. The total number of 350 surpassed all five previous years that CM has been walking. So far, we have raised $27,557 dollars and more donations are still coming in. By raising all this money, CM has become number one in the amount of money raised for all schools and colleges in Massachusetts. CM ranks fourth of all Walk participants to date in the amount donated.

Photo credit: Mrs. Eberly

Catholic Memorial students, teachers, staff and families came out with pride for a purpose. We showed that we care about people outside of our community and together as a group it is possible to make a positive effect in so many people's lives.

Going around school and asking what people thought about the walk I received all positive comments. Some of them are.

Freshman Brendan Ashe: The outpouring of support that students gave made me feel like my grandmother has a chance to survive and win her battle with breast cancer. I think that CM is the best high school in Boston!

Senior Robert Kane: I Just feel CM students can accomplish a lot if they work hard towards their goal.

Teacher, Mr. Jia: What I liked about the walk is the amount of people that attended. I am proud to be a part of CM.

This event was primarily organized at CM by Mr. Scott. We should all thank him for the time and effort he put into this. Here's what he had to say about the walk:

Photo credit: Mrs. Eberly

"It makes me incredibly proud to be a part of this school and a part of this Walk. So many people have come up to me and told me how impressed they were that so many young men would give up their Sunday morning to help raise awareness and stand in solidarity with those suffering from breast cancer. Nick and the Leney family, the Casserly family, the administration, and our alumni, just to name a few. When we chant 'We are CM' it means so much more than just athletics or just academics: it means that we get it. We get that we have the power and the ability to make a difference in the world. And we did that on Sunday."

CM v. Cambridge

On September 26, Catholic Memorial School's football team defeated Cambridge by a score of 42-0 to bring the Knights regular season record to 3-0. Watch highlights of the game by clicking on the video below.






CM went on to defeat Lynn Classical on October 3, 21-0. The Knights hope to best Trumbull, CT this Friday at 7pm at home.