Hometeam: Thanksgiving football clash with St. John's on tap as St. Paul Diocesan athletics come into focus

The high school spring sports season in Massachusetts remains on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, there’s been plenty going on off the field with regard to athletics at St. Paul Diocesan Junior-Senior High School, the merged institution between Holy Name and St. Peter-Marian which will open its doors at the current HN campus at 144 Granite Street in September.

Holy Name athletic director Jim Manzello has been working on putting together a coaching staff and schedules — the new school will continue its old Thanksgiving football rivalry with St. John’s — since being named to the same position at St. Paul in mid-February.

He hopes to be able to confirm coaches for the 2020 fall season Wednesday after the administration checks off a few other boxes with regard to personnel.

“What they’re doing right now is going line by line,” Manzello said Thursday via phone from his Worcester home. “They did department heads last week, they’re doing faculty this week and, hopefully, they’re doing coaches (next).

“I wanted to have coaches named by April 1st and they’re telling me, at least for the fall, we’re looking at the middle of next week. So I’ll submit some names to them (Friday) and they’ll get back to me and hopefully by next Wednesday I’ll know.”

If that turns out to be the case, Manzello would have his fall staff put together about a week later than he hoped, which is reasonable considering these trying times. He’s targeting mid-April for naming the winter staff with a date to be determined for the 2021 spring staff.

“I don’t want to name coaches for next spring before this season even starts,” Manzello said.

Same goes for the fall and winter coaches until the administration settles on a teaching staff.

“With all this stuff going on, they were going to do all face-to-face interviews and they’re doing them all via Zoom or what else and it’s taken much longer to get the teachers (interviewed),” Manzello said. “And some coaches are teachers and I can’t name them as a coach because they might not have a teaching job. So I have to be cognitive of that.”

When it comes to scheduling, Manzello said the fall slate is about 90 percent completed. That includes St. Paul playing St. John’s on Thanksgiving, sort of continuing a holiday rivalry that dates to 1925 when St. Peter’s and St. John’s met for the first time.

Holy Name had played Auburn the past five years on Thanksgiving.

“Football is going to get blown up after next year anyway,” Manzello said, referencing the statewide tournament that will begin in 2021. “So I don’t know what would have happened with Auburn if we continued to play them in the future. I think after next year there are going to be a lot of changes.

“So tentatively right now it’s a one-year agreement and this won’t be No. 96 or whatever, this is No. 1 between St. Paul and St. John’s and then we can go from there.”

St. Paul will field teams in all the same sports as Holy Name and St. Peter-Marian, including girls’ volleyball, which was previously only offered at SPM.

As for a mascot and school colors, Manzello said the administration sent out an email to all teachers, staff, parents, and students at both schools asking for their thoughts and ideas.

In the meantime, the Naps and Guardians continue to play a waiting game this spring. It’s been especially tough for the athletes and coaches because this is the final sports season for two schools whose origins date to the early 20th century.

“We’re all in this together and so many people would be disappointed, so many kids,” Manzello said if the season was cancelled. “It’s one thing if you’re a sophomore or a junior, but if you’re a senior _ it’s that feeling where you tore your ACL a week before tryouts started and there’s no senior year.

“So it’s really disappointing, but with the reality of where we are now you just want to make sure everybody is healthy.”

—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichGarvenTG.