After forty years and literally hundreds of soccor victories as head coach of Prep soccer, Jim Murray '59 (my classmate) this year coached a team to the Catholic League Soccer Championship for the first time. Senior Pat Kardish scored the two goals in a 2-1 victory over Archbishop Wood. Pat told the press that he and his classmates made a promise as freshmen three years ago to one day win the title for Coach Murray.

Just yesterday a slight-built boy is walking along the corridor nearly dragging his school bag with one arm. His other arm is in a cotton sling. I assume his collar bone is damaged.

"How did you do that?" I inquired.

Rugby

Will you go back to playing rugby as soon as you heal?

My mother has other ideas!

Well, you need to stay on good terms with your mother.

Mmm.

I am sure that you have many other talents.

I like to think so!

Every now and then one takes a picture that needs no caption and can stand entirely on its own!

The smiling guy in the middle is Tom Burgoyne, the Phillie Phanatic, out of costume. His mother is with him. He spoke at the Mother-Son Communion Breakfast. He had a dozen pratfall stories to tell including the one about his first interview.

When the Phillies decided that they wanted a mascot they placed an ad for a mascot in the Inquirer. Whether or not Tom realized that the employer was the Phillies, he sent his resume to the post office box listed. On his resume, of course, was the fact that he had been the Hawk at the Prep.

So the Phillies called him to an interview. Tom talked about his growing confidence during the interview when he was asked to dance and to make funny noises. "Usually," he said, "at interviews the employer is trying to eliminate the idiots. But in this case an idiot was what they wanted and I knew I had a chance."

Gabriel (Gabe) Infante, Prep football coach, awards the victory pigskin to quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg after the Prep team beats public school powerhouse George Washington in its season opener, 36-25.

I am sorry to be absent from the blog for the balance of the summer. The pictures are of Bar Harbor taken from Cadillac Mountain and of some of our class of 2014 being welcomed by the class of 2011. It was a great summer for me, out of the city for a number of reasons:

• June trip to Jesuit Secondary Education Association Colloquium at Santa Clara University. I was with a dozen faculty and staff members from SJP and we joined over 400 participants from over 40 Jesuit high schools in North America



• July trip to Maine with three sisters and brother in law. We spent time on a beach, fished for mackerel that obliged us as usual by jumping on to our hooks, made a collection of beach glass, visited Acadia National Park, watched movies, steamed lobsters and hosted our Maine friends, Peter and Kathy Watko and their sons, Brian and Pete.



• August trip to Germantown Philadelphia with seven of our seniors on a service trip to the Vincentian ministries in that part of the city. Terrific young men that confirm the mission of the Prep.



• August trips to Avalon and Margate for Masses with Prep grads and friends.



• August trip to Wernersville for retreat



• August trip to see the Phils lose to Houston during their nervous August slump



• Back to school now with 987 boys, 275 freshmen of whom 63 are from Philly and Camden.

Some summer photos now available on picasaweb!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Helencohalan&target=ALBUM&id=5513486146932999953&authkey=Gv1sRqCPeegbUlrebcQ&feat=email

This is Kevin Smith-Fagan and his son Eamon. Both were daily present at Gesu School when Eamon was in kindergarten and Kevin was the Director of Development. They now live in Sacramento, CA but came east to visit Kevin's dad, Dennis, in Wilmington. Eamon is a junior at the Christian Brothers School in Sacramento and plays baseball, especially third base and sometimes pitches for the school team. His dad pitches as Vice President for Development at KVIE, the PBS station in Sacramento. I neglected to picture Nancy, and younger brothers Brendan and Aidan, their other family members.