By Katie Vasquez
The crack of a bat and cheers from the sidelines could be heard as the annual “Collars vs Scholars” baseball game kicked off in Coney Island, home of the New York Mets’ AAA baseball team the Brooklyn Cyclones, on Wednesday, June 25.
Every year, priests and principals take the field at Maimonides Park for Catholic Schools Night, an event run by the Catholic Telemedia Network(CTN). The organization is part of DeSales Media Group, the parent company of NET-TV, to mark the end of the school year and the start of summer. in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“We know last year was a blowout. But I’ve heard that the collars have been practicing a lot, and we are expecting a very close game this year,” Chris Scharbach, the principal of St. Francis DeSales Catholic Academy in Queens, told Currents News leading up to the game.
“A closer game, but hopefully we still pull out a win. We’re still going to win,” hoped Associate Superintendent of Diocese of Brooklyn Schools, John O’Brien.
“It’s the end of the year to celebrate a great year, and it’s really one of the true events where all different people from the diocese get to meet and go together and celebrate the end of the year,” Laura Hickey of CTN added.
The score for this year’s game was stacked with the scholars having won three games, and the collars two throughout the years, though the priests went onto the field with a positive attitude.
“We got our team back together. It’s been a couple of years where everyone has been able to play. But everyone’s here this year. and we’re down two games to three, so it’s an elimination game here,” Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Brooklyn, Father Chris Bethge, told Currents News before his team hit the mound.
The principals furthered their lead, winning 4 to 2. Still, there was no bad blood between the teams.
“We are happy to have fun, it’s a hot day by the way, but we have fun. It was good always to bring God to the field,” said Father Elvin Torres, the parochial vicar at St. Sebastian Church in Queens.
“It makes me feel great inside that I get to work and play with the clergy and fellow principals,” said St. Athanasius Catholic Academy principal, Gina Auricchio.
For the Brooklyn school’s principal and for all involved, Catholic Schools Night isn’t about the game: it’s about the kids.
Valedictorians and salutatorians of Diocese of Brooklyn Catholic school were the MVPs of the game as Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan honored them for their hard work.
The students said they were able to achieve so much because they were in Catholic classrooms.
“Well, I, of course, credit myself to my mindset, God and my environment, of course,” said Pria Moses, the valedictorian at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Academy in Brooklyn.
“I like that we have an option to learn a lot about our faith, because I know in public schools they don’t have the opportunity to learn as much as we do,” added Emmett McLoughlin, the salutatorian at Holy Child Jesus Catholic Academy in Queens.
Bishop Brennan said this game also helps bring some faith to the outfield.
“It’s showing that faith connects to real life, showing that faith is part of even the fun that we have,” he told Currents News. “It’s something that ties us together, and it gives greater joy to fun events like this. But also we’re realists: our faith gives us strength in times of sorrow, times, of worry ,in times of anxiety.”
Attendees of Catholic Schools Night also got a commemorative bobble head of Associate Superintendent John O’Brien and Principal Chris Scharbach.