Catholic Schools Week was held from Monday, Jan. 26th to Friday, Jan. 30. Catholic Schools Week is, in general, a celebration of Catholic education and what it stands for. The week recognizes students, teachers, and faculty and their role in our Catholic education. Additionally, at Cathedral Prep, Catholic Schools Week is filled with a variety of fun activities and celebratory offerings including  Pizza Hut and Jersey Day on Monday, an all school mass and Blazer Day on Tuesday, Silly Tie Day, an eating contest, and the Faculty Appreciation lunch on Wednesday, Tropical Day on Thursday, and a Spirit Dress Down and Dairy Queen sundae on Friday. Besides being reminded of the greatness and uniqueness that is Catholic education, I learned a thing or two from the week as well.
Ten things I learned from Catholic Schools Week are as follows:
1. Feeding every student in the school pizza requires a very large amount of pizza.
Let’s do some quick math. According to numerous, albeit non official accounts, but accounts nonetheless, we can say there are around 550 teenage boys enrolled at Cathedral Prep. To be safe we’ll assume around 100 pack their lunch, so that means 450 buy lunch from Chef Cirillo and company. From observations of my own, I’ve come to the conclusion that around 50% of those students who do buy lunch buy a double special. On a day with a special that comes around only once a year (i.e. Pizza Hut), I think it’s safe to say around 75 percent of those who bought the special bought double (two slices). That means each student, on average, bought 1.75 pieces of pizza. 1.75 times 450 is 787.5, so to be safe we’ll say 800 pieces of pizza were needed to feed the student populace on Monday. Eight pieces of pizza come in a Pizza Hut pizza, meaning approximately 100 boxes of pizza needed to be bought. One hundred boxes of pizza is a lot of pizza, guys.
2. Students are quite cheap.
No matter how inexpensive that second slice of pizza had been at lunch, the price still would have been “ridiculous.”
3. Cathedral Prep could have the highest percentage of students that follow the NHL in the state, and possibly the entire county.
To be completely honest, it’s safe to say that somewhere between 75-90% of students that participated in the jersey day dress down wore hockey jerseys of some type. With no disrespect meant towards the sport of hockey or hockey players, I never knew following the NHL was ever a thing. But apparently it’s a thing. Apparently it’s a really big thing.
4. Students have a much greater tendency to dress down as opposed to up.
Numbers never lie. All that needs to be done to confirm this is compare the number of students who participated in jersey day to the number that participated in blazer day. For every one student that participated in blazer day, there were three more that participated in jersey day. But props to James Constable’s bolo tie and Taylor Connely’s top hat.
5. Stretching the limits in regards to the regulations of a dress down has become standard.
On jersey day, many articles of clothing that would actually be considered jerseys were worn.  Additionally, many articles of clothing that would not be considered jerseys (i.e. hoodies, quarter zips of athletic material, Cathedral Prep T-shirts, rain slicks, etc.) were worn. I must admit I’m guilty of this abuse of privileges as well.
Similar things happened on tropical day. While many students appeared to be headed to a beach in the tropics at five o’clock with Buffet, many others were headed to what must have been a cold and lonely stretch of sand, or a gym, or just not a beach at all. Additionally, a singular lei by itself, regardless of accompanying attire, is also enough to be considered tropical, I guess.
6. When it’s really really hot outside, it’s really really hot in the cathedral.  Similarly, when it’s really really cold outside, it’s really really cold in the cathedral.
No explanation necessary.
7. The color combinations and different variations of the Sperry Topsider is rather obscene.
Quite honestly, Sperry Topsider could probably turn a profit off its sales to students at Cathedral Prep alone. Not only do a majority of students own a pair of boat shoes that pass dress code regulations on a regular day of school, many of those same students also own a pair that are, you know, maroon, aquamarine, blue and orange, or green and yellow. Pretty normal.
8. If you want to grow a beard at Prep, participate in a theater production.
Perhaps it was mere coincidence that the opening night of Cathedral Prep’s production of Oliver coincided with the Thursday of Catholic Schools Week, but many of those who were part of the cast had beards, and not half bad beards at that, too.
9. Dress downs are pretty good things.
We should have lots more dress downs.
10. Crazy ties are worn every day.
This day seemed like a bit of a filler to me.
Two things that I already knew, but was reminded of through Catholic Schools Week are as follows:
1. Food eating competitions are a big no no.
Shoving as much fettuccine alfredo as possible down my throat just doesn’t appeal to me. The experience in itself doesn’t seem too great due to the fact that I’m more concerned with eating as much as possible as opposed to enjoying my meal. Additionally, I can’t imagine contestants felt too hot after the competition, especially if they didn’t come out on top.
2. Free food sells.
Dairy Queen at lunch for free on Friday was neat.
God bless Catholic Schools Week.