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Thomas J. Pompei, born September 20, 1975 to Thomas C. and Maryann (Pavone) Pompei and later joined by Lisa (Pompei) Hodgkins, is a proud graduate of the Class of 1989 from Blessed Sacrament School and Parish. After nine wonderful years on Robinwood Road, Tommy was accepted into the Class of 1993 at The Taft School where, in addition to his studies, he was a four-year member of the basketball and lacrosse teams, a two-year member of the soccer program, a four year member of United Cultures at Taft, and a member of Student Council. Tommy continued his education as a member of the Class of 1997 at Boston College as a student, a four-year member of the club/intramural basketball program, and a member of the BC Sexual Assault Crisis Network. He earned his BA in English Literature and Education.

After leaving Boston, Tommy moved to Dallas where he met his wife, Tracy, in 1998. They were married on September 30, 2000. They have shared 25 joyful years together between Dallas, Waterbury, and Oxford, and have been blessed with three outstanding children: Myles, Thomas Jr., and Layla. Both boys were educated at Blessed Sacrament School, and all three children have graduated/will graduate from Holy Cross High School. In addition, Myles and his wife, Alyssa, blessed the family with their first granddaughter, Paisley Pompei, in 2023.

After returning from Texas, Tommy earned his Master’s and Administrative degrees from the University of Bridgeport. He worked at Naugatuck High School for 18 years where he taught English for five years before he became an administrator serving as Dean of Students, Athletic Director, Assistant Principal, Director of Adult Education, and President of the Naugatuck Valley League.

In 2019, Tommy proudly became Principal at Holy Cross High School, the vocational position he had long desired in the place where he spent the majority of his high school years with his best friends, where he received his first teaching opportunity, and where he and Tracy sent all three of their children. He is honored to continue to serve the Holy Cross community in this capacity to date.

Through the years and experiences above, Tommy considers his greatest happiness to be the loving family and extraordinary friends with whom he has shared his life from his childhood on Terrell Road and the halls of Blessed Sacrament, to Boston, to Dallas, and back home again.

Ellen Mary Lynch, long-time teacher and administrator was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. She attended St. Mary School, where she was educated by the Sisters of Charity. Following grammar school, she attended Sacred Heart High School. She graduated from the University of New Haven with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Education. She completed her master’s degree in school and family counseling at Central Connecticut State University as well as her advanced degree work. She began her teaching career at St. Mary School. While at St. Mary’s, she coached girls’ basketball and softball. From there she went to Notre Dame Academy, Waterbury as Director of Guidance and Athletic Director. While at Notre Dame she became an associate member of the Congregation of Notre Dame. After the closing of Notre Dame Academy, Ellen became principal of St. Peter and Paul School, Waterbury and ended her educational career as Director of Children’s Community School.

Ellen currently is active in her church as Lector, Eucharistic Minister, and as instructor in the RCIA program. She serves as chair of the school council at Catholic Academy, as well as treasurer of the Friends of the Wolcott Library. She enjoys meeting with some of her grammar and high school classmates. She really loves meeting former students and learning where life’s journey has taken them. Ellen likes traveling. She has been to Ireland several times along with other European countries. She makes occasional trips to Canada, particularly Montreal. She has visited many places in the United States with Chicago, Boston as well as her time in Pine Ridge, South Dakota on the Oglala Indian Reservation being her favorites.

Ellen treasures all her years of working with children. She really believes that no Catholic child should be denied a Catholic education because the parents truly cannot afford it. She is continuously working to find a solution to this problem.

Joseph M. Kenny was born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut. He attended Sacred Heart Grammar School and Sacred Heart High School. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Central Connecticut State University with a major in Elementary Education and administrative certification from Sacred Heart University.

Joe worked as a teacher at St. Lucy School in Waterbury for seven years. He went on to work at ShopRite and rose to the level of store manager when the new ShopRite store was opened in Brookfield. His work life then led him to the USPS where he served as a supervisor of mails for fifteen years. During those fifteen years Joe also served as the Physical Education teacher at St. Mary School on his day off from the USPS at the request of Principal Sister Marjorie Crean. Joe was the President of the St. Mary Home and School Association during Sister Marjorie’s Principalship and served as the School Board Chair during Margaret Josephs’ tenure as Principal. In 1999 Joe was selected to replace retiring Principal Margaret Josephs as Principal. Joe served as Principal of St. Mary School for seventeen years, retiring in 2016. During his time as Principal, Joe was honored by the Waterbury Exchange Club as Educator of the Year and by Sacred Heart High School with The Reverend John Dial Leadership Award.

Joe is married to Mary Jane Piekos Kenny, herself a dedicated and exemplary teacher at St. Mary School for twenty nine years. She taught both sixth and second grades during her time at St. Mary. Joe and Mary Jane celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 21, 2023. Joe and Mary Jane have two daughters, Sharon who is married to Marcus Calabro and Melissa who is married to Mark Ciccone. Joe and Mary Jane are blessed with four grandchildren, Alexa and Ava Ciccone and Nick and Andrew Calabro.

Mayor Neil M. O'Leary has spent his entire working career serving the residents of the City of Waterbury. He joined the Waterbury Police Department in 1980 and rose through the ranks, becoming Chief of Police in 2004. Chief O'Leary served in that role until his retirement in 2009. Following his retirement, he served on the Waterbury Board of Education and in 2011, O'Leary made the successful run for Mayor of the City of Waterbury, taking office in December 2011.

Since his first day in office, Mayor O'Leary has stressed renewed accountability and responsibility at the government level to help forge new community partnerships and renew community trust. Responding to neighborhood concerns with blighted housing and vacant lots, O'Leary coalesced neighborhood groups and community leaders and launched a comprehensive anti-blight initiative with mutual tasks and responsibilities. The initiative has resulted in an aggressive approach to blight and litter enforcement, increased demolition of substandard housing, new data collection standards and stronger community partnerships. Using a similar approach to park maintenance concerns, O'Leary developed a summer youth corps that worked with Park Department staff to systematically address routine maintenance issues throughout the City's park system. He also officially enlisted Waterbury in the national "Cities of Service" coalition, which uses citizen service as a serious strategy to address pressing local challenges.

Partnership, community building, and improved quality of life have been a key to O'Leary's early success in stimulating economic growth in the City. Balancing the budget, achieving an annual surplus, and restoring the pension fund have become a hallmark of O'Leary's financial acumen and his determination to achieve a strong financial foundation for the city. As a result, during his tenure, the city’s bond rating has risen to a historical high. Working with the state and federal government, he has championed an aggressive and successful brownfield corridor redevelopment program that is reclaiming old industrial sites along the river-rail spine of the City, the site of an alternative transportation riverfront greenway.

Mayor O'Leary believes Waterbury has the right mixture of natural assets, strategic location, strong neighborhoods, financial stability, and innovative leadership to position itself for sustainable growth. He is making that happen.

Mary Jane Brigantic is the newly appointed Assistant Principal at Catholic Academy of Waterbury. She has served as Lead Teacher since joining the school family in 2019. Janie has been a teacher in the Archdiocese of Hartford for over twenty years, offering her expertise and service in all facets of Catholic school life, including Spanish education and leading multiple student and family organizations. She taught for sixteen years at Saint Stephen School in Hamden, where she was also Director of the After School and Summer Programs. Also at Saint Stephen, she was the President of the Home School Association and member of the School Board. Upon Saint Stephen School’s closing, Janie taught at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Meriden with Christa Chodkowski as her principal. There, she left indelible marks on the lives of hundreds of students, families, and staff. When invited to assume principalship in Meriden upon Christa Chodkowski's transition to Waterbury, Janie respectfully declined and asked if she could come to Waterbury to teach instead. In 2019, Janie began teaching the subjects of Math, Religion, and Literature at Catholic Academy. She has been the Faculty Advisor of The Father Michael J. McGivney Chapter of the National Junior Honor Society at CAW, as well as the Co-Chair of the NEASC Re-Accreditation team at Catholic Academy. She has led the Yearbook Committee and has assumed multiple leadership roles, driving the school toward its successful position in Waterbury and the Archdiocese.

Janie is a lifelong Hamden resident and a graduate of the University of Connecticut (Bachelor's Degree) and Creighton University (Master's Degree and Post Graduate Certificate in Catholic School Leadership). She is the very proud mother of five children and one grandchild. She is a lifelong parishioner of the Church of the Ascension in Hamden, now a part of the Saint Paul VI Parish.

Fr. Jim Sullivan was born in Waterbury, CT. He attended St. Hedwig School in Naugatuck, then Kennedy High School in Waterbury, graduating in 1978. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Providence College in Rhode Island. Currently, he is Rector of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, as well as Administrator of Catholic Academy of Waterbury.

Always believing in service to others, after college he volunteered for a year in an inner-city school in Washington, D.C., teaching, coaching basketball, and helping repair a rundown convent. It was there that he developed a love for building and restoration work. Upon his return to Connecticut in 1987, he and his brother John established Sullivan Brothers, a building and contracting business and worked in the construction trade for the next 25 years.

Fr. Sullivan was ordained a Permanent Deacon in 2008, but soon felt the call to priesthood and spent two years at the St. John Seminary in Boston. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 17, 2014 and celebrated his first Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

His first assignment was as Parochial Vicar in Torrington. While serving the four churches of Torrington as a priest, he initiated “Our Father’s Ride for Catholic Education,” a week-long bicycle ride to Emmitsburg, MD, where St. Elizabeth Ann Seton began Catholic Education in the United States. The ride raised $116,000 for St. Peter/St Francis School, Torrington.

In October 2015, after one year in Torrington, Archbishop Blair assigned him to the Church of the Assumption, Ansonia. In his three-year tenure, he renovated the old school gym (which had been previously closed for 50 years) after raising $125,000 through a modified version of “Our Father’s Ride” to Montreal, Canada. For these accomplishments, he was recognized as the 2017-2018 Archdiocese of Hartford HOPES Distinguished Pastor of the Year.

In January 2019, he was appointed Rector of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury. Fr. Sullivan has loved all of his assignments but has a special love for Waterbury, his hometown. As well as praying to grow the Parish, he desires, along with a wonderful staff, to grow the school and make Christ a reality in the lives of our students. Through Catholic education, a child has the potential to be “set-up” for life, because Christ is in the center. Fr. Sullivan has always had a special place in his heart for Catholic education as well as a desire to help families financially, who would otherwise never have the opportunity to attend a Catholic School.

An article from the Republican-American in 2009:

This observation fits few men as well as it fits Jim Hamilton: He looks like a coach.

You know that look, the stern expression after you make a bad pass, or commit a dumb foul, or let your man go by for an easy two.

Jim Hamilton had that look, and a trademark sideline demeanor. There was never any doubt who was in charge on the Blessed Sacrament bench.

At the conclusion of the 2008-2009 season, Hamilton stepped down as coach after 32 seasons. His final team went 27-7 and won the city championship. Not surprisingly, those are the only numbers you will get out of him.

If you asked about past championships, he says he can't remember. If you asked him if he knew his career won-lost record, he tells you he has no idea. When pushed, he answers with a wave of the hand, "Well over 600."

Numbers are the shorthand of sports, but numbers did not matter to Hamilton.

"I like to look back at all the kids, and I am proud that so many went on to become coaches," Hamilton said.

He ticks off a list of names that are too numerous to mention, but, it tells us that we are not losing Jim Hamilton because his disciples are still spreading the word.

That influence was apparent in places other than Blessed Sacrament. He helped form the Bunker Hill Sports Association, and before they got things going on the Hill, he was on the Mountain, with the East Mountain Sports Association.

He leaves now at age 66, which puts him in just the right age group to have been part of or a witness to the city's glory years.

He came through St. Margaret's Grammar School with Dave Wallace, and he lived in Overlook and played ball when Billy Finn started down the path of greatness. "I can tell you some stories," Hamilton added.

He played at St. Margaret's, Crosby, and Post Junior College. The household, with the five Hamilton boys, John, Tom, Dave and Ed, was all sports all the time.

His began his post-playing career an official first, then a coach. When he began, there were 17 parochial schools in the Deanery. For many years the parochial kids played more games than the high school kids, and more than some college teams. Hamilton scheduled games in the evenings so that parents could attend. That is good for mom and dad, and awful for a coach and his family.

He will not pick favorites, but he busts buttons telling you that Jon and Dan Carroll, the Sacred Heart High head basketball coach and interim athletic director, came through Blessed Sacrament. He'll say that "there was not a better point guard than Mike Garry," and the one phrase he repeats often, "Give me four Kyle Murphys and a point guard and I will play anyone."

His biggest thrill was to see his players "become decent ball players, and go on to the next level." He hopes now to spend more time with his family, but you'll still him at high school games, slipping into the gym straight from work, keeping an eye on the kids form Blessed Sacrament.

He will miss the kids, but he will miss the rival coaches, too. He talks of them with reverence, like the late John Palladino, or Bobby Brown, or Paul Vance, Harold Zaccagnini, John Bartholomew, John Egan, Vin Graziano, Marty Augelli, Stan Stasaitis, and again, that list goes on forever and I shouldn't have even started it.

The only way to sum up a story of a coaching life is to let the coach be a coach one last time, and let him offer guidance and direction.

"Just say that the coach loved every minute of it."