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How you doing, fellas?

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How you doing on, uh--

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You get
those assignments done?

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Yeah.

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-All of 'em?
-Not all of them, I--

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Well, what
the hell you waiting for?

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I'm about done this one.
How's that feel, Brady?

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00:00:48,091 --> 00:00:50,398
Good? Like water skis, buddy.

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Football's pretty simple.
Like, there's eleven people.

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Ten of them win, and one lose,
you can go backwards.

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So, it takes all eleven.

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Fellas, have you ever heard
me say "Bad things happen"?

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You will hear me say
it a thousand times a year.

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"Bad things happen."
What are you gonna do?

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That's-- I mean, that's it.

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That's life. That--
That's everything that we do.

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Bad stuff happens,
what are you gonna do?

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We're the smallest school

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playing football
in the state of Massachusetts.

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All right, fellas.

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Bring it right
over here, let's go.

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Guys, I've asked you all
yearlong to be leaders, right?

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Something bad happens,
step right up,

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00:01:36,008 --> 00:01:37,575
we'll outweigh to it, right?

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Believe it in your heart,
we will get it done.

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I wanna be the most
physical team

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on this football field tonight.

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Leave no doubt in central Mass.

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-Understood?
-Yes, coach!

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Here we go.
Team on three. One, two, three.

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Team!

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Here we go, fellas.

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Let's go!

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The boys did the work.
They lifted the weights.

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They were just as committed

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as everybody else
that led before 'em.

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But what we quickly
learned was,

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the weight that they had
to worry about wasn't

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in the weight room,
it was on their shoulders.

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They were carrying
the weight of the world on them.

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What was that weight?

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Some people will say it,
some won't. I'll say it.

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They're carrying
the weight of the school.

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Since the 1960s,
enrollment at catholic schools

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in the United States
has fallen by more than 50%.

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A dozen catholic schools

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have closed in Massachusetts.

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Catholic leaders say
this is the largest number

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of closures this state
has seen in almost 50 years.

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In just a few short months,

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the well-loved school will
have its last day in session.

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Everyone was
engaging in the conversation of,

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quote, unquote,
saving the school.

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They weren't sure
where the school was going.

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No one was. You could feel
it in the teachers,

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you could feel it in the kids.

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We heard all talks
of, "Well, if the school doesn't

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have enough money,
we're gonna have to close.

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This is the last year."

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Everyone in the community,

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every family that was
enrolled-- The fear was there.

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We always face adversity.

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In games, in practice, and this
is the situation in real life.

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It was time to step up.

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Our school
is on the verge of closing.

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And then as a team,
we had to come together

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to try
to win the state championship.

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This wasn't supposed
to be our year to win it.

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We definitely, as a team

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and as a unit,
really felt that it was up

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to us to save the school,
or we were not coming back.

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In 2019, we were all in.

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From our alumni,
from our principal,

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right down to our freshmen
football player.

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That football team was the glue.

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It was the rallying
point for the community.

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The underdog,
the little engine that could,

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that's what they were.

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Team on three.
One, two, three.

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-Team!
-Whoo!

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Whatever
it takes, right? We're all in.

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In Fitchburg,
the working-class heartland

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of central Massachusetts,
this plucky

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little catholic school
is the last of a dying breed.

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St. Bernard's Central Catholic.

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A diocese
in high school,

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founded on a mission
of faith and service.

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Named for the patron
saint of mountain climbing.

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Since its doors first opened
in 1920, St. Bernard's routinely

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sent graduates to good colleges,
good careers, and good lives.

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A legacy of Bernardian
alumni that spans a range

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of success stories,
including three NFL players,

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00:05:03,955 --> 00:05:06,480
and five Fitchburg
mayors over the years.

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Vestiges of the school's heyday,

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and the soulful
connection to better times.

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St. Bernard's High School
is part of the community,

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part of our fabric.

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Part of why, uh, we have
the great city that we have.

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There are generations
of families that have come here.

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My mother came here,
my husband's mother came here.

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There's a lot of that.

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My sister went there,
my mom went there.

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I've had family go to
St. Bernard's ever since 1946.

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My grandfather played
in 1970 through '73, '74.

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My dad played here in 1996.

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Same positions,
full back, middle linebacker.

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He was the lonesome senior
captain that year. Now it's me.

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Tyler Thibodeau and I,

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we kinda grew up
together on this field.

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It was almost like
we were little brothers

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to everyone on the team.

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Growing up,
you see how much

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this team
really means to people.

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The sense of family
that comes from the school

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is greater than any other
school, I would say,

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just because we are
that small school in Fitchburg.

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Not many people know about it,

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but it's been
happening for 100 years now.

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At the turn of
the last century, these hallways

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and classrooms were teeming
with a student body.

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It numbered as high as 500 kids.

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Approaching
its centennial, however,

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this bedrock
of a community is fighting

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for survival after
years of attrition.

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In the fall of 2018,

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there were only 143
total students in the school.

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The decrease in enrollment

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came in dribs and drabs.

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It wasn't one dramatic year,
or two dramatic years.

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That was really
a 15 to 20 year process.

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In 2010,
I believe the senior class

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was in a little over 100.

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And then in 2018,
you had 30 some odd seniors.

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And I'm thinking
to myself, "Okay, okay.

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We are in the midst
of an economic downturn.

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We're on our way back.
It's gonna rebound."

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"The numbers are gonna rebound."

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It didn't rebound.

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There was some good news

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in one area at St. Bernard's.

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Even as enrollment plummeted,

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the football team
built a steady winner.

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The Bernardians
were routinely undersized

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and undermanned,
yet always played bigger

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than the numbers,
led by a coach who preached

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resilience
in the face of adversity.

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You know,
some days I pulled

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into this parking lot and,
you know, before I get out

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of my truck,
I'm taking a deep breath

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and get myself
ready to be dialed in.

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And then you
get out of your truck,

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and you see
'em all coming at you.

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And their faces, they're
looking at you, ready to go.

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00:08:02,917 --> 00:08:04,179
-How we doing?
-Great.

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00:08:05,485 --> 00:08:06,921
-Little nervous?
-Yes sir.

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I'm loose as a goose.

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Good.

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Well,
you will remember tonight.

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Like, go out there,
and fly around the field.

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I promise you,
this is probably the most

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physical football team on the
field. Good things happen.

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00:08:21,979 --> 00:08:23,459
-Understood?
-Yes, coach.

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We fly around, having fun.

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Let's go, everybody up.
Ready, let's go.

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Let's go!

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Let's go.
One, two, three.

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-Let's go!
-It's game day, boys.

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St. Bernard's
has had one heck of a year.

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Tiniest school
at Gillette Stadium

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of any of the games.

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In 2018,
St. Bernard's, the smallest

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00:08:40,258 --> 00:08:42,609
football school
in state in terms of enrollment,

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00:08:42,783 --> 00:08:45,612
had just 82 boys
in the entire school.

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00:08:46,743 --> 00:08:49,224
34 of those boys
played for coach Tom Bingham's

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00:08:49,398 --> 00:08:51,748
football team,
and defied the odds to reach

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00:08:51,922 --> 00:08:54,751
the state championship game,
as a determined long shot.

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00:08:57,275 --> 00:08:58,973
When we sing
on the football field,

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"Bad stuff happens,
what are you gonna do about it?"

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00:09:03,412 --> 00:09:05,457
If we embrace
that and go right back at it,

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00:09:05,632 --> 00:09:07,372
we feel like we can
change the outcome of the game.

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When we won in '18,
Pope John was more athletic.

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They had tremendous team speed.

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00:09:16,947 --> 00:09:19,689
They were very big,
they were well-coached.

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00:09:20,124 --> 00:09:22,170
I think they won
every game by 30 that year.

187
00:09:22,344 --> 00:09:23,867
They had never seen adversity.

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00:09:24,346 --> 00:09:26,783
Cuevas. Keeping the play alive.

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00:09:26,957 --> 00:09:30,047
Honestly, if we played
Pope John ten times,

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00:09:30,221 --> 00:09:32,180
we'd lose
nine times out of ten.

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Like, that day,
we out coached them,

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00:09:35,357 --> 00:09:36,488
and we just outworked them.

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00:09:36,663 --> 00:09:38,229
Second quarter.

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00:09:38,403 --> 00:09:40,318
More Bernardians,
Dominic Cuevas rolls out,

195
00:09:40,492 --> 00:09:42,451
cuts it up, breaks
the play after the conversion.

196
00:09:42,625 --> 00:09:44,540
St. Bernard's
up 16-14 at the half.

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00:09:44,714 --> 00:09:46,803
They went back and forth,
back and forth.

198
00:09:49,763 --> 00:09:51,982
Managed to hold
them off in the fourth quarter.

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00:09:52,156 --> 00:09:54,071
Now the fourth. Marty.

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00:09:54,811 --> 00:09:56,552
Showing off
the athletic ability,

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00:09:56,726 --> 00:09:58,423
hurdles it toward the tackler.

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00:09:58,815 --> 00:10:01,078
It's like
a big "holy shit" moment.

203
00:10:01,252 --> 00:10:02,819
St. Bernard's,
looking to ice the game,

204
00:10:02,993 --> 00:10:04,560
and they call on Morales.

205
00:10:04,821 --> 00:10:07,302
He gets the first
down in a lot more.

206
00:10:07,563 --> 00:10:09,783
36 yards for the junior.

207
00:10:12,002 --> 00:10:15,005
St. Bernard's gets
the state championship 46-35.

208
00:10:15,179 --> 00:10:16,833
First day of practice,
we told coach

209
00:10:17,007 --> 00:10:18,400
state championship, you know
what? We delivered her.

210
00:10:18,574 --> 00:10:20,054
For everyone who's
wearing STB jerseys,

211
00:10:20,228 --> 00:10:21,969
this is for all those people.

212
00:10:22,143 --> 00:10:25,015
You know, it was
almost like, tears of joy.

213
00:10:25,189 --> 00:10:26,669
Like, like,
we actually did this,

214
00:10:26,843 --> 00:10:28,932
and we actually
put school on the map.

215
00:10:29,411 --> 00:10:31,195
In 2018,
Saint Bernard shocked

216
00:10:31,369 --> 00:10:33,937
everybody by winning
the state championship.

217
00:10:34,285 --> 00:10:37,811
As it turns out, winning
was only the beginning

218
00:10:37,985 --> 00:10:39,421
of what they had to fight for.

219
00:10:39,595 --> 00:10:42,032
One, two, three.

220
00:11:01,008 --> 00:11:02,487
-Root.
-Aw, man.

221
00:11:04,228 --> 00:11:05,708
-Hi.
-Hey,

222
00:11:05,882 --> 00:11:06,840
-principal Anderson.
-Hi, how's it going?

223
00:11:07,014 --> 00:11:08,537
Good.

224
00:11:08,711 --> 00:11:10,147
I was wondering,
could we ask you 65 questions?

225
00:11:10,321 --> 00:11:12,062
That's a really
strange number of questions.

226
00:11:12,236 --> 00:11:13,716
You certainly can.

227
00:11:13,890 --> 00:11:15,022
Are you ready for this?

228
00:11:15,196 --> 00:11:16,414
I don't know.

229
00:11:17,415 --> 00:11:19,069
My name is Linda Anderson.

230
00:11:19,243 --> 00:11:21,028
I am the principal
of St. Bernard's High School.

231
00:11:21,202 --> 00:11:22,725
How about three
things you can't live without?

232
00:11:23,030 --> 00:11:24,727
Uh, my family.

233
00:11:24,901 --> 00:11:28,862
Um, a sense of purpose
and lots and lots of coffee.

234
00:11:29,036 --> 00:11:30,690
How would you
define yourself in three words?

235
00:11:30,864 --> 00:11:36,826
Um, curious.
Um, persistent, AKA stubborn,

236
00:11:37,131 --> 00:11:38,523
and compassionate.

237
00:11:39,133 --> 00:11:41,004
What's the best
piece of advice you've received?

238
00:11:41,222 --> 00:11:44,399
My college professor told me
that if you can recognize

239
00:11:44,573 --> 00:11:46,923
a problem, then it is your
responsibility to help solve it.

240
00:11:48,316 --> 00:11:50,448
I started
here in 2010 as a teacher.

241
00:11:50,622 --> 00:11:52,842
I came in pretty
much fresh out of college

242
00:11:53,016 --> 00:11:56,759
to teach Latin and writing,
which was amazing.

243
00:11:56,933 --> 00:11:59,109
But I left in 2015.

244
00:11:59,283 --> 00:12:01,808
My daughter
was just born and, you know,

245
00:12:01,982 --> 00:12:03,505
I wanted
some time with her,

246
00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:05,376
but also I was
getting a little burnt out.

247
00:12:05,550 --> 00:12:07,335
So, I took some time off,
and I stayed home

248
00:12:07,509 --> 00:12:09,511
with my daughter for a bit
and did some odd, odd jobs.

249
00:12:09,685 --> 00:12:10,817
What's
your favorite color?

250
00:12:10,991 --> 00:12:12,296
Green.

251
00:12:12,470 --> 00:12:13,515
Do you like surprises?

252
00:12:13,689 --> 00:12:16,648
No. No.
Not at all.

253
00:12:16,823 --> 00:12:20,348
In 2018, I got a--
I got a call from a former

254
00:12:20,522 --> 00:12:24,221
student who said
that one of-- one of--

255
00:12:24,395 --> 00:12:26,310
one of my former
students and her former

256
00:12:26,484 --> 00:12:28,617
classmate had--
had taken his life.

257
00:12:28,791 --> 00:12:31,141
And I will
never forget that day.

258
00:12:31,663 --> 00:12:33,448
It's not rational,
but I felt like

259
00:12:34,057 --> 00:12:36,843
if I had been here,
you know, if I hadn't left,

260
00:12:37,452 --> 00:12:39,715
could I have been
in a place where he talked,

261
00:12:39,889 --> 00:12:42,109
or the next person,
you know, and just--

262
00:12:42,283 --> 00:12:45,503
it really just dawned on me
that I had abandoned my post.

263
00:12:45,677 --> 00:12:47,070
That's what it felt like.

264
00:12:47,331 --> 00:12:49,377
I remember coming home
and telling my husband,

265
00:12:50,682 --> 00:12:52,641
"I'm not
done with St Bernard's.

266
00:12:52,815 --> 00:12:54,077
And I don't
know what that means,

267
00:12:54,251 --> 00:12:55,339
I just know I'm not done."

268
00:12:56,819 --> 00:12:58,299
So I looked-- There's a--
there's a website

269
00:12:58,473 --> 00:12:59,735
where you look
for teaching jobs.

270
00:12:59,909 --> 00:13:01,563
And I pulled up the website.

271
00:13:01,737 --> 00:13:04,522
The very first job,
Latin teacher,

272
00:13:04,696 --> 00:13:06,046
St Bernard's High School.

273
00:13:06,568 --> 00:13:08,309
What's
your favorite Latin phrase?

274
00:13:08,831 --> 00:13:10,311
Okay, let me see
if I can remember it right.

275
00:13:10,485 --> 00:13:12,269
It's from Terence.

276
00:13:12,443 --> 00:13:17,361
It's, um, "Homo sum,
nihil a me alienum puto."

277
00:13:17,535 --> 00:13:19,363
Which means "I'm human,

278
00:13:19,537 --> 00:13:22,627
therefore, nothing of human
beings is foreign to me."

279
00:13:24,412 --> 00:13:26,283
Anderson
got the job, of course.

280
00:13:26,501 --> 00:13:29,025
Then, midway through her first
year back, amid the hard times

281
00:13:29,199 --> 00:13:31,593
St Bernard's
was facing in its finances,

282
00:13:31,941 --> 00:13:33,856
the diocese
unexpectedly presented

283
00:13:34,030 --> 00:13:36,032
this curious,
caffeinated Latin teacher

284
00:13:36,206 --> 00:13:39,166
with a bigger opportunity to
turn things around as principal,

285
00:13:39,340 --> 00:13:40,950
starting
in the school year to come.

286
00:13:41,124 --> 00:13:42,734
So, they made my announcement,

287
00:13:42,909 --> 00:13:46,173
and it was probably
the scaredest I've ever been

288
00:13:46,782 --> 00:13:51,004
because I have never
been in any kind of spotlight.

289
00:13:51,178 --> 00:13:54,703
And all of a sudden, you're
seeing your face in newspapers,

290
00:13:54,877 --> 00:13:58,011
and you're seeing
the comments on social media.

291
00:13:58,925 --> 00:14:00,752
"How old is she?"

292
00:14:01,231 --> 00:14:03,625
As a complement
to her relatively short resume,

293
00:14:03,799 --> 00:14:05,192
the diocese also promoted

294
00:14:05,366 --> 00:14:07,803
a new dean of students,
Paul Constantino.

295
00:14:07,977 --> 00:14:09,413
-Mr. C--
-Yes?

296
00:14:09,587 --> 00:14:10,893
Can I give you my paper now?

297
00:14:11,067 --> 00:14:11,981
-Do you have it now?
-Yeah.

298
00:14:13,765 --> 00:14:15,419
Constantino spent 20 years

299
00:14:15,593 --> 00:14:17,857
as a corrections officer
and coach in the area,

300
00:14:18,118 --> 00:14:19,902
before retiring
to become a theology teacher

301
00:14:20,076 --> 00:14:21,425
at St Bernard's.

302
00:14:21,773 --> 00:14:23,732
Constantino would be
a voice of experience

303
00:14:23,906 --> 00:14:25,777
in a new administration
that became

304
00:14:25,952 --> 00:14:27,388
a beacon of hope
for the future.

305
00:14:28,650 --> 00:14:32,088
We were like, "Wow, they--
they are serious about this.

306
00:14:32,523 --> 00:14:34,482
They are going
to do something about this.

307
00:14:34,656 --> 00:14:35,918
They've made the commitment."

308
00:14:36,527 --> 00:14:38,312
Let's
try this for a year.

309
00:14:38,486 --> 00:14:39,879
We'll give
you a shot for a year,

310
00:14:40,053 --> 00:14:41,532
and we'll see
how this goes, right?

311
00:14:41,706 --> 00:14:43,404
And if you can show
that there's a corner

312
00:14:43,578 --> 00:14:46,015
being turned, you know,
we can make this work, right?

313
00:14:46,189 --> 00:14:47,495
It's an easier sell.

314
00:14:48,061 --> 00:14:50,672
But if you can't, well,
at least we tried, right?

315
00:14:50,846 --> 00:14:53,675
We did something." And so
to me, that was fair, right?

316
00:14:53,849 --> 00:14:55,329
That's a fair runway.

317
00:14:55,503 --> 00:14:57,505
A year. It's a short runway,
but it was fair.

318
00:14:58,593 --> 00:14:59,724
What does our catchphrase

319
00:14:59,899 --> 00:15:01,291
"All in" mean to you?

320
00:15:01,596 --> 00:15:04,860
Um, it means that you
put your whole self

321
00:15:05,034 --> 00:15:08,124
into this place
that we all care about,

322
00:15:08,516 --> 00:15:09,778
and you don't give up.

323
00:15:11,867 --> 00:15:16,002
I'd just like to talk
a minute about the season

324
00:15:16,176 --> 00:15:17,960
and what these guys
accomplished.

325
00:15:18,134 --> 00:15:20,615
We are 32 football players
and eight coaches,

326
00:15:20,789 --> 00:15:22,486
and we stood there
and talked about winning

327
00:15:22,660 --> 00:15:24,140
a state championship.

328
00:15:24,488 --> 00:15:26,490
When we went down there,
and we went on to Gillette,

329
00:15:26,664 --> 00:15:30,233
and you looked at all
the personnel and security,

330
00:15:30,407 --> 00:15:33,149
and they're looking at us
and looking at that other team.

331
00:15:33,323 --> 00:15:35,021
I don't know
if there were many people

332
00:15:35,195 --> 00:15:37,371
in that place that thought
you would do what you did.

333
00:15:38,024 --> 00:15:40,461
Well, you did,
and I'm proud of you for it.

334
00:15:40,635 --> 00:15:44,900
Three, two, one. Go for it.

335
00:15:51,733 --> 00:15:53,039
Whoo!

336
00:15:56,390 --> 00:15:57,957
Whoo-hoo!

337
00:15:59,741 --> 00:16:03,179
January 2019.
As the Bernardians celebrated

338
00:16:03,353 --> 00:16:05,007
that surprising
state championship,

339
00:16:05,181 --> 00:16:07,401
the community seemed
to be on top of the world.

340
00:16:11,883 --> 00:16:13,973
But behind the scenes,
pressure was mounting

341
00:16:14,147 --> 00:16:15,887
as the kind of financial
troubles that plagued

342
00:16:16,062 --> 00:16:18,151
other schools,
like St Bernard's,

343
00:16:18,455 --> 00:16:19,979
were becoming
increasingly dire.

344
00:16:20,457 --> 00:16:22,764
Despite the feel-good
story of the smallest school

345
00:16:22,938 --> 00:16:24,505
in the state
winning the football title,

346
00:16:24,896 --> 00:16:26,637
its first
in more than 20 years,

347
00:16:27,377 --> 00:16:30,076
the Diocese of Worcester
was weighing a major decision.

348
00:16:30,902 --> 00:16:33,905
The rumors had
started when I started in 2010.

349
00:16:34,384 --> 00:16:36,212
But now they were
more than rumors.

350
00:16:36,386 --> 00:16:41,304
Now they were-- They were
realities and everyone knew it.

351
00:16:41,478 --> 00:16:43,132
When you
first hear the rumors,

352
00:16:43,306 --> 00:16:44,873
it's kind of like,
"Oh, this happens every year."

353
00:16:45,047 --> 00:16:47,136
So, nobody really,
I think, took in that the school

354
00:16:47,310 --> 00:16:49,138
was actually
really close to closing.

355
00:16:49,617 --> 00:16:51,097
I was pretty
surprised 'cause, like,

356
00:16:51,706 --> 00:16:53,751
I thought things were
going good here and like,

357
00:16:53,925 --> 00:16:56,102
we had just
won a championship, too.

358
00:16:56,276 --> 00:16:58,191
I was like, really,
more pumped up

359
00:16:58,365 --> 00:17:00,149
for another football
season more than ever,

360
00:17:00,802 --> 00:17:03,283
and I was just worried
that it wasn't going to come.

361
00:17:03,457 --> 00:17:05,676
At once
the whole school figures out,

362
00:17:06,329 --> 00:17:08,114
there's a serious
danger of us closing,

363
00:17:08,288 --> 00:17:10,507
and that's the last
thing any of us want.

364
00:17:13,815 --> 00:17:15,817
When I was
growing up here in Fitchburg,

365
00:17:15,991 --> 00:17:20,604
in the '80s, we had
St Joseph's, St Anthony's,

366
00:17:21,475 --> 00:17:25,218
Holy Family,
then we had Notre Dame.

367
00:17:25,609 --> 00:17:27,437
They all had since closed.

368
00:17:28,003 --> 00:17:29,961
I'm not gonna
go into a whole, you know,

369
00:17:30,136 --> 00:17:31,876
family values speech, here.

370
00:17:32,051 --> 00:17:34,879
But the less filled
the church was on Sunday,

371
00:17:35,054 --> 00:17:37,665
the less likely
they were to pay tuition

372
00:17:37,839 --> 00:17:40,668
to send their child
to a private Catholic school.

373
00:17:41,495 --> 00:17:43,149
The issue
was Catholic education

374
00:17:43,323 --> 00:17:48,197
is a nationwide problem,
and a lot of these 100-year-old

375
00:17:48,371 --> 00:17:49,851
entities are
falling on hard times.

376
00:17:50,025 --> 00:17:51,853
The diocese survives

377
00:17:52,332 --> 00:17:54,334
on money coming
from the parishes.

378
00:17:54,508 --> 00:17:59,034
The first 10% of collections
that come into these parishes

379
00:17:59,208 --> 00:18:03,212
has to be immediately
sent to the diocesan office.

380
00:18:03,386 --> 00:18:06,041
That's what the diocese
runs off of.

381
00:18:06,215 --> 00:18:08,217
And if the diocese
is going broke,

382
00:18:08,391 --> 00:18:12,221
they can't
supplement the revenue

383
00:18:12,395 --> 00:18:14,049
of a failing school
any longer.

384
00:18:14,528 --> 00:18:18,488
My thought was, what's
next? How is this gonna happen?

385
00:18:18,662 --> 00:18:20,316
What is gonna
happen to this program?

386
00:18:20,925 --> 00:18:22,362
You take away
Saint Bernard's,

387
00:18:22,536 --> 00:18:24,929
you take away the fabric
of the community.

388
00:18:45,124 --> 00:18:47,343
The road to the end
of St. Bernard's, however,

389
00:18:47,517 --> 00:18:49,258
would have
to go through a hard-working,

390
00:18:49,432 --> 00:18:52,522
free-thinking football man
with building in his blood.

391
00:18:53,349 --> 00:18:55,003
Hey, good morning.

392
00:18:55,177 --> 00:18:57,136
It's Tom Bingham up
at Bingham Lumber, how are you?

393
00:18:58,006 --> 00:19:00,269
Tom Bingham
is a former University of Maine

394
00:19:00,443 --> 00:19:02,576
lineman
and St. Bernard's parent.

395
00:19:03,316 --> 00:19:04,969
When he's not
moonlighting as coach

396
00:19:05,144 --> 00:19:07,668
of the Bernardian's program,
he runs Bingham Lumber.

397
00:19:09,713 --> 00:19:12,194
Before it moved
to this 17-acre facility,

398
00:19:12,629 --> 00:19:14,631
it was a Fitchburg
sawmill opened

399
00:19:14,805 --> 00:19:18,418
by his great-grandfather,
Don Bingham Senior, in 1946.

400
00:19:19,245 --> 00:19:21,334
We have enough
stain for this stuff?

401
00:19:22,030 --> 00:19:24,772
Tom Bingham
took over in 2001 and has spent

402
00:19:24,946 --> 00:19:27,688
the years since with
two items on his daily agenda.

403
00:19:27,862 --> 00:19:31,170
Running the family business
and thinking about football.

404
00:19:31,996 --> 00:19:34,260
Sometimes I'm looking
for Tom, and--

405
00:19:34,434 --> 00:19:35,826
that's the running joke around
here,

406
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,654
"Anyone know where Tom is?"

407
00:19:37,828 --> 00:19:40,091
We have security cameras
everywhere, and he's learned

408
00:19:40,266 --> 00:19:42,572
where the dead spots
are for the security cameras.

409
00:19:42,746 --> 00:19:44,444
So, it takes
us longer to find him.

410
00:19:44,618 --> 00:19:46,881
And he takes
calls from other coaches,

411
00:19:47,055 --> 00:19:48,926
from the administration
at the school.

412
00:19:49,100 --> 00:19:51,190
It's constant,
and he constantly flips that,

413
00:19:51,364 --> 00:19:52,930
you know, that role.

414
00:19:53,104 --> 00:19:55,194
Business owner, coach.
Business owner, coach.

415
00:19:55,368 --> 00:19:57,761
You know, on the other side,
there's still texture.

416
00:19:57,935 --> 00:20:02,766
I would describe
my father as 110% all the time.

417
00:20:03,027 --> 00:20:04,855
He doesn't really
know how to take a day off,

418
00:20:05,029 --> 00:20:07,293
or a practice off, or anything.

419
00:20:07,467 --> 00:20:09,033
He's working seven days a week.

420
00:20:09,208 --> 00:20:10,992
He just does
everything for everyone else.

421
00:20:11,340 --> 00:20:13,168
And never for himself.

422
00:20:13,908 --> 00:20:16,476
Some guys golf,
other guys fish.

423
00:20:16,650 --> 00:20:18,652
They have hobbies and stuff,

424
00:20:18,826 --> 00:20:22,264
and I enjoy the hell out
of coaching football. I just do.

425
00:20:39,325 --> 00:20:41,196
In his labor
of love at St Bernard's,

426
00:20:41,414 --> 00:20:43,242
Bingham built
the small school

427
00:20:43,416 --> 00:20:46,593
into a competitor in his own
industrious image, literally.

428
00:20:47,115 --> 00:20:48,943
In fact,
it's Bingham Lumber and Labor

429
00:20:49,117 --> 00:20:50,423
that the team's
locker room's made of.

430
00:20:52,468 --> 00:20:54,427
Coach Bingham also built
the program, running a system

431
00:20:54,601 --> 00:20:57,038
from another area,
the Delaware Wing-T.

432
00:20:57,212 --> 00:20:59,693
A system invented
in the 1950s as a way

433
00:20:59,867 --> 00:21:02,173
to leverage a team's
lack of size and numbers.

434
00:21:02,348 --> 00:21:04,698
We're coming at you, and you
can't do anything about it.

435
00:21:05,351 --> 00:21:06,961
It's pretty
old-fashioned, you know?

436
00:21:07,135 --> 00:21:09,964
It's basic hand-off,
it's a lot of misdirection.

437
00:21:12,749 --> 00:21:15,448
Everything is based
on play action, deception.

438
00:21:15,622 --> 00:21:17,450
Three plays look the exact same

439
00:21:17,624 --> 00:21:20,496
in the backfield and the defense
can't prepare for that.

440
00:21:20,975 --> 00:21:23,934
Wing-T philosophy is you don't
make mistakes,

441
00:21:24,195 --> 00:21:25,371
you're ball-controlling.

442
00:21:28,156 --> 00:21:29,853
It's basically just
smash mouth football.

443
00:21:30,027 --> 00:21:32,203
We just run the ball
up the middle almost every play.

444
00:21:32,378 --> 00:21:34,031
But we don't
really care if they know

445
00:21:34,205 --> 00:21:36,077
what play we're running
as long as we block it right,

446
00:21:36,251 --> 00:21:37,687
nobody's really
stopping the Wing-T.

447
00:21:38,253 --> 00:21:40,255
We'll have Nico Mancini,

448
00:21:40,429 --> 00:21:42,126
"Speed Lightning"

449
00:21:42,301 --> 00:21:44,999
Mancini's coming
in in your living room.

450
00:21:45,173 --> 00:21:47,654
We'll have him just
hit the corner, then he's gone.

451
00:21:47,828 --> 00:21:50,874
Then there's Ty coming through,
laying a shoulder into someone.

452
00:21:51,179 --> 00:21:53,486
Tyler T.
With a head of steam.

453
00:21:54,225 --> 00:21:56,532
Just making them not
wanna be on the football field.

454
00:21:56,706 --> 00:21:58,447
You're playing
Iron Man football.

455
00:21:58,621 --> 00:22:01,755
That's eleven kids
on both sides of the ball.

456
00:22:03,713 --> 00:22:06,194
Pretty much
for 44 minutes of football.

457
00:22:07,064 --> 00:22:11,678
That's pretty tough.
At 15, 16, 17, 18 years old.

458
00:22:11,852 --> 00:22:13,680
You know, we're a small school.

459
00:22:13,854 --> 00:22:16,291
But in the locker room, we
know that we're not underdogs.

460
00:22:16,465 --> 00:22:17,858
We'll have a shot
against any team.

461
00:22:18,032 --> 00:22:19,468
And no matter what,
it doesn't matter

462
00:22:19,642 --> 00:22:20,861
who we're playing,
we are gonna fight.

463
00:22:21,252 --> 00:22:22,732
It's not gonna be easy
to win the prize,

464
00:22:22,906 --> 00:22:24,821
It's-- We're gonna
have to work for a win.

465
00:22:24,995 --> 00:22:26,736
If you can drive someone down
the field, knock him backward.

466
00:22:26,910 --> 00:22:28,999
He's a "“pound him in the mouth,

467
00:22:29,173 --> 00:22:31,132
run the ball and get"”
type of guy, and it works.

468
00:22:31,306 --> 00:22:34,353
He's about discipline,
hard work and teamwork.

469
00:22:34,527 --> 00:22:36,006
He'll tell you, too.
Without eleven guys

470
00:22:36,180 --> 00:22:38,705
working and tugging
on the chain, we fail.

471
00:22:44,537 --> 00:22:46,321
Okay, fellas.
Enjoy this one, right?

472
00:22:46,495 --> 00:22:49,150
-Yes sir.
-Enjoy it. Our father.

473
00:22:49,324 --> 00:22:51,587
Who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;

474
00:22:51,761 --> 00:22:54,024
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done

475
00:22:54,198 --> 00:22:56,070
on Earth as it is in Heaven.

476
00:22:56,244 --> 00:22:59,334
As the 2018 season
drifted into a cherished memory,

477
00:22:59,508 --> 00:23:01,249
the coach and his returning
players

478
00:23:01,423 --> 00:23:03,033
started
to envision their title defense.

479
00:23:04,774 --> 00:23:06,254
Excitement
about the school's future

480
00:23:06,428 --> 00:23:08,517
grew stronger,
despite rumors to the contrary.

481
00:23:11,912 --> 00:23:13,392
But as winter darkened,

482
00:23:13,566 --> 00:23:15,655
then turned to spring,
something changed.

483
00:23:16,133 --> 00:23:19,136
It was mid-May at
four o'clock in the afternoon,

484
00:23:19,789 --> 00:23:22,226
and I received a phone
call from Superintendent Perda.

485
00:23:22,401 --> 00:23:27,144
He said, "Hey, we want to,
um, we wanna convene a meeting.

486
00:23:27,318 --> 00:23:29,930
I wanna talk about the school.
Wanna talk about the future."

487
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:33,890
And it struck me as odd.
It was out of the blue.

488
00:23:34,282 --> 00:23:37,938
I said, "David, I don't
understand. What is this about?"

489
00:23:38,417 --> 00:23:40,593
Um, you know,
"We've hired a new principal,

490
00:23:40,767 --> 00:23:41,942
we have a new Dean of students.

491
00:23:42,116 --> 00:23:43,596
Things are looking up."

492
00:23:43,770 --> 00:23:46,163
He said something
like, "Well, you know,

493
00:23:46,337 --> 00:23:48,514
the finance guys
are running the show."

494
00:23:48,688 --> 00:23:51,691
I immediately called T.J.,
I said, "Boy, this is not good.

495
00:23:51,865 --> 00:23:53,344
They want--
they wanna get together

496
00:23:53,519 --> 00:23:55,259
with everybody
at the end of the month."

497
00:24:01,831 --> 00:24:03,877
On May 29th,
a Wednesday,

498
00:24:04,094 --> 00:24:05,661
church leaders
scheduled a meeting

499
00:24:05,835 --> 00:24:07,576
at the Doubletree Hotel
in Leominster,

500
00:24:07,837 --> 00:24:10,579
a neutral site on the route
from Fitchburg to Worcester.

501
00:24:11,754 --> 00:24:13,495
I happened to come across

502
00:24:13,669 --> 00:24:16,280
my handwritten notes that
I kept from the Doubletree,

503
00:24:16,455 --> 00:24:18,239
and I remember
the title: "The Future

504
00:24:18,413 --> 00:24:20,546
of Catholic Education
in North County."

505
00:24:20,894 --> 00:24:22,635
My understanding
of the meeting was-- it was,

506
00:24:22,809 --> 00:24:25,855
just to present some plans,
some possible suggestions

507
00:24:26,029 --> 00:24:28,292
of what Saint Bernard's could
look like in the next few years.

508
00:24:28,467 --> 00:24:31,295
We were
sitting around a U-shaped table

509
00:24:31,470 --> 00:24:33,820
in a function room
or a conference room,

510
00:24:34,168 --> 00:24:39,260
and Bishop and his, I guess
we call them bean counters,

511
00:24:39,434 --> 00:24:41,175
his financial
people were around him.

512
00:24:41,610 --> 00:24:43,046
It was my first meeting

513
00:24:43,220 --> 00:24:45,396
representing
the principalship, right?

514
00:24:45,571 --> 00:24:46,876
Like, I'm, I'm still a teacher.

515
00:24:47,050 --> 00:24:48,530
It's May 29th.

516
00:24:48,704 --> 00:24:50,314
I'm administering final exams.

517
00:24:50,489 --> 00:24:51,968
and I'm going to the Doubletree

518
00:24:52,142 --> 00:24:53,622
as the principal
of St. Bernard's.

519
00:24:53,796 --> 00:24:57,844
Just felt, like,
completely, um, unprepared.

520
00:24:58,018 --> 00:25:00,847
You know, for--
for what-- what then happened.

521
00:25:01,021 --> 00:25:03,110
They had
this PowerPoint presentation.

522
00:25:03,284 --> 00:25:05,982
A lot of it was
why is St. Bernard's

523
00:25:06,156 --> 00:25:09,159
not attracting the students
over the last decade.

524
00:25:09,333 --> 00:25:14,948
What has led to the, you know,
continual decline since 2010?

525
00:25:15,252 --> 00:25:17,559
But as it went on,
you can tell that--

526
00:25:17,733 --> 00:25:21,041
to me anyways, the tenor
of that whole meeting changed.

527
00:25:21,389 --> 00:25:23,217
It wasn't the future
of Catholic education

528
00:25:23,391 --> 00:25:24,697
in North County anymore.

529
00:25:25,045 --> 00:25:27,090
It was, "What's the future

530
00:25:27,264 --> 00:25:29,397
of St Bernard's
as a high school?"

531
00:25:29,571 --> 00:25:32,705
It started
out as kind of hopeful.

532
00:25:32,966 --> 00:25:34,271
Superintendent Perda got up

533
00:25:34,445 --> 00:25:36,143
and kind
of proposed a couple plans,

534
00:25:36,317 --> 00:25:38,101
and it kind of involved

535
00:25:38,275 --> 00:25:40,234
sort of connecting
with the elementary schools,

536
00:25:40,408 --> 00:25:42,541
and it was clear that
they didn't really want that.

537
00:25:42,715 --> 00:25:44,151
That wasn't happening.

538
00:25:44,325 --> 00:25:46,327
The minutes went on,
and you could say,

539
00:25:47,546 --> 00:25:49,983
"The future of St. Bernard's
really is in jeopardy."

540
00:25:50,157 --> 00:25:53,900
The bishop kind of made
it clear that this was kind

541
00:25:54,074 --> 00:25:55,815
of the only option,
was to close the school.

542
00:25:55,989 --> 00:25:57,381
They had been
losing huge amounts

543
00:25:57,556 --> 00:25:59,732
of dollars
every year keeping us open.

544
00:25:59,906 --> 00:26:01,690
And it was just clear.

545
00:26:01,864 --> 00:26:04,475
The room just got-- the air
just got sucked out of it.

546
00:26:04,650 --> 00:26:06,129
Someone basically asked,

547
00:26:06,303 --> 00:26:08,131
"Are you gonna open
the school in the fall?"

548
00:26:08,828 --> 00:26:10,743
As in, like, three months later.

549
00:26:10,917 --> 00:26:13,136
And again, we're all
laboring under the presumption

550
00:26:13,310 --> 00:26:15,269
that we have a year,
we've got a year to fix this.

551
00:26:15,443 --> 00:26:18,794
And the question,
it wasn't answered.

552
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:22,493
I remember looking at
a lot of different people,

553
00:26:22,668 --> 00:26:24,147
thinking, "Oh, wow.

554
00:26:24,321 --> 00:26:25,758
This is it, right?"

555
00:26:25,932 --> 00:26:27,411
Months ago,
we just announced

556
00:26:27,586 --> 00:26:29,849
this new leadership
team who is fantastic,

557
00:26:30,023 --> 00:26:33,374
who I believe in,
and they're gonna change things.

558
00:26:33,548 --> 00:26:36,072
That school's gonna get
better under that leadership.

559
00:26:36,246 --> 00:26:38,031
And I just feel like
it's gonna get pulled out

560
00:26:38,205 --> 00:26:39,902
from right under us.

561
00:26:40,076 --> 00:26:41,469
And that was the first
time I'd ever heard that I might

562
00:26:41,643 --> 00:26:44,864
not get the chance to--
to try to fix it.

563
00:26:45,038 --> 00:26:46,735
It was just a shock.

564
00:26:46,909 --> 00:26:49,825
It was tough to hear.
It was extremely tough to hear.

565
00:26:49,999 --> 00:26:52,959
You're talking about
15-year-old kids whose--

566
00:26:53,133 --> 00:26:56,136
whose lives are about to get
uprooted, and a 100-year-old

567
00:26:56,310 --> 00:26:58,921
institution
that is gonna disappear.

568
00:26:59,095 --> 00:27:02,577
We left that
meeting and I remember getting

569
00:27:02,751 --> 00:27:06,755
in my car and thinking,
"The school's going to close.

570
00:27:08,191 --> 00:27:11,281
How do I tell the kids this?
Who's gonna tell the kids this?

571
00:27:12,369 --> 00:27:15,111
How do I tell my husband
that I'm now unemployed?"

572
00:27:15,285 --> 00:27:16,852
You know, all these things
are going through your mind,

573
00:27:17,026 --> 00:27:18,549
but then as soon as I got

574
00:27:18,724 --> 00:27:20,160
over those questions,
I just, "What can we do?

575
00:27:20,334 --> 00:27:22,118
Can we-- can we save it?"

576
00:27:25,861 --> 00:27:27,646
So, as soon
as you kind of get over

577
00:27:27,820 --> 00:27:31,258
the original hump of shock,
I immediately started thinking.

578
00:27:31,432 --> 00:27:33,086
And I'm researching,
you know, charter schools.

579
00:27:33,260 --> 00:27:34,783
Like, could we--
could we turn it

580
00:27:34,957 --> 00:27:35,958
into a charter school
and get public funding?

581
00:27:36,132 --> 00:27:37,656
Would that help?

582
00:27:37,830 --> 00:27:39,309
Like-- And I just--
I don't know what to--

583
00:27:39,483 --> 00:27:41,747
My brain is just
screaming, and I'm thinking

584
00:27:41,921 --> 00:27:43,400
of a million
things, and, you know,

585
00:27:43,574 --> 00:27:45,359
I don't think I slept
a wink that whole night.

586
00:27:45,533 --> 00:27:46,752
I'm just, you know, like,

587
00:27:46,926 --> 00:27:49,276
what can we do?
Is this really it?

588
00:27:49,450 --> 00:27:52,105
My phone
rang 6:30 the next morning,

589
00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:54,411
and Keith Boissoneau and T.J.
Fluharty,

590
00:27:54,585 --> 00:27:56,152
and, you know,
we all slept on it.

591
00:27:56,326 --> 00:27:57,719
How emotional were those--

592
00:27:57,893 --> 00:27:59,852
or irrational
are those thoughts?

593
00:28:00,026 --> 00:28:02,245
It, like-- Why can't we do it?

594
00:28:02,855 --> 00:28:05,771
Why can't we go on our own?

595
00:28:05,945 --> 00:28:07,642
What's it going to really take?

596
00:28:07,816 --> 00:28:09,644
What are the numbers?
What does it need?

597
00:28:10,558 --> 00:28:12,995
Tom comes walking
down the hallway of the school

598
00:28:13,953 --> 00:28:18,305
to my room and said,
"You know, this isn't over yet.

599
00:28:18,827 --> 00:28:20,829
You know, there's some things
going on even now."

600
00:28:21,003 --> 00:28:24,441
This is Thursday morning.
So, this isn't even 12 hours.

601
00:28:24,615 --> 00:28:26,095
It was before first period.

602
00:28:26,922 --> 00:28:29,403
Tom called Linda
because we wanted to make sure

603
00:28:29,577 --> 00:28:33,015
Linda was with us,
because if she wasn't with us.

604
00:28:34,277 --> 00:28:35,539
We weren't doing it.

605
00:28:36,323 --> 00:28:37,977
We said, "Well,
the worst thing that can

606
00:28:38,151 --> 00:28:40,544
happen is that they come
out today, can we get 24 hours?"

607
00:28:40,849 --> 00:28:43,983
So, we got 24 hours
and then 24 hours led

608
00:28:44,157 --> 00:28:47,247
into a meeting that next
day at the Pinard's house.

609
00:28:48,161 --> 00:28:49,815
Friday night, May 31st.

610
00:28:50,598 --> 00:28:52,252
With hopes of preventing

611
00:28:52,426 --> 00:28:53,993
the worst-case scenario,
a group of community leaders

612
00:28:54,167 --> 00:28:56,386
met at the home
of Mark and Cassie Pinard,

613
00:28:56,909 --> 00:28:58,867
local business people
with two Bernardian

614
00:28:59,041 --> 00:29:01,783
students in the family,
including lineman Jonny Pinard,

615
00:29:01,957 --> 00:29:03,437
then a junior.

616
00:29:03,611 --> 00:29:05,352
So,
my dad's like on the board.

617
00:29:05,526 --> 00:29:07,484
Him and a bunch
of other parents started--

618
00:29:07,658 --> 00:29:10,836
decided to have a meeting
to save the school, basically.

619
00:29:11,010 --> 00:29:12,663
Honestly,
I didn't know the extent

620
00:29:12,838 --> 00:29:14,622
of how bad,
like, everything was,

621
00:29:14,796 --> 00:29:16,624
'cause, like,
they didn't tell me anything.

622
00:29:16,798 --> 00:29:19,409
We kind
of all assumed it was

623
00:29:19,583 --> 00:29:22,630
something going on,
because obviously Jonny,

624
00:29:22,804 --> 00:29:26,199
it was his house, so I was
texting him, and he said that

625
00:29:26,590 --> 00:29:28,810
there was something
going on with the school,

626
00:29:28,984 --> 00:29:30,986
but they kept
kicking him out of the room.

627
00:29:31,204 --> 00:29:33,075
I would ask them,
and they wouldn't tell me.

628
00:29:33,249 --> 00:29:35,556
Honestly, I think it's 'cause
they didn't want me to worry.

629
00:29:35,730 --> 00:29:37,123
I was
scared at that point.

630
00:29:37,297 --> 00:29:39,734
I wanted to know
exactly what was going on,

631
00:29:39,952 --> 00:29:42,389
and not knowing
was the worst thing

632
00:29:42,563 --> 00:29:45,131
that could happen
at the time, in my mind.

633
00:29:45,305 --> 00:29:47,133
We didn't get
much information that night.

634
00:29:47,307 --> 00:29:49,744
It was definitely something they
didn't want us to know about.

635
00:29:49,918 --> 00:29:51,833
The rumors might be for real.

636
00:29:54,227 --> 00:29:55,837
Well-known Catholic school

637
00:29:56,011 --> 00:29:57,578
may soon be
closing its doors for good.

638
00:29:57,752 --> 00:29:59,580
Pope John the 23rd High School

639
00:29:59,754 --> 00:30:02,452
announced last night that
it will not reopen in the fall.

640
00:30:02,801 --> 00:30:04,280
The St Bernard's faithful

641
00:30:04,454 --> 00:30:06,326
didn't have to look
far to see the future.

642
00:30:06,630 --> 00:30:08,328
That very day,
news about another

643
00:30:08,502 --> 00:30:10,156
struggling
school was breaking just

644
00:30:10,330 --> 00:30:13,812
an hour away in the town
of Everett, a suburb of Boston.

645
00:30:14,290 --> 00:30:16,640
The headmaster at
Pope John the 23rd High School

646
00:30:16,815 --> 00:30:18,294
sent a letter
to families announcing

647
00:30:18,468 --> 00:30:21,341
the school's
closure after 53 years.

648
00:30:21,820 --> 00:30:24,692
Pope John was more than
one million dollars in debt,

649
00:30:24,997 --> 00:30:28,000
and all efforts to save it,
including a fundraising campaign

650
00:30:28,174 --> 00:30:29,479
by parents
and the community,

651
00:30:29,653 --> 00:30:30,916
had come up short.

652
00:30:31,264 --> 00:30:32,700
The news meant
that both schools

653
00:30:32,874 --> 00:30:34,354
that had played in the 2018

654
00:30:34,528 --> 00:30:36,182
Division Eight
High School Super Bowl,

655
00:30:36,356 --> 00:30:38,140
would be closed
at the end of the year.

656
00:30:38,314 --> 00:30:40,316
Everyone keeps saying,
"Hope for a miracle."

657
00:30:40,490 --> 00:30:42,144
That's really
all we're doing right now.

658
00:30:42,318 --> 00:30:43,493
That's what we're doing,
we're hoping for a miracle.

659
00:30:43,667 --> 00:30:44,799
Praying for a miracle to happen.

660
00:30:44,973 --> 00:30:46,845
We're waiting for fundraisers.

661
00:30:47,019 --> 00:30:49,369
It was kinda weird, almost,
that the two Catholic schools

662
00:30:49,543 --> 00:30:51,458
that made it to the D eight
state title,

663
00:30:51,632 --> 00:30:52,938
were closing at the same time.

664
00:30:53,112 --> 00:30:54,853
It was--
It didn't really make sense,

665
00:30:55,505 --> 00:30:58,857
but it was kind of,
like, they couldn't make it.

666
00:30:59,553 --> 00:31:00,815
We have to.

667
00:31:01,163 --> 00:31:02,904
Back at the Pinard's,

668
00:31:03,078 --> 00:31:04,993
the group formed a vision
of a grassroots campaign.

669
00:31:05,385 --> 00:31:07,735
A steering committee
of parents and administrators.

670
00:31:08,649 --> 00:31:11,695
A coach, handful
of alumni and school trustees.

671
00:31:12,131 --> 00:31:13,915
Some were small business owners.

672
00:31:14,133 --> 00:31:16,048
Others were finance
professionals

673
00:31:16,222 --> 00:31:18,789
like T.J. Fluharty,
and Keith Boissoneau.

674
00:31:19,747 --> 00:31:21,488
Together, they aimed
to do what few other

675
00:31:21,662 --> 00:31:23,707
struggling Catholic schools
around the country

676
00:31:24,099 --> 00:31:25,492
had ever been able to do.

677
00:31:25,666 --> 00:31:27,276
Raise enough money
for the community

678
00:31:27,450 --> 00:31:30,018
to take over the school
and run it independently.

679
00:31:31,237 --> 00:31:32,760
And that's
when it first started.

680
00:31:32,934 --> 00:31:35,023
The energy, that
I knew we had as a community,

681
00:31:35,197 --> 00:31:37,417
started to develop
in that living room.

682
00:31:37,896 --> 00:31:40,289
It reminds me of how,
like, America was formed,

683
00:31:40,463 --> 00:31:42,074
where you have a group
of people just meeting

684
00:31:42,248 --> 00:31:44,032
in someone's living
room or at a bar, you know,

685
00:31:44,206 --> 00:31:45,686
and you're just
chatting about what could be.

686
00:31:45,860 --> 00:31:47,514
I just thought,
"We can do this."

687
00:31:47,688 --> 00:31:49,429
We've got
a great group of people.

688
00:31:49,820 --> 00:31:53,476
They're all in,
and we can do it.

689
00:31:55,478 --> 00:31:57,002
I called
my first assembly.

690
00:31:57,176 --> 00:31:58,699
I wasn't principal yet.

691
00:31:58,873 --> 00:32:00,527
And I had basically asked,

692
00:32:00,701 --> 00:32:02,485
you know, "We need
to bring the kids together.

693
00:32:02,659 --> 00:32:05,227
We need to make sure they
understand what's happening,

694
00:32:05,662 --> 00:32:07,316
and we need
to talk them through this

695
00:32:07,490 --> 00:32:09,449
because this is gonna
be really scary for them."

696
00:32:09,623 --> 00:32:11,799
When Mrs. Anderson
brought us all

697
00:32:11,973 --> 00:32:13,932
into the auditorium,
the whole school,

698
00:32:14,323 --> 00:32:16,717
we kinda knew
it was real at that point.

699
00:32:16,891 --> 00:32:18,849
And we were like,
"All right, this is it."

700
00:32:19,024 --> 00:32:21,591
And I'm like, "Wow.
Like, where am I gonna go?

701
00:32:21,765 --> 00:32:23,724
Am I gonna have to go
to another private school?"

702
00:32:23,898 --> 00:32:25,160
I was definitely worried.

703
00:32:25,334 --> 00:32:26,988
I asked them
if they were comfortable

704
00:32:27,162 --> 00:32:29,686
to hold hands and to pray.

705
00:32:29,860 --> 00:32:34,126
And I just explained, like,
"We have to hold on

706
00:32:34,300 --> 00:32:36,128
to each other, or we're not
gonna make it through this.

707
00:32:36,693 --> 00:32:37,868
Can you guys do that for me?

708
00:32:38,043 --> 00:32:39,392
Can you hold on to each other?"

709
00:32:39,566 --> 00:32:41,307
We're gonna ask you
to have faith,

710
00:32:41,655 --> 00:32:44,266
we're gonna ask your parents,
your families, to have faith.

711
00:32:44,832 --> 00:32:46,965
That's when
she asked me to speak.

712
00:32:47,139 --> 00:32:48,314
I said, "We're all in."

713
00:32:48,488 --> 00:32:49,968
We need them to understand

714
00:32:50,142 --> 00:32:52,013
that we are fighting
and that we're not done.

715
00:32:52,187 --> 00:32:54,015
So, we need them to not be done.

716
00:32:55,147 --> 00:32:57,801
Over the next week,
two things became official.

717
00:32:58,324 --> 00:33:01,544
The first, on June 6th,
was the Diocese of Worcester

718
00:33:01,718 --> 00:33:03,938
formally announcing
its decision in a letter

719
00:33:04,112 --> 00:33:06,549
from the school
superintendent, Dr. David Perda.

720
00:33:07,028 --> 00:33:09,030
Due to the steady
decline in enrollment

721
00:33:09,204 --> 00:33:11,163
and an overwhelming
financial deficit

722
00:33:11,337 --> 00:33:14,079
of at least $600,000
for the following year,

723
00:33:14,905 --> 00:33:17,560
Saint Bernard's was to become
the latest Catholic high school

724
00:33:17,734 --> 00:33:20,041
casualty in the state,
effective at the end

725
00:33:20,215 --> 00:33:21,434
of the academic year.

726
00:33:22,348 --> 00:33:24,002
They gave us an advance copy.

727
00:33:24,176 --> 00:33:27,005
We attempted
to negotiate what we could,

728
00:33:27,179 --> 00:33:28,832
uh, but it was difficult.

729
00:33:29,007 --> 00:33:30,921
The letter
did, however, offer a set

730
00:33:31,096 --> 00:33:32,575
of conditions that, if met,

731
00:33:32,749 --> 00:33:34,838
would keep St. Bernard's
doors open in the fall.

732
00:33:35,926 --> 00:33:37,841
Primarily,
an enrollment threshold

733
00:33:38,016 --> 00:33:40,018
with a strict
deadline of July 15th,

734
00:33:40,975 --> 00:33:43,021
just weeks after
the end of the current session.

735
00:33:43,195 --> 00:33:44,544
Amid a climate of uncertainty,

736
00:33:44,718 --> 00:33:46,285
it seemed improbable,

737
00:33:46,459 --> 00:33:48,635
if not impossible,
to prevent a mass exodus.

738
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,596
If enrollment
dips below 100 students,

739
00:33:53,770 --> 00:33:55,946
there will be
no St. Bernard's in 2019.

740
00:33:56,121 --> 00:33:57,600
100 kids is one thing.

741
00:33:58,340 --> 00:34:00,342
At the very last,
at the very end said,

742
00:34:00,821 --> 00:34:03,911
"Oh, by the way,
if the school does close,

743
00:34:04,346 --> 00:34:06,566
we'll offer
free bussing for any kid

744
00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:09,917
in the area to go to
St Peter-Marian or Holy Name.

745
00:34:10,091 --> 00:34:11,484
The school of your choice."

746
00:34:12,354 --> 00:34:14,661
I said, "David, you can't--
you can't put that in.

747
00:34:14,835 --> 00:34:16,315
That-- that's
a death knell for us."

748
00:34:16,489 --> 00:34:18,230
They were offering
to bring our kids to one

749
00:34:18,404 --> 00:34:21,450
of their schools, which helps
their budget situation.

750
00:34:21,624 --> 00:34:23,148
We knew this letter was coming.

751
00:34:23,322 --> 00:34:25,585
Then Linda had
her letter ready to go.

752
00:34:25,759 --> 00:34:27,282
That was
the other announcement,

753
00:34:27,456 --> 00:34:29,328
a Facebook
post from Linda Anderson.

754
00:34:29,502 --> 00:34:31,852
In her first
public act as principal,

755
00:34:32,287 --> 00:34:33,767
she described the Declaration

756
00:34:33,941 --> 00:34:36,030
of Independence
forged at the Pinard House.

757
00:34:36,770 --> 00:34:38,859
She explained how
that small group of concerned

758
00:34:39,033 --> 00:34:41,862
community members formed
a steering committee to work

759
00:34:42,036 --> 00:34:45,300
with the dioceses to explore
the viability of re-imagining

760
00:34:45,474 --> 00:34:47,563
St. Bernard's
as a private Catholic school.

761
00:34:48,129 --> 00:34:51,654
In the post, she also invited
and welcomed community support.

762
00:34:52,046 --> 00:34:54,135
More now than ever,
in the form of feedback,

763
00:34:54,309 --> 00:34:56,529
contributions or prayers.

764
00:34:57,007 --> 00:34:58,661
The steering
committee also christened

765
00:34:58,835 --> 00:35:01,925
the mission
with a rallying cry: All in.

766
00:35:02,752 --> 00:35:05,755
The bishop basically said,
"If you can prove that you can

767
00:35:05,929 --> 00:35:10,717
run the school independently,
I will let you use the building,

768
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:13,023
and operate
as a Catholic school."

769
00:35:13,241 --> 00:35:15,765
And then, of course, the proof
was what had to come later.

770
00:35:16,331 --> 00:35:18,638
And it felt like
there was a ticking clock.

771
00:35:24,513 --> 00:35:25,732
All right, everybody.

772
00:35:25,906 --> 00:35:27,560
Thank you
for coming today.

773
00:35:27,734 --> 00:35:29,605
I really
appreciate your interest

774
00:35:29,779 --> 00:35:31,433
and your passion
for St. Bernard's.

775
00:35:31,912 --> 00:35:33,914
I'm David Perda,
I'm the superintendent

776
00:35:34,088 --> 00:35:36,351
of schools
for the Diocese of Worcester.

777
00:35:37,613 --> 00:35:40,094
Naturally, there
were big questions to answer.

778
00:35:40,442 --> 00:35:42,314
On June 10th,
families were invited

779
00:35:42,488 --> 00:35:44,577
to a town hall
at St Bernard's Auditorium.

780
00:35:44,751 --> 00:35:47,232
Administrators sat
on stage alongside leadership

781
00:35:47,406 --> 00:35:50,148
from the dioceses and members
of the new steering committee.

782
00:35:50,322 --> 00:35:53,194
Catholic education
is going through a tough time.

783
00:35:54,761 --> 00:35:58,417
Just this year,
over in the Archdiocese

784
00:35:58,591 --> 00:36:00,027
of Boston,
you may have heard about

785
00:36:00,201 --> 00:36:02,899
a catholic school
in Everett had to close.

786
00:36:03,639 --> 00:36:05,119
Superintendent's up there,

787
00:36:05,293 --> 00:36:06,947
and it seemed
like every other meeting.

788
00:36:07,513 --> 00:36:12,344
And quickly, I realized
that the audience was angry.

789
00:36:12,518 --> 00:36:14,737
The Catholic Church
is about people helping...

790
00:36:15,738 --> 00:36:17,436
You guys need to step up.

791
00:36:17,610 --> 00:36:20,265
I know it's a lot
of money, but you know what?

792
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:26,706
A life, a kid's life, a future,
it's worth ten million dollars.

793
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,621
Because some parents
were concerned,

794
00:36:28,795 --> 00:36:30,318
as we all were, we're
concerned for their children.

795
00:36:30,492 --> 00:36:32,102
What are we gonna
do with that student?

796
00:36:32,277 --> 00:36:33,930
We wanna stay here.

797
00:36:34,104 --> 00:36:37,238
They don't want to spend
the money on St. Bernard's.

798
00:36:37,412 --> 00:36:39,936
This is shameful. This is wrong.

799
00:36:40,110 --> 00:36:42,635
We have to set
our priorities straight,

800
00:36:42,809 --> 00:36:45,420
and keep St. Bernard's open.

801
00:36:46,726 --> 00:36:48,945
But with Dr. Perda
who's, you know, resolute

802
00:36:49,119 --> 00:36:51,600
in his, "We can't
guarantee more than one year."

803
00:36:51,774 --> 00:36:54,081
That is a traumatic
thing to happen to a kid

804
00:36:54,255 --> 00:36:55,387
to have to go
somewhere for one year.

805
00:36:55,561 --> 00:36:56,823
That can't happen.

806
00:36:56,997 --> 00:36:58,346
I understand your comment,

807
00:36:58,520 --> 00:36:59,782
but I'm gonna be
honest with you, sir.

808
00:36:59,956 --> 00:37:01,828
The diocese just
doesn't have the money.

809
00:37:02,002 --> 00:37:03,699
But I think lots of parents
were really considering

810
00:37:03,873 --> 00:37:05,571
just pulling their kids
out right then and there.

811
00:37:05,745 --> 00:37:08,965
It was a big decision
for a lot of people to make.

812
00:37:09,227 --> 00:37:11,620
Even the prospective freshman,

813
00:37:11,794 --> 00:37:13,927
I mean, every group
had their own issue.

814
00:37:14,493 --> 00:37:15,842
Can anyone expand a little bit

815
00:37:16,016 --> 00:37:18,497
on the plan
to increase enrollment

816
00:37:18,671 --> 00:37:20,368
for the beginning
of the school year?

817
00:37:20,542 --> 00:37:22,370
What are we doing to reach out
to potential families?

818
00:37:22,544 --> 00:37:26,722
Their own, you know, their own
set of tension and anxiety.

819
00:37:26,896 --> 00:37:28,724
Uh, so if we could
all rise, and please

820
00:37:28,898 --> 00:37:31,640
close the meeting
tonight with a Hail Mary.

821
00:37:40,736 --> 00:37:42,129
Thank you all,
have a good night.

822
00:37:42,303 --> 00:37:43,913
That's when the phone
calls started.

823
00:37:44,131 --> 00:37:47,395
So, we divided up a list
of everyone in the community,

824
00:37:47,569 --> 00:37:51,660
every family that was
enrolled and everyone got

825
00:37:51,834 --> 00:37:55,360
like 20, 20 people
in the next two months.

826
00:37:55,534 --> 00:37:56,970
You were checking
in with your people.

827
00:37:57,144 --> 00:37:59,320
If it wasn't once
a week, it was twice.

828
00:37:59,494 --> 00:38:01,627
You're just,
"How's it going?

829
00:38:01,801 --> 00:38:02,976
Can I answer any questions?"

830
00:38:03,150 --> 00:38:04,369
The fear was there.

831
00:38:05,674 --> 00:38:07,023
We gotta get
the troops together,

832
00:38:07,197 --> 00:38:08,721
We're gonna rally them.

833
00:38:08,895 --> 00:38:10,244
The list was broken
down to who you knew,

834
00:38:10,418 --> 00:38:12,028
who you could call.

835
00:38:12,202 --> 00:38:14,117
So, you could have that
open conversation instead

836
00:38:14,292 --> 00:38:16,598
of cold calling someone
making a difficult decision.

837
00:38:16,772 --> 00:38:18,383
"Hey, you're going
to send your son back

838
00:38:18,557 --> 00:38:20,080
to St. Bernard's,
even though they might close?"

839
00:38:20,254 --> 00:38:21,734
It's a tough decision.

840
00:38:21,908 --> 00:38:23,301
You might get the click
on the end of the phone.

841
00:38:23,475 --> 00:38:24,650
You're on your weekend.

842
00:38:24,824 --> 00:38:26,042
The grocery store.

843
00:38:26,216 --> 00:38:28,131
making calls,
and you're just,

844
00:38:28,306 --> 00:38:30,090
you're just constantly
communicating.

845
00:38:30,264 --> 00:38:33,311
Parents calling
parents, having conversations

846
00:38:33,485 --> 00:38:35,965
and basically explaining to
them, "This is what we're doing.

847
00:38:36,401 --> 00:38:38,533
Trust us.
Give us a chance.

848
00:38:38,707 --> 00:38:40,579
Stick with us,
and we'll get it done."

849
00:38:40,753 --> 00:38:43,495
This is Amy Maynard calling
from St. Bernard's High School.

850
00:38:43,669 --> 00:38:47,237
We're just calling everyone
to see if, um, if you're in.

851
00:38:47,412 --> 00:38:48,935
And we will talk to you soon.

852
00:38:49,109 --> 00:38:50,763
It was nonstop.

853
00:38:50,937 --> 00:38:53,069
I mean, I had like three
daily calls every morning

854
00:38:53,418 --> 00:38:54,897
for-- for months.

855
00:38:55,071 --> 00:38:57,465
At one point,
we were below 100.

856
00:38:57,639 --> 00:38:59,424
We're shitting bricks.

857
00:39:00,512 --> 00:39:01,948
Pardon my French.

858
00:39:02,122 --> 00:39:05,734
Um, it was scary.
It was really scary.

859
00:39:05,908 --> 00:39:07,997
We had to walk
this incredible tightrope

860
00:39:08,171 --> 00:39:12,001
of not conveying
any fear or any urgency.

861
00:39:12,306 --> 00:39:13,568
And while
all that's going on,

862
00:39:14,352 --> 00:39:17,224
we're building
our strategic plan.

863
00:39:17,398 --> 00:39:19,313
So, what are
we doing when this is ours?

864
00:39:19,487 --> 00:39:20,706
We met every week
during the summer.

865
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:22,534
Despite vacations, right?

866
00:39:22,969 --> 00:39:24,623
We used
to meet on Monday nights,

867
00:39:24,797 --> 00:39:27,408
and then Nick took
a picture of the clock, right?

868
00:39:27,582 --> 00:39:29,192
From here,
in the Bernard eating room.

869
00:39:29,367 --> 00:39:31,847
And that, for us, symbolized
what this was all about.

870
00:39:32,021 --> 00:39:33,719
Just juggling all
these different things at once.

871
00:39:42,380 --> 00:39:43,816
But as the community worked

872
00:39:43,990 --> 00:39:45,905
behind the scenes,
the football team went

873
00:39:46,079 --> 00:39:47,907
into the summer break
with its work cut out, too.

874
00:39:48,821 --> 00:39:51,998
11 of the 34 players,
one third of the championship

875
00:39:52,172 --> 00:39:53,956
roster, were lost to graduation.

876
00:39:54,130 --> 00:39:56,263
And soon enough,
amid the school's turmoil

877
00:39:56,742 --> 00:39:58,787
came word that
five other contributors,

878
00:39:58,961 --> 00:40:01,660
all rising seniors,
were transferring or leaving

879
00:40:01,834 --> 00:40:03,575
the team
as part of an exodus

880
00:40:03,792 --> 00:40:06,055
that the "All in" campaign
was trying to prevent.

881
00:40:06,534 --> 00:40:11,104
To see kids back out and be
like, "I don't wanna do this.

882
00:40:11,278 --> 00:40:12,932
Like, I wanna be
in a school that's definitely

883
00:40:13,106 --> 00:40:14,629
to be open" was hard.

884
00:40:14,803 --> 00:40:16,239
Like, we're
losing kids by the minute.

885
00:40:16,414 --> 00:40:18,981
We need to get
everyone to stick together

886
00:40:19,155 --> 00:40:20,896
and be in this together.

887
00:40:21,070 --> 00:40:23,246
In the football aspect
of it, we were looking at it,

888
00:40:23,421 --> 00:40:25,031
like, next man up.

889
00:40:25,205 --> 00:40:26,815
Think we all came
to the conclusion

890
00:40:26,989 --> 00:40:28,991
that we can't fix that,
and we can't change that.

891
00:40:29,165 --> 00:40:31,341
So, we'd really like
to focus on things

892
00:40:31,516 --> 00:40:33,213
that we can fix for ourselves.

893
00:40:33,387 --> 00:40:35,128
You know,
Linda Anderson,

894
00:40:35,302 --> 00:40:37,739
she did her best to let us know
that we're gonna be okay,

895
00:40:37,913 --> 00:40:39,915
and that you just have
to have faith through this all.

896
00:40:40,089 --> 00:40:41,439
You have to trust people.

897
00:40:41,613 --> 00:40:42,918
Just go on,
do your everyday work.

898
00:40:43,092 --> 00:40:44,616
Try not to worry
about what's going on.

899
00:40:44,790 --> 00:40:46,313
I knew all
my friends were gonna stay,

900
00:40:46,487 --> 00:40:48,271
and that's kind
of what mattered to me.

901
00:40:48,446 --> 00:40:49,969
I wouldn't wanna go anywhere
else. I never gave it a thought.

902
00:40:50,143 --> 00:40:51,666
I always had faith.
I never thought

903
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:53,625
that I would
have to make another decision.

904
00:40:53,799 --> 00:40:57,455
We've seen in this area
what a good football team

905
00:40:57,629 --> 00:41:00,501
can do to your school
and your morale.

906
00:41:01,067 --> 00:41:04,679
And we've seen
what can happen to schools

907
00:41:05,071 --> 00:41:07,116
who just don't
have the enrollment.

908
00:41:08,901 --> 00:41:14,950
Keeping that number
above 100 was a major focus.

909
00:41:15,124 --> 00:41:17,039
It went right to July 15th.

910
00:41:17,736 --> 00:41:20,086
In fact, if I recall
properly, Tom Bingham was

911
00:41:20,260 --> 00:41:23,219
actually down in Whistler
on the 15th going student

912
00:41:23,393 --> 00:41:25,570
by student because
we didn't wanna leave it

913
00:41:25,744 --> 00:41:29,487
to chance that they were
gonna be off by one student,

914
00:41:30,096 --> 00:41:31,967
or they were gonna
consider them not enrolled,

915
00:41:32,141 --> 00:41:33,839
but where
we knew we had confirmation

916
00:41:34,013 --> 00:41:35,362
with the parents
that they were enrolled.

917
00:41:35,536 --> 00:41:37,190
-So--
-Well, we didn't trust them.

918
00:41:37,669 --> 00:41:39,105
I mean, I hate to say that.

919
00:41:39,279 --> 00:41:40,802
But we didn't trust them.

920
00:41:40,976 --> 00:41:42,456
There was
stress leading up to the 15th.

921
00:41:42,630 --> 00:41:44,632
I think that's
something that I carried,

922
00:41:44,806 --> 00:41:46,852
maybe it being part
of the transition team

923
00:41:47,026 --> 00:41:49,245
and knowing
a little uncertainty there.

924
00:41:49,942 --> 00:41:51,596
Hey, what's up?

925
00:41:51,770 --> 00:41:53,641
The question that
no one really wanted to ask,

926
00:41:53,815 --> 00:41:56,078
but we felt obligated to ask is,

927
00:41:56,557 --> 00:41:58,603
"Okay, so we hit
100 on the 15th.

928
00:41:58,777 --> 00:42:01,780
What happens
if somebody bails the 25th?

929
00:42:01,954 --> 00:42:04,043
And five other
people go with them?"

930
00:42:04,217 --> 00:42:06,872
You know, and I don't know
if there was ever a clear answer

931
00:42:07,046 --> 00:42:09,962
there, in four or five
jumped at the last moment.

932
00:42:10,136 --> 00:42:12,312
I didn't have confidence
that we're gonna open.

933
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:21,930
In August, just two weeks

934
00:42:22,104 --> 00:42:23,671
before the scheduled
start of the school year,

935
00:42:23,845 --> 00:42:25,804
the team made its
annual pilgrimage to Camp Mass,

936
00:42:26,369 --> 00:42:28,241
two hours away
in rural New Hampshire.

937
00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:31,679
Unlike previous sessions,
this trip was about a lot more

938
00:42:31,853 --> 00:42:34,508
than practicing football
because the earlier departures

939
00:42:34,682 --> 00:42:36,989
meant that compared
to last year's roster

940
00:42:37,163 --> 00:42:41,167
of 34 players, the 2019
edition would be a young team

941
00:42:41,341 --> 00:42:43,952
filled with new starters,
learning Coach Bingham's system,

942
00:42:44,300 --> 00:42:46,433
and little margin
for error or injury.

943
00:42:47,739 --> 00:42:48,957
Move it, move it.
Let's go.

944
00:42:49,828 --> 00:42:52,091
It is so much
more work, you know.

945
00:42:52,265 --> 00:42:55,529
I mean, there is no book on how
to be successful with 27 kids.

946
00:42:55,703 --> 00:42:57,705
There's positives
and negatives to it.

947
00:42:57,879 --> 00:42:59,838
You know, some
of the challenges is,

948
00:43:00,012 --> 00:43:01,491
we got to work harder.

949
00:43:01,666 --> 00:43:03,102
Everybody has to play.
Even the freshmen.

950
00:43:03,276 --> 00:43:04,886
I suggest hauling
your head out

951
00:43:05,060 --> 00:43:07,715
of your backside,
and getting it together.

952
00:43:08,194 --> 00:43:09,717
But one
of the benefits of having

953
00:43:09,891 --> 00:43:11,806
a smaller team
is everybody comes together.

954
00:43:11,980 --> 00:43:13,634
You are family.

955
00:43:13,808 --> 00:43:15,854
There's no senior freshmen,
it's just we're a team.

956
00:43:16,028 --> 00:43:17,290
-Hey, let him in.
-Get inside.

957
00:43:18,421 --> 00:43:20,859
D-line on three.
One, two, three.

958
00:43:21,033 --> 00:43:22,687
D-line!

959
00:43:22,861 --> 00:43:24,427
I think 2018, we were
a much more serious team.

960
00:43:24,602 --> 00:43:27,039
We were more into the game
and into the sport.

961
00:43:27,692 --> 00:43:30,564
In 2019, like, the locker
room was so much more different.

962
00:43:30,912 --> 00:43:32,479
Hey, Rocco.

963
00:43:32,653 --> 00:43:34,742
Camp
brings everyone together.

964
00:43:34,916 --> 00:43:36,570
If we weren't
on the football field,

965
00:43:36,744 --> 00:43:38,354
we were outside
playing basketball

966
00:43:38,528 --> 00:43:40,356
with the music going
and everyone having a great time

967
00:43:40,530 --> 00:43:43,795
but WWE at night,
it was like, it was so fun.

968
00:43:43,969 --> 00:43:45,144
The dead man is up!

969
00:43:45,318 --> 00:43:46,754
John Cena standing up.

970
00:43:49,714 --> 00:43:51,237
It really helped
us bond as a team.

971
00:43:51,411 --> 00:43:52,804
We were just
living in the moment.

972
00:43:57,069 --> 00:44:00,594
Camp is a lot of work,
and it's about, you know,

973
00:44:01,073 --> 00:44:02,727
them experiencing
something

974
00:44:02,901 --> 00:44:04,816
that they really don't
even realize how important

975
00:44:04,990 --> 00:44:06,644
it's gonna
be until down the line.

976
00:44:06,818 --> 00:44:08,123
Come on. Great
job. That's the way to end.

977
00:44:08,297 --> 00:44:09,603
Team on three.
One, two, three.

978
00:44:09,777 --> 00:44:10,952
Team!

979
00:44:11,126 --> 00:44:12,693
We were
at camp and every time

980
00:44:12,867 --> 00:44:14,652
my phone rang,
and this isn't being dramatic,

981
00:44:14,826 --> 00:44:17,132
this was an honest
to goodness concern,

982
00:44:17,393 --> 00:44:19,744
was taking a look at it,
"Is that a work call?

983
00:44:19,918 --> 00:44:21,615
Is that someone
from the school?"

984
00:44:21,789 --> 00:44:23,530
'Cause no one calls and bothers
us when we're up there.

985
00:44:23,922 --> 00:44:27,186
And I was waiting for a call
from principal Anderson

986
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,057
and saying,
"Hey, we have an issue,

987
00:44:29,231 --> 00:44:32,626
get them off the field."
And that was that entire week.

988
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:35,368
It was just--
it was just there.

989
00:44:37,936 --> 00:44:40,112
Until that first day
and those doors opened,

990
00:44:40,286 --> 00:44:41,722
and the kids were in there

991
00:44:41,896 --> 00:44:43,898
and the bell rang,
I didn't feel safe.

992
00:44:44,072 --> 00:44:45,334
I really didn't.

993
00:44:51,427 --> 00:44:53,995
As the sun
set on the summer, all the hours

994
00:44:54,169 --> 00:44:56,389
of phone calls paid off
as St. Bernard's opened

995
00:44:56,563 --> 00:44:58,913
its doors with an enrollment
that surpassed the threshold.

996
00:45:00,393 --> 00:45:02,264
A total of 104 students.

997
00:45:02,743 --> 00:45:04,353
The football
players among them would

998
00:45:04,527 --> 00:45:05,659
get to mount
their title defense.

999
00:45:08,270 --> 00:45:10,838
Expectations
were high and heavy.

1000
00:45:11,491 --> 00:45:12,797
Every day we come
into the building,

1001
00:45:12,971 --> 00:45:14,494
we knew that
we were an important

1002
00:45:14,668 --> 00:45:17,497
factor of the school
staying open,

1003
00:45:17,671 --> 00:45:19,542
'cause Ms. Anderson
always tells us, like,

1004
00:45:19,717 --> 00:45:21,501
"You guys are the face
of the school."

1005
00:45:21,675 --> 00:45:25,331
The kids understood
that if things didn't go well,

1006
00:45:26,071 --> 00:45:29,901
that it was gonna be
really difficult to raise money.

1007
00:45:30,075 --> 00:45:31,990
Indeed,
the "All in" campaign

1008
00:45:32,164 --> 00:45:33,992
had turned from
its focus on enrollment

1009
00:45:34,166 --> 00:45:36,211
to its next goal, fund-raising.

1010
00:45:36,690 --> 00:45:38,866
The money needed
to secure St. Bernard's future

1011
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:40,520
as a private
Catholic school,

1012
00:45:40,694 --> 00:45:43,044
independent of financial
support from the church.

1013
00:45:44,045 --> 00:45:45,743
Basically,
we needed a million dollars.

1014
00:45:45,917 --> 00:45:47,353
They needed to know,
and we needed

1015
00:45:47,527 --> 00:45:49,268
to know that this
wouldn't happen again.

1016
00:45:49,703 --> 00:45:51,096
That whatever we had
raised, it was enough

1017
00:45:51,270 --> 00:45:52,750
to get us through
the next few years.

1018
00:45:53,141 --> 00:45:55,013
And so, so it had
to be a million dollars.

1019
00:45:55,187 --> 00:45:57,102
That's what we needed.

1020
00:45:57,276 --> 00:45:59,495
One of the first big wins that
we had was an anonymous donor.

1021
00:46:00,453 --> 00:46:02,324
It was connected
to someone in our community.

1022
00:46:02,498 --> 00:46:04,979
We still don't know who it is,
which is just amazing to me.

1023
00:46:05,153 --> 00:46:08,591
This person offered us
an opportunity, I'd call it.

1024
00:46:08,766 --> 00:46:13,466
Challenge Match, which means
if they provide $250,000,

1025
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:19,602
if Bernardians would step up
and match the other $250,000.

1026
00:46:19,777 --> 00:46:24,346
And if we put the blood, sweat
and tears in to make it work.

1027
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:28,524
Keith called me and said,
"Hey, we've got a chance.

1028
00:46:28,698 --> 00:46:30,570
What do you think?"

1029
00:46:30,744 --> 00:46:32,790
'Cause I was kind of the alumni
person, I kind of had my finger

1030
00:46:32,964 --> 00:46:35,618
on the pulse of what,
what kind of alumni we had.

1031
00:46:35,793 --> 00:46:37,533
And I've always
known we've got thousand--

1032
00:46:37,707 --> 00:46:41,755
10,000 alumni out there
that are doing very, very well.

1033
00:46:42,451 --> 00:46:43,888
But they haven't
been engaged

1034
00:46:44,062 --> 00:46:47,065
over the course
of decades, many decades.

1035
00:46:47,239 --> 00:46:49,676
And so, I basically
said to Keith, "It's out there.

1036
00:46:49,894 --> 00:46:51,069
The money is out there.

1037
00:46:51,243 --> 00:46:52,635
We've just got to go get it."

1038
00:46:52,810 --> 00:46:55,682
Local realtor
Nick Pelletier, a 2005

1039
00:46:55,856 --> 00:46:58,250
St. Bernard's alum
and treasurer of the Bernardian

1040
00:46:58,424 --> 00:47:00,600
foundation,
took the lead in that effort.

1041
00:47:00,774 --> 00:47:04,082
When you're fundraising,
you're looking to capitalize

1042
00:47:04,256 --> 00:47:06,040
on people's
emotional attachments,

1043
00:47:06,214 --> 00:47:08,869
and you're looking
to capitalize on them believing

1044
00:47:09,043 --> 00:47:12,133
that they can help
push something forward.

1045
00:47:12,481 --> 00:47:15,310
And in our case,
we had to fight to fundraise

1046
00:47:15,484 --> 00:47:17,269
for something that
people felt like was failing.

1047
00:47:17,878 --> 00:47:20,533
It's really the worst situation
to be in as a fundraiser.

1048
00:47:20,707 --> 00:47:22,056
We didn't have the storyline,

1049
00:47:22,230 --> 00:47:24,145
and we weren't
ready to fundraise.

1050
00:47:27,322 --> 00:47:29,194
Good morning,
guys. Fantastic to be back.

1051
00:47:29,368 --> 00:47:31,718
We've, we've found our way
to football season again.

1052
00:47:31,892 --> 00:47:33,763
I love a good cliché,
so it's kind of like,

1053
00:47:33,938 --> 00:47:35,417
you know,
hope springs eternal.

1054
00:47:35,591 --> 00:47:37,158
Once again,
it's football season.

1055
00:47:37,332 --> 00:47:38,768
Coach Tom Bingham said to me

1056
00:47:38,943 --> 00:47:40,422
in a conversation yesterday.

1057
00:47:40,596 --> 00:47:42,511
He said,
"All the questions he fielded

1058
00:47:42,685 --> 00:47:43,991
were about how
small his roster was."

1059
00:47:44,818 --> 00:47:46,559
We returned
to school and realized

1060
00:47:46,733 --> 00:47:48,387
like, like,
wow, this is happening.

1061
00:47:48,561 --> 00:47:51,694
We really need to help and,

1062
00:47:51,869 --> 00:47:53,609
you know, kind
of put the school on our back.

1063
00:47:53,783 --> 00:47:56,221
We started
the football year thinking--

1064
00:47:56,482 --> 00:47:59,920
everyone was thinking this,
no matter how many times

1065
00:48:00,094 --> 00:48:02,575
Coach Bingham said,
"Don't think about the repeat."

1066
00:48:02,749 --> 00:48:05,317
That's the first thing
everyone was thinking about is,

1067
00:48:05,795 --> 00:48:08,668
"How are we gonna get back
to where we were last year?"

1068
00:48:08,842 --> 00:48:10,409
Measuring state games.

1069
00:48:10,583 --> 00:48:12,324
Find out where you
are after a long pre-season

1070
00:48:12,498 --> 00:48:14,587
training camp
and find out where you stand,

1071
00:48:14,761 --> 00:48:16,328
maybe, in the state.

1072
00:48:17,982 --> 00:48:19,766
St. Bernards and Murdoch's.

1073
00:48:19,940 --> 00:48:22,334
St. Bernard's here defending
Division Eight state champs.

1074
00:48:22,551 --> 00:48:24,205
It was week one.

1075
00:48:24,379 --> 00:48:26,251
Probably two minutes
into the game, they started

1076
00:48:26,425 --> 00:48:28,862
to realize that,
"Wow, we're playing a team

1077
00:48:29,036 --> 00:48:31,212
that's playing way above
who they normally are.

1078
00:48:31,473 --> 00:48:34,868
They're taking their best shot
at us defending state champ.

1079
00:48:35,042 --> 00:48:36,826
We're going
to get everyone's best punch

1080
00:48:37,001 --> 00:48:38,263
and we're
gonna get it early.

1081
00:48:38,654 --> 00:48:40,700
Um, and we learned
that week one.

1082
00:48:40,874 --> 00:48:44,051
The pass
is deflected and Damian Jones

1083
00:48:44,573 --> 00:48:47,272
picks it off
and Jones is just beginning.

1084
00:48:47,446 --> 00:48:50,971
Stays on his feet, down
the sideline, stays inbounds.

1085
00:48:51,624 --> 00:48:53,147
Now he's picking up
some blockers.

1086
00:48:53,321 --> 00:48:54,975
Look at Jones.
Weaving through the defense.

1087
00:48:55,976 --> 00:48:59,197
And he does go all
the way in for the touchdown.

1088
00:49:00,415 --> 00:49:02,026
And they're
all pumped on the bench.

1089
00:49:02,591 --> 00:49:05,594
St. Bernard, though,
gets the win. 36 21, your final.

1090
00:49:09,685 --> 00:49:12,297
Week two
was very demanding.

1091
00:49:12,601 --> 00:49:14,952
We were playing
a team with 100 kids on it.

1092
00:49:15,343 --> 00:49:18,956
Um, we had
a Tripoli mosquito scare.

1093
00:49:19,260 --> 00:49:21,045
So they decided
that, "You know what,

1094
00:49:21,219 --> 00:49:23,221
we shouldn't play
at seven o'clock at night.

1095
00:49:23,482 --> 00:49:25,963
You have this big,
beautiful new turf field,

1096
00:49:26,311 --> 00:49:28,878
why don't we play at three
o'clock on Friday afternoon?"

1097
00:49:29,053 --> 00:49:30,924
It was 92 degrees out.

1098
00:49:31,446 --> 00:49:33,318
And they just
started coming at us quick,

1099
00:49:33,492 --> 00:49:36,147
two-platooning, and ran us
right into the ground.

1100
00:49:41,326 --> 00:49:42,892
Then,
to close out the month

1101
00:49:43,067 --> 00:49:44,677
of September,
St. Bernard's hosted

1102
00:49:44,851 --> 00:49:46,984
a more experienced team
from Narragansett regional.

1103
00:49:47,506 --> 00:49:49,116
In a game with larger meeting.

1104
00:49:49,638 --> 00:49:50,813
All right.
Well, you're talking

1105
00:49:50,988 --> 00:49:52,380
about those big games up north.

1106
00:49:52,554 --> 00:49:53,816
Both coming off of losses.

1107
00:49:53,991 --> 00:49:55,514
They want
a rebound here tonight.

1108
00:49:55,688 --> 00:49:57,864
We knew, not that
you would ever look ahead,

1109
00:49:58,038 --> 00:49:59,997
but the kids know
the road to the playoffs

1110
00:50:00,171 --> 00:50:02,216
is gonna have
to go through St. Bernard's

1111
00:50:02,390 --> 00:50:04,436
or gansett
and our division up here.

1112
00:50:04,610 --> 00:50:06,351
What's at stake
if we lose is that,

1113
00:50:06,525 --> 00:50:08,396
there's a good chance
we won't make playoffs.

1114
00:50:08,570 --> 00:50:10,268
After
a potentially disastrous

1115
00:50:10,442 --> 00:50:12,270
Dom Cuevas
turnover near the goal line,

1116
00:50:12,444 --> 00:50:13,749
with under
two minutes to play.

1117
00:50:16,404 --> 00:50:18,667
Narragansett held
a 28-21 lead,

1118
00:50:18,841 --> 00:50:20,669
needing only to run
out the clock.

1119
00:50:20,843 --> 00:50:22,932
I was angry 'cause I felt
like I just lost us the game.

1120
00:50:23,107 --> 00:50:25,370
They were literally
on the foot yard line.

1121
00:50:25,544 --> 00:50:27,807
They could've either
taken the safety or just got

1122
00:50:27,981 --> 00:50:30,853
enough because there was,
like, 30 seconds left, not even.

1123
00:50:31,245 --> 00:50:34,640
And then we stacked the center.

1124
00:50:34,814 --> 00:50:36,468
We stacked everyone
on our D-line pretty much

1125
00:50:36,642 --> 00:50:38,687
on the center,
and I was on the outside.

1126
00:50:39,166 --> 00:50:41,212
And then Matt Smith

1127
00:50:41,386 --> 00:50:43,388
and Ben Golesby,
blew the center up.

1128
00:50:43,562 --> 00:50:44,954
The ball
goes in the ground,

1129
00:50:45,129 --> 00:50:47,783
the ends crashing 63 Pinard.

1130
00:50:48,088 --> 00:50:50,960
He sees the ball
and he went on it and,

1131
00:50:51,135 --> 00:50:53,398
like, we're waiting
for the call, and I'm sure

1132
00:50:53,572 --> 00:50:55,965
it was a half a second,
but it seemed like a lifetime.

1133
00:50:57,141 --> 00:50:58,446
The arms go up.

1134
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:02,581
"Jonny's got the ball.
Jonny's got the ball."

1135
00:51:02,755 --> 00:51:05,236
We're hooting it out,
and Linda Anderson's, like,

1136
00:51:05,410 --> 00:51:08,108
four, five feet jumping
up and down, hands flaring.

1137
00:51:08,282 --> 00:51:10,763
I was, like, "No way,
did I just score a touchdown?"

1138
00:51:10,937 --> 00:51:12,721
'Cause I've, like,
never scored in my life,

1139
00:51:12,895 --> 00:51:15,594
'cause I'm a lineman. So,
it's like crazy that I scored.

1140
00:51:16,203 --> 00:51:18,292
Capping Pinard's
opportunistic touchdown,

1141
00:51:18,466 --> 00:51:20,294
Cuevas ran
to redemption

1142
00:51:20,468 --> 00:51:22,514
with a two point conversion
to secure the comeback win.

1143
00:51:26,953 --> 00:51:30,304
I'm laying on the ground looking
at him and I see him get over.

1144
00:51:30,478 --> 00:51:32,219
And I was like, "No way.

1145
00:51:32,393 --> 00:51:35,309
We just won this game
with 29 seconds left."

1146
00:51:35,483 --> 00:51:38,007
And I've never been
so happy after a game.

1147
00:51:38,182 --> 00:51:40,836
Looking back
on it, it was probably

1148
00:51:41,010 --> 00:51:43,926
one of the most
important series of the season.

1149
00:51:44,101 --> 00:51:46,407
If something bad happens,
what are you gonna do?

1150
00:51:46,581 --> 00:51:49,671
And they win
by a point. 29 to 28.

1151
00:51:50,324 --> 00:51:52,718
St. Bernard's
needed that early season win

1152
00:51:53,110 --> 00:51:54,850
because
the next few games

1153
00:51:55,024 --> 00:51:56,765
were a rollercoaster that
put the season on the brink.

1154
00:51:57,114 --> 00:51:59,681
The lopsided loss
at West Boylston Tahanto,

1155
00:51:59,899 --> 00:52:01,988
a powerhouse
from a higher division.

1156
00:52:03,816 --> 00:52:05,731
Dropped the Bernardians
to two and two.

1157
00:52:06,384 --> 00:52:08,168
That loss was
followed by a resilient

1158
00:52:08,342 --> 00:52:10,257
home field effort
against rival Nipmuc.

1159
00:52:10,779 --> 00:52:13,130
The Bernardians made the best
of a botched extra point.

1160
00:52:13,304 --> 00:52:15,306
Kicker Vaughn Randall
turning a bad snap

1161
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:17,743
into a two point conversion
for a comeback win.

1162
00:52:17,917 --> 00:52:19,745
St. Bernard's defense,

1163
00:52:19,919 --> 00:52:23,401
coming up big again, gets
a dramatic victory, 21 to 20.

1164
00:52:23,792 --> 00:52:25,142
But then came the unexpected,

1165
00:52:25,620 --> 00:52:28,319
a demoralizing blowout
shutout loss at Leicester.

1166
00:52:31,148 --> 00:52:32,758
Three and three.

1167
00:52:32,932 --> 00:52:34,325
We're the defending
Division Eight champions.

1168
00:52:35,717 --> 00:52:37,850
You're having
a hard go with it, so far.

1169
00:52:38,720 --> 00:52:41,810
The schedule makers didn't
do St. Bernard's any favors.

1170
00:52:41,984 --> 00:52:43,595
We already
had high expectations.

1171
00:52:43,769 --> 00:52:46,293
Already those high
expectations made it rough,

1172
00:52:46,467 --> 00:52:48,208
and we see
what everyone's saying

1173
00:52:48,382 --> 00:52:50,515
about us, you know,
"Oh, they can't repeat.

1174
00:52:50,689 --> 00:52:51,994
They can't--
They're a one-hit wonder.

1175
00:52:52,169 --> 00:52:53,953
They're a fluke.

1176
00:52:54,127 --> 00:52:55,520
They can't do-- They can't
do what they did last year."

1177
00:52:56,042 --> 00:52:57,696
And I would say
that was our lowest point.

1178
00:52:57,870 --> 00:53:01,178
I think at that
point in time they started

1179
00:53:01,352 --> 00:53:03,484
hearing and giving
the same questions out.

1180
00:53:03,658 --> 00:53:05,617
I was getting is,
"Are you guys gonna be okay?

1181
00:53:05,791 --> 00:53:07,314
Are we making the playoffs?"

1182
00:53:07,575 --> 00:53:09,316
Like, no one ever
asked that question before.

1183
00:53:09,490 --> 00:53:12,276
I truly believe
that they started

1184
00:53:12,450 --> 00:53:14,974
to feel there was a little bit
of weight on them,

1185
00:53:15,148 --> 00:53:17,411
on what direction
was the school going.

1186
00:53:19,021 --> 00:53:20,371
This whole time,
you're trying to make sure

1187
00:53:20,545 --> 00:53:22,155
that the boys don't know that.

1188
00:53:22,503 --> 00:53:25,767
You know, that it really,
it really is on their shoulders.

1189
00:53:25,941 --> 00:53:27,552
Think we all really
took on a responsibility

1190
00:53:27,726 --> 00:53:29,336
to have a good year and try

1191
00:53:29,510 --> 00:53:30,816
to bring in more students
and bring as much money

1192
00:53:30,990 --> 00:53:32,513
as we could for the school.

1193
00:53:32,687 --> 00:53:34,341
We never
wanted Coach Bingham to know,

1194
00:53:34,515 --> 00:53:37,997
or Miss Anderson to know
that we were feeling pressure

1195
00:53:38,171 --> 00:53:39,738
'cause we know
how they would feel about that.

1196
00:53:40,129 --> 00:53:42,219
But we definitely,
as a team and as a union,

1197
00:53:42,393 --> 00:53:44,786
really felt that it was up
to us to save the school,

1198
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:46,223
or we were not coming back.

1199
00:53:48,137 --> 00:53:50,444
The Leicester loss
only intensified the physical

1200
00:53:50,618 --> 00:53:52,838
and emotional pressure,
as the football

1201
00:53:53,012 --> 00:53:55,580
and fundraising campaigns
continued side by side.

1202
00:53:56,102 --> 00:53:58,060
It all came to a head
after the team returned

1203
00:53:58,235 --> 00:53:59,671
to practice that week.

1204
00:53:59,845 --> 00:54:01,629
Pick up the pace,
pick up the tempo.

1205
00:54:01,803 --> 00:54:05,677
Get into a rhythm, let's go.
Rocco, move. Come on.

1206
00:54:05,894 --> 00:54:08,593
So we were
coming off a bad practice after

1207
00:54:08,767 --> 00:54:11,117
going three and three,
so our morale was already low,

1208
00:54:11,291 --> 00:54:13,946
and we have a horrible practice
and coaches are yelling at us,

1209
00:54:14,381 --> 00:54:16,035
so we're even
more down on ourselves.

1210
00:54:16,209 --> 00:54:19,473
We were fumbling snaps,
missing blocks,

1211
00:54:19,647 --> 00:54:22,171
not remembering our rules,
walking out of our stances.

1212
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:24,435
And he, he lost it.

1213
00:54:24,609 --> 00:54:26,698
D-line is standing up.

1214
00:54:26,872 --> 00:54:28,613
Wake up.

1215
00:54:28,917 --> 00:54:32,573
Coach Bingham actually left
from that practice in anger.

1216
00:54:32,747 --> 00:54:34,619
He left the practice
and said, "I'm done."

1217
00:54:34,793 --> 00:54:37,926
It was
the first time I walked

1218
00:54:38,100 --> 00:54:40,015
off the field in 24 years.

1219
00:54:40,189 --> 00:54:41,452
Unbelievable.

1220
00:54:44,368 --> 00:54:45,760
The reason
I walked off the field

1221
00:54:45,934 --> 00:54:49,547
wasn't out
of irritation or frustration

1222
00:54:49,721 --> 00:54:51,592
that we weren't practicing well.

1223
00:54:52,114 --> 00:54:55,335
It was-- I was
completely frustrated

1224
00:54:55,509 --> 00:54:58,686
and annoyed that
they weren't talking to me.

1225
00:54:59,165 --> 00:55:01,385
Normally, he can drop
things when we go home,

1226
00:55:01,559 --> 00:55:04,344
but that was something
that I'd never experienced.

1227
00:55:04,518 --> 00:55:06,738
I've never seen him
walk off the field before.

1228
00:55:08,174 --> 00:55:10,742
After we got yelled at,
like, ripped to pieces,

1229
00:55:10,916 --> 00:55:13,701
we went to Matt Smith's
house for a team dinner.

1230
00:55:15,224 --> 00:55:17,270
We were all cramped
in this small living room.

1231
00:55:17,444 --> 00:55:19,707
There was, like, one couch,
and we're all cramped in there.

1232
00:55:19,925 --> 00:55:21,579
We all kinda banded
together and decided

1233
00:55:21,753 --> 00:55:23,102
that we had to do something.

1234
00:55:23,276 --> 00:55:24,930
I remember
I was eating pancakes.

1235
00:55:25,104 --> 00:55:27,672
It was like a pancake
breakfast dinner type of thing.

1236
00:55:27,933 --> 00:55:30,631
Um, very good food.
Thank you, team mom.

1237
00:55:30,805 --> 00:55:33,678
And Dom says, "Okay, guys,
we got to talk."

1238
00:55:34,243 --> 00:55:36,202
I had a whole
speech prepared in my head.

1239
00:55:36,463 --> 00:55:38,073
Like, on the ride
there, I was, like,

1240
00:55:38,247 --> 00:55:39,640
talking to myself like,
"This is what I'm gonna say.

1241
00:55:39,814 --> 00:55:41,425
This is what I'm gonna say."

1242
00:55:41,599 --> 00:55:43,252
I was like, chugging
a gallon of chocolate milk

1243
00:55:43,427 --> 00:55:44,776
while you were talking.

1244
00:55:44,950 --> 00:55:46,255
And I get up
there and try to talk,

1245
00:55:46,430 --> 00:55:47,692
and it just
crumbles automatically.

1246
00:55:47,866 --> 00:55:49,171
I don't even
get a whole sentence out

1247
00:55:49,346 --> 00:55:51,260
before kids
are just joking around.

1248
00:55:57,876 --> 00:55:59,834
We were like,
"All right, time to, like, stop.

1249
00:56:00,008 --> 00:56:02,228
We need
to get our stuff together.

1250
00:56:02,402 --> 00:56:04,317
And like, like actually try."

1251
00:56:04,491 --> 00:56:06,667
And then we were
like, all, like, serious.

1252
00:56:06,841 --> 00:56:08,321
And then we just
started joking around again.

1253
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:11,106
"Yeah, Dom. Come on,
you gotta get serious."

1254
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:13,282
Like he's--
Dom can't stop laughing

1255
00:56:13,457 --> 00:56:15,197
'cause we're all laughing.

1256
00:56:15,372 --> 00:56:16,808
And it was,
it was good for us, you know,

1257
00:56:16,982 --> 00:56:19,071
it loosened us up,
and it made us realize

1258
00:56:19,245 --> 00:56:21,073
that we are gonna be okay
because we have each other.

1259
00:56:21,247 --> 00:56:23,902
Then we start the chants.
The chants get going.

1260
00:56:24,076 --> 00:56:25,643
Yes! Yes! Yes!

1261
00:56:25,817 --> 00:56:28,820
So, the guy from
the WWE, he goes, "Yes, yes."

1262
00:56:28,994 --> 00:56:31,431
Yes! Yes!

1263
00:56:31,605 --> 00:56:33,694
So, we're just like,
"Are we gonna win?"

1264
00:56:33,868 --> 00:56:36,131
And then everyone's
just like, "Yes, yes."

1265
00:56:36,305 --> 00:56:37,698
And we're literally,
like, shaking his house.

1266
00:56:37,872 --> 00:56:39,483
We were just chanting so loud.

1267
00:56:39,657 --> 00:56:41,528
And then now, like,
before every game,

1268
00:56:41,702 --> 00:56:43,400
we chant that.

1269
00:56:43,574 --> 00:56:45,445
Yes! Yes!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

1270
00:56:47,491 --> 00:56:49,406
Team on three.
One, two, three.

1271
00:56:49,580 --> 00:56:51,233
Team!

1272
00:56:51,408 --> 00:56:52,844
That was a big
turning point in the season.

1273
00:56:56,413 --> 00:56:59,633
Tom
goes into the clubhouse.

1274
00:57:00,199 --> 00:57:02,244
We shut the door,
and we sat down, and we talked.

1275
00:57:02,419 --> 00:57:03,985
And they said that,
"Coach, we feel like

1276
00:57:04,159 --> 00:57:05,813
we have the weight
of the world on our shoulders."

1277
00:57:06,466 --> 00:57:11,689
And it was almost a sense
of relief, like, from them.

1278
00:57:11,863 --> 00:57:15,083
And it was, like,
it was a relief for both of us

1279
00:57:15,257 --> 00:57:17,042
when they got
it off their chest.

1280
00:57:17,216 --> 00:57:19,044
He picks up
a marker, and he writes

1281
00:57:19,218 --> 00:57:21,568
two words: "Your choice."

1282
00:57:22,047 --> 00:57:25,920
And he said, "Fellas, your
destiny is what you make of it.

1283
00:57:26,094 --> 00:57:28,314
If you can
go into the tournament,

1284
00:57:28,488 --> 00:57:31,230
and it's five and three,
you've got a good chance."

1285
00:57:31,796 --> 00:57:34,755
We're three and three,
and moving on to our schedule.

1286
00:57:34,929 --> 00:57:36,104
We can't lose
another game or else

1287
00:57:36,278 --> 00:57:37,541
we're not gonna make playoffs.

1288
00:57:40,108 --> 00:57:41,893
And I think once
we start to pick our heads up,

1289
00:57:42,067 --> 00:57:45,287
and we started to go back to
work, basically, and, you know,

1290
00:57:45,462 --> 00:57:47,507
there's not much time
to feel bad for yourself.

1291
00:57:47,681 --> 00:57:49,117
You got a game in a couple days.

1292
00:57:49,291 --> 00:57:50,597
It felt like
every game was a must win,

1293
00:57:50,771 --> 00:57:52,512
but I think
that pushed us hard.

1294
00:57:52,686 --> 00:57:54,906
A bad thing was happening,
and it was time to step up.

1295
00:57:55,080 --> 00:57:56,603
Then once you got
them going, they kept going.

1296
00:57:56,777 --> 00:57:58,344
Which is even better.

1297
00:57:58,518 --> 00:58:00,651
Nico Mancini for a touchdown.

1298
00:58:01,826 --> 00:58:03,088
Into the end zone.

1299
00:58:04,045 --> 00:58:05,873
We knew we could
get a win against Sutton,

1300
00:58:06,047 --> 00:58:09,747
and that would clinch us
at least a 4C in the playoffs.

1301
00:58:10,530 --> 00:58:13,490
The pass.
Picked off by Antonio Mancini.

1302
00:58:14,360 --> 00:58:15,622
And look at him go.

1303
00:58:15,796 --> 00:58:17,972
St. Bernard's wins at 42 to 8.

1304
00:58:19,017 --> 00:58:20,801
But we ended
up getting a higher C.

1305
00:58:21,628 --> 00:58:24,413
We were there
to stay and make a run at it.

1306
00:58:24,588 --> 00:58:26,067
We got
this ball rolling,

1307
00:58:26,241 --> 00:58:28,505
and then we saw how
that impacted the boys.

1308
00:58:28,679 --> 00:58:30,245
And it was sort of,
you know, now they're

1309
00:58:30,419 --> 00:58:31,986
energized,
and they wanna fight, too.

1310
00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:33,901
And then seeing them
fight made us wanna fight

1311
00:58:34,075 --> 00:58:36,251
harder, and then seeing
them win made us wanna win.

1312
00:58:36,425 --> 00:58:38,384
For all
the momentum on the field,

1313
00:58:38,558 --> 00:58:41,256
the fundraising effort
had yet to hit full stride.

1314
00:58:41,735 --> 00:58:44,390
By mid-October, the "All in"
campaign reached a total

1315
00:58:44,564 --> 00:58:46,523
of more than a half
million dollars in pledges.

1316
00:58:47,045 --> 00:58:49,221
In a scheduled status report,
the fundraisers

1317
00:58:49,395 --> 00:58:51,440
presented the promised
donations and more,

1318
00:58:52,137 --> 00:58:55,096
hoping in earnest that their
progress might prove decisive.

1319
00:58:55,270 --> 00:58:56,924
October 17th
was an infamous day.

1320
00:58:57,098 --> 00:58:59,100
It was the day that
we had to provide an update

1321
00:58:59,274 --> 00:59:00,754
to the diocese
on everything we had

1322
00:59:00,928 --> 00:59:02,539
accomplished over
the last three months.

1323
00:59:02,713 --> 00:59:05,803
We still had to get
the final approval from, um,

1324
00:59:05,977 --> 00:59:07,631
from Bishop McManus
to open the school.

1325
00:59:07,805 --> 00:59:09,458
They wanted
that proof before

1326
00:59:09,633 --> 00:59:11,199
they would give
us the final blessing.

1327
00:59:11,373 --> 00:59:12,940
We presented pledges to date.

1328
00:59:13,114 --> 00:59:15,595
We presented
a pipeline of gifts,

1329
00:59:16,161 --> 00:59:18,685
and we presented
an enrollment update and plan

1330
00:59:18,859 --> 00:59:20,948
that we thought
proved we were successful.

1331
00:59:21,122 --> 00:59:23,690
The pressure
was just tremendous.

1332
00:59:23,864 --> 00:59:25,605
You know, we were optimistic,
but we weren't stupid.

1333
00:59:25,779 --> 00:59:27,651
We know how hard this is.

1334
00:59:27,825 --> 00:59:30,001
And, you know, frankly,
we knew we still had to sell it.

1335
00:59:30,175 --> 00:59:31,480
And then there was
a point where it was

1336
00:59:31,655 --> 00:59:32,917
clear that they were...

1337
00:59:34,048 --> 00:59:35,876
they were invested,
but it didn't seem like

1338
00:59:36,050 --> 00:59:37,791
they were ready
to give us the official "Okay."

1339
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:40,185
So, it's probably about
a week later that the email

1340
00:59:40,359 --> 00:59:43,318
popped in my inbox
from Superintendent Perda,

1341
00:59:43,492 --> 00:59:45,451
representing
the Worcester diocese,

1342
00:59:45,625 --> 00:59:47,366
basically saying
that at this time,

1343
00:59:47,540 --> 00:59:51,326
we had not done enough to prove
our financial viability.

1344
00:59:51,500 --> 00:59:52,980
They didn't
wanna count your 250.

1345
00:59:53,154 --> 00:59:54,982
Yeah. They said, "Oh,
your 250 is imaginary."

1346
00:59:55,156 --> 00:59:56,854
It's actually
a great point, right?

1347
00:59:57,028 --> 01:00:00,727
So, they wanted to verify funds.

1348
01:00:00,901 --> 01:00:05,950
They wanted go to an anonymous
donor and verify the funds.

1349
01:00:06,428 --> 01:00:08,474
This philanthropic
person who stepped up

1350
01:00:08,648 --> 01:00:12,173
at the very beginning,
the dioceses didn't feel

1351
01:00:12,347 --> 01:00:13,479
that that was valid funds

1352
01:00:13,653 --> 01:00:14,959
because they couldn't verify it.

1353
01:00:15,699 --> 01:00:18,658
And as I told Nick,
and anyone else of the diocese,

1354
01:00:19,137 --> 01:00:22,488
I was never going to share
the anonymous donor's name.

1355
01:00:22,662 --> 01:00:24,011
It was not going to happen.

1356
01:00:24,708 --> 01:00:27,841
Every step of the way,
the goalposts moved.

1357
01:00:28,015 --> 01:00:30,931
-Yeah.
-To make a football metaphor,

1358
01:00:31,105 --> 01:00:32,890
the goalposts
moved and things change.

1359
01:00:33,064 --> 01:00:34,543
Other hurdles
and obstacles came,

1360
01:00:34,718 --> 01:00:36,937
and we didn't know
if at the last second

1361
01:00:37,416 --> 01:00:41,028
there'd be a change
of decision by the diocese,

1362
01:00:41,202 --> 01:00:43,901
or if someone would
make a final decision,

1363
01:00:44,075 --> 01:00:45,859
or it's just,
you know, it's not gonna go.

1364
01:00:46,033 --> 01:00:48,383
We were fundraising
while our football team

1365
01:00:48,557 --> 01:00:51,299
was running
for the race of their lives.

1366
01:00:51,473 --> 01:00:53,171
So, these two races
were running in parallel,

1367
01:00:53,345 --> 01:00:54,651
but they were
directly connected.

1368
01:00:56,870 --> 01:00:58,393
Never
drop-kick the champion.

1369
01:00:58,567 --> 01:01:00,134
St. Bernard's
getting pumped up

1370
01:01:00,308 --> 01:01:02,876
to take on Narragansett
in a big playoff match.

1371
01:01:03,050 --> 01:01:05,313
First round
of the central Mass playoffs,

1372
01:01:05,487 --> 01:01:08,012
we had a rematch
with Narragansett.

1373
01:01:08,186 --> 01:01:09,840
The Bernardian's defense playing

1374
01:01:10,014 --> 01:01:12,843
big dog as they trip up
Damian Cuomo on fourth down.

1375
01:01:13,321 --> 01:01:16,890
If you just wanna
watch two high school teams

1376
01:01:17,064 --> 01:01:19,458
playing mistake-free football,

1377
01:01:19,632 --> 01:01:22,374
and just slug fest
back and forth,

1378
01:01:22,548 --> 01:01:24,202
that's a great football game.

1379
01:01:24,985 --> 01:01:30,556
Nico Mancini.
St. Bernard's wins 34 to 30.

1380
01:01:30,730 --> 01:01:32,123
The champs are still alive.

1381
01:01:32,297 --> 01:01:33,864
For me, these are
the bigger games.

1382
01:01:34,038 --> 01:01:36,127
This is who is
your central Mass champs.

1383
01:01:36,301 --> 01:01:37,998
Monty Tech and St. Bernard's.

1384
01:01:38,172 --> 01:01:40,566
Monty Tech comes
in to this central Mass final.

1385
01:01:40,740 --> 01:01:42,394
They think they may have a shot.

1386
01:01:42,568 --> 01:01:44,222
So, those kids were
pumped up, 'cause they like

1387
01:01:44,396 --> 01:01:47,225
that-- that inner-city
rivalry with St. Bernard's.

1388
01:01:47,399 --> 01:01:48,530
There
are three high schools

1389
01:01:48,705 --> 01:01:49,967
in the city of Fitchburg.

1390
01:01:50,141 --> 01:01:52,056
Us, Fitchburg High
and Monty Tech.

1391
01:01:52,534 --> 01:01:54,449
I think that Monty Tech
game was really big for us

1392
01:01:54,623 --> 01:01:56,234
to be like, "Yeah, we're
the best team in Fitchburg.

1393
01:01:56,408 --> 01:01:58,192
We wanna be
the best team in the city."

1394
01:01:58,366 --> 01:02:02,022
Thibodeau.
Power runner. Contact. Spinning.

1395
01:02:02,196 --> 01:02:03,502
Whoa.

1396
01:02:03,676 --> 01:02:05,330
Plows into the end zone.

1397
01:02:05,504 --> 01:02:07,811
St. Bernard's is a champion
again in central Mass.

1398
01:02:07,985 --> 01:02:09,290
49-22.

1399
01:02:09,595 --> 01:02:13,468
Let's go!

1400
01:02:13,642 --> 01:02:14,948
Whoo!

1401
01:02:16,254 --> 01:02:17,734
The football team's state

1402
01:02:17,908 --> 01:02:19,736
semifinal game
couldn't come soon enough.

1403
01:02:20,388 --> 01:02:22,390
The team left early
for the Saturday afternoon

1404
01:02:22,564 --> 01:02:25,350
game at a neutral site,
Westfield State University,

1405
01:02:25,524 --> 01:02:26,830
90 minutes away.

1406
01:02:28,092 --> 01:02:29,658
Driving through
Worcester, and I'm paying

1407
01:02:29,833 --> 01:02:31,748
attention
to how these kids are focused.

1408
01:02:33,271 --> 01:02:35,316
Just silent.
They're quiet.

1409
01:02:35,926 --> 01:02:37,362
And I think
I'll remember that for the rest

1410
01:02:37,536 --> 01:02:39,668
of my life,
just how focused they were.

1411
01:02:39,843 --> 01:02:43,324
You could hear a pin drop
on that bus because if you lose

1412
01:02:43,498 --> 01:02:45,283
this game, you don't
get to defend the title.

1413
01:02:45,631 --> 01:02:47,415
You don't get
to go for back to back.

1414
01:02:47,589 --> 01:02:50,201
You win this game, you get
to go down to Gillette again,

1415
01:02:50,375 --> 01:02:52,029
to the house
that Tom Brady built.

1416
01:02:54,292 --> 01:02:56,468
St. Bernard's
and Lee. The champs are here.

1417
01:02:56,642 --> 01:02:57,904
How
about coach Bingham--

1418
01:02:58,078 --> 01:02:59,123
The champs are here.

1419
01:03:02,561 --> 01:03:05,433
Lee gets the ball first
and they score.

1420
01:03:05,607 --> 01:03:06,739
The first drive of the game,

1421
01:03:06,913 --> 01:03:08,088
it is Lee getting on the board.

1422
01:03:08,262 --> 01:03:09,742
Jimmy Purcell hits Luke Martelo

1423
01:03:09,916 --> 01:03:11,222
for the touchdown,
six nothing Wildcats.

1424
01:03:11,396 --> 01:03:12,789
But the thing
about St. Bernard's,

1425
01:03:12,963 --> 01:03:14,660
you just can't stop one guy.

1426
01:03:14,834 --> 01:03:16,053
Here
comes the Bernardian right-back,

1427
01:03:16,227 --> 01:03:17,532
Tyler Thibodeau.

1428
01:03:17,706 --> 01:03:19,360
With a big run.

1429
01:03:19,534 --> 01:03:21,275
So if you're
gonna key in on Tyler Thibodeau.

1430
01:03:21,754 --> 01:03:24,061
Oops, there's Nico Mancini.

1431
01:03:24,235 --> 01:03:25,889
Mancini barreling forward.

1432
01:03:26,063 --> 01:03:28,021
Not gonna be taken
down by one, two, three,

1433
01:03:28,195 --> 01:03:29,849
four, five defenders.

1434
01:03:30,023 --> 01:03:34,114
Nico Manzini! Nico Manzini!

1435
01:03:34,288 --> 01:03:36,334
Nico, like, in
the beginning of the season,

1436
01:03:36,856 --> 01:03:38,292
I would say
first couple of games,

1437
01:03:38,466 --> 01:03:40,425
it seemed almost
as if he was really nervous.

1438
01:03:40,599 --> 01:03:43,384
But as the season went on,
you could see he got

1439
01:03:43,558 --> 01:03:45,299
mentally tougher,
physically tougher.

1440
01:03:45,473 --> 01:03:47,824
Thibodeau.
Right up the middle.

1441
01:03:48,737 --> 01:03:51,436
Breaking tackles,
dragging piles.

1442
01:03:51,610 --> 01:03:54,352
Our best defense
is a great running game.

1443
01:03:54,526 --> 01:03:58,704
Tyler's so physical,
he wears the team down himself,

1444
01:03:59,009 --> 01:04:00,924
having
to tackle that big body.

1445
01:04:01,402 --> 01:04:03,100
He does not
have the ability to cut

1446
01:04:03,274 --> 01:04:05,450
at all, like he just
doesn't see it.

1447
01:04:05,624 --> 01:04:07,191
Thibodeau,
untouched up the middle.

1448
01:04:07,365 --> 01:04:09,062
Well, he's coming at him
around the leg there.

1449
01:04:09,236 --> 01:04:11,412
We were like thunder
and lightning that afternoon.

1450
01:04:11,586 --> 01:04:14,851
With that, there's
also Dom, and Dom can run.

1451
01:04:15,025 --> 01:04:16,940
He can throw
it like he's a threat, too.

1452
01:04:17,114 --> 01:04:19,725
Cuevas.
On the QB sneak for the score.

1453
01:04:19,899 --> 01:04:23,511
It just got to the point
where Lee couldn't stop them.

1454
01:04:25,296 --> 01:04:26,645
St. Bernard's is returning

1455
01:04:26,819 --> 01:04:28,038
to Foxborough
to defend their title.

1456
01:04:28,212 --> 01:04:31,432
44-14, over Lee.

1457
01:04:33,130 --> 01:04:35,349
They got back on the bus.

1458
01:04:35,523 --> 01:04:38,483
They're about to pull away,
I hear from the back:

1459
01:04:38,657 --> 01:04:40,311
Back to Gillette, bro!

1460
01:04:44,706 --> 01:04:47,927
And everyone explodes.
Then the singing starts.

1461
01:04:48,101 --> 01:04:50,364
Country road

1462
01:04:50,538 --> 01:04:53,541
Take me home

1463
01:04:53,715 --> 01:04:56,240
To the place

1464
01:04:56,414 --> 01:04:58,677
Where I belong

1465
01:04:59,243 --> 01:05:01,898
They were
off-key the entire night.

1466
01:05:02,507 --> 01:05:05,118
Off-key. And then
I posted that to Twitter.

1467
01:05:05,292 --> 01:05:07,425
Like, this is,
this is hilarious.

1468
01:05:07,599 --> 01:05:10,515
Take me home

1469
01:05:10,689 --> 01:05:13,431
To the place

1470
01:05:13,605 --> 01:05:15,520
Where I belong

1471
01:05:24,572 --> 01:05:26,400
Riding high,
St Bernard's then played

1472
01:05:26,574 --> 01:05:29,621
its annual Thanksgiving
week game just four days later.

1473
01:05:29,838 --> 01:05:32,537
A late season tradition
outside the playoff bracket.

1474
01:05:36,976 --> 01:05:39,587
Coach Bingham gave
some rest to his top players,

1475
01:05:40,066 --> 01:05:41,720
but the game
was a physical and emotional

1476
01:05:41,894 --> 01:05:44,244
gut check at a time
when everyone needed a break.

1477
01:05:44,505 --> 01:05:46,594
Both players and volunteers,

1478
01:05:46,812 --> 01:05:48,727
who had been
working almost nonstop.

1479
01:05:49,554 --> 01:05:52,209
As the playoff run and campaign
were coming together.

1480
01:05:52,383 --> 01:05:54,515
All in, they were
on the brink of another

1481
01:05:54,689 --> 01:05:58,737
Super Bowl and pushing
past $750,000 in pledges.

1482
01:05:58,911 --> 01:06:00,739
We were running out of gas.

1483
01:06:01,696 --> 01:06:04,003
You know, we'd been
going strong since June.

1484
01:06:04,177 --> 01:06:07,746
And it was,
it was six months of stress

1485
01:06:07,920 --> 01:06:10,662
and, you know, working
till midnight every night.

1486
01:06:10,836 --> 01:06:12,098
You know, some--
We'd have meetings

1487
01:06:12,272 --> 01:06:13,752
in here till 11:30.

1488
01:06:13,926 --> 01:06:15,493
I would go home,
and I'd still be, you know,

1489
01:06:15,667 --> 01:06:18,496
doing research, writing emails,
drafting 100 page,

1490
01:06:18,670 --> 01:06:20,672
you know,
strategic plan proposals.

1491
01:06:20,846 --> 01:06:23,892
We were all just tired.

1492
01:06:24,371 --> 01:06:26,069
Fundraising
was going very well,

1493
01:06:26,243 --> 01:06:29,594
given the circumstances,
but we hadn't really hit

1494
01:06:29,768 --> 01:06:32,162
our breakthrough and,
uh, and we knew that.

1495
01:06:32,336 --> 01:06:33,946
The season was almost over.

1496
01:06:34,338 --> 01:06:36,079
Financial deadlines
were looming,

1497
01:06:36,470 --> 01:06:39,038
and even counting
every dollar pledged to date,

1498
01:06:39,299 --> 01:06:42,128
the "All in" campaign was
still well short of its goal.

1499
01:06:42,346 --> 01:06:45,044
It was difficult
only because I knew

1500
01:06:45,218 --> 01:06:46,698
what was going
on behind the scenes.

1501
01:06:46,872 --> 01:06:50,397
I knew the uphill battle
that we were facing.

1502
01:06:50,919 --> 01:06:52,312
It was
just like a marathon,

1503
01:06:52,747 --> 01:06:54,227
and someone
would hand the torch,

1504
01:06:54,401 --> 01:06:55,968
and you when you get
tired and burnt out,

1505
01:06:56,534 --> 01:06:58,318
and you just,
you needed a spark.

1506
01:06:58,492 --> 01:07:01,017
T.J. Fluharty always would
say, "You gotta have faith."

1507
01:07:01,626 --> 01:07:03,758
To come
that far against

1508
01:07:03,932 --> 01:07:06,413
all these obstacles
that got thrown at us.

1509
01:07:07,023 --> 01:07:08,676
To come that far

1510
01:07:08,850 --> 01:07:10,374
and to say, "Okay, no,
we're not gonna do this."

1511
01:07:10,548 --> 01:07:12,767
Now,
the real work had to start.

1512
01:07:13,246 --> 01:07:15,466
And at the end of the day,
the last thing I wanted to do

1513
01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:17,163
was to make
this team feel like

1514
01:07:17,903 --> 01:07:21,211
they were responsible
for the school continuing to go.

1515
01:07:21,385 --> 01:07:23,952
But I knew that story,
to be able to tell my donors

1516
01:07:24,127 --> 01:07:26,738
that this school
had won a second Super Bowl,

1517
01:07:27,043 --> 01:07:28,479
was a key story.

1518
01:07:28,653 --> 01:07:29,871
And I needed that
right when it happened.

1519
01:07:31,917 --> 01:07:33,614
We welcome you here live

1520
01:07:33,788 --> 01:07:36,617
from Gillette Stadium
in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

1521
01:07:36,791 --> 01:07:38,228
The Division Eight Super Bowl,

1522
01:07:38,402 --> 01:07:40,056
played between the Wildcats

1523
01:07:40,230 --> 01:07:43,146
of West Bridgewater
and the St. Bernard Bernardians.

1524
01:07:43,363 --> 01:07:46,149
I remember
everything about December 6th.

1525
01:07:46,323 --> 01:07:48,760
I remember the temperature.
I remember the snow.

1526
01:07:48,934 --> 01:07:50,631
It was cold.

1527
01:07:50,805 --> 01:07:52,416
There was no breeze,
but there was just the gentle

1528
01:07:52,590 --> 01:07:55,593
snow falling and,
you know, and the sun was down.

1529
01:07:55,767 --> 01:07:58,987
So, the stadium was lit up.
It was just, it was amazing.

1530
01:07:59,771 --> 01:08:02,426
And then you start
seeing our families pop up,

1531
01:08:02,687 --> 01:08:03,992
and the kids pop up.

1532
01:08:06,169 --> 01:08:09,433
We all knew
how much that game meant.

1533
01:08:10,303 --> 01:08:11,696
You're looking up.
You see the lights

1534
01:08:11,870 --> 01:08:13,741
of the stadium,
you see the snow falling.

1535
01:08:15,221 --> 01:08:17,397
It's one of those moments
you dream about as a kid.

1536
01:08:17,789 --> 01:08:19,704
And we kind of had
that silent confidence

1537
01:08:19,878 --> 01:08:21,575
in us that we were
like, we were ready.

1538
01:08:21,749 --> 01:08:23,751
We've been here.
It's time to go to work.

1539
01:08:23,925 --> 01:08:25,536
Honestly,
going into that game,

1540
01:08:25,710 --> 01:08:28,104
I wasn't as nervous
as I was the 2018 season,

1541
01:08:28,278 --> 01:08:30,280
as we had already
faced so much adversity

1542
01:08:30,454 --> 01:08:31,803
throughout
the year that, you know,

1543
01:08:31,977 --> 01:08:33,631
like, we don't
have much to lose here.

1544
01:08:33,805 --> 01:08:36,242
Like, yeah, we can go on
and win and that'd be awesome.

1545
01:08:36,416 --> 01:08:38,679
But if we lose, we weren't
even projected to win that game.

1546
01:08:38,853 --> 01:08:40,464
The first five,
ten minutes that you're there,

1547
01:08:40,638 --> 01:08:42,030
you take everything in.

1548
01:08:42,857 --> 01:08:45,208
It was nerve wracking, like,
'cause you're just waiting

1549
01:08:45,382 --> 01:08:48,254
to get out there and just
get on the field and play.

1550
01:08:48,472 --> 01:08:49,995
When you're
walking down the stadium,

1551
01:08:50,169 --> 01:08:52,171
they have posters
on the walls and, of like,

1552
01:08:52,345 --> 01:08:53,868
Tom Brady
when he was playing there.

1553
01:08:54,042 --> 01:08:56,132
And then when you
walk onto the field itself

1554
01:08:56,306 --> 01:08:57,829
and just
taking it all in.

1555
01:08:58,003 --> 01:09:00,136
You could just feel
the energy there, um,

1556
01:09:00,310 --> 01:09:02,312
and then, you know,
then the boys came out

1557
01:09:02,486 --> 01:09:05,271
and it was just, it was real.
It was, it was happening.

1558
01:09:10,233 --> 01:09:11,582
Let's go!

1559
01:09:17,936 --> 01:09:20,286
That right there is--
it's-- it's big.

1560
01:09:20,460 --> 01:09:22,245
There was confidence.

1561
01:09:22,419 --> 01:09:24,116
They just--
they were ready to go.

1562
01:09:24,290 --> 01:09:25,770
They were ready to peak.

1563
01:09:25,944 --> 01:09:28,816
And I feel like
they had something to prove.

1564
01:09:28,990 --> 01:09:32,080
Yes!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

1565
01:09:32,342 --> 01:09:35,083
...with the perfect season
up until this game.

1566
01:09:35,258 --> 01:09:36,563
Not about
to go down without a fight,

1567
01:09:36,737 --> 01:09:38,652
and lots of fans
from West Bridgewater.

1568
01:09:38,826 --> 01:09:40,872
It's not that
cold because the adrenaline

1569
01:09:41,046 --> 01:09:42,656
is pumping through
you at that point, like,

1570
01:09:42,830 --> 01:09:45,659
you're getting amped up,
the music starts to kick in.

1571
01:09:45,833 --> 01:09:48,401
We show up with 28, 27 kids.

1572
01:09:49,228 --> 01:09:52,318
They had 64, I believe, dressed.

1573
01:09:52,797 --> 01:09:55,278
So they came out, they were
looking pumped up, huge.

1574
01:09:55,626 --> 01:09:57,105
And they probably
gave us a look of like,

1575
01:09:57,280 --> 01:09:59,151
"This is easy."
They were 12 and 0,

1576
01:09:59,325 --> 01:10:01,197
the pressure was on us
'cause we're the defending.

1577
01:10:01,371 --> 01:10:03,286
You're dialed in,
you're looking across

1578
01:10:03,460 --> 01:10:05,940
the field,
like, like, these guys

1579
01:10:06,114 --> 01:10:07,725
are really gonna get
what's coming for them.

1580
01:10:07,899 --> 01:10:10,031
We know how to win here,
and we're gonna do it again.

1581
01:10:10,597 --> 01:10:12,425
This was
a good West Bridgewater team.

1582
01:10:12,599 --> 01:10:16,299
Probably the one time
that I did play a little cliché

1583
01:10:16,473 --> 01:10:19,432
underdog, well clearly,
you're hoping the defending

1584
01:10:19,606 --> 01:10:21,869
state champions doesn't
matter to the Boston Bakers

1585
01:10:22,043 --> 01:10:24,829
because, you know,
they're 12 and 0.

1586
01:10:25,003 --> 01:10:26,744
Seven shut out, I don't even
know if we even belong here,

1587
01:10:26,918 --> 01:10:28,876
we shouldn't
have been playing with them.

1588
01:10:29,050 --> 01:10:30,661
I feel like we were
all on the same page

1589
01:10:30,835 --> 01:10:32,140
before they even
knew it was coming.

1590
01:10:34,012 --> 01:10:35,709
able to snag it,

1591
01:10:35,883 --> 01:10:39,670
rolling to his right quarterback
sweep, and he is lit up.

1592
01:10:39,844 --> 01:10:42,238
Second play of the game
when quarterback's running

1593
01:10:42,412 --> 01:10:45,545
around and then Banchs just
fills the hole and hits him.

1594
01:10:48,069 --> 01:10:49,897
You could hear the thud.

1595
01:10:50,071 --> 01:10:52,596
And like, when the kid hit
the ground, like, I don't know

1596
01:10:52,770 --> 01:10:55,251
if he'd lost the wind,
but Banchs hit him hard.

1597
01:10:55,425 --> 01:10:59,037
Yeah. Boom. That's
all I have to say, dude.

1598
01:10:59,211 --> 01:11:00,343
Yeah, that had
mentally set the tone.

1599
01:11:00,517 --> 01:11:02,040
From that point,
it was business.

1600
01:11:02,649 --> 01:11:04,825
Four down linemen
with two outside linebackers.

1601
01:11:04,999 --> 01:11:06,697
They toss it to Mancini.

1602
01:11:06,871 --> 01:11:08,568
He's looking for the outside,
but he is tracked down.

1603
01:11:08,742 --> 01:11:10,266
The teams
traded defensive blows

1604
01:11:10,440 --> 01:11:11,832
in a scoreless first quarter.

1605
01:11:12,311 --> 01:11:14,226
But a storm of thunder
and lightning was gathering

1606
01:11:14,400 --> 01:11:17,229
in St. Bernard's
patented Wing-T offense.

1607
01:11:17,751 --> 01:11:19,449
Led by an experienced
quarterback

1608
01:11:19,623 --> 01:11:21,059
and blockers paving the way

1609
01:11:21,407 --> 01:11:24,105
for a tandem
thousand yard running backs.

1610
01:11:24,280 --> 01:11:26,238
Tyler Thibodeau!

1611
01:11:26,412 --> 01:11:28,284
Tyler Thibodeau!

1612
01:11:28,458 --> 01:11:30,416
We had a lot of ups
and downs throughout the year,

1613
01:11:30,590 --> 01:11:33,158
but when it came
to the biggest game,

1614
01:11:33,332 --> 01:11:34,986
that's when we hit our peak.

1615
01:11:35,160 --> 01:11:36,030
Gave it to
Thibodeau off the right side.

1616
01:11:36,204 --> 01:11:37,510
He has the first down.

1617
01:11:37,684 --> 01:11:39,164
Plenty of space
down the right sideline.

1618
01:11:39,338 --> 01:11:41,384
to a Wing-T offense.

1619
01:11:41,558 --> 01:11:43,081
The bread and butter
for St. Bernard's

1620
01:11:43,255 --> 01:11:44,561
is a jet sweep.

1621
01:11:44,909 --> 01:11:46,563
So, you're
handing that ball off

1622
01:11:46,737 --> 01:11:50,044
to Nico Mancini,
and he's going off the end.

1623
01:11:50,218 --> 01:11:52,090
Midway through
the second the Bernardians

1624
01:11:52,264 --> 01:11:54,658
struck on an eight
yard Nico Mancini run.

1625
01:11:55,049 --> 01:11:56,921
Cuevas.
Gives it to Mancini.

1626
01:11:57,095 --> 01:11:59,489
Misdirection to the left side.
Mancini looking for the corner.

1627
01:11:59,663 --> 01:12:01,317
Looking for the pylon,

1628
01:12:01,491 --> 01:12:04,145
and Mancini heeds in
for the first score of the game.

1629
01:12:06,496 --> 01:12:10,500
West Bridgewater got to
know Nico Mancini pretty well.

1630
01:12:11,414 --> 01:12:12,719
Not the front of him.

1631
01:12:12,937 --> 01:12:14,939
The back of his jersey
quite a bit.

1632
01:12:15,113 --> 01:12:18,203
On St. Bernard's next
drive, Mancini struck again.

1633
01:12:18,377 --> 01:12:19,770
They're
gonna give it to Mancini

1634
01:12:19,944 --> 01:12:21,293
off the right side.
Space off tackle.

1635
01:12:21,467 --> 01:12:24,252
Mancini jumps
over one tackler. Lavoy.

1636
01:12:24,427 --> 01:12:26,124
Broken tackle
there from Mancini.

1637
01:12:26,298 --> 01:12:28,605
Mancini stays inbounds
down the sideline, and--

1638
01:12:30,607 --> 01:12:33,349
And Mancini
will go to the house.

1639
01:12:35,655 --> 01:12:38,745
We were
the smaller and younger team.

1640
01:12:38,919 --> 01:12:40,486
So, we, we had a lot to prove.

1641
01:12:40,660 --> 01:12:42,096
By second touchdown,

1642
01:12:42,270 --> 01:12:43,968
it felt like, "Okay, all right."

1643
01:12:44,403 --> 01:12:46,057
I'm taking pictures.

1644
01:12:46,231 --> 01:12:48,364
I'm looking at this
experience as a fundraiser.

1645
01:12:48,538 --> 01:12:50,017
That's what I'm doing.

1646
01:12:50,191 --> 01:12:51,541
I'm looking
for every opportunity I can

1647
01:12:51,715 --> 01:12:53,020
to capture moments,
capture video,

1648
01:12:53,194 --> 01:12:54,935
and make sure
that our donors are

1649
01:12:55,109 --> 01:12:57,024
gonna see and share
this experience with me.

1650
01:12:57,198 --> 01:12:58,939
West Bridgewater broke the ice

1651
01:12:59,113 --> 01:13:01,289
to make it
a one score game at the half.

1652
01:13:01,594 --> 01:13:03,248
Gives
the football to Gorgantis,

1653
01:13:03,422 --> 01:13:06,033
and he is fighting
forwards looking for the goal

1654
01:13:06,207 --> 01:13:09,385
line, and Gorgantis
carried five Bernardians

1655
01:13:09,559 --> 01:13:12,823
across the goal line
for the first touchdown,

1656
01:13:12,997 --> 01:13:17,262
and will go into
halftime with a six point lead.

1657
01:13:17,567 --> 01:13:18,698
But the Bernardians came

1658
01:13:18,872 --> 01:13:20,265
charging out after the break.

1659
01:13:20,657 --> 01:13:22,223
Keeper there by Cuevas,

1660
01:13:22,398 --> 01:13:24,878
he slips
through inside the ten.

1661
01:13:25,052 --> 01:13:27,620
A shoestring tackle,
but is just short.

1662
01:13:29,230 --> 01:13:30,797
Cuevas
dashed for the goal line

1663
01:13:30,971 --> 01:13:33,234
in a long run,
chased by a touchdown saving

1664
01:13:33,409 --> 01:13:35,585
Wildcat defender
and an intensely

1665
01:13:35,759 --> 01:13:37,195
excited fan
on the far side line.

1666
01:13:37,804 --> 01:13:39,240
You know,
Principal Anderson went

1667
01:13:39,415 --> 01:13:41,547
from a full sprint
to sideways and just out

1668
01:13:41,721 --> 01:13:43,636
of bounds, and then
clicking her heels down.

1669
01:13:43,810 --> 01:13:46,073
It was absolutely hysterical.

1670
01:13:46,247 --> 01:13:47,945
It's just pure energy.

1671
01:13:48,467 --> 01:13:50,730
I am not athletic,
but it was just--

1672
01:13:50,904 --> 01:13:52,689
you get so
swept up in the moment.

1673
01:13:52,863 --> 01:13:54,342
My heart was
right there with them.

1674
01:13:54,517 --> 01:13:56,127
Mancini
then sprinted through

1675
01:13:56,301 --> 01:13:58,259
a huge hole for his third
touchdown of the day.

1676
01:13:58,434 --> 01:14:00,784
Gives to Mancini,
and he hops into the end zone.

1677
01:14:00,958 --> 01:14:04,091
STB! STB! STB!

1678
01:14:04,265 --> 01:14:07,051
It wasn't
countable until, you know,

1679
01:14:07,225 --> 01:14:09,053
till the start
of the fourth quarter.

1680
01:14:09,227 --> 01:14:11,751
And a fourth quarter
touchdown by Tyler Thibodeau

1681
01:14:11,925 --> 01:14:14,754
capped off the score
to seal a 30 to 8 victory.

1682
01:14:15,146 --> 01:14:16,756
They give
the football to Thibodeau,

1683
01:14:16,930 --> 01:14:19,367
and Thibodeau plows
his way into the endzone.

1684
01:14:21,631 --> 01:14:23,589
Oh, my God. Like,
we-- We're going to win.

1685
01:14:23,981 --> 01:14:25,461
The Bernardians earned

1686
01:14:25,635 --> 01:14:26,984
their second
straight state championship

1687
01:14:27,158 --> 01:14:28,942
and the potential
for so much more.

1688
01:14:32,859 --> 01:14:36,994
What a team.
What a season. What a school.

1689
01:14:37,168 --> 01:14:39,126
I mean, just, uh,
the little engine that could

1690
01:14:39,300 --> 01:14:40,519
just keeps on doing it.

1691
01:14:47,874 --> 01:14:49,702
We're two time
state champions, baby!

1692
01:14:49,876 --> 01:14:51,574
Yeah!

1693
01:14:54,098 --> 01:14:56,100
It really was a miracle,
and it shouldn't have happened.

1694
01:14:56,274 --> 01:14:59,320
How do you get to a state
championship game with 26 kids?

1695
01:14:59,495 --> 01:15:01,018
And I've been telling them

1696
01:15:01,192 --> 01:15:03,934
it's not 26 kids,
it's the 26 that we have.

1697
01:15:04,108 --> 01:15:06,458
What a special group
of young men that truly

1698
01:15:06,632 --> 01:15:09,287
believed in each other,
and they did it for each other.

1699
01:15:09,461 --> 01:15:11,419
And I couldn't be
any more proud than I am.

1700
01:15:11,594 --> 01:15:14,031
I remember very
vividly, Coach Bingham was

1701
01:15:14,205 --> 01:15:16,033
one of the last
ones off the field.

1702
01:15:16,207 --> 01:15:19,079
And he just came over to me,
and he said, "We did it, boss."

1703
01:15:19,253 --> 01:15:22,605
And rightly so, we both had
tears in her eyes, and it was,

1704
01:15:22,779 --> 01:15:25,216
you know-- 'cause we--
we knew what that game was.

1705
01:15:25,999 --> 01:15:28,175
It was surreal.
We did it back to back.

1706
01:15:28,654 --> 01:15:30,090
It was unreal.

1707
01:15:30,264 --> 01:15:31,962
When I really
realized what happened

1708
01:15:32,136 --> 01:15:35,008
was when we got back
on the bus after the game.

1709
01:15:35,182 --> 01:15:38,925
In the chair, with the trophy
buckled in next to me.

1710
01:15:39,099 --> 01:15:42,276
We made it happen. Somehow,
someway, we found a way.

1711
01:15:42,450 --> 01:15:43,887
St. Bernard's alumni.

1712
01:15:44,061 --> 01:15:45,802
We wanted you to be
the first to know

1713
01:15:45,976 --> 01:15:48,761
that we just clinched
the Division Eight Super Bowl.

1714
01:15:50,154 --> 01:15:52,896
Hey team, how does it feel
to be champions at Gillette?

1715
01:15:53,070 --> 01:15:54,811
Oh yeah!

1716
01:15:58,118 --> 01:15:59,816
Of course,
my brain is going to--

1717
01:16:00,512 --> 01:16:01,948
What does this
mean for the school?

1718
01:16:02,122 --> 01:16:04,560
You know, and you
think about, you know,

1719
01:16:04,734 --> 01:16:08,520
the papers and the press
and all of the families back

1720
01:16:08,694 --> 01:16:10,522
home that are
gonna hear about this.

1721
01:16:11,436 --> 01:16:13,438
Hey baby, back to battle!

1722
01:16:17,573 --> 01:16:21,011
Given the pressure
of maintaining enrollment,

1723
01:16:21,185 --> 01:16:25,668
and, you know, in fundraising,
my brain is just reeling

1724
01:16:25,842 --> 01:16:29,541
with all the opportunities
that could come from this.

1725
01:16:29,715 --> 01:16:33,284
We shared on our Facebook page,
the post of the Super Bowl team.

1726
01:16:33,458 --> 01:16:36,679
I mean, it was hundreds
of likes. Thousands of views.

1727
01:16:36,853 --> 01:16:38,202
The only time
we'd gotten that much

1728
01:16:38,376 --> 01:16:39,812
attention was
when the announcement

1729
01:16:39,986 --> 01:16:41,553
that the school
could close had come out.

1730
01:16:41,727 --> 01:16:43,599
So, this was the first
time we had something

1731
01:16:43,773 --> 01:16:46,906
so overwhelmingly
positive stretch so far.

1732
01:16:47,080 --> 01:16:49,779
And it immediately
showed up in fundraising.

1733
01:16:49,953 --> 01:16:51,781
Things like that, our
opportunities in fundraising.

1734
01:16:51,955 --> 01:16:55,001
And so, we saw
this massive opportunity

1735
01:16:55,175 --> 01:16:59,266
to validate that, yeah,
we're small, but we're mighty.

1736
01:16:59,440 --> 01:17:01,268
With the resounding
thrill of victory

1737
01:17:01,442 --> 01:17:04,750
still in the air and the promise
of publicity on the horizon.

1738
01:17:05,316 --> 01:17:07,274
The community
awoke the next day aware

1739
01:17:07,448 --> 01:17:08,928
that its work
was not quite done.

1740
01:17:09,494 --> 01:17:11,583
I don't know
if I've said this to anyone,

1741
01:17:11,757 --> 01:17:14,847
but I got up
by 4:30 that next morning,

1742
01:17:15,021 --> 01:17:17,981
on like 90 minutes
of sleep and I just watched it.

1743
01:17:18,155 --> 01:17:19,852
Not as a coach.

1744
01:17:20,026 --> 01:17:22,202
I just turned it on
and just let it play through.

1745
01:17:22,376 --> 01:17:24,291
And just take
the whole thing in.

1746
01:17:24,552 --> 01:17:27,947
I enjoyed not thinking.
I enjoyed not game planning.

1747
01:17:28,121 --> 01:17:30,254
I enjoyed not
having to do anything.

1748
01:17:30,428 --> 01:17:32,473
I just enjoyed
watching the kids.

1749
01:17:32,648 --> 01:17:34,084
We got up at the crack of dawn.

1750
01:17:34,258 --> 01:17:36,042
I remember driving
around Massachusetts,

1751
01:17:36,216 --> 01:17:37,609
stopping at gas stations

1752
01:17:37,783 --> 01:17:40,177
to scoop up
all the newspapers.

1753
01:17:40,699 --> 01:17:42,179
And they were already gone.

1754
01:17:42,353 --> 01:17:43,789
I don't know
who else-- who beat me to it.

1755
01:17:43,963 --> 01:17:45,704
My parents live
in southern Massachusetts.

1756
01:17:45,878 --> 01:17:48,576
I drove to their house
and I-- on the way was just

1757
01:17:48,751 --> 01:17:51,841
stopping on Route 20,
just picking up every newspaper

1758
01:17:52,015 --> 01:17:53,625
I could and trying
to get the Sentinel.

1759
01:17:53,799 --> 01:17:55,235
You know, and the Telegram.

1760
01:17:55,409 --> 01:17:56,584
And they're
all sold out, everywhere.

1761
01:17:56,759 --> 01:17:58,021
I found a copy
of the Telegram,

1762
01:17:58,195 --> 01:17:59,892
so we got that one,
which was great.

1763
01:18:00,066 --> 01:18:01,459
You know, so I'm going
closer to my parents' house

1764
01:18:01,633 --> 01:18:03,243
and then I--
and then I see the Herald.

1765
01:18:03,417 --> 01:18:05,028
And I see that we're
on the front page of the Herald.

1766
01:18:06,551 --> 01:18:08,988
Front page on one of the biggest
newspapers, The Boston Herald.

1767
01:18:09,293 --> 01:18:13,558
It was amazing. And we had
the high five with Channel five.

1768
01:18:13,732 --> 01:18:16,343
There are only 106 students

1769
01:18:16,517 --> 01:18:17,910
in grades nine through 12.

1770
01:18:18,084 --> 01:18:19,259
How do they do it?

1771
01:18:19,433 --> 01:18:20,696
It was all falling into place.

1772
01:18:20,870 --> 01:18:22,741
Everything that
we had been doing

1773
01:18:22,915 --> 01:18:24,525
was starting to make sense.

1774
01:18:24,700 --> 01:18:27,093
Where for the longest
time it honestly hadn'’t.

1775
01:18:27,354 --> 01:18:30,053
It hadn't made sense
throughout the entire fall.

1776
01:18:30,227 --> 01:18:31,968
It was like, what are we doing?
Where are we going?

1777
01:18:32,142 --> 01:18:34,753
And suddenly it was like,
okay, I know where we're going.

1778
01:18:34,927 --> 01:18:36,842
It was this
sort of relief,

1779
01:18:37,234 --> 01:18:39,410
but also excitement about,

1780
01:18:39,584 --> 01:18:40,977
okay,
so what does this mean now?

1781
01:18:41,151 --> 01:18:42,587
You know,
where does this take us now?

1782
01:18:45,982 --> 01:18:47,592
If you see things
underlined,

1783
01:18:47,766 --> 01:18:49,681
that means I'm seeing
something that I liked.

1784
01:18:49,855 --> 01:18:53,772
That I found that was uh,
beneficial to your argument.

1785
01:18:53,946 --> 01:18:55,382
It was a Friday afternoon.

1786
01:18:55,556 --> 01:18:58,995
I was, uh, I was
finishing up the work day.

1787
01:18:59,299 --> 01:19:00,997
You know,
we were still on a high

1788
01:19:01,171 --> 01:19:02,563
from everything that
had happened the week before.

1789
01:19:03,042 --> 01:19:07,307
And in pops an email
from superintendent Perda.

1790
01:19:07,481 --> 01:19:15,011
I read it slowly
and I became silent.

1791
01:19:16,273 --> 01:19:19,015
It was yet
again that the work

1792
01:19:19,189 --> 01:19:22,975
we had done was exemplary
and we had accomplished a lot.

1793
01:19:23,454 --> 01:19:26,718
But yet again,
it was not enough to prove

1794
01:19:27,153 --> 01:19:31,505
to the committee
and-- and the bishop

1795
01:19:31,854 --> 01:19:37,816
and the superintendent that
we had enough to move forward.

1796
01:19:37,990 --> 01:19:44,170
We were bridging on nearly
$1,000,000 and it wasn't enough.

1797
01:19:45,781 --> 01:19:49,262
For the first time I was like,
This actually might not happen.

1798
01:19:49,436 --> 01:19:52,483
In this thing I was so convinced
was the right thing to do.

1799
01:19:53,484 --> 01:19:58,184
I was so convinced that saving
the school was about the kids,

1800
01:19:58,358 --> 01:20:00,665
the teachers,
the alumni, the city.

1801
01:20:01,666 --> 01:20:07,106
I was so convinced,
and the answer was no, again.

1802
01:20:09,369 --> 01:20:11,284
And I--I was just silent.

1803
01:20:13,069 --> 01:20:14,853
So, I know a lot
of people got frustrated

1804
01:20:15,027 --> 01:20:17,595
when he got the note
saying that it wasn't verified.

1805
01:20:17,769 --> 01:20:20,293
That didn't surprise me
because pledges in the financial

1806
01:20:20,467 --> 01:20:22,513
world are very
different than cash in hand.

1807
01:20:22,861 --> 01:20:24,994
Now, knowing the people
that were contributing,

1808
01:20:25,168 --> 01:20:28,824
I had no question, the rest
of the trustees had no question.

1809
01:20:29,302 --> 01:20:32,697
But I completely
understood where the diocese

1810
01:20:32,871 --> 01:20:35,352
was coming from because
it wasn't money in the bank.

1811
01:20:35,613 --> 01:20:38,659
There were some pledges involved
and you have to have good faith.

1812
01:20:38,834 --> 01:20:42,098
The diocese did not
always exercise the best faith.

1813
01:20:42,272 --> 01:20:49,496
On that day, I felt complete
and utter disrespect, distrust,

1814
01:20:49,670 --> 01:20:56,068
and I felt like maybe
this wasn'’t meant to be.

1815
01:21:04,033 --> 01:21:08,080
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.

1816
01:21:08,385 --> 01:21:10,474
When the goalposts
moved his time, however,

1817
01:21:10,648 --> 01:21:13,869
there was an irresistible
force now driving the campaign.

1818
01:21:14,565 --> 01:21:16,262
From its carpool
karaoke on the bus--

1819
01:21:16,436 --> 01:21:20,223
♪ Country roads take me home ♪

1820
01:21:20,397 --> 01:21:22,965
From its pre-season
Hijinx to the final gun

1821
01:21:23,139 --> 01:21:24,488
at Gillette and beyond.

1822
01:21:24,705 --> 01:21:26,751
The infectious
personality of this team

1823
01:21:26,925 --> 01:21:28,971
working together
on and off the field

1824
01:21:29,319 --> 01:21:32,191
that turned St. Bernards
into a viral sensation.

1825
01:21:36,239 --> 01:21:37,849
TikTok was like really big.

1826
01:21:38,415 --> 01:21:39,851
We'’re just
nice and loose

1827
01:21:40,025 --> 01:21:41,853
and just wanted
to like have fun with it.

1828
01:21:42,027 --> 01:21:44,682
And we just like made a TikTok
before the-- the Gillette game.

1829
01:21:44,856 --> 01:21:46,640
And it like,
happened to go viral.

1830
01:21:46,814 --> 01:21:49,730
Every time the beat dropped,
they pushed their stomachs out.

1831
01:21:49,905 --> 01:21:52,864
And, yeah. Somehow
it blew up. I don't know how.

1832
01:21:53,038 --> 01:21:55,127
We were at like
30,000 or something likes.

1833
01:21:55,301 --> 01:21:56,563
We were all making
predictions and Bansh

1834
01:21:56,737 --> 01:21:58,435
comes out and says 1,000,000.

1835
01:21:58,609 --> 01:22:00,393
A million likes and we'’re
all like, "No. No way."

1836
01:22:00,567 --> 01:22:03,222
We got my phone and everyone was
quiet and I screamed a million.

1837
01:22:03,396 --> 01:22:05,007
It was the craziest thing.

1838
01:22:05,181 --> 01:22:07,270
We were almost more
excited about the million

1839
01:22:07,444 --> 01:22:10,316
views on the TikTok
than we were about winning.

1840
01:22:10,490 --> 01:22:12,928
And then Ben Goolsby
came out of the bathroom

1841
01:22:13,102 --> 01:22:15,408
with the trophy
yelling "Back to back."

1842
01:22:15,582 --> 01:22:17,280
Yeah baby!
Back to back.

1843
01:22:17,454 --> 01:22:19,499
And then, obviously we posted
a TikTok to get on that.

1844
01:22:19,673 --> 01:22:21,675
At that point, we're like,
"Oh, another million views."

1845
01:22:22,589 --> 01:22:25,244
We all of a sudden
were visible to alums,

1846
01:22:25,418 --> 01:22:27,072
who had really lost touch.

1847
01:22:27,246 --> 01:22:28,682
People were
like, would look up

1848
01:22:28,856 --> 01:22:30,858
our school and like,
want to help us.

1849
01:22:31,033 --> 01:22:33,426
I think the impact,
the publicity was everything.

1850
01:22:33,600 --> 01:22:35,080
It was a miracle.

1851
01:22:35,254 --> 01:22:36,647
I mean, just
all the stuff that was going on

1852
01:22:36,821 --> 01:22:38,344
alongside
with the football team winning.

1853
01:22:38,518 --> 01:22:40,651
The buzz was positive
and-- and the money

1854
01:22:40,825 --> 01:22:42,000
was starting to come in.

1855
01:22:42,174 --> 01:22:44,394
Fundraising got energized.

1856
01:22:44,568 --> 01:22:48,311
We got energized and we saw
more applications than--

1857
01:22:48,485 --> 01:22:51,792
than we had in years past,
which was, again, a great sign.

1858
01:22:51,967 --> 01:22:53,446
Okay, we're trending up.

1859
01:22:53,620 --> 01:22:55,753
We opened a bank
account for the entry.

1860
01:22:55,927 --> 01:22:57,711
And to me that
was pivotal, right?

1861
01:22:57,885 --> 01:23:00,584
And I wanted to make
sure that that was publicized.

1862
01:23:01,150 --> 01:23:02,455
So, we blasted it.

1863
01:23:02,629 --> 01:23:04,022
So, for us
as a really symbolic

1864
01:23:04,196 --> 01:23:05,981
of the start
of our future.

1865
01:23:06,155 --> 01:23:08,940
Um, the fact that
we have raised so much money,

1866
01:23:09,114 --> 01:23:12,248
that we now have this deposited
into a bank that's for the use

1867
01:23:12,422 --> 01:23:14,206
of this,
it's just really exciting.

1868
01:23:14,380 --> 01:23:16,687
And so, December
through January was

1869
01:23:17,253 --> 01:23:19,124
right back to the same--
same thing

1870
01:23:19,298 --> 01:23:21,257
we've been doing
for four or five months.

1871
01:23:21,431 --> 01:23:24,695
So, there'’s always this silent
stress, I guess you could say.

1872
01:23:24,869 --> 01:23:26,697
If we don't talk
about it, it'll go away.

1873
01:23:26,871 --> 01:23:28,133
Everything will be okay.

1874
01:23:28,525 --> 01:23:31,180
We knew that closing
was still a possibility,

1875
01:23:31,354 --> 01:23:34,618
but the school
and the parents and the team--

1876
01:23:34,792 --> 01:23:38,535
the transition team, we're
still trying to climb that hill.

1877
01:23:38,709 --> 01:23:40,450
Buoyed
by the Super Bowl win

1878
01:23:40,624 --> 01:23:43,583
and social media stardom,
the All-In campaign

1879
01:23:43,757 --> 01:23:45,150
took the ball over
the Christmas holiday.

1880
01:23:45,585 --> 01:23:47,500
By the time school
was back in full swing

1881
01:23:47,674 --> 01:23:49,981
after winter recess,
the fundraising effort

1882
01:23:50,155 --> 01:23:53,506
not only met the million-dollar
target but passed it.

1883
01:23:54,203 --> 01:23:56,031
All that was
left was the final call.

1884
01:24:02,080 --> 01:24:04,865
It had gotten to the point
where it had to be yes or no.

1885
01:24:05,040 --> 01:24:06,519
Our students
needed to know that.

1886
01:24:06,998 --> 01:24:09,218
Our alumni needed to know that.
Our parents needed to know that.

1887
01:24:09,392 --> 01:24:10,915
And honestly, I needed to know.

1888
01:24:11,437 --> 01:24:13,483
Because I didn't
have much left in the tank.

1889
01:24:13,657 --> 01:24:16,051
So, we set up a meeting
with Superintendent Perda,

1890
01:24:16,225 --> 01:24:18,183
to meet with the Bishop,
the school committee.

1891
01:24:18,357 --> 01:24:20,229
Really, everyone
that makes that decision.

1892
01:24:20,403 --> 01:24:25,103
And this was our chance
to provide yet again the latest

1893
01:24:25,277 --> 01:24:26,974
information as
to what we had accomplished.

1894
01:24:27,236 --> 01:24:29,412
And the way I looked at it,
as if this was the last chance.

1895
01:24:29,586 --> 01:24:30,935
Representing St. Bernard's

1896
01:24:31,109 --> 01:24:32,502
at the meeting
would be lead fundraiser

1897
01:24:32,676 --> 01:24:34,808
Nick Pelletier,
principal Linda Anderson,

1898
01:24:34,982 --> 01:24:37,637
of course and for the first
time, a new face.

1899
01:24:37,811 --> 01:24:40,597
Recently hired director
of admissions Debbie Maloney.

1900
01:24:40,771 --> 01:24:43,382
The trends in
fundraising and in enrollment

1901
01:24:43,556 --> 01:24:44,949
were all going
in the right direction.

1902
01:24:45,819 --> 01:24:48,257
But we all realized, right?

1903
01:24:48,431 --> 01:24:54,828
That until we had a real school
to sell, that we were stuck.

1904
01:24:55,002 --> 01:24:56,569
My guts usually
pretty solid

1905
01:24:56,743 --> 01:24:58,789
and my gut usually
guides me pretty well.

1906
01:24:59,181 --> 01:25:01,313
Going into that meeting,
my gut was all screwed up.

1907
01:25:01,792 --> 01:25:04,403
It was more
than just the numbers.

1908
01:25:04,708 --> 01:25:08,668
Uh, there had to be an emotional
attachment to this decision.

1909
01:25:08,973 --> 01:25:12,324
The story was about the people.
The story was about students.

1910
01:25:12,890 --> 01:25:16,676
And so, in some ways,
bringing Debbie was probably

1911
01:25:16,850 --> 01:25:18,678
one of the best
decisions we made.

1912
01:25:18,852 --> 01:25:20,289
She had worked with so many
of these families that were

1913
01:25:20,463 --> 01:25:21,899
looking to enroll
in St. Bernards.

1914
01:25:22,726 --> 01:25:26,077
It was just as I listened
to Nick and I thought

1915
01:25:26,251 --> 01:25:29,559
of how far we had come
and yet how far we had to go.

1916
01:25:29,733 --> 01:25:32,910
And in order to do
that, uh, the gentleman

1917
01:25:33,084 --> 01:25:36,087
in the room had
to catch our vision, right?

1918
01:25:36,261 --> 01:25:37,958
And I was so excited, right?

1919
01:25:38,133 --> 01:25:41,788
To affirm what Nick
had just completed saying.

1920
01:25:41,962 --> 01:25:43,877
And I looked
around the room, right?

1921
01:25:44,051 --> 01:25:45,357
And I looked at the Bishop

1922
01:25:45,531 --> 01:25:48,926
and I said,
"Please, we're ready."

1923
01:25:49,100 --> 01:25:52,669
She actually gave this beautiful
speech and just said, like,

1924
01:25:53,713 --> 01:25:55,367
"We need you
to give us our wings.

1925
01:25:55,541 --> 01:25:56,890
Like we're ready to fly,

1926
01:25:57,064 --> 01:25:58,892
but we need you
to give us our wings."

1927
01:25:59,066 --> 01:26:00,416
She looked
right at the Bishop and--

1928
01:26:00,590 --> 01:26:02,418
and I kind
of turned and I was like,

1929
01:26:02,592 --> 01:26:05,203
"Oh, I hope that was--
I hope that was good."

1930
01:26:05,377 --> 01:26:08,728
It was the exact thing that
needed to be said. It was time.

1931
01:26:09,599 --> 01:26:12,384
And then I kind of just
looked over at the Bishop and...

1932
01:26:13,342 --> 01:26:14,995
he agreed.

1933
01:26:15,300 --> 01:26:17,302
I remember Nick calling me
from the car as soon as him

1934
01:26:17,476 --> 01:26:19,696
and Linda got in the car
and-- and they said,

1935
01:26:20,349 --> 01:26:22,525
"We did it. We got it.
We're there. "

1936
01:26:23,090 --> 01:26:24,701
All right. It was just
like this big

1937
01:26:24,875 --> 01:26:26,268
yes.

1938
01:26:28,183 --> 01:26:30,968
On January
30th, almost exactly one year

1939
01:26:31,142 --> 01:26:32,535
to the day
that she learned

1940
01:26:32,709 --> 01:26:34,537
of her promotion,
Principal Linda Anderson

1941
01:26:34,711 --> 01:26:37,409
called the student body
to another fateful assembly.

1942
01:26:38,932 --> 01:26:43,241
So, we called you
here for an assembly because

1943
01:26:43,415 --> 01:26:45,417
we have some important
news to share with you.

1944
01:26:45,591 --> 01:26:47,332
She kind of let
into it a little slow.

1945
01:26:47,506 --> 01:26:50,117
Very first assembly that
I ever called as your principal.

1946
01:26:50,509 --> 01:26:52,163
And we talked about
the future of our school.

1947
01:26:52,337 --> 01:26:53,556
-You guys remember that?
-Yeah.

1948
01:26:53,730 --> 01:26:55,427
Yeah.

1949
01:26:55,601 --> 01:26:57,603
"And I let you know that
your school might be closing."

1950
01:26:57,777 --> 01:27:01,390
I started by saying, you know,
we-- we got through this

1951
01:27:01,564 --> 01:27:04,306
because you--
you hung in there.

1952
01:27:04,480 --> 01:27:07,178
I asked you to hang
in there and to be brave.

1953
01:27:07,352 --> 01:27:08,658
And you did.

1954
01:27:08,832 --> 01:27:10,790
Now I have something
to tell you.

1955
01:27:10,964 --> 01:27:12,879
And she said, "I'm really
excited to let you know

1956
01:27:13,053 --> 01:27:16,187
that I just got back
from the diocese in Wister."

1957
01:27:16,361 --> 01:27:18,494
This morning, we received that.

1958
01:27:19,408 --> 01:27:22,193
So, St. Bernards
will open next fall

1959
01:27:22,367 --> 01:27:25,762
as an independent
private Catholic school

1960
01:27:26,415 --> 01:27:29,244
with $1 million
plus raised in funds.

1961
01:27:38,992 --> 01:27:40,733
It was like they exhaled.

1962
01:27:41,038 --> 01:27:43,562
And it was this-- just such
a beautiful moment, you know?

1963
01:27:43,736 --> 01:27:45,347
You know,
they say that you--

1964
01:27:45,521 --> 01:27:47,523
your life flashes before
your eyes before you die.

1965
01:27:47,697 --> 01:27:49,525
I feel like that'’s going to be
one of the moments that I see.

1966
01:27:49,699 --> 01:27:51,178
You know,
was that-- was that day.

1967
01:27:51,657 --> 01:27:53,920
That was honestly probably
one of the best days of my life.

1968
01:27:54,094 --> 01:27:55,879
Because I love being
at this school and I love

1969
01:27:56,053 --> 01:27:58,534
playing football for this
school and I love my teammates.

1970
01:27:58,708 --> 01:28:01,145
And being able
to have that comfort

1971
01:28:01,319 --> 01:28:02,668
that I was going
to have one more year.

1972
01:28:02,842 --> 01:28:04,366
One more ride
with them was awesome.

1973
01:28:04,540 --> 01:28:06,019
Many of these kids had
been a key part of this.

1974
01:28:06,193 --> 01:28:09,022
You had kids who had,
you know, fought to, um,

1975
01:28:09,196 --> 01:28:11,373
in open houses
to-- to convince families

1976
01:28:11,547 --> 01:28:13,592
that this was the place to be.

1977
01:28:13,766 --> 01:28:17,161
There were so many individuals
who had put their time in.

1978
01:28:17,335 --> 01:28:20,077
Such a relieving feeling, right?

1979
01:28:20,251 --> 01:28:22,035
I mean, just
these kids are so happy.

1980
01:28:22,209 --> 01:28:24,124
They're going to be
able to stay here, right?

1981
01:28:24,299 --> 01:28:25,735
A school they love, right?

1982
01:28:25,909 --> 01:28:27,432
They don't have
to bear the burden of this.

1983
01:28:27,606 --> 01:28:31,306
We went from absolutely
zero hope on May 29th

1984
01:28:31,871 --> 01:28:36,702
to here we are a year later
with 37% growth and a million--

1985
01:28:36,876 --> 01:28:38,574
I think we'’re
at a million 5 right now.

1986
01:28:38,748 --> 01:28:40,140
It's changing every day.

1987
01:28:40,315 --> 01:28:41,751
It wasn't just one thing.

1988
01:28:41,925 --> 01:28:43,883
It wasn't one move.
It wasn't one donation.

1989
01:28:44,057 --> 01:28:45,407
It wasn't one hero.

1990
01:28:45,581 --> 01:28:46,799
You know, honestly,
in some ways,

1991
01:28:46,973 --> 01:28:47,887
it's kind
of like a football team.

1992
01:28:48,061 --> 01:28:49,367
There is no one player.

1993
01:28:49,585 --> 01:28:52,022
The biggest lesson in...

1994
01:28:52,631 --> 01:28:55,460
this whole endeavor
is that you don't turn

1995
01:28:55,634 --> 01:28:57,941
your back when--
when times are bad.

1996
01:28:58,115 --> 01:28:59,769
You find a way to try.

1997
01:29:00,552 --> 01:29:02,598
You know, the story
in St. Bernard'’s is really

1998
01:29:02,772 --> 01:29:05,601
just a microcosm
of really a bigger story.

1999
01:29:06,341 --> 01:29:10,475
I think we live in a time,
um, where people need

2000
01:29:10,649 --> 01:29:12,521
to feel hopeful
and to feel grounded.

2001
01:29:12,999 --> 01:29:16,960
In our little community you now,
we offer that. It's catching.

2002
01:29:17,134 --> 01:29:21,573
To come back from where we were
and to make it to where we did.

2003
01:29:21,747 --> 01:29:24,924
There's no better
dream story that you can tell.

2004
01:29:25,098 --> 01:29:27,013
I can tell that
story to my kids now.

2005
01:29:27,405 --> 01:29:30,669
It's improbable
that a school with 100 kids

2006
01:29:30,843 --> 01:29:33,498
in the building
would be able to survive.

2007
01:29:34,107 --> 01:29:37,676
It's improbable
that a 33-year-old woman

2008
01:29:37,850 --> 01:29:40,592
that had been teaching
for six or seven years

2009
01:29:40,766 --> 01:29:44,248
would come
in and lead like no other.

2010
01:29:44,422 --> 01:29:47,947
The whole story's improbable.
We shouldn't be here.

2011
01:29:48,252 --> 01:29:50,820
We should have failed
like a lot of the other

2012
01:29:50,994 --> 01:29:53,562
Catholic schools
in Fitchburg have done.

2013
01:29:53,736 --> 01:29:55,999
We did things
that we never should have done.

2014
01:29:56,216 --> 01:29:58,741
And we did that because
of the kids in that room.

2015
01:29:58,915 --> 01:30:00,873
And they came together.

2016
01:30:01,047 --> 01:30:02,745
They loved each other. They
were tough. They didn'’t quit.

2017
01:30:02,919 --> 01:30:04,877
I think they
grew more as people

2018
01:30:05,051 --> 01:30:06,792
than any other team
that I've ever had.

2019
01:30:07,097 --> 01:30:10,274
Like, we weren't good.
But good God did they work.

2020
01:30:10,448 --> 01:30:12,624
And they had fun
and they did it for each other.

2021
01:30:12,798 --> 01:30:14,452
And they were tough.
They didn't quit.

2022
01:30:14,844 --> 01:30:17,586
They did everything that you
would want as a football coach.

2023
01:30:17,760 --> 01:30:19,588
I don't know
if you can be beaming

2024
01:30:19,762 --> 01:30:22,808
with any more pride than having
those types of kids like that.

2025
01:30:22,982 --> 01:30:24,767
I mean that
St. Bernard's football.

2026
01:30:24,941 --> 01:30:27,334
I'll make a biblical reference
and calling it Lazarus.

2027
01:30:28,074 --> 01:30:29,336
Rising from the dead.

2028
01:30:29,511 --> 01:30:30,773
It's a miracle.

2029
01:30:32,470 --> 01:30:34,646
The Sentinel
published our version of it,

2030
01:30:34,820 --> 01:30:36,387
which was really cool.

2031
01:30:36,561 --> 01:30:38,084
You know, and I love
the picture they took.

2032
01:30:38,258 --> 01:30:39,564
They'd asked
me to stand at the door

2033
01:30:40,652 --> 01:30:41,827
of the school and open it.

2034
01:30:42,001 --> 01:30:43,829
I just was beaming.

2035
01:30:44,003 --> 01:30:46,571
I was just so proud and so
happy to just open that door.

2036
01:30:47,267 --> 01:30:50,445
It's symbolic because now
you can open your door again.

2037
01:30:50,619 --> 01:30:52,185
You know, you're
welcoming everybody back in.

2038
01:31:11,422 --> 01:31:15,252
Like to, uh,
start by welcoming everyone

2039
01:31:15,426 --> 01:31:19,430
down to our beloved
Bernardian bowl.

2040
01:31:19,996 --> 01:31:25,741
Thank you for coming out
to celebrate our two-time,

2041
01:31:26,568 --> 01:31:32,269
back to back Massachusetts
state football champions.

2042
01:31:32,443 --> 01:31:34,837
you are
the first ones to see it, buddy.

2043
01:31:36,012 --> 01:31:38,449
I want to be very clear,
until Mr. Anderson buys

2044
01:31:38,623 --> 01:31:42,061
me a diamond this size--
This will be my wedding ring.

2045
01:31:42,888 --> 01:31:44,020
Very good.

2046
01:31:53,899 --> 01:31:57,773
No one expected
this team to win a Super Bowl.

2047
01:31:58,469 --> 01:32:00,732
You were climbing a mountain

2048
01:32:00,906 --> 01:32:04,519
for all of us
and we were watching.

2049
01:32:05,432 --> 01:32:08,131
And when
you got to the top,

2050
01:32:09,175 --> 01:32:11,438
we were inspired to do the same.

2051
01:32:26,149 --> 01:32:29,456
There would be no St. Bernard's
without Tom Bingham.

2052
01:32:29,631 --> 01:32:32,459
You are a testament
to who we are

2053
01:32:32,634 --> 01:32:34,200
and to the Bernardian spirit.

2054
01:32:35,332 --> 01:32:36,812
Congratulations, Coach Bingham.

2055
01:32:40,250 --> 01:32:41,556
Thank you.

2056
01:32:41,860 --> 01:32:43,470
We did.
We got through it.

2057
01:32:43,645 --> 01:32:44,863
-We do.
-We did.

2058
01:32:47,387 --> 01:32:49,564
Thank you.
Thank you very much.

2059
01:33:05,144 --> 01:33:07,799
-Go Johnny!
-Yes, Johnny.

2060
01:33:46,621 --> 01:33:49,928
♪ Clouds are in my brain
And I just go in circles ♪

2061
01:33:50,102 --> 01:33:52,017
♪ Trying
to think straight ♪

2062
01:33:55,151 --> 01:33:56,892
♪ Trying to get ahead ♪

2063
01:33:57,066 --> 01:34:00,765
♪ I rush around
and then I always show up late ♪

2064
01:34:03,072 --> 01:34:06,292
One. Two. Three.

2065
01:34:11,820 --> 01:34:12,995
Yeah, boys.

2066
01:34:13,169 --> 01:34:14,431
Woohoo.

2067
01:34:15,388 --> 01:34:16,999
All in.

2068
01:34:24,223 --> 01:34:28,488
♪ It's just beginning
if we're almost done ♪

2069
01:34:28,663 --> 01:34:34,233
♪ Oh, everyone that flies
starts on the ground ♪

2070
01:34:36,975 --> 01:34:43,068
♪ Oh, you got to get lost
if you want to be found ♪

2071
01:34:45,244 --> 01:34:47,420
♪ If you want to be found ♪

2072
01:34:50,162 --> 01:34:51,860
♪ I see you
in the back ♪

2073
01:34:52,034 --> 01:34:56,038
♪ Visible in the middle
of this crowd ♪

2074
01:34:58,649 --> 01:35:00,564
♪ I see you
getting up ♪

2075
01:35:00,738 --> 01:35:04,611
♪ When no one helps
after getting knocked down ♪

2076
01:35:07,049 --> 01:35:10,008
♪ I see you putting one foot
in front of the other ♪

2077
01:35:10,182 --> 01:35:13,055
♪ when you don't know
where to go ♪

2078
01:35:15,579 --> 01:35:17,494
♪ I see you
hiding tears behind ♪

2079
01:35:17,668 --> 01:35:21,585
♪ that face of strength
you have found ♪