In 2010, Doreen Keller became the school's first woman principal. The president is Chris Sullivan. The school has approximately 1,200 students and 18,000+ alumni. It was originally a boys-only school but has been co-educational since 1996.
1932: Brother Florentius is assigned as principal of St. Anne's School inLawrence, Massachusetts
1935
July: Brother Florentius announces that Central Catholic High School was scheduled to open in July, meeting the need of an all-boys school in Lawrence[citation needed]
September 16: Fifty boys began their first day of classes at Central Catholic at its location on Main Street
1936–1938: The school outgrows its small campus at theKnights of Columbus building and expands into borrowed spaces at Holy Trinity School, Franklin Street School, and Hampshire Street School. The Hampshire Street site would later grow into the school's current location.
1938
May 1: Brother Florentius dies
July 10: Ground is broken on Auburn Street, near the intersection of Hampshire Street, on a permanent building for the school
August: Brother Joseph Abel is named principal
June: The fifty boys who enrolled in school four years previously become the school's first graduating class
December 11: The completed building is dedicated, complete with eight classrooms, a library, cafeteria, science laboratory, and residential quarters for the fifteen Marist Brothers who taught at the school
June 1945: The school graduates its 400th student
1950: Memorial Gymnasium Building is completed with the largest-at-the-time auditorium seating 2500 and gymnasium in theMerrimack Valley, locker rooms, and more classrooms.
1951: Memorial Gymnasium Building is dedicated to fourteen alumni killed in action duringWorld War II
1960: The first three lay teachers are hired at the school.[citation needed]
1969: The Board of Directors are established and initiate a campaign to construct a new building
1970: The new building, at 300 Hampshire Street, is opened and is still used to this day.
September 16, 1971: The Hampshire Street building is dedicated
1972: The Auburn Street building's use is discontinued
1984: The Auburn Street building is demolished
1989: Football team wins its firstMerrimack Valley Conference title completing a perfect 10–0 regular season. The team was led by the big-play combination ofBoston Globe All-Scholastic quarterback Chris Lane andBoston Herald All-Scholastic receiver Mark Conway.
Mid '90s: The Memorial Gymnasium Building undergoes extensive renovations.
September 1996: Upon the closing of its sister school, St. Mary's High School, Central Catholic opens in September as a co-educational institution and admitting young women from St Mary's as well as from throughout the Merrimack Valley.
December 1997: Football team wins the MIAA Division II Super Bowl by beatingWakefield, MA 34–16 behind captain Joseph Uliano '98 who wasThe Eagle-Tribune Defensive Player of the Year and named to both theBoston Herald andBoston Globe All-Scholastic Teams.[3]
December 1998: Football team repeats as MIAA Division II Super Bowl champions with its 29–13 victory overActon-Boxborough Regional High School (Acton, MA) behind captain and 2-time MIAA Super Bowl champion quarterback Niall Murphy '99.[3]
March 14, 1999: The Central Catholic Boys Varsity Basketball Team wins their first MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) Division 1 State Championship, beating Holy Name of Worcester 63–57 in the title game.[4] The team was led by Gatorade Massachusetts Player of the Year,Merrimack Valley Conference MVP,Boston Globe All-Scholastic, and eventualMcDonald's All-American Scott Hazelton '00.[3]
1999: Brother Thomas Long, FMS, who graduated from the school in 1973, is appointed as the first president of the school. David DeFillippo, from the class of 1966, is appointed as the schools first layperson principal.
2005: A brand new addition is opened which connects the Memorial Gymnasium to the Hampshire street building and includes an additional wing and a new main entrance between the buildings, a new cafeteria, chapel, and state-of-the-art lab and computer facilities[citation needed]
2006: For the first time in the school's history, 100% of Central Catholic's 272 seniors graduate and go on to higher education.
March 15, 2008: The Central Catholic Boys Varsity Basketball Team wins theMIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) Division 1 State Championship, beating St. John's High School (Shrewsbury, MA) in the title game, and complete the season ranked #17 in the nation by maxpreps.com.
July 2010: Doreen Keller is named the first woman principal at Central Catholic.
November 2010: The girl's varsity soccer team wins their first-ever MIAA Division 1 State Title in the 15-year history of the program. The game was against Shrewsbury at Worcester State College on November 19 where the Raiders took the Colonials down 2–1.
August 2013:School President Bro. Thomas P. Long, FMS resigns.
October 2013:Brother Rick Carey is named CCHS President.[5]
December 7, 2013: Football team wins the MIAA Division I State Championship by defeating Xaverian 34–17, behind head coach Chuck Adamopoulos, nicknamed Ground Chuck, captain and All-State running back D'Andre Drummond-Mayrie and wide receiver Cody Demers.[6]
November 3, 2025: Jodi Linnehan Kriner becomes the first female President of Central Catholic High School.
Central CatholicRaiders are a member of theMIAA and theMerrimack Valley Conference. Up until 1996, the athletic teams were known as theRed Raiders, but the school dropped the word "Red" in 2000. The school offers 29 varsity programs and 51 teams at levels such as varsity, junior varsity, and freshman. Central Catholic has a softball field and open practice field on itsLawrence, MA campus. The boys' hockey team practices and plays their home games at Icenter in Salem NH.
On February 21, 2021, the boys' hockey team beat Tewksbury (5–2) to win the (first-ever due to COVID-19) MVC Division 1 championship cup; they would finish the season 9–1. The Central Catholic Boys Hockey Team has won the MVC championship 13 times, with the most recent being in 2022, and has qualified for the MIAASuper 8 Tournament 10 times, most recently in 2018. In 2022, The team qualified for the inaugural reconfigured 32 team state tournament as the no. 17 seed before being defeated 2–1 in the first round by no. 16 Winchester. On February 24, 2007, the Central Catholic Raiders received their first invitation to participate in a play-in game for the Super 8 Hockey Tournament. The team beatWaltham High School in the play-in game and then won one game againstMalden Catholic High School and lose to bothCatholic Memorial School andWeymouth High School in the round-robin bracket round.
The football team, track teams, and girls' lacrosse team share theVeterans Memorial Stadium withLawrence High School. The baseball team has qualified for the MIAA tournament 20 of the past 24 years winning the North Sectional Championship once while runners up two other times. The baseball team has 8 MVC championship crowns, most recently in 2019.
In 2008 the baseball team won the MIAA sportsmanship TEAM award as well as the Massachusetts Alliance for Sportsmanship award given by the Boston Red Sox. Girls were state champions in 2009.
The boys won the 2009 state championship in outdoor track. The boys' and girls' track teams won the 2017 state championships in outdoor track. The softball team in 2008 won the Division 2 North Sectional Championship and more recently won the MVC Championship in 2010. The Lady Raider soccer program won its first MVC crown in ten years in 2008 and won again in 2009. On March 14, 2009, the girls won the state championship in girls' hoop at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA. The boys' outdoor track team were state champions in 2009 and 2010.
In 2013, the football team finished the season with a 12–1 record and defeated Xaverian in the Division 1 State Championship by a score of 34–17 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough Massachusetts.
The school colors are red and navy blue. Those colors are worn during pep rallies and games as Central Catholic has had a history of dedicated fans known as the "red sea" who have gone out of their way to show their dedication. "Moses Parting the Red Sea", one of the rallying cheers, has gone viral on Facebook since 2010.[7]
